From
Psalm 139:1-3
H,
The crucial bit of intimacy with God will always be our
ability to think we can hide from Him. We have inflated our idea of who deity
is, in a false air balloon, to such a level that He becomes unattainable and
flat to relate to. There is emptiness in worship that can only be filled with a
new awareness and the great approach. Instead, we use loud microphones and
songs that are not really songs but entreaties to a rubber god who likes his
ego, well, rubbed. We are trying to trick God essentially because we see Him as
a cosmic robot who has a track record of being led around by the nose by people
‘wise’ enough to ‘know’ the things that ‘please’ this idol we have put in the
place of who we claim to serve. All the dynamism and prescient intelligence that
must go into creation is left behind and we reduce God to a bargainer for
tithes and offerings and ‘service’ to a particular doctrine or denomination. We
forget He once said: “if I was hungry, I would not tell you.”
We say that actions come from intentions and highlight
that God cares more for the intention because we are flawed and can make a mess
of our best laid plans but we must also know that acts matter. What we do does
matter. The heart must get right so that right acts can follow. It is not that
God demands acts over intention or vice versa but that He demands both. He wants
the heart to match the body. He wants worship to start within our hearts but
move to every fiber of our being and our doing.
If we stay in Him we are told this will begin to happen. It
is instructive what you said yesterday about guilt of not praying enough for
our country. Guilt, however, does not come from God. The desire and ‘sorrow’ to
repent does come from His conviction but guilt is often paralytic and, in our
case, leads to bottles and acts that go nowhere. It is better to get up than to
stay on the ground mourning the road already gone. Well, the road is never
really gone. It is a narrow way of endless grace till we are transformed. I am
not saying we will not feel bad or that we should pretend to be up when we feel
down. I am saying we should always put in mind and heart that there is something
beyond the grievous mistake and the so-called fatal flaw. He knows, He sees, He
forgives and He calls us always to better things that lie ahead.
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