Wednesday's "What's God been teaching me?" #6
Wow! What a week! It seems like I've been learning so much from all different areas. Along with the Care Group theme of serving, I've been learning a lot about how important a servant heart is. I've also been learning about the character quality of being disciplined. Throughout the week I have been learning a lot about God's character and how He was a humble servant. God has strengthened my faith in Him through relying on Him through struggles this week. One of these struggles was being sick. I couldn't even make it to church on Sunday. And if being sick isn't bad enough, I had spiritual attacks quite frequently, the really subtle kind that are hard to detect. Sigh...But with God's help I made it!
Well, for this week, the highlight of what I've learned runs along one of my new favorite topics again. That is, spiritual intimacy with God. I really enjoyed walking with God this week, and I am thankful that He was there with me through the struggles, sickness, and attacks. Sometimes everything in life seems to have changed leaving us disoriented and confused. I am so glad that God doesn't change, that He is the same God yesterday as He is today. I'm thrilled that He would walk with me through the new territory and the completely abnormal life I had this week.
On Sunday morning I listened an amazing sermon that I downloaded of the net. It was called "Intimacy with God" by J Oswald Sanders. When I found it I was delighted because it had a title that had become a common expression of mine. Only 37 minutes long, but it was the best sermon I've ever heard in my life!!! Right off the bat, Sanders introduces the question, "Are you satisfied with the degree of intimacy you have with God?" What a fantastic question! To answer it one must reveal the condition of their heart toward God. As with the last few blogs, you can probably guess that my answer to this question was and is, "No!" Oswald Sanders clearly and plainly shows a character in the Bible, that had a deeply intimate relationship with God, and what made their relationship with God to be so close. Oswald also showed from the Bible how people differ in their closeness with God and their desire to know Him. He explains from both testaments how God was known in increasing degrees of intimacy by different people. A fantastic quote he used was from A.W Tozer:
"God is a person who can be know in increasing degrees of intimacy as we prepare our hearts for the wonder."
That's cool! What's even cooler is when I realized that I can increase in the degree of intimacy I have with God and never run out of degrees of intimacy in my relationship with Him. In other words, it's awesome that I will never have a limit to the depth of friendship that I can have with God! Oswald refers to James 4:8 which says, "Come near to God and he will come near to you." Basically, God's Word makes it clear that initiative is ours in our friendship with God. So when we draw nearer to God, then He responds and draws nearer to us. Oswald then makes an amazing statement:
Everyone of us Christians is now as close to the Lord, as intimate with the Lord as we have chosen to be.
That's a doozy! He uses the analogy of a pianist to illustrate his point. A pianist has chosen to work and put time and effort into learning the piano, and their ability to play is a result of that choice. As much as I might want to be able to play the piano like a pianist can, I have not done anything to learn. Oswald compares this to Christianity saying that many Christians long to be closer to God and have a more intimate relationship with Him, yet they aren't willing to work at it and spend time with Him. They aren't willing to pay the price or make sacrifices that are necessary to draw nearer to God, and the level of their relationship with Him is a result of that choice.
Wow what a fantastic sermon, and there is a whole bunch more in it that I learned. But let me illustrate the above point by asking you some questions:
You can find it here: Intimacy with God
You should be able to right click and do a "Save target as..."
Enjoy and may God bless you and speak to you through this!
Well, for this week, the highlight of what I've learned runs along one of my new favorite topics again. That is, spiritual intimacy with God. I really enjoyed walking with God this week, and I am thankful that He was there with me through the struggles, sickness, and attacks. Sometimes everything in life seems to have changed leaving us disoriented and confused. I am so glad that God doesn't change, that He is the same God yesterday as He is today. I'm thrilled that He would walk with me through the new territory and the completely abnormal life I had this week.
