July 02, 2014
God designed everything. Has set it all up and holds everything together. Every righteous system in the world sprung from His mind and hand. In His design, He has chosen to let us know Him. This is the greatest humility of all. No being is higher, so no one can display greater condescension than this revelation. The Scriptures are full of statements such as the Psalmist makes in Psalm 97 and 98.
""The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples have seen His glory. (Psalm 97:6, emphasis mine)
""The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (Psalm 98:2-3, emphasis mine)
It is clear in these verses that every single person who has ever lived has had the opportunity to know God. Paul makes this clear as He writes to the church at Rome.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)
OUR GREATEST PRIVILEGE
This voluntary revelation is our greatest joy and opportunity. We can see Him and know Him in intimate, personal acquaintance. He has even invited us into His life in a way that marriage pictures. We can be joined to Him and share His inheritance, His mind, His power...all that He is.
We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.
All social intercourse between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God. ""This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.""
God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion. (A.W. Tozer, “Pursuit of God,” Chapter 1)
OUR GREATEST NEED
But this privilege can also condemn us. We are ""without excuse"" if we choose to ignore Him and ""worship and serve the creature instead of the Creator."" At the judgment, unbelievers will pay an eternal price for turning a deaf ear to God.
What could possibly be a worse indictment? That the Supreme One made the ultimate revelation and his own creation (made in His image by His grace) resisted His revelation.
This is why we must pray daily for a mighty spiritual awakening across our nation, opening eyes that are blind to God and ushering them into a vibrant relationship with Him. It is not just for our enjoyment or the prospering of our lives, families, churches, and nation. It is to put things back in order. It is to bring men who ignore God back to the worship for which they were created.
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