"Formed and Informed" -Too

"For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if ye will hear his voice," (Psalms 95:7)
I guess you could look at this from another point of view, like as if worship is the way that we are drawn into God's presence; but I think we need to know who and what we are worshiping in order to actually get there. Obviously, we can't pretend to know who God is and start worshiping Him. I think I tried that once, in the late 70's; it turned into a lot of really bad trips, and I ended up thinking God was anything and everything I wanted Him to be, except Jesus Christ. No, we do not find God; as hard as that is to communicate to the average nonbeliever. People try to say, "I found God," but they don't realize that God cannot be found by searching for Him in books or buildings. We can search all over the earth, finding all sorts of wonders and splendor of God's creation, but we still will not find God in any of those things. There are some pretty spectacular religious places we can visit; some of which can make you feel overwhelmed and take your breath away; but none of them can save you; none of them can give you new life. God finds you! It's not as if He did not already know where you were, because I believe His hand was on my life from the very beginning, even before I was born. But it was that day, in my special time of need, in His special time for me, that God called and I listened. He might have called several times before, and I believe that He did; but for whatever reason that there was, that day I was found and exposed to His light. To put it another way, we could say that God is the one who picks us, we don't pick Him; we are chosen by God, as unfair as that might sound to those who are not, it's pretty much the way it is. God is calling out to the whole world, but there are some who will never listen, but only God knows who they; we are all meant to assume that everyone is a "whomsoever," because from our vantage point, they are. No, this is all about those who are His sheep, they are the ones who hear His voice; they are the ones who listen. We might not listen all the time; I can tell you that from first hand experience; but we hear His voice, and that is all that matters, as far as knowing who He is. If I could put it another way, I could say that we don't know Him unless we know Him, and we cannot know Him until we are changed from darkness into light; or if you will, until His Spirit is living within us...
"All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16) NLT