Speaker: Bill Simpson

We want a Jesus who accepts the life we like to live. We want a Jesus who blesses us with material goods. So, we shape Him into our likes. But when we form Jesus into our own image, He is not Jesus. When we make Jesus present in our image, Immanuel may become absent.

The hope we must cling to through the dark nights of our souls must not be just to escape. It must be to remain in the divine Light no matter how hard. We must cling to Christ & His resurrection.

We do not need to blame God for our pain or believe that He is absent in it. He took our blame & our pain when He became present to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Don’t make worship about conjuring presence or catching the mouse in its trap. Make presence about lifting God up so high above you that His presence becomes impossible. Then, when He is the focus of your praises & elevated far above you, in His proper place of worship, He will satisfy you & fill you with joy more abiding than any manufactured or machine trap of presence. Worship’s chief end is to glorify God. By glorifying Him in worship we will enjoy Him in it as we never have before.

So if you need to answer the question, Is God present at my church? ask yourself the question, Are there Christ-followers at church? If there are, then Christ is there. As the church loves one another, God abides in us, & we can see & experience Christ in one another.

We must feel neither condemned nor comfortable in absence. If we become comfortable in this world, we have stopped our search. If we become defeated in absence, we have forgotten the assurances of God. God withdraws to lead us deeper into Himself because He loves us, & by that same love He will return.

Someday, alongside all the heirs of Abraham, from every tribe, tongue, & nation, we will experience the fulfillment of God’s promise. The presence that has been elusive will show itself as both infinite and definite.

God’s jealousy is about what God most wants: to give us Himself. God is jealous for our joy & His glory. When God is not the center of our lives, we rob ourselves of our ultimate joy.

The presence offered through a relationship with Jesus is what we most require while on this earth & what we need when we leave it.