THE SUM OF ALL OUR SEEKING: GOD WITHIN US: TERSTEEGEN

I met a man today who told me that he had brought up as a Mormon and though he continues to respect them as good people, he left them at the age of 13 believing they were in error. He later joined a Cistersian Monastery which he also eventually left. He went on to tell me that in all his journeying, all he was seeking for, was God; and he did find Him eventually in a place he did not expect: in his own heart.  Hearing his story reminded me of the great song by Gerhart Tersteegen.

I think we are naturally religious and many of us try very hard to find God in our own strength. One has only to think of the extremely religious people such as St. Paul, Luther and Wesley to understand this. However, by our own works we can not find the source of all being and the source of all joy. As the song goes, we must come to God as a lost child  to his Father, not as a spiritual giant to the great 'Magnificent One'. There we must sit at his feet and enjoy the bounty  he wants to pour out upon us, or, as one Charles Wesley once declared as a prayer: 'Thou O Christ art all I want, more than all in thee I find!' Be blessed! AK

Thou who givest of Thy gladness

Till the cup runs o'er—

Cup whereof the pilgrim weary

Drinks to thirst no more—

Not a-nigh me, but within me

Is Thy joy divine;

Thou, O Lord, hast made Thy dwelling

In this heart of mine.



 Need I that a law should bind me

Captive unto Thee?

Captive is my heart, rejoicing

Never to be free.

Ever with me, glorious, awful,

Tender, passing sweet,

One upon whose heart I rest me,

Worship at His Feet.



With me, wheresoe'er I wander,

That great Presence goes,

That unutterable gladness,

Undisturbed repose.

Everywhere the blessed stillness

Of His Holy Place—

Stillness of the love that worships

Dumb before His Face.



To Thy house, O God my Father,

Thy lost child is come:

Led by wandering lights no longer,

I have found my home.

Over moor and fen I tracked them

Through the midnight blast,

But to find the Light eternal

In my heart at last.

                                         OVERFLOWING CUP