Tag: experiencing god

I Will Yet Again Praise God (Psalms 42 & 43)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Solitude, by Winslow Homer, 1889

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
    so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
    the face of God?
My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng
    and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
    a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
    at the thunder of your torrents;
all your waves and your billows
    have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because the enemy oppresses me?”
As with a deadly wound in my body,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people;
from those who are deceitful and unjust,
    deliver me!
For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you cast me off?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because of the oppression of the enemy?

O send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the harp,
    O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God. (New Revised Standard Version)

I often get asked why God allows such hard things in our lives. There is likely no complete answer to that question; at least not on this side of heaven. Yet, I believe we can respond to the query in part: Facing hard circumstances, difficulty, and  adversity drives us to seek our help in God.

For those committed to knowing God, the desire for help through hardship becomes a deep longing not just to cope with and transcend troubles, but also to experience God like never before.

Every believer is familiar with becoming forlorn, even with crying themselves to sleep at night because of what is happening in their life. And the experience is further exacerbated by calloused others who mock us for our belief in a divine transcendent being.

Much like Christ on the cross, those who care nothing for us stroll by, see our agony, and respond with a “Humph! Let’s see your ‘God’ save you now!” (Matthew 27:42; Mark 15:31; Luke 23:35)

It’s in such times we remember back, when God felt very near to us, and seemed to answer every prayer. Yet now, the silence of God is palpable. This awkward quietness puts one in a position to hope. And when hope reawakens, a new resolve toward perseverance through the trouble comes.

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24-25, NRSV)

Somehow, deep in our soul, we know that we will yet praise God again for a great deliverance. We remember that we were helped in the past; and now, in the present, that we will be helped again. Praise arises as an organic response to what we know will happen, even though it hasn’t yet happened.

Fresh prayers come to us, smack in the midst of our adverse situations. We pray, not only for our own help and deliverance, but also for the justice of God to have it’s way in the world.

We think of all the other believers who, like us, are facing hardship for no fault of their own. In a wonderful sense of solidarity in spirit, we lift up our sisters and brothers in the faith before the God for whom we are convinced will help them, as well as us.

All we want to do is somehow maintain our integrity of relationship with God and others, to remain in the cradle of truth – keeping our little light shining in the darkness that surrounds us.

It is not a sin to be troubled and to feel alone in the middle of a stressful and difficult circumstance. What we do with ourselves when we are in such a situation is what makes all the difference.

I suggest we flee to the Book of Psalms. In those times when tears become our food and drink, and we don’t know how to pray, let’s let the psalmist pray for us by adopting his prayers as our very own.

O God, our refuge and hope: When despondency and despair haunt and afflict us, comfort us with the stillness of your divine presence, so that we might confess all you have done, through Christ to whom we belong and in whom we are one. Amen.

Living Without Answers (Job 41:12-34)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

“I will not keep silent concerning its limbs
    or its mighty strength or its splendid frame.
Who can strip off its outer garment?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?
Who can open the doors of its face?
    There is terror all around its teeth.
Its back is made of shields in rows,
    shut up closely as with a seal.
One is so near to another
    that no air can come between them.
They are joined one to another;
    they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
Its sneezes flash forth light,
    and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
From its mouth go flaming torches;
    sparks of fire leap out.
Out of its nostrils comes smoke,
    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
Its breath kindles coals,
    and a flame comes out of its mouth.
In its neck abides strength,
    and terror dances before it.
The folds of its flesh cling together;
    it is firmly cast and immovable.
Its heart is as hard as stone,
    as hard as the lower millstone.
When it raises itself up the gods are afraid;
    at the crashing they are beside themselves.
Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail,
    nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
It counts iron as straw
    and bronze as rotten wood.
The arrow cannot make it flee;
    slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.
Clubs are counted as chaff;
    it laughs at the rattle of javelins.
Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;
    it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
It makes the deep boil like a pot;
    it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
It leaves a shining wake behind it;
    one would think the deep to be white-haired.
On earth it has no equal,
    a creature without fear.
It surveys everything that is lofty;
    it is king over all that are proud.” (New Revised Standard Version)

In a long anticipated response, God finally spoke to Job with his companions present. And it was nothing like anyone expected.

Today’s Old Testament lesson continues God’s questioning of Job, and talking of the great Leviathan – a large and uncontrollable creature.

Trying to figure out exactly what Leviathan is or was (e.g. a dragon, a dinosaur, or some dang demon) is not the point of having this chapter in Holy Scripture.

We can become obsessed with having our questions answered, everything neatly categorized and understood, every problem and mystery solved to our satisfaction.

If the Book of Job teaches us anything, it is that there are questions for which there are no answers this side of heaven. There are problems which we humans cannot logically and scientifically solve.

Ironically, we discover the presence of God through God’s absence; and hear the voice of God through God’s silence.

Any encounter we may have with God will typically shatter any preconceived notions about divinity. Any experience with God shall prevent us from packaging up an answer with some nice pretty paper and bows, as if we were enjoying a delightful Christmas at home.

