Practicing The Presence Series

An atheist and a Christian were debating the value of prayer, and the atheist said, "I never pray."

The Christian said, "But you must have prayed at sometime in your life." "Yes," he admitted. "I did

pray once. I was on a hunting trip in the Yukon and got separated from my party. A blizzard came

up, and I became snow blind as I wondered about, and then I was also starving and cold. I finally

fell on my knees and asked God for help." "Well," said the Christian, "it looks like you got it."

"Got it nothing" he responded, "if an Indian guide hadn't come along just then I would have died."

Here was a man who was experiencing the absence of God in the very presence of God's grace

and loving kindness. Unfortunately, this is an experience not limited to atheist and unbelievers.

Even God's own people can have all kinds of misconceptions that blind them to the presence of God.

The Jewish leaders had their own ideas about what the Messiah would be like, and so, even in the

presence of the Messiah they experienced His absence, and they rejected Him. Christ was

objectively there in their presence, but they were not subjectively aware of His presence.

How often does Christ come unto His own, and His own receive Him not? Multiplied millions of

times, I am sure. Theologically Jesus is always present with us, but practically we experience His

absence because we are not aware of that presence. He promised He would never leave us nor

forsake us, but we need to become aware of His being ever present. This is what Paul was doing on

Mars Hill as he tried to make the Athenians aware of the presence of God. They worshiped an

unknown god. A god that seemed far away, and they only had an obscure awareness of this absent

god. Paul's message was to help them become aware that God is not far away at all, but very near,

and that in fact, they lived and moved and had their being in Him.

We are not unlike these Athenians, and part of our problem is that we need to be up a tree and

out on a limb like Zaccheaus before we become aware of the presence of Christ. We get conditioned

by dramatic stories to think that the only time to seek Christ's presence is in a crisis. We read of

Daniel in the lion's den; the three friends in the fiery furnace, and Paul and Silas in the dungeon, all

experiencing the presence of Christ in great power, and we think this will come in handy if I ever get

stuck in a hopeless situation. But what we really need is an awareness of His presence in the

common place every day events of life. The crisis is rare, and if we only want to be aware of Christ

in a crisis, we put Him in the same category as an insurance policy. We only need to think of Him

when something goes radically wrong. This is a very superficial concept of who Jesus is as Savior

and Lord, and it eliminates Him altogether from the role of companion, guide, and friend.

Paul is seeking to convince the Athenians that the God who sent His Son into the world is the

God of the commonplace. He is the God of the every day, the marketplace, and the home, as well as

the God of the Temple. This unknown God does not need to remain unknown, for it is His desire

that men know Him and experience His presence. In verses 27 and 28 Paul makes two things clear:

There is an objective and subjective presence of God. In other words, there is the actuality Of God's

Presence, and the awareness of God's presence. There is the fact of God's presence, but only the

feeling of God's presence makes the fact a vital part of every day life.

Paul says God wants us to seek for Him. He wants man to reach out and touch someone, and He

wants that someone to be Him. He is not far from each one of us, but we can miss Him completely

if we do not strive to reach Him. Fact and feeling must become one; the actuality and the awareness

must be united. Let's look first at-

THE ACTUALITY OF GOD'S PRESENCE.

The Bible makes it clear that God is everywhere because of the very nature of His being. Matter

cannot be at two places at the same time, but this law does not apply to spirit. Spirit does not have

the limitations of matter, and since God is spirit He has no limit of place. Our bodies are stuck to

being in one place at a time, but our minds can be in many places at the same time. My mind is just