Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. John 14 eight Jesus had been talking about his death, resurrection and departure. Don't be troubled by this, he said, I'm going away to prepare a place for you and I'll come back for you. You know where I'm going and you know the way to get there. When Thomas said, lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know how to get there? Jesus said, I am the way. No one comes to the father but through me. If you really knew me, you would know my father also. Then Philip piped up and said, lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Show us the Father and that will be good enough for us. We don't need anything else but that. If you simply show us the Father, we will be content. Show us the father and that will be enough. Sadly, that is not enough for many people. It pains me to say this, it really does. But the truth is that many people and many churches are more interested in programs and activities than they are in simply knowing God. They prefer good times to the good book. If you doubt this, just take a look at the difference between attendance at a Bible study or prayer meeting and attendance at a fellowship dinner or church retreat. People flock to the latter, while the former often die for want of attendance. We have substituted doing stuff for knowing God. We ought to do the latter without sacrificing the former. And if I may be so bold as to say so, our doing should always be the result of our knowing. In other words, it is because we know God that we do things that honor and please him too. Often though, our doing that is our programs and our activities are ends in and of themselves. Even small groups often end up with agendas of their own, and the activities of those groups are designed to benefit the group more than to honor the Lord or to benefit the church as a whole. At the end of time, it will not be what we did that is in view. God is not going to be impressed by all the programs we started or the activities that we promoted. All of those things are fine and dandy, but what the Lord really wants is for us to know him and to lead others to know him as well. What God really wants is people who will say, show us the father and that will be good enough for us.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to dailythoughtspodcastmail.com have a great day and we hope youll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens gods word to bring us another thought for the day.