Facing God is much more like coming face to face with who you really are, and what motivations and intentions are really in your heart. It’s more like Halloween than Christmas. It’s staring at a scary monstrous Leviathan, and not a bright jolly Santa Claus.

Coming to grips with our fears and anxieties, struggles and weaknesses, mortality and vulnerability, is the real sort of encounter people have with God. It’s not so much that God is scary; it’s we who are scary.

It’s scary what people will sometimes do in order to try and get answers to their questions. And it is equally scary what we will do to avoid the questions asked of us.

We don’t like hearing there are some things which are unanswerable. Yet, the mystery of God is real, which means that we are never going to know about everything we want to understand.

And we also don’t like being questioned. But what can you do, whenever you cannot move, and God begins peppering you with his own questions?

We would like to justify and vindicate ourselves – even rationalize our words and actions, if that’s what it takes. Yet, it is God alone who has the power to absolve and exonerate, to bring justice while in the teeth of injustice.

Furthermore, such justification comes in God’s own timing, not ours. Again, this is one of those realities which is far above us, for which we have only a very limited perspective on.

As we move ever closer to the end of the Book of Job, Job’s quest for answers and vindication hasn’t come, at least yet. We, along with Job, must handover the entire affair thoroughly to God in complete trust – without insisting that God say or do what I want God to say or do.

Living by faith is the only real option we have. All other options leave us in an existential angst, sliding toward nihilism.

Anyone who believes they can govern the world better than God, better brace themselves for some serious questioning.

There is not a person on this earth, including myself, that I would trust to run it for ten minutes. Because within ten seconds the world would be burning.

I don’t want that world.

I want a world with God – because I wholeheartedly believe that grace is the real and true operative force on this earth.

The grace of God allows us to see the divine without having to have our puny questions answered. Grace reassures us that we are not lost, that God sees and knows what is happening, and will do something about it.

So therefore, I can rest assured that everything is held in the sinewy strong arms of God. And no person, no monster, no Leviathan, is outside of God’s ability to effect justice and righteousness in the world.

It may take some time to realize complete and total justice, but God has given me enough faith to rest in mystery, and to live with uncertainty.

May it be so, to the glory of God.

Creator of the world, we pray

That you, with steadfast love, would keep

Your watch around us while we sleep.

From evil dreams defend our sight,

From fears and terrors of the night;

Tread underfoot our deadly foe

That we no sinful thought may know.

O Father, we ask your will to be done

Through Jesus Christ, your only Son;

And Holy Spirit, by whose breath

Our souls are raised to life from death. Amen.

Encountering God (Exodus 19:9-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Israel at Mount Sinai, by Jan Luijken (1649–1712)

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will come to you in a thick cloud, Moses, so the people themselves can hear me when I speak with you. Then they will always trust you.”

Moses told the Lord what the people had said. Then the Lord told Moses, “Go down and prepare the people for my arrival. Consecrate them today and tomorrow, and have them wash their clothing. Be sure they are ready on the third day, for on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai as all the people watch. Mark off a boundary all around the mountain. Warn the people, ‘Be careful! Do not go up on the mountain or even touch its boundaries. Anyone who touches the mountain will certainly be put to death. No hand may touch the person or animal that crosses the boundary; instead, stone them or shoot them with arrows. They must be put to death.’ However, when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, then the people may go up on the mountain.”

So Moses went down to the people. He consecrated them for worship, and they washed their clothes. He told them, “Get ready for the third day, and until then abstain from having sexual intercourse.”

On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled. Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply. The Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain.

Then the Lord told Moses, “Go back down and warn the people not to break through the boundaries to see the Lord, or they will die. Even the priests who regularly come near to the Lord must purify themselves so that the Lord does not break out and destroy them.”

“But Lord,” Moses protested, “the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai. You already warned us. You told me, ‘Mark off a boundary all around the mountain to set it apart as holy.’”

But the Lord said, “Go down and bring Aaron back up with you. In the meantime, do not let the priests or the people break through to approach the Lord, or he will break out and destroy them.”

So Moses went down to the people and told them what the Lord had said. (New Living Translation)

Moses receives the Ten Commandments, by Caspar Luijken (1672-1708)

There’s a lot of drama surrounding today’s Old Testament story. That’s because it’s a big deal when an announcement comes that God is about to show up, speak to the people, and be with them. This is definitely not the stuff of daily mundane life.

The Mount Sinai event is one of the most remembered and talked about events in the Old Testament. This encounter establishes that the presence of the Lord is with Moses, thereby giving him authority over the people. It authenticates the leadership of Moses up to this point – in leading the people out of Egyptian slavery and to the Promised Land.

The presence of God with the people, demonstrated in Moses the leader, assures the Israelites of protection against dangers from other nations and peoples. The divine presence of the Lord will be seen preeminently in the giving of the Law. God’s very Word is encapsulated in the commands and instructions given to Moses on the mountain.

Although the scene on Mount Sinai appears dark, serious, and even scary, it nonetheless is a gift of God’s self-revelation to the people. The Law is a wonderful and gracious provision for Israel. The Lord is providing necessary guidance for living, direction in shaping successful spiritual lives, and the opportunity for obedience to a life-giving system of laws.

