God's nearness

SIMILARITY AND CLOSENESS

Veteran's Day with my love.

Veteran's Day with my love.

Mark and I love being together, doing things together, and going places together.  If we had a choice, we would always choose to be together no matter when or where.  What do you think makes this the case?  Since the day we met over 53 years ago we have continually been becoming like one another.  Think about it, this is true for anyone you feel close to.  In a very similar way we can measure the reason for our sense of closeness, or distance from God.

Consider what Tozer has to say about our distance from God; the solution is obvious.  “How can He continually manifest His presence to the proud and the arrogant when He is so humble and low?  To the lukewarm and the careless when He is so zealous?  To the hard and the vengeful when He is so forgiving?  To the harsh and severe when He is so kind?  To the calculating when His love led Him to die?  When we are to stained, how can we have fellowship with Him?...I think repentance is called for.”  Only when we have a likeness to God can we sense His nearness; repentance is the first step toward such a beautiful life.

This Thursday morning we will enjoy a time of encouraging one another in walking closely with the Lord and then share together in a potluck brunch as we complete our studies until January.  Also, come prepared to encourage our dear Amanda with a love gift for her faithfulness in caring for the little ones during our Bible study time.  I really want to see you on Thursday.

 

 

HOW NEAR IS GOD TO YOU?

 

If God is omnipresent, that is near to everyone all the time, why does He seem faraway to most people?  Is it not because of our own willfulness to live life as we please rather than humbling ourselves before God and falling on His abundant mercy and grace? I’m loving meditating on these concepts and trying to grasp how this really works not only in the life of those who have no care for God, but, for believers who weaken the sense of God’s nearness by selfishness and distraction.

Consider a parallel in the life of a little child and the distance he feels from a parent that although physically near is giving instructions that oppose his own immature and selfish desires. Oh that we would grow beyond listening to ourselves and recognize God always knows best and He is always near. No life can be better than one that is lived in awareness of God’s nearness because of agreement and harmony with Him.  Let’s gather on Thursday morning to encourage one another to live with abandon for the Lord.