Friday, June 27, 2008

The Presence of God

"I want the Presence of God Himself, or I don't want anything to do with religion." - A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

What a thought above! The Presence of God is so many times in our churches taken for granted. It's something that is abused and told to be in a box or conformed to a service order. I remember sitting in a meeting with Dr. Stanley a few months ago, and we were discussing changes that needed to be made to the service. Rodney brought up the fact that the Order of Service that was being printed in the bulliten was making it hard to really do anything other than what is written. His point was that planning is fine, but if he wanted to change something that God had laid on his heart after a certain point, he couldn't. Dr. Stanley looked at all of us and said, "Well, you can't program the Holy Spirit." and he's very right. So many times, as Baptist or as Christians, we think that if we plan our services a certain way, that God will move during this song or this prayer, when the truth is the Presence of God should be felt everyday. Proverbs 8:30 says, "I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind." I need to be praying daily to experiance His Presence. Whether it be at Work, School, Home, with Friends. I need to be praying for the discernment to be able to sense the Prescence of a Holy God. I am a Worshipper first, not anything other than a Worshipper of my God. I pray daily that I don't worry about the things of this world, because I have a God who will protect me through it all.

Jack

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