Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near (Isaiah 55:6)

The internet can be used for so much that is productive. There is almost an infinite supply of information right at your fingertips. With just a few keystrokes, you can find out how to bake a turkey or who the actor was in that old movie you just watched. However, for every bit of usefulness the computer provides, there are at least two non-productive timewasters.

There are also some uses of the computer that do not readily fall into either one. There are some great games online. There are community sites that can bring you in touch with old friends. There are chat rooms and dating sites that can introduce you to a new friend.

Whether these are good or bad depends on the person who uses them. Certainly there have been some who have met online who are truly happy. However, there are predators out there just waiting to do harm to unsuspecting people.

A teacher in London named Julie Mcllroy was checking out some men on a dating website, when she came across a picture she liked. She sent the man a message. He replied and in the next several weeks she learned that his name was Allan Donnelly, and that he worked as an electrician.

They chatted for weeks, until Julie mentioned a certain shop she had just left. Allan commented that he like the same shop. They began asking some more pointed questions, and found out that they lived on the same street. Not only that, but they were only seven houses apart. "I was stunned... He asked me over for a cup of tea, and that was that," she said, while Donnelly, 53, added: "We've got the perfect compatibility. I'm a very lucky man."

These two lived on the same street, just seven houses apart for 17 years, but never met. They had to go on the internet in order to find each other, when all they really had to do was take a walk down the street.

Do we not treat God this way? God wants us to seek Him. He wants us to find Him. He wants us to love Him. God isn’t hiding from us, He is right there for us to find. The only problem is that we are seeking.

Did you ever play hide and seek, but hide too well? What happened? Nobody ever found you. What did you do? You might have made a small sound to get the attention of the others, but if that didn’t work, you finally came out to find them.

That is exactly what God does, only He isn’t hiding, He is in plain view. He is right next to us, watching us try to find Him in every place except where He is. He is beside us. He is with us. He is in us. We’re looking for salvation on the internet while He is whispering in our ear, “I’m right here. How can I love you today?” Are you seeking?

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' (Acts 17:26-28 NIV)