Lake Avenue Church: The Great Escape

“I want to talk about something of central importance to our faith this weekend. For me, more than anything else, being a Christian means having an opportunity to know God personally. Everything else really is secondary. And, for most of my life, I found that this is the very thing that most people used to run from. But I’m sensing a change happening among some in our world. Now, I am finding that the thing many people long for most is an authentic experience of and relationship to spiritual reality

I was talking with a group of students at a Christian college not so long ago, and they said that their churches taught that one distinctive of an evangelical church is that we say people can have a personal knowledge of God. But then, they all agreed, many churches quickly abandon that claim and start talking about programs, techniques, and performances rather than nurturing a personal relationship with our Creator.

Of course, the trouble is that God just won’t fit into neat programs or techniques. As Job 11:7 –8 puts it, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens; they are deeper than the grave. What can you know about him? Even if he were to pass before you, he could keep secret his passing.”

Hear me out: We mortals need teaching sessions, discipleship practices, worship services, and mentoring programs. The Bible points that out, and the history of God’s people confirms it. However, we all know how we can engage in those things and still have no personal relationship with God. The reason is that relationships always involve growing understanding as well as making space to be with one another. The same is true of our “practicing the presence of God.”

With that in mind, this weekend we return to the “burning bush” story in Exodus 3 (which we visited in our “Turning Points” series) to focus on this matter of knowing God personally. We will see that God takes the initiative to make himself known to us. And, we will also see how we are to respond to what he reveals about himself. That’s what happens in our passage today. It recounts how God made the momentous decision to step into human history and reveal himself to a flawed man named Moses. We need to learn what God reveals if we will have a relationship with him. He is whom he is! But then we will reflect on how one great man of God moves from having only an intellectual grasp of God to developing a personal walk with him.

To HIS Glory.”

Click here to download, “The Practice of the Presence of God.”

Lake Avenue Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, (626) 844-4700 or visit www.lakeave.org.