"In Spirit and In Truth"

"If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart." (Psalms 44:20 & 21) Maybe I should start using several verse every day, because at the pace I am going, I will still be in Psalms four years from now; but actually, this two verses also must go together. Again, for the love of God, why can't we get this through our thick skulls? Nothing gets past God; nothing is hidden from His view; everything that we do is an open book to God, and He sees even the secrets of our hearts. In case you might not get that, the secrets of our heart is not just what we do and what we think upon, it's our passions and what our heart is drawn towards. After His resurrection, and upon His third time showing Himself to His disciples, Jesus had just finished dining with them, after assisting them with a great catch, and He said unto Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?" (John 21:15) Much speculation surrounds whom or what Jesus was referring to by "these"; was He speaking about the fellow disciples that were with him, or was He speaking about the fish? I am going with the fish. Peter had pretty much gone back to his former profession, as did many of the other disciples. When Jesus first called him, he was a fisherman; and after Jesus was put to death, he went back to being a fisherman; but Jesus had called him out of that. In Matthew 4:19 & 20, Jesus found these four fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and He called them, saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men"; then instantly and without hesitation they dropped their nets and followed Jesus. For the next three and a half years Peter was being trained in his new profession; no longer a fisherman, who caught fish for a living, now he was to be a fisher of men, who was to bring the lost onto Christ that they might have life. It's really not that easy to give up something you know brings you income, without having been called out of it; and even then, if your calling comes into question, then you will sometimes go right back to that which you know. But God would have us to know Him more than anything else; more than our professions; more than even the ones that we love, like our family, friends, and even our self... "If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, "This man began to build, and was not able to finish." Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him the commeth against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26-33)