God Is Worthy Of Praise Series

Gilbert a Becket was a crusader who was captured and made a

slave. The tyrant who enslaved him had a daughter who took pity on

him, and that pity ripened into love. At the risk of her own life she

helped him escape. He solemnly vowed to send for her when he got

safely back to England. But when he got home he became so

absorbed in other plans that he forgot the love of the one who had set

him free. He owed his life to her, but she was far away, and what was

near dominated his life.

She was still driven by her love for him, however, and so she sold

all of her jewelry and came to England on her own. When Gilbert

saw her and embraced her he repented of his neglect. In her presence

he could no longer go the way of rejecting her love. He reversed his

plans to marry a wealthy English woman, and he took her to be his

wife instead. It never would have happened in her absence. Only her

presence rekindled his love and restored their relationship.

"Absence makes the heart grow founder for somebody else," is a

true saying, and it is true not only in the romantic realm, but in the

religious realm as well. The sense of God's absence is the cause for all

of the falls, failures, and follies of man. but the sense of God's

presence is the cause for all of man's virtues, values, and victories.

When man is aware of God's presence there is adoration, and all

rivals are abhorred, but when man loses that awareness God is

ignored and other values are explored.

When Israel lost its awareness of the presence of God, the

presence of God was actually removed, and the temple was destroyed

where they could meet with God. When God entered history in the

presence of His Son, the leaders of Israel were not aware that this was

the day of their visitation. God was present in their midst, but they

rejected Him and crucified Him. Jesus prayed for their forgiveness,

for He knew they were so unaware of the presence of God that they

did not know it was God they were rejecting. Nothing is more lethal

than unawareness. When man loses a sense of God's presence there is

no evil they are incapable of committing. Every sin that a child of

God has ever committed could have been prevented by the awareness

of God's presence.

The Jews have recognized the importance of God's presence all

through history, and so they have developed rituals that stress it. In

The Bar mitzvah Treasury I read of how David Hirsch believed the

Rabbi who taught him that when the congregation bowed in prayer

the Shechinah itself-the very spirit and presence of God-appeared on

the altar. If anyone looked up with one eye that eye would be blinded,

and if one looked up with both eyes God would strike him dead. No

one could look on the form of God and live. Even Moses had to look

at God's back. You can imagine the enormous tension in a young

person as they prayed. He longed so to look up and see God, but he

did not want to be blind, or to die. There was a terrific battle in his

mind, but one day he lost control and lifted one eye to look, and to his

shock there was no glory to blind him. The rest of the story is about

his loss of faith and rebellion because of the loss of even the illusion of

God's presence.

The Jews know they need the presence of God and they are

willing to deceive in order to get it, but such a presence is a fiction.

The Christian, however, who has the promise of Christ's presence can

be so unaware of it that they also develop a pretend presence with

form and rituals that becomes empty and equally powerless. The

great need of any child of God is an authentic experience of the

presence of Christ. An unknown poet wrote-

Of all the prizes

That earth can give,

This is the best:

To find thee, Lord,

A living Presence near

An in thee rest!

Friends, fortune, fame,

Or what might come to me,

I count all loss

If I find not

Companionship

With thee!

Jesus said He would send the Comforter to abide with us forever.

The name means the one called beside, and so the idea of

companionship is very appropriate. The relationship of God and man

is to be a companionship. We cannot be content with the saying,

"God's in His heaven-all is right with the world." It is not all right.

It is a world of fearful things, and we need to be able to say, "Yea,