If the Israelites hear and obey the Lord, they will be God’s special and treasured people – a nation of priests, a people set apart to be a light for the world.

So, preparations were made for God to enter. The Lord is truly awesome and holy, and so, certain boundaries needed to be established so that the people would be safe and not overcome by such immense light and power. The mountain shakes in anticipation of the divine arrival; the shofar (ram’s horn) is heard, signaling the imminent entrance of God.

The people are assembled by Moses. God descends in the fire, which accompanies the Lord’s presence. Yahweh has come to Israel. The way is now prepared for God’s revelation to be given to Moses in Israel’s hearing. It is an awesome sight and experience.

Perhaps your own days on this earth seem very ho-hum compared to the mountain encounter of Moses and God. You may even feel as if your prayers are puny and don’t get beyond the ceiling of your house. Yet, there is always and continually an opportunity to meet with this very same God, without all the pomp and scariness.

Every single day we have the gracious and wonderful opportunity of opening the book containing a good and merciful God’s self-revelation, and reading gracious words of life to live by. We have guidance for our earthly journey; there is direction for our needy souls.

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet
    and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105, NLT)

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NLT)

Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Listen and See (Isaiah 42:14-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

For a long time, I, the Lord,
    have held my temper;
now I will cry out and groan
    like a woman giving birth.
I will destroy the mountains
    and what grows on them;
I will dry up rivers and ponds.

I will lead the blind on roads
    they have never known;
I will guide them on paths
    they have never traveled.
Their road is dark and rough,
    but I will give light
to keep them from stumbling.
    This is my solemn promise.

Everyone who worships idols
as though they were gods
    will be terribly ashamed.

You people are deaf and blind,
but the Lord commands you
    to listen and to see.
No one is as blind or deaf
as his messenger,
    his chosen servant,
who sees and hears so much,
    but pays no attention.

The Lord always does right,
and so he wanted his Law
    to be greatly praised. (Contemporary English Version)

The Christian season of Lent serves to remind us that we must cultivate awareness by opening our eyes and unstopping our ears. Spiritual blindness and deafness are the result of failing to pay attention, ignoring the moral vision of God, and not listening to God’s voice.

It’s not unusual for people to complain about God being silent and ignoring them. But do we ever consider how the Lord feels about us living our lives as functional atheists? There may be expressions of belief, yet God doesn’t factor into the daily life of many. And the Lord is not okay with this.

At least we have assurances throughout Holy Scripture that the Lord is attentive to us, even when silent or seemingly not there. However, when it comes to us, our silence and lack of being present to the Lord is outright spiritual blindness and deafness on our part.

Today’s Old Testament lesson almost seems as if Yahweh is like the person trying to get your attention in a crowded place – jumping up and down, waving his arms, yelling our name – doing whatever it takes for us to see and hear, listen and look up. Yet, alas, we don’t.

Maybe we need to remember what God’s divine eyes and ears have already seen and heard. The Lord heard the awful groanings of the Israelites in Egypt under their harsh slavery. And God took notice of them and saw what was happening. (Exodus 2:24-25)

Perhaps we must recall all the times the Lord heard the cries of the people and sent a deliverer (Judges 2:16-19); and looked from heaven, saw those in bondage, and freed them. (Psalm 102:18-20)

If we put our fingers in our ears, and cover our eyes for too long, our hearts will become hard, and we shall be unable to turn from unhealthy ways of living. We’ll become so obtuse and clueless that we cannot repent and be healed.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
    be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Make the heart of this people calloused;
    make their ears dull
    and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:8-10, NIV)

This might seem rather hard. And yet, none of us can truly know comfort and consolation apart from facing the hard truth in front of us and the hard heart inside us. Everyone wants happiness without pain. However, we cannot have a rainbow without a storm, and a resurrection without a cross.

We can have a different experience of God. It’s not too late. The message of Lent is that we can prepare ourselves for the Lord’s deliverance – and it is likely to come in the form of great sorrow and great joy of which we could not have anticipated.

The wisdom I proclaim is God’s secret wisdom, which is hidden from human beings, but which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made. None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as the scripture says,

“What no one ever saw or heard,
    what no one ever thought could happen,
    is the very thing God prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:7-9, GNT)

We humans struggle with the hard things of life. Yet, what we don’t always see or hear is how those adversities are shaping and forming us as a people.

For how would we ever know the Lord as our:

  • Deliverer unless we were in bondage?
  • Comforter unless we were in trouble?
  • Helper unless we were weak?
  • Healer unless we were broken?
  • Provider unless we were poor?
  • Protector unless we were in danger?
  • Warrior unless we were under attack?
  • Rock unless we were being tossed about?

Every day is a fresh opportunity to experience the presence, power, provision, and protection of a God who sees and hears us. Believers are to honor and respect the Lord by listening to God’s voice and obeying God’s words.

So, let us use this season to offer prayers of repentance and faith:

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways,
and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever. Amen.