In some ways, our fears are a result of more than just fearful things. They are a result of the fact that we are not dense enough, not substantial enough. In the presence of someone more substantial, we are threatened, and in the presence of circumstances that seem so strong, we crack.
How do we stand in the midst of dense, powerful reality? How do we stand before God? The great news is that God is putting substance in us.
The Lord has paid the price and died so that we can meet Him face to face. We can look up to him and not hide our face from him. We can look to him and find that he, in his mercy, receives us. That is the biggest loss among Christians - we don’t look at him face to face. We miss out on a precious opportunity and would rather relate to God on a secondary, cheaper level. The problem with us is that we have seen so little light, our lights are so dim, that we have leveled it off down and we have opted for a certain comfortability with God, so God becomes the sum total of all our projections of good. No, God is other. He is other than that.
The problem with consumerist Christianity is that we always think of God in relation to a problem or an injustice or something about us, so much so that our relationship with God is curved back in upon ourselves so that it is really about us. God is wanting to speak to us and draw us into relationship with him, even though it may seem quite useless to our mind. God is saying, "I want to give you myself. I want to set the agenda and conversation." When we come before God, we die to all other things. If that doesn’t happen, you are just going to have God among the other things you have on the agenda of your life.
Today’s Christianity has too much emphasis on technique and less on the presence of God. We therefore lack density. When we are planted in the house of God and the presence of the Lord, we will flourish in the courts of God, where we do things in front of other people. When we are planted in God -- not in ministry, not in justice, not in ethics, but in God -- then we will flourish in the courts of the Lord. That is the way God wants us to be.
Pastor Michael Koh preaches from Psalm 34, Psalm 97, 2 Chronicles 20, and Deuteronomy 32 on Sunday, November 11, 2018...