God (Christianity) -- Worship and love; Spirituality
But we must avoid the common fault of pushing the "other world" into the
future. It is not future, but present. It parallels our familiar
physical world, and the doors between the two worlds are open. "Ye are
come," says the writer to the Hebrews (and the tense is plainly
present), "unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." All these
things are contrasted with "the mount that might be touched" and "the
sound of a trumpet and the voice of words" that might be heard. May we
not safely conclude that, as the realities of Mount Sinai were
apprehended by the senses, so the realities of Mount Zion are to be
grasped by the soul? And this not by any trick of the imagination, but
in downright actuality. The soul has eyes with which to see and ears
with which to hear. Feeble they may be from long disuse, but by the
life-giving touch of Christ alive now and capable of sharpest sight and
most sensitive hearing.
As we begin to focus upon God the things of the spirit will take shape
before our inner eyes. Obedience to the word of Christ will bring an
inward revelation of the Godhead (John 14:21-23). It will give acute
perception enabling us to see God even as is promised to the pure in
heart. A new God consciousness will seize upon us and we shall begin to
taste and hear and inwardly feel the God who is our life and our all.
There will be seen the constant shining of the light that lighteth every
man that cometh into the world. More and more, as our faculties grow
sharper and more sure, God will become to us the great All, and His
Presence the glory and wonder of our lives.
_O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold on
eternal things. Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual
perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good. Make
heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. Amen._
V
_The Universal Presence_
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from
thy presence?--Psa. 139:7
In all Christian teaching certain basic truths are found, hidden at
times, and rather assumed than asserted, but necessary to all truth as
the primary colors are found in and necessary to the finished painting.
Such a truth is the divine immanence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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