What do you get out of being a Christian? (Part 2)
I wrote about this in January of this year, in response to a question asked by someone I’d invited to my church. (See the original post.) Now, some six months later, there’s something more I’d like to add …
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I was standing in front of a beautiful stained glass window in a church I was visiting (as a tourist) a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden, I found myself saying to God, “God, I’m really glad that this is not where you live.”
1 Corinthians 3:16 says: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” I suppose I’ve always known in my mind that God’s presence resides in human hearts and not in church buildings. But that day was the first time that that truth became so real to me. It suddenly dawned on me so clearly that God was with me. He’d been with me all morning. He had come in through the door of the church with me. He was not in the church building waiting for me to come visit.
The Psalmist says in Psalm 139: 7-10
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
For those who believe in Jesus as their personal Saviour, there is nowhere in the world that we can go where Jesus will not come with us. God’s Holy Spirit lives with us and will be in us (John 14:17) wherever we go. We do not have to run to a church to “find God”, because God’s presence is within us.
John Bevere, on p. 53 of his book Drawing Near, says that
… it is God’s presence that separates us from all the others on the face of the earth. It is not that we confess Christianity; attend Bible-believing churches; or are nice people who once prayed the sinner’s prayer with a friend, or in response to an altar call. It is His very presence that distinguishes us …
Bevere then asks the very piercing questions: “Why then have so many resigned themselves to an intellectual relationship with God? Why have we settled for Christianity void of the presence of God? How did we learn to be content without intimacy?” (p. 53).
I have to admit that, for the longest time, that was me. I knew I was saved by God’s grace. I knew in theory that God’s presence was with me (which it was), but I really wasn’t feeling or experiencing the nearness of God. And because I wasn’t experiencing it, I couldn’t enjoy it or draw strength from it. Just as we need to spend time with our friends and family if we want to get / stay close to them, I didn’t start experiencing the nearness of God till I consciously told myself that I needed to spend time with Him, till I came to God on His terms, not mine:
“[Jesus said] Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” (John 14:21)
This is a promise that Jesus has made, and He always keeps His promises.
A. W. Tozer writes in his book The Pursuit of God:
God wills that we should push on into His presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p. 34, quoted in John Bevere’s Drawing Near, p. 53).
God’s presence is ours to enjoy, every moment of every day. And He makes great company, the best that I’ve ever known. That’s what I get out of being a Christian.
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“IN YOUR PRESENCE THERE IS FULLNESS OF JOY” (PSALM 16:11, ESV)
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The photograph is a detail from the Burne Jones Window, St. Martin in the Bullring church, Birmingham, UK, taken in 2010.
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