How Are We To Relate To God? Series

“There is an old story told about a man who was walking along a steep cliff one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. As he slid down the cliff, he reached out and grabbed a branch that was sticking out and hung on for dear life. He looked below him and saw the chasm stretching down hundreds of feet. He looked up and saw no footholds with which to climb back up. So he hung there, absolutely terrified, and began yelling for help. “Help! Help! Is anyone up there?” He heard his own voice echo for hours, but nobody responded.

Then finally he heard a voice. “Jack! Jack! Can you hear me?”

Jack was thrilled and his heart swelled with hope. “Yes! I can hear you! I’m down here, clinging on to this branch” “I can see you, Jack. Are you alright?” “Yes, but…who are you? Where are you? I can’t see you?” “I’m God, Jack. I’m everywhere.” “What? You mean the God?” “Yes, Jack. That’s me.” “Okay. Well, Lord, please help me out here. I promise that if you get me out of this one, I’ll never sin again. I’ll be the nicest person in the whole world. I’ll go be a missionary in Africa or something. Just get me out of here.” Hey, take it easy on the promises, Jack. Let me get you out of there, and then we can have a long talk. Now, here’s what I want you to do. Listen to me carefully.” Jack shouted excitedly, “I’ll do anything you say! Just tell me what to do.” “Okay, Jack. Let go of the branch.”

There was a long pause. “What?!” “I said to let go of the branch, Jack. Trust me. Just let go.” Another long pause. “Um… Is there anyone else up there?!” And that’s how many of us respond to God. We want him, but we want him on our terms.

Something is missing in the worship of most Christians in America. It is not often that churchgoers even contemplate finding themselves face to face with a living God. If there were there would be a renewed recognition of His Holiness.

Unfortunately, it is all too easy to acquire a vast store -house of fascinating information about God without coming face to face with Him. We can know all about God theoretically without really knowing Him personally. An encounter with a living God shakes us awake, arrest our attention from the all the things of that make up life, family problems, sales meetings, sporting events, and own self pity. It awakens us to the greatness of the person we are meeting and sheer grace it takes to allow us into His Holy presence. It interrupts our plans, it changes our priorities, it confronts with Gods’ claim on our lives. It is not something that we can turn away from and forget about on the way home.

Warren Wiersbe says that we have lost all contact with who God is. He says, “Rather than an encounter with a living God, we are toying with an image of our own imagination.” [Bill and Kathy Peel. Where is Moses When We Need Him? (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1995) p. 63.] The second commandment addresses this desire to fashion a God of our own design.

The god we fashion with our minds is convenient but not very compelling. What else could explain how a person can stand and sing in the choir without missing a note but at the same time be plotting their strategy for work the next day. How can one sit through a sermon looking attentive but inside thinking only of the first fifteen minutes of the ballgame he is missing. How can a family who to the world appears perfect, hear the message but never apply the truth they know. These people would say that they are worshipping, but what message are they conveying to their children. This is where vv. 5-6 come to play.