pursued

Something I think we, as Christians, often forget as we continue our lives in Christ is that at no point did we do anything worthy of our salvation. We did nothing apart from God to gain our relationship with Him... we never did anything... We didn't even pursue God without Him doing the work, we only pursue Him because He pursued us first, we only love Him because He loved us first... we are fully dependent on Him for every little thing in our lives. We forget that and start to become arrogant in our faith, we judge and condemn others because they are not in a relationship with God... rather than remembering that we wouldn't be in our relationship if God had not chosen to pursue us into the relationship to begin with! Our job in reaching out to these people is to point them in the direction of God so that they might recognized the pursuit, and to be available resources of love, hope, and encouragement through the process.

The other thing we often to forget is that God is not afraid of our circumstances, He will pursue us through a literal Hell in order to bring us to Him. He would rather not, I'm sure, but His desire for us to experience His glory is such that He will do whatever it takes... He will use our circumstances, our struggles, our sin itself to pursue us if necessary. I am reminded of this point anytime I listen to Brian Welch's song "Washed by Blood"... a narrative of the internal conflict that he was feeling as he attempted (and failed many times) to change his life for his daughter. He pursued religion, and Christian-flavored religion, but continued to fail in his attempts until one night while reading scripture and praying he was reminded of who he is... a drugee fighting addiction, wrapped in a world of lust, pride, and self-service, and reminded that he needed to submit to Christ first, and allow Him to clean his own life... he wrote it lyrically like this:

I know you've tried
To satisfy 
Your appetite 
For too long 
You wonder why 
You are alive 
You've lived a lie 
For too long 
So now you're done 
Life isn't fun 
Anymore 
What's this life for? 

These are not 
Only words to a song 
Come to me 
You're forgiven now 
You're washed by Blood 
From deep inside 
You're not a prisoner of your old life 
Washed by Blood 
A brand new start 
It's time that I rebuild your heart 

I paid your price 
I sacrificed 
My human life 
All for you 
Come to the light 
You will shine bright 
You'll never die 
That's the truth 
Cuz I have sworn 
You'll be reborn 
If you choose 
What's there to lose? 

Wash away 
All the pain 
With the blood 
No more shame 
Understand 
Who you are 
And what your life is 
For 

I am Taking over from now on 
You can't escape don't even try to run 
I can't just sit and watch you die no more 
You will begin to learn what life is for 
I've 
Chosen this Time 
To change your Mind 
So you will Find Your Way Back Home 
Where you belong 
Your heart of Stone 
Will start to Feel Love From Now On 
True 
Live for me and you will see your life will be so worry free 
Say goodbye to your old life give me a try 
Be Alive 
There shall be no more Death Nor 
Sorrow Nor Crying 
There shall be no more pain 
For the former things have passed away 
You're washed by Blood 
From deep inside 
You're not a prisoner of your old life 

Come fly away With me 
You know I love you