Christian Country CONTACT!
Do you want to Make Contact with
God?
Read Dr. Allen D. Churchill's magnificent manual on how to go
about it.
The Second World War was a major threat to Britain, and
Sir Winston Churchill sounded the rallying cry: "This is Britain's
finest hour!" Now the world faces an even greater spiritual threat, and our awesome
God has raised yet another Churchill to rally Christians everywhere to
His banner.....
. . . and Christian Country CONTACT is pleased to bring you Canada's own Dr. Allen D. Churchill, and his
extraordinarily timely work:
MAKING CONTACT WITH GOD,
an excerpt from
Cultivating God's Presence
by
Dr. Allen D. Churchill,
Copyright 1994 Dr. Allen Churchill.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
Making Contact with God
"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.
. ."
Ecclesiastes 5:1
The main message of the Bible is not to prove that God
exists. The existence and reality of God is taken for granted. It
is held to be common knowledge.
"Only the fool says in his
heart that there is no God" (Psalm 14:1).
Ever since the creation of the world God's invisible nature and reality,
that is, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the
things that have been made (Romans 1:20).
No, the main message of the Bible is that we
can know this God intimately.
That is, personally and profoundly.
And that by knowing Him in this way we can get a singular perspective
on our lives and experience salvation.
"And this is eternal life,
that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent"
(John 17:3).
This intimate relationship and fellowship with God is based on a number
of assumptions that the Bible takes for granted:
- That God is a Person and
can be personally present.
- That God wants to be known
personally and makes Himself available to be known in this way.
- That God is omnipresent so
that everyone can know Him at any given time simultaneously.
- And that we can identify and meet the necessary conditions
for knowing Him: for example,
- that we want to experience
His presence;
- that we are capable of knowing
when and if God is present; and
- that we use the means of
grace made available by God through which we may know Him.
Now
you may say -- some will certainly say -- is this personal
experience of God really necessary?
Isn't it enough to be guided by our traditions, by the power of great
ideas, by our own moral energy?
Won't we get as much out of our religious faith this way as by seeking
a personal and ongoing existential experience of God?
Won't the church be as meaningful, dynamic and effective this way as by
pursuing God's presence?
The Biblical answer is "No"!
Fire, to be fire, must burn! Love, to be love, must be
experienced!
Water, to quench one's thirst, must be taken internally!
We cannot expect to have a strong
faith unless Christ is within us!
The church cannot make a difference
in the world unless the glory of God is within her!
Experiencing God in Worship
Worship is perhaps the supreme locus wherein we should be able
to make contact with God. This is why Ecclesiastes says:
"Guard your steps when you
go to the house of God" (5:1).
In other words, be very careful how you approach worship.
Don't take it for granted. Don't treat it in a cavalier fashion.
Be careful of your motives, in gathering together and assembling to worship
Almighty God. Remember who it is that you are addressing:
- the Creator of the universe,
whose power is incomparable!
- the Sustainer and Provider of life,
whose faithfulness in holding all things together is matchless!
- the great Redeemer, whose
grace towards sinners is magnificent!
It is crucial that in worshipping God we have the right
attitude. This is no tribal deity we are worshipping. It
is the King of kings and the Lord of lords! We
are not here to do Him a favour.
The wealth of our worship is
not primarily related to the
silver-tongued rhetoric
of our sermons . . .
or to the soaring sounds
of our anthems . . .
or to the amazing fact
that on a Sunday morning we actually managed
to lift ourselves out of our beds and find our way to a church.
Rather, the wealth of our worship
is related directly to
the worthiness of Him whose name
we actually dare to take upon our lips
in praise, penitence and prayer.
It is only a sense of His worthiness that makes
worship anything, and that lifts it out of the category of a useless
bleating at the gates of God, a travesty and
an offense against Him who will one day be our Judge.
"Guard your steps when you go to the house of
God" (5:1).
There is, one person put it, "an inveterate tendency in men to
seek to make use of God, to subject
God to themselves and their own concerns, to treat Him as an
ally, an anodyne [someone
to reduce the pain of living] or an insurance
agent [to guarantee us final victory over death]."
All of that is a problem of
attitude!
And we must get rid of it, if we really want to meet God.
"God is Spirit, and those who
worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
We must meet God in worship entirely on
His terms! With complete humility!
Not using God. Not qualifying
God. Not trying to add anything to God. Not
assuming that any fashion or offering of our
worshipping tradition and liturgy can add one microunit of quality
to the being and well-being of the Lord of the universe!
We need to check our attitude in
worship.
It is also crucial that in worshipping the Almighty
and Merciful God, Father of us all and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
we have a real sense of expectation.
And a genuine expectation.
So, when you and I come to worship, what do we look for?
What do we hope for?
What do we expect?
A little comfort?
A little insight?
A little encouragement?
If that is all we expect, that is all we are likely to
get!
A little of this or that!
I believe God intends us to have more
than that.
Real Biblical worship is a meeting with God!
As Moses met Him, face to face (Exodus 33:11).
As Elijah met Him, in the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12).
We should expect the real presence of God in our
worship!
Just as the glory of the Lord filled Solomon's new temple, the glory
so strong, so pronounced, so all-pervasive, that they could hardly start
the service (1 Kings 8:10-11).
Just as Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord sitting upon a throne, high
and lifted up, His train filling the temple, the foundations of the
thresholds shaking at the voice of Him who called, and a sense of
holiness and awe settling over all as Isaiah's sins were forgiven and
the call came to him to serve (Isaiah 6).
"Guard your steps when you
go to the house of God."
If worship is the supreme locus wherein we should be able to make contact
with God, what are the practical
things we can do in worship to ensure that we DO meet God, to ensure
that our attitude is the right attitude, and that we have at least some
sense of expectation? HOW are we to guard our steps
when we go to the house of God?
