An encounter with the living God is not transformed most powerfully by his willingness to bless us despite our faults, but by the recognition that in the presence of the God of the Heavens and Earth and in the presence of our transgressions against him we remain. We continue to live on. We continue to receive blessing. A realistic encounter with the living God understands the Holy, awesome presence of a God that has no need for us. There was never a need or a requirement that the living God create man. God in the triune relationship existed in perfect harmony with no need for anything else. His desire to create man arose out of the desire to share this triune love with a creation of willful participation and love. The question then must be asked that after that creation broke the harmony of said relationship, why does God feel the need to continue to provide? What have we given him? What can we give him? What do we have that he has not already possessed? The answer to all of these questions is absolutely nothing. Once this realization has been made in the heart and mind of a believer the question forever changes from, “How can God bless me?” to “How can I serve him?” With this realization of his holiness and our sinfulness there is no logical explanation as to why we can even stand if he continues to. The answer to this question is grace. The only reason that we continue to stand alongside the great “I Am” is because he desires to be seen and known by us and desires for us to be reunited with him.
The power of God is not felt by receiving things. The power of God is not experienced by a new insightful perspective, or standards to follow so that we prosper in this lifetime. The power of God is truly experienced by coming into the unshakable truth that we have no right to be if he truly is. This recognition of truth is where we can truly experience grace. The fact that we can coexist with the living God is grace. The truth that he is inviting all of us to not only exist alongside him but is desiring that we share in his holy inheritance, bought at the price of the life of his son, is unbelievable. Yet, this is the truth of the Gospel. God, the creator of everything, is the God that appeared and left men alive in the hopes that his presence would impact their lives enough to lead them to change and follow him. The story of God is a story of pursuit, not our pursuit to be like him in the flesh, but the unrelenting devotion of God to pursue his children at all costs to bring them home.
Mobile Word 