On Sunday morning I listened an amazing sermon that I downloaded of the net. It was called "Intimacy with God" by J Oswald Sanders. When I found it I was delighted because it had a title that had become a common expression of mine. Only 37 minutes long, but it was the best sermon I've ever heard in my life!!! Right off the bat, Sanders introduces the question, "Are you satisfied with the degree of intimacy you have with God?" What a fantastic question! To answer it one must reveal the condition of their heart toward God. As with the last few blogs, you can probably guess that my answer to this question was and is, "No!" Oswald Sanders clearly and plainly shows a character in the Bible, that had a deeply intimate relationship with God, and what made their relationship with God to be so close. Oswald also showed from the Bible how people differ in their closeness with God and their desire to know Him. He explains from both testaments how God was known in increasing degrees of intimacy by different people. A fantastic quote he used was from A.W Tozer:
"God is a person who can be know in increasing degrees of intimacy as we prepare our hearts for the wonder."
That's cool! What's even cooler is when I realized that I can increase in the degree of intimacy I have with God and never run out of degrees of intimacy in my relationship with Him. In other words, it's awesome that I will never have a limit to the depth of friendship that I can have with God! Oswald refers to James 4:8 which says, "Come near to God and he will come near to you." Basically, God's Word makes it clear that initiative is ours in our friendship with God. So when we draw nearer to God, then He responds and draws nearer to us. Oswald then makes an amazing statement:
Everyone of us Christians is now as close to the Lord, as intimate with the Lord as we have chosen to be.
That's a doozy! He uses the analogy of a pianist to illustrate his point. A pianist has chosen to work and put time and effort into learning the piano, and their ability to play is a result of that choice. As much as I might want to be able to play the piano like a pianist can, I have not done anything to learn. Oswald compares this to Christianity saying that many Christians long to be closer to God and have a more intimate relationship with Him, yet they aren't willing to work at it and spend time with Him. They aren't willing to pay the price or make sacrifices that are necessary to draw nearer to God, and the level of their relationship with Him is a result of that choice.
Wow what a fantastic sermon, and there is a whole bunch more in it that I learned. But let me illustrate the above point by asking you some questions:
- Are you satisfied with the degree of intimacy you have with God?
- Are you willing to pay the price, do the work, or invest the time you need to have an intimate relationship with God?
- Do you spend your free time in the places where God manifests Himself? How often?
- Do you pursue less profitable uses of your time too often?
- Is it possible for any ordinary person to have a wonderfully deep and intimate relationship with God?
- How do you go about seeking a more intimate relationship with God?
- How can your character testify to the depth of your relationship with God?
- Are you radiant with the presence of God in your life?
You can find it here: Intimacy with God
You should be able to right click and do a "Save target as..."
Enjoy and may God bless you and speak to you through this!
posted by Joshua at 3:24 PM
3 Comments:
once again...thanx for that. I'v ebeen struggling the last few days about how in the bible the followers of Christ can do miraculous stuff and just seem to be sooo close to God, that they know God's will for things...and their faith is amazing! I want that kind of faith and relationship with my Creator!!! But I never really put two and two together to realize that it was ME holding me back from this relationship with Him! This tares me apart knowing that God longs to be close to me...and I'm the one holding back.
I'm with you there, Kara. I quite often feel like I could be a lot closer to God than I am. I instantly think of that one question which seems to stump me every time . . . COULD I MOVE MOUNTAINS WITH MY FAITH? I've been learning about this and more, especially on Sunday when I went to the Church service at West-Hill Park Baptist. The speaker was focusing on John 5:1-15, and he kept mentioning this one question that Jesus asked a paralytic ~ "Do you want to get well?" If I were asked that, I would probably have some doubt in the back of my mind even if I did say yes. And then Jesus told the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." Imagine, probably after years of not being able to walk, then Jesus tells you that you should get up and walk home? Craziness, right? But the man did exactly that . . . He had the strength, and faith, to get up and walk. I want that same faith to get up and walk with God as I carry (and/or leave behind) my "mat" that holds me back from Him. Yeah, I'm thankful for both that inspirational service and your inspirational post, Josh. Thanks.
Josh, that's exactly what I was thinking about today in my devotions. I mean, I do them everyday, but are they really drawing me closer to God? Am I really using that time to get to know God better or am I just sitting back and hoping that it will eventually all sink in? Intimacy with God begins with our initiation of the friendship. That's incredible to think about...God wants ME to start everything? It's definitely a goal for each of us to set...
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