I was idly listening to a couple of entertainers on talk radio this afternoon as I drove home from church. One of them was telling (true or not...) of a lady who had been a vegetarian for most of her life. Then, one day, she decided while at a coffee house, to try a turkey sandwich. Now, she's enjoying BBQ! She said that after one taste of that turkey sandwich, she just can't get enough!
That's the way it is for me with the study of the Word of God. I have been severely deprived of my Bible study these past few days, due to a home/family project of large magnitude. As a result, I am starving!
So, here we are, on the first Sunday of Advent which, this year, also happens to be the first day of Advent! As a Baptist, we don't celebrate Advent the way the more "high church" denominations do; and, I think that's a shame, really. So, since I love my particular denomination, I just choose to add Advent celebration on in my personal study. Since beginning this blog, I have used two different Advent devotionals the past two Advents. The first was from John Piper's "Solid Joys", and the last one was from Ann Voskamp's Advent study: "The Greatest Gift". Both added a wonderful flavor to meditations on this sacred season.
This year, here in the blog (because in my personal devos) we will be hearing from A.W. Tozer, an early-to-mid-20th century theologian. Not a Baptist, Tozer was a pastor in a denomination called the Christian and Missionary Alliance (the C&MA). He wrote several books, including the famous "The Pursuit of God".
Today's Advent meditation concerns God's interactions with mankind, from the time of Adam and Eve until Jesus' birth. In the Garden of Eden Genesis 3:8 tells us God walked through the Garden. Clearly, He regularly communed with Adam and Eve there freely, in their sinless states before The Fall. After their catastrophic, cataclysmic choice to believe Satan rather than God, everything changed. God, for thousands of years, no longer "dwelt among", that is lived among, mankind. It was not until the birth of Jesus our Savior that God once again was for a prolonged time "with us". "And His name shall be called Immanuel, 'God with us'." (Matthew 1:23) The gospel writers were adamant about this point. John too, in his gospel, drove the point home: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us..."(John 1:14)
In the intervening years, from The Fall to The Incarnation, God appeared to men from time to time. He manifested Himself as various natural phenomena, such as a recurring, guiding cloud or a column of fire (the Shekinah Glory.) At other times, He took on the form of man briefly (appearing to Abraham and to Moses, to Gideon, Daniel, Jacob and others).
But, when He put on flesh and revealed Himself as The Son, He came to abide with us, to dwell with us forever. The Son has declared the Father, the Scriptures say in John 1:18. In the Person of God the Son, Jesus makes manifest all the fullness of God the Father, whom no man has actually seen. We would be unable to bear such radiant majesty and glory. We so lack the capacity to absorb His greatness that to actually see the Father would utterly destroy us.
"And we beheld His glory...." (John 1:14b)
When the first century folks saw Jesus with their physical eyes, they were looking at God, though very few realized it. When we 21st century people "see" Jesus with eyes of the spirit, it is being revealed to us then all there is for us humans to know of God. Jesus gives us as much of God the Father as we can tolerate in our humanness. And, Jesus does this miracle now through the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.
Yes, today, when we embrace God through the Person of His Son, when we worship Him with the offering of our lives, we are given the Holy Spirit to dwell with us forever. He seals us as God's own, never more to be separated. Physical death cannot then separate us from the love of God. In fact, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38). Nothing has that power. The Holy Spirit marks us permanently, like with a Sharpie permanent marker. (If you've ever tried to get Sharpie ink off a surface or out of a fabric you can appreciate the analogy!) Even stronger, greater and more final than a Sharpie is the seal of the Holy Spirit on the soul of the believer in Jesus Christ.
He dwells with us who are His, and we will dwell with Him forever.
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