We are given three answers by Ecclesiastes. The
first is this:
"To draw near to listen
is better than the sacrifice of fools."
Man-centred worship and service is verbose. It tends to fill up the
time with sounds, and with paper. Administratively, it produces a never-ending
stream of reports, statements and pronouncements. It multiplies committees
and task-forces. Liturgically, it fills up the moments where silence
could be the threshold for God's arrival in our lives. The Psalmist
said,
"For God alone my soul waits
in silence" (62:1-5).
Ancient Israel filled up its worship time with sacrifices and rituals.
We do much the same with our orders of service and our formalities.
We need to learn to listen!
We need to take time to LISTEN!
After we read some Scripture, perhaps we should reflect in silence
upon what we have read. After singing a hymn, perhaps we should take just
a few moments to reflect on the verses we have sung. After the service,
before we rise to go home, perhaps we should consider the whole service
and ask ourselves: "Have I met God face to face today?"
"To draw near to listen is
better than to offer the sacrifice of fools."
The second answer given by Ecclesiastes
as to how we ought to guard our steps when we go to the house of God is
to acknowledge God's authority!
"For God is in heaven and you
upon earth" (5:2).
"For when dreams increase,
empty words grow many: but do you fear God" (5:7).
That is, make sure
you stand in awe of God!
We really cannot worship God unless
we come with
a deep respect for Him in our hearts.
Faith
and worship
and service
are by-products
of
wonder!
Unfortunately today we have such little respect for anything that our
attitude towards God is also affected. We may be curious
about God. We may be familiar with God in
a kind of folksy way. . .
But are we smitten
with the
wonder
of His love . . .
and holiness . . .
and power?
Today everything is awesome except
God.
We need to stand in
awe of God.
The third answer given by Ecclesiastes as to how we ought to
guard our steps when we go to the house of God is to be sure that we keep
our commitments to God!
"When you vow a vow to God,do
not delay in paying it. . ." (5:4).
How many of us have been baptized and confirmed? How many of us once
made a commitment to God? Perhaps one day long ago we said to God:
"I'm yours!"
But then other things got in the way. We had our work, our friends,
other things we wanted to do. And God got pushed onto a siding!
No longer was He
front and centre.
All the while we wondered
why God wasn't blessing us.
Why we weren't meeting Him
face to face.
The answer is simple:
we broke a fundamental law of God
(cf Deuteronomy 23:21-3).
Perhaps we need to remake our commitments
to God!
"Guard your steps when you
go to the house of God."
Worship is the prime locus where we should be able to make contact
with God. Where we can meet Him face to face!
Experiencing God in the Word
If worship is the prime place where we can meet
God, by listening to His words, acknowledging His authority, and reaffirming
our commitments . . .
and if God is spirit and those who worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth
. . .
then
worship,
and the wonder,
and the way to an experience
of God
must all coalesce
in Jesus!
He
is the One whom even the unclean spirits know as the Holy One of God (Mark
1:24)!
He is the One who calls for silence! "Be
silent, and come out of him" (Mark 1:25).
He is the One with the authoritative word, "the new teaching",
(Mark 1:27) to which we must listen!
He is the One who calls us to commitment!
And here today, it is this
very Jesus who calls US
to a reaffirmation of our vows.
He it is that we worship.
"The Father judges no one, but has given
all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son even as they honour
the Father" (John 5:22f).
Since this is none other than the Word made flesh
(John 1:14), then to see Him is to see the Father (John 12:9).
He is the effulgence of the Father's glory and the very stamp of the
Father's substantive being (Hebrews 1:3).
To meet Jesus face to face is to
meet God face to face!
Let no one say he hasn't seen God. No one, at any rate, who has heard
the gospel.
To meet Jesus is to wonder, to stand in
awe of God's being and God's work.
It is to begin to slow down and to listen.
It is to stop in our tracks and begin to realize than an
'otherness' has drawn near, . . . asking questions of us,
. . . pushing us to be honest about ourselves, . . . probing at the issues
of integrity . . . and meaning
. . . and significance of our lives. . . .
And just perhaps we may sense the approach of a
greater authority over our lives.
Jesus is the way
to an experience of God.
Experiencing God in our Daily Walk
Ecclesiastes was a wise man, whoever he was, whether
Solomon or some other wise man and preacher. Ecclesiastes was interested
in life. His whole book is about life. He
believed in facing reality.
He knew that life was difficult. It offered a challenge. It could often
be difficult, even impossible. Yet he saw that God had "put
eternity into man's mind" (3:11).
Man is more than an animal. He is made in the image
of God.
He has a thirst
for God!
He can know
God
as he travels through life.
Jesus Christ also is concerned that we should
walk with God as we walk through life. After His resurrection, He walked
with the two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-35).
One of the great tragedies
in life is to think that
WE HAVE TO WALK ALONE.
We have a marvellous Friend and
Companion! - and He
will never leave us nor forsake us!
We need to go beyond mere formalities
in our faith and worship and walk.
We need to change our attitudes.
We need to increase our expectations.
We need to listen, to surrender,
and to reaffirm our commitment to Him who
has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ.
THIS is how we can
make contact with God!
MAKING CONTACT WITH GOD
is an excerpt from
Cultivating God's Presence
by
Dr. Allen D. Churchill,
Copyright 1994 Dr. Allen Churchill.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
Copies of Cultivating God's Presence may be obtained
from Dr. Churchill by sending
a cheque or money order for $9.95 plus $2.50 shipping and handling, to
Dr. Allen D. Churchill
Senior Minister
Dominion-Chalmers United Church
355 Cooper Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2P 0G8
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