Tag Archives: presence

What More Could You Want

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“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have,
for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
(Hebrews 13:5)

Contentment is a difficult thing to find.

Honestly, the world does not encourage contentment. Just as soon as you get the latest smartphone, there’s a new model announced. You think your car has all the bells and whistles, wait until what you see next year’s line. Whatever you’re reading this email on, it’s already out of date. The grass is always greener, softer, more “grassy” on the other side of the fence.

It’s not a matter of keeping up with the Joneses anymore, whoever they might have been. It used to be that you knew the Joneses, lived in the same town as them, operated in a similar economy. The notion of “keeping up” was at least in the realm of possibility.

Now, with the constant barrage of social media and worldwide advertising we are encouraged to compare ourselves with the unattainably wealthy, and to never be satisfied until we are just like them. We live under the constant pressure to have more, to get more, to be more. Our identity is wrapped up in our possessions, we are defined by what we have.

But it’s not just the stuff.

There is also a particular pressure to live up to the impossible standards of the “perfect” life that’s floating around out there. We act like we have to have it all together. You know what I mean:

  • The car is detailed, not a stale French fry to be found.
  • The children are clean, quiet, well-mannered, and always right on time for their soccer/music/scouts/church events with a warm batch of brownies to share.
  • The house is immaculate, maintaining that delicate balance of feeling comfortable and looking like everything was just delivered by Ethan Allen.
  • You’re never stressed, never tired, and always available to play another round of Monopoly with the kids AND volunteer to take meals to the shut-ins AND lead a small group study.

Granted, no one has ever done this and survived, but we all feel like that’s what everyone else expects of us, and we have to maintain the illusion. We wouldn’t want to let anyone down.

Why do we act like this?  Why do we build our identity on the things we acquire, on the things we do, on the illusion that we are so well put together? We rush through this life, grabbing up everything we can, thinking that maybe the things we surround ourselves with will finally bring meaning, satisfaction, or security to our fragile existence.  We compare ourselves to the people around us, wanting to be as happy as they are, never realizing what insecurities or pains they are wrestling with inside.

Perhaps it stems from a case of misplaced love. That’s why the author of Hebrews says, “Keep your life from the love of money.” Your identity and contentment are really a matter of the heart. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.” Where is your heart directed? You will either love God with all your heart, and all the priceless delights will be found in His provision, or your heart will be divided among the passing and unsatisfying bar-coded indulgences. Both may satisfy, but only one will satisfy completely.

It could be, too, that we have forgotten who, and whose we are. This often happens when our hearts are divided, we not only lose our contentment, we lose our identity. Kevin DeYoung, in his book The Hole in our Holiness, puts it this way,

If we are heirs to the whole world, why should we envy?  If we are Gods’ treasured possession, why be jealous?  If God is our Father, why be afraid?  If we are dead to sin, why live in it?  If we’ve been raised with Christ, why continue in our old sinful ways? If we are loved with an everlasting love, why are we trying to prove our worth to the world? If Christ is all in all, why am I so preoccupied with myself?

Here’s the thing, if you want to find contentment, if you want peace from the rat-race, if you want to be secure in your identity remember God’s promise to you.  He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Jesus promised, “I am with you always, even to the of the age.” He is with us, and we need nothing more for our joy and peace in believing, for our comfort in life and in death, there is not one spiritual blessing withheld from those who seek him with all their heart. Be satisfied in Him, know the soul-satisfying joy of His presence.

Say it with me, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want!”

Sola Deo Gloria!

Transformed by His Glory

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“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.”
(Exodus 34:29)

Throughout his life, Moses had several encounters with the Lord, and it began to show.  Moses met God in the burning bush that was not consumed, and in that encounter was called to proclaim the release of God’s people from captivity in Egypt.  Through Moses, God’s mighty hand worked signs and wonders before Pharaoh, through the plagues and the parting of the sea.  And most spectacularly, Moses met with God on Mt. Sinai, where he received the 10 Commandments and the instructions for the life of the covenant nation of Israel.  All this time in the presence of God began to have a transforming effect.

Moses hungered for the word of God.  He would often set up a tent away from the camp (unlike the Tabernacle that was to be in the middle of the people), where Moses would pray and intercede for the people before the face of God.  We are told in Ex 33:9 that when Moses went into the tent, the cloud would descend upon the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses.

Moses hungered for the presence of God.  God had told Moses to lead the people up to Canaan, to a land flowing with milk and honey, but added that he would not go up with them, lest he consume them, for they were a stiff-necked people (Ex 33:3).  As he came before the Lord, Moses prayed “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.”  Moses had such an experience in the presence of God that he could not imagine going forward without God.  Life would be unbearable, the obstacles too high to overcome.

Moses was transformed by the glory of God.  When Moses came down from the mountain, his face shone because he had been talking with God.  The people, who had not had such an encounter, couldn’t handle the glory, it was too much for them, so they asked him to put a veil over his face.  But the people could see, they knew, that Moses had been in the very presence of God, and his life would forever be changed.  That is the effect of God’s glory in the life of man.

What’s fascinating is this: Moses, through all his encounters with God, never saw the Lord face to face, for no one could see the face of God and live.  To satisfy Moses’ longing to see the glory of God, God placed him in the cleft of the rock, covered him with his hand until he passed by, then took away his hand so that Moses could see his back (Ex 33:21-23).  Moses was completely transformed by the passing, veiled encounter with God, and everyone took note.

We, however, have seen a greater glory in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” John 14:9.  We all, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 “with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”  If you know Christ, you know the Father.  If you have walked with Christ, you have walked with the Father.  If Christ dwells in you, the Father dwells in you as well.  If, in times of worship, prayer, meditation upon the Word, you have gazed upon the face of Christ, you have seen the face of God.

Does the world know you’ve had this encounter with the glory of God?  Is there evidence in your life of having been in His presence?

Has His love transformed yours, recreated you, so that you love differently, sacrificially, redemptively, as Christ loved you?

Has His Spirit created in you a hunger for His Word, for His presence, so that, you can say with the Psalmist, “One day in your house is better than a thousand elsewhere.”  Do you long to feast on His Word, ready to hear it more and more, so that one hour in worship, twenty minutes of a sermon, are just the beginning?

Friends, one of the reasons the world isn’t drawn to God is because we have taken God’s name in vain.  No, I don’t mean we’re swearing and blaspheming God’s Holy name.  We take the Lord’s name in vain when we make it meaningless, powerless, empty in the eyes of the world.  The world isn’t drawn to God because we haven’t come down from the mountain showing that we’ve been in His presence, shining with the light of His worth, His glory, His wonder.   Maybe our worship, our devotion, our prayers, have been halfhearted and misguided, so that we haven’t encounterd God at all.  Maybe we have, but we’ve been too afraid to let the world know, so we veil His glory, hiding our lamp under the basket.

Friends, this cannot be.  The Church exists to make known the glory of God, to lift high the cross of Christ in proclaiming salvation from sin, to grow as a body in holiness through the power of God’s Spirit.  Such glory is the hearts true desire.  May we encounter the glory of God as we walk with Christ our Lord, so that the world may see His glory in us.