What causes thousands of people to endure the inconvenience of standing in lines, the discomfort of sitting in stadium seats, and payment of an exorbitant rate for a ticket to get into a concert featuring their favorte artist? After all, the artist's music is available on a CD recorded to exacting standards. Why not just stay home and enjoy the songs? Because listening to a CD, even on a great system, does not equate to the experience of being in the presence of the artist, even if they are way up there on a stage in a stadium!
We are relational beings, created that way by a Relational Being! Unless we are damaged in some awful way, we want to be with other people; connecting, sharing life. Since Dad died a couple of months ago, I have made my way to his grave site several times. In some unconscious way, visiting that patch of ground is an expression of my longing for him, and each visit deepens my grief as I come to accept what I already know - he is beyond my reach. Sure I remember him, have pictures of him, but memories and pictures are no substitute for his presence!
Disciple, we need to experience the Presence of God! He must be more than an idea, more than a construct of our theology, known beyond the ritual of our religion. Throughout the Old Testament, God promised access to His Presence. The most tragic result of sin, Genesis tells us, was the break from knowing the Lord's Presence. Israel built their nation around the Tabernacle, where the Presence of God was symbolically living in the Holiest Place. Later, the Temple in Jerusalem became the locus of His Presence among His people.
David, when he sinned terribly, cried: "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." (Psalm 51:11, NIV) a cry repeated by those who have known the joy of walking near to the heart of God and then terror of being forsaken! The most wrenching cry of Jesus from the cross was: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, NIV) as He carried the sin guilt of all humanity and was separated from His Father.
The sweetest promise Jesus makes to us is "surely I am with you always!" (Matthew 28:20) Disciples no longer need go to some holy place to find God's Presence. The Holy Spirit is with us, living in us for we are His temples!
Do you live in His Presence? Know this, we can grieve Him by living carelessly or sensually or without love! When we choose to go where He is not invited, we can lose the sweetness of knowing His Presence. Once you have known the joy of walking with God, living near to His heart, comforted and secure, the most powerful deterrent to willful disobedience is the knowledge that the Spirit will be grieved and the sense of His Presence lost!
Ponder this passage and then, faithfully live in the promise of His Presence. "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." (1 John 3:19-24, NIV) _______________________
O Master, let me walk with Thee
In lowly paths of service free;
Tell me Thy secret;
Help me bear the strain of toil,
The fret of care.
Teach me Thy patience still with Thee
In closer, dearer company,
In work that keeps faith sweet and strong,
In trust that triumphs over wrong.
In hope that sends a shining ray
Far down the future's broad'ning way,
In peace that only Thou canst give,
With Thee, O Master, let me live.
O Master Let Me Walk With Thee
Gladden, Washington / Smith, Henry Percy
© Public Domain
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