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An Invitation To Intimacy
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Come unto me all who are weary and burdened, I shall give you rest (Matt: 11:28).
Lately I have been feeling this emptiness. This, void. This sense of not being satisfied. This sense that there is just more. A.W. Tozer wrote that sometimes in the church, the body of Christ, there is rut. This is when the status quo is accepted. It is when the body of Christ becomes satisfied with the state of spiritual affairs. But it seems to me that there should be a ceaseless yearning for more of Christ. There should be an insatiable desire to go deeper in our walk with the Lord. We should be in a relentless, unending pursuit of God.
For the most part, it seems, the members of the local body of Christ are content with the routine, uninspired worship services that they attend each Sunday. Every Sunday its the same old thing. The same "order" of worship, the same set of announcements, the same songs are sung, --- routine, mundane...
I search weekly, passionately hoping that there is an experience that leaves us saying, "God was in this place!" Now, I am well aware that God is omnipresent, I know my doctrine, but when was the last time that you knew that you were in the glorious presence of the Most High God. When was the last time you left a church service with your face aglow, in absolute silence, and feeling overwhelmed because you knew that you had been at the foot of the throne. Ah.... I remember those days. Funny thing is, the last time it happened (and back then it happened often) was at a youth worship service in the basement of a church 3 years ago. I long for the experience to happen again both in my corporate worship life, and my private life.
Jesus invites us to intimacy with Himself. It is this intimacy that puts us in position to experience the presence of Glorious Christ, the Most High God, and rich fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Why do we neglect the amazing opportunity to learn of Him. Especially in light of the fact that our days are overrun with busyness. We live in a microwave society and whether you are in corporate America, a full time student, or have given yourself to the full time work of ministry it is not strange to find yourself overwhelmed and detached from experiencing real fellowship with the Lord.
Christ invites the weary, the burdened, the overwhelmed, the detached, the searching to real authentic intimacy with Himself. Come unto me all who are weary and burdened, I shall give you rest (Matt: 11:28).
The Lord comforted His captive people with a word spoken through His prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 29:18-13 the Lord says
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD:
Amos 5:4
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
As John Piper eloquently writes in Desiring God "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him."
God invites us to find satisfaction in Him. God has promised satisfaction to those who relentlessly pursuit God and His kingdom.
Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
I love the Young's Literal Translation
but seek ye first the reign of God and His righteousness, and all these shall be added to you.
I encourage you to STOP... Reflect deeply.... Get alone with God.... Spend time in His presence... Ask him to increase your appetite for HIM....
Evaluate your walk with Him and ask yourself if as the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee, O God (Psalm 42:1)?
Accept the invitation of the Lord to be intimately involved...
Pray for me that I do the same...
I love you all...
Grace and Peace
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2 Comments
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anonymous
07:13 PM on June 20, 2008
The truth of these statements are incredible and the timing of them is impeccable! It seems like the more responsibility you have in the Body of Christ in which you of course need to lean on the power of GOD more, you somehow find yourself further away from HIM than ever before. Knowing that all of your help comes from the LORD you still find yourself trying to do the work of the LORD without spending any time in the presence of the LORD. This is right on time for me, and I pray that everyone else this message finds in a dry period in your walk with Christ would take heed and seek the LORD with all of your heart. I am returning to some of the early reads in my life and going back to reading through the Psalms for my personal growth, because if I was honest with myself, that deer would outdrink me like a fat guy at a bar!
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The invisible Man
08:44 PM on June 21, 2008
I often wonder if the issue isnt as much on the church(establishment) as it is on the church(body of christ) I mean most of us have the same complaints about how our worship services are ran, but dont do everything that GOD has empowered us to do within the local church(building) I mean if you look at acts the book shows us how we can experience that feeling after accepting him42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved If that was how the church looked then how does it resemble now? We know that people arent going to share possesions anymore I mean there is a Trinity (me myself and IQ mentality but do we even eat together anymore outside of a special sunday they did this everyday wow we do it every sunday and very little a year. But lets not point the finger <a href="mailto: @ ">@ </a>pastors or deacons or music ministers lets put them where they belong at us even though God has chosen his leaders doesnt mean that everybody else just sits and doesnt do anything but complain( peep da OT) we have the HOLY SPIRIT we should be mentioning these things or even starting them on our own. We should be seeing how able GOD is by having our issues , burdens, shared by other beleivers. Peep this how much easier would life be if believers didnt have to worry about the world taking care of there problems( like psichiatrist, electricians, chef's house cleaners, teachers,mechanics etc) it would be more affordable and it would gurantee that GOD would be Glorified through our gifts, and that worship will be shared with unburdened hearts because of the assurance of GOD meeting there needs post cross think on nat
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