I sincerely believe that all of God's creatures hunger for a closer relationship with Him. The problem arises because we fail to recognize our Creator. He is always near nevertheless, never doubt that for a minute. You can count on His being very near guiding, leading and sustaining you.
I have talked previously about my concept of God as Spirit. By that I mean that he is all powerful and gives all-sustaining life to our world. He is a personal Spirit and he freely creates as He so wishes. He definitely acts in Creation and has from the beginning of time. He quite often performs in history. He most certainly participates in individual lives. He does this not only generally and regularly but also very specifically. I can personally vouch for His influence on my own life. I had solemnly declared that I was not a candidate for the ministry for a number of years, but his Spirit kept nudging and prodding me until I finally gave in and accepted the responsibility of assuming the role of being a pastor and resumed the training that I felt necessary for the job at the same time. I didn't graduate from college until twenty years after graduating from High School. Then I took further schooling at the Earlham School of Religion following that. So you see that Spirit is a very powerful influence in our individual lives.
In the long run and in terms of the larger perspective, human life and all of history must be seen in terms of God’s initiative. In the coming of Jesus into our world we see God’s purpose revealed. In Jesus God came among his creation to express His own eternal purpose, His love taking on human form. I believe that Jesus was the fullest revelation of God to humanity.
This idea of God’s historic action must also be supplemented with another one – that of truth. The very heart of truth is not a matter of things or concepts but of a Person confronting other persons. All philosophical systems fall short of truth, unless they point to it; and no science can do anything but talk about the ideas of reality. We need both science and philosophy, but they can never take the place of the of that inner reality which is truth experienced. The living personal Spirit is the very heart of truth. And the more our spirits live in touch with Spirit the more truth we will know!
We know no other God than He who came in Jesus, the God who is eternal Agape, the New Testament kind of Love. Love can never be found in any formula, regardless of however brilliant it be expressed. Nor can Love be contained within a book, no matter how exhaustive it is. God is truth and in Him alone we strike the inner heart of reality. Our whole being can never rest until it rests in Him as the truth, the way and the life!