Intimacy

Intimacy:  it’s a word we don’t often associate with God.  

In fact, many of us would be inclined to think that intimacy should be kept from God…as if it were possible to keep anything from God.

If we take time to consider and admit it, many of our ideas of intimacy are cloaked in Victorian embarrassment.  That is, our definition of intimacy is heavily influenced by our culture, and sometimes, our culture is as difficult for us to define as trying to get a fish to describe what it means to be wet.  (Plus, fish can’t talk.  I know.)

All that to say, we think intimacy isn’t something that belongs in the realm of faith…except it does.

Consider the terms we see used for God in the New Testament.  We see God called “Father”, a familial term that connotes a close relationship.  Jesus called God Abba, an Aramaic term that translates as “Daddy”.  Jesus is referred to as both our Lord and our “brother”.  The Holy Spirit, Jesus tells us, is our “comforter”.

Those are terms of intimacy, are they not?

I often tell couples when I conduct their weddings that people should be able to look to their love for each other and see a reflection of God’s love for the world.  That’s intimacy.

And God desires it with us.  

Intimacy is not just about sex.  It is about a deep connection of love and openness and honesty.  It is about a heart’s yearning.  

How can we be intimate with God?

Start by making him your heart’s desire.  My wife tells me that when I’m out and she’s at home, her heart skips a beat when she hears the garage door open.  Sometimes I tell her, “That’s because you’re looking for a place to hide your boyfriend,” but I’m kidding, of course.  That excitement when I come home is a sign of an intimate relationship.

When you come to worship, whether on your own at home, daily, or with the church, weekly, does your heart skip a beat when you enter the presence of the Lord?  That’s intimacy.

When you open your Bible to read God’s Word and hear from him, does your heart skip a beat as you anticipate what the Lord will teach you?  That’s intimacy.

Our relationship with God is an intimacy of both head and heart.  He desires it with us.  Do you desire it with God?

“[Y]ou must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6.5, NLT).

Let the Word wash over you

This weekend, the church marks Palm Sunday, the day we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when we traditionally begin our commemoration of the final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry and life.  

Unless your church tradition is one that has services every day during Holy Week, it’s likely that you’re not hearing many of the accounts of the activities that took place during that week.  Of course, you may be reading these gospel accounts at home, which is great!  But there is much that happened during that final week of Jesus’ life between the waving of palms and the hammering of nails.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read that Jesus cleared the temple, told many parables, taught about judgment, and was anointed for his death – all before the last supper.  In the Gospel of John, the order is presented a little differently, since he had a different original audience.  The clearing of the temple happens early in John’s Gospel, and much occurs between the triumphal entry and Jesus’ betrayal, including not the last supper, but the washing of the disciples’ feet.

Even between Jesus’ betrayal and death, there are accounts worth reading that may or may not be heard in church.  So let me encourage you, this coming week, to carve out time to read the last half of one of the Gospel narratives.  Don’t make it just another thing to do, though; take your time with it.  Spread it out over the course of the week.  Read the parts that happen after the crucifixion but before the resurrection on Saturday, before Easter.  

Let the Word wash over you like the jar of expensive perfume that was poured over Jesus’ head while he ate in the home of Simon in Bethany.  As Jesus said, “She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial.  I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed” (Matthew 26.12-13, NLT).

Perhaps this act will quicken your heart for the joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Let the Word wash over you.

Take It All In

In this worship gathering, we hear a message from Revelation 10 about the biblical view of angels (not what you think!) and some important tips on Bible reading. You can watch the message below, or the whole worship gathering below that.

You have time to read the Bible.

This infographic came from Crossway Books’ blog which you can read in its entirety here.  It demonstrates that you do have time to read the Bible.

Now hop to it!  🙂

Spiritual heartburn in the afterglow of Easter

Lent creates a buildup to Good Friday, and the anticipation of the resurrection.  In the afterglow of Easter, we often find ourselves wondering, “What’s next?” Well, of course, forty days after Easter comes the ascension, and another ten days after that comes Pentecost – but until then, what’s next?

The story in Luke’s gospel that follows the resurrection is the journey to Emmaus trod by two friends.  The risen Lord Jesus joins them, but they don’t recognize him.  They remain baffled by all that has happened, for they were hopeful that Jesus, who was crucified, would be the Messiah.  Those hopes were dashed when Jesus was crucified, but then they heard the remarkable rumour that the tomb was empty and he had risen from the dead.

These faithful people, like most of their fellow citizens, did not think this was how the story of the Messiah was supposed to go.  But Jesus, at this point a stranger to them, explains the Scriptures to them to help them see that indeed, their faith tradition did call for the events that had transpired in recent days – even if their cultural tradition did not see it that way.

The story of the walk to Emmaus has many lessons in it for God’s people, and perhaps this one flies under the radar too often:  when we make assumptions about our faith that are cultural and not biblical, Jesus may surprise us.

The Jewish people of the first century expected a political Messiah, one who would ride in on a white horse and send the Romans packing.  While there are occasionally allusions to such a hope in the Old Testament, there is much more that points to the Messiah who would suffer and die, and be raised from the dead.

Though Jesus does not walk alongside us physically as we journey through life, he does live in and through us by the Holy Spirit, who helps us understand the Scriptures as we read them.  The Holy Spirit wants to work in us; the trick is to position ourselves for that to happen, and it starts by reading the Scriptures.  For as we read the Bible under the promised illumination of the Holy Spirit, we will find, as those journeying disciples did, that our hearts will “burn within us”.  That’s a kind of heartburn no antacid will take away!  And that reading of Scripture will help us see what’s cultural and what’s biblical about who we are and how we live.

“They said to each other, ‘Didn’t our hearrts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?’” (Luke 24.32, NLT).

REBUILDING A PEOPLE: Read it and weep?

Once the wall around Jerusalem was rebuilt, it was time for dedication and worship.  Nehemiah had Ezra read the law of God, which the people had not heard in 70 years, since their exile.  How would they respond?  How can we apply this?  Based on Nehemiah 8, you can listen to the message here: