Reflections on "Walking with God" (2)

Walking with God

Prelude,

Does God Still Speak?

(excerpt) I was talking on the phone yesterday with a young woman who was interviewing me for an article of some sort. She asked what this book was about, and I tried to explain it in this way: "This is a sort of tutorial on how to walk with God. And how to hear His voice." I told her several stories. There was a long pause, that pregnant sort of pause that tells me I've just hit upon a great need and a great doubt. Finally, she asked, "What do you say to people who say, 'God isn't that intimate with us?'" I had a hunch -- it was something in the tone of her voice -- that she hadn't experienced the Christian life in the ways I was describing. Maybe because she'd never been told this is available, maybe it's as simple as the fact that no one had ever shown her how.

Is God really that intimate with us? That's a good place to begin. (end excerpt)

Is intimacy with God real? According to Psalm 139, God knows us intimately. But is there more to it? Are we meant to have intimacy with Him? 

Psalm 73 seems more than clear on the subject: "I am continually with You; You hold my right hand...For behold, those who are far from You shall perish...But for me it is good to be near God..."

Intimacy with God is the purpose of our lives. Jesus says that eternal life is to know God. A loving relationship must involve communication. Without it, there is no evidence of love. What kind of friend can a person possibly be if he or she never speaks to the other...ever? Or what kind of father could one possibly be if he remains silent towards his own children?

The answer to both of these questions is neither a good friend nor father.

But God is our Father, and Jesus calls us His friends.

God speaks to us.

God speaks to us through the Bible, but how many people see this as His only words? 

The problem with this is that the Bible itself disagrees with that assumption (remember the power of assumptions?)

The Bible is filled with stories of God speaking to His people. Yet still many would say that "it is different now," and that "God doesn't work that way anymore." 

Are we reading the Bible as a book of exceptions?!

Or are we reading it for what the Bible itself claims to be: a book of examples.

God speaks to His people . The Bible is filled (from the greats like David all the way down to the "little" people like Hagar) with examples of what Walking with God looks like; NOT exceptions.

"But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hears his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father...And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice."


Jesus offers intimacy.

To whom?

Anyone.

What does that involve?

Hearing His Voice.


We were made for intimacy with God,

He wants intimacy with us.

Reflections on "Walking with God"

Walking with God

Prelude,

The Power of Assumptions

(excerpt) "I ran into an old acquaintance at the bookstore today. Actually, i was nearly out the door when he called my name, so i turned back in to say hello and chat for a few moments. He seemed...not well. Half the man he used to be. I wondered why. I expected him to say that he had suffered some major loss. A loved one, i feared. Or maybe it was a prolonged illness. Not that he was visibly deteriorating as some do in the late stages of cancer. But there was something about his countenance, a loss of some essential part of himself. You know the look. Many people have it, actually. It's a confused and disheartened look. As we talked, it became clear that he had simply been eroded by a number of confusing years strung together by disappointment.

As i left the store, i found myself thinking, He held such promise. What happened?

It has to do with assumptions."

--John Eldredge

Am I the one with that confused and disheartened look? Has the stress and confusion of the past 3 weeks taken such a toll? I believe it has. I look back at the last 3 weeks and see wreckage. And, although I’d like to ignore it, it really does have to do with assumptions. Or maybe its just 1 assumption…

Maybe it has just been the 1 assumption that A+B=C; that because I love God, He will bless whatever my choices are. And here lies the shortcoming: I have forgotten that there is a whole lot more to my relationship with God than just trying to be a good person.

Father, I want to know Your voice and Follow YOU.

(John 10:1-4, 9-10)