The God who is THERE!

"We cannot think rightly of God until we begin to think of Him as always being there, and there first."  So wrote A. W. Tozer in hs book, The Divine Conquest. The God whom Christians worship and serve has always been, and always will be. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End, the First and Last, the All in All, and in whom we are complete. This is our God!  God dwells in timeless existence which is permanent.  If we look back into the furthest limits of the past, away back in our imaginations to the pre-creation void, there is God.  Look into the future, all of it yet to be, and there is God.  But so often we stop there! What about the present?  Is God the God of the present, too?  Of course, He is.  But we have to wait for Him and seek Him and wait for Him.  So often we skip though the corridors of the kingdom of God like little children playing their games, without as much as one moment's contemplation of the God ho is there.  But
THE MAN WHO WOULD KNOW GOD MUST GIVE TIME TO HIM!  This is Dr Tozer's message to the world; and it's mine also.  "We must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance."

Do you, Christian, spend time getting to know God? Is His acquaintance importance to you?  Do you really know God, or just know about Him?  Do you just know the Bible's facts and stories and teachings, but not their Author?  Intimacy with the Lord takes time and effort; but so often we are too busy with what we regard as the really important things - what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, what to have our next holiday, which car to buy, where to live, etc.  But time for God?  Well, there just isn't any.  Poor you!

Now, where are you seeking God?  In books?  CDs?  DVDs?  In church?  Well, there's an interesting point.  This is where Christians ought to expect to meet with God, but do they?  Do you meet with God when you go to Church?  Or, do you merely meet with other people, who are just as needy as you are.  When you enter your church, do you do so with the consciousness that there you will meet personally with the living God?  Is this what you want when you go to Church?  Do you experience God in the worship service?  Are you disappointed when you don't meet God?

The frightening thing is that for many Christian people today, the church is the last place where they can meet with God.  The Church's Lord and King and Head has been pushed outside the church doors, and we can see Him today knocking to get in (Rev.3:20); but no one seems to hear Him. They are all too busy running their organisations, and promoting their church, that her Lord is nowhere to be seen.  Nor can His voice be heard in the humdrum of modern church life!  He has been pushed outside, unwanted, unheeded, and certainly unwelcome! Many are saying in their hearts, 'He's better outside the church, because if He comes in, He will only mess up our programmes.'The church today does not want a God who is there.

If the church is to survive, there has to be, not only a new type of preacher, but a new type of preaching.  There has also to be a new reformation of the church according to God's Word. Such a reformation will bring God back into His church, and He will be there!  The one thing the church needs more than bigger numbers, bigger and better buildings, more sophisticated organisations for everyone in the church,  to be experienced in the services of worship.  Christ's holy Bride needs a man who will give worshippers a sense of God.  God is looking for such a man.  Are you that man?