Honey, You Were Born Invited

Book excerpt: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Augustine of Hippo, the Confessions. There is no human heart which does not have a hunger-hole in it. When this hollow makes itself known, you may feel it as a longing for home. It is, in fact, a God planted longing for himself, the home for which you were created. It shows itself in the disappointment you feel when the very thing you thought would satisfy does not. It manifests as a low-grade restlessness, as you seek fulfillment in work, or accomplishments, or sports, or human relationships. For some the intensity of the need triggers addictions and obsessions: to alcohol, drugs, overworking, overeating, over exercising. Blaise Pascal wrote: There is a God- shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the creator, known through Jesus. It is the witness of the Bible that we cannot know ourselves truly apart from a relationship with this creator. For Louise Weld, growing up in a family filled with unconditional love quickened in her the longing which the heart craves, a reunion with the creator whose essence is love, and in whose image men and women are shaped to love as he loves. And once she understood that it was not created things but the creator who could heal her homesickness, and that in fact the Creator had made an extraordinary provision for our homecoming in the revelation and work of Jesus Christ, there was not much else to say or do with her life but commend his grace and mercy to any who would listen. The sermons in this book have been preached and now gathered in this book for that purpose.