A
friend of mine, a psychologists, observed in his practice that fervent
Christians seemed to have as much despondency as the average person; whereas,
he had always assumed just the opposite. So, to settle the issue in his mind,
he conducted a research project and lo and behold his assumptions were
shattered except for one small segment in the Church. Those Christians that
engaged in daily devotional practices of prayer and Bible reading were the one
exception.
Personally,
I wish he had conducted a more in-depth study and tested those who had private
devotions because they felt they should against those that did it out of sheer
love of God and His word. If you are one of those that feel guilty when you
miss devotions, I would check my reasons for having devotions in the first
place.
Now,
I must confess, it there is one area of my Christian walk that I wish I had
been more faith in, it is that I didn’t just simply put away all of my
theological books and read the Bible just for the sheer joy of know what God
has said. There is something refreshing about meeting God in a non-intrusive
way.
Let
me explain by example.
Recently,
I was refreshing my memory on the subtleties of the Trinity, and, of course,
that included reviewing the Creeds which deal with the subject. After assuring
myself that I was orthodox I was strangely struck with the notion that all of
this made sense on paper but making sense on paper is not experiencing His
ineffable presence on a personal level.
Crossing
every ‘t’ and dotting each ‘i’ may satisfy the intellect, but it certainly does
little for the heart. It is true that we cannot base or theology on feelings
alone, but it is also equally true that spiritual truth that does not do
something to the heart is not just impractical but it is also impossible. Moses
experienced that while standing before the burning bush. Peter, James, and John
experience it also at the Transfiguration. John, The Revelator on the Isle of
Patmos, when first glimpsed the risen Christ said, “When I saw him, I fell at
his feet as if I were dead.”
Words
were not necessary to convey the presence of God in any of these cases. As a
matter of fact, words without presence is meaningless. Presence always precedes
words. Personally, I am lead to believe that one of the problems with the
Church today is that we have words without presence. Good words perhaps, but
just words nonetheless. What good is it to hear that God is good and yet not
sense it? What good is it to preach on the communion and fellowship of the Holy
Spirit and not experience it? Love, we all know, is something to be felt rather
than described. Write about love all day long or reference it in a thousand
dictionaries and what do you have? To put it in simple terms, all you have is
words. It is no difference with God. We know Him best when He resides in our
hearts. “Oh, taste and see,” said the Psalmist, “that the Lord is good!”
Surely
Paul must have sense the essence of what I am talking about as he wrote: Thanks
be to God for his unspeakable gift. (2 Corinthians 9:15)
We
should never shy away for our feelings. Certainly, Peter like Paul didn’t and
thus he was able to write with confidence to those under his charge: You
love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now,
you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. I Peter
1:6-9
Yours
in the Bonds of Calvary,
JimR_/
