​Jesus came to restore the human race to its original purpose, so when He died and overcame the Evil One, it was as a man, when He rose again and conquered death, it was as a man, and when He ascended into Heaven and sat down at the Father’s right hand, it was also as a man.

Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind, both physically and spiritually. He means us to see and experience the glory, and encounter the God who inhabits it.

However, like using any other sense it takes practice. An experienced sommelier, for example, can pick up the nuances of a fine wine from his sense of smell and taste. He wasn’t born knowing,  he was born with the sensory potential, which he then developed through training and experience. In contrast, his neighbour has exactly the same potential, but being untutored  responds to  special wines with indifference.

So it is with us, so often we can miss encounters with the Lord because we have not learned to recognise the signs of His presence…….

The Hebrew word for ‘glory’, kabod comes from a root word which means ‘to be heavy, or make weighty’.

Have you ever been in a Christian meeting, or admiring a beautiful view, when the atmosphere suddenly felt ‘heavy’, (I don’t mean in a negative way)?

I suggest that what you were sensing was the glory of God. And there is one response to glory – take off your shoes!

​Turn your heart towards the Lord, & worship Him, He wants you as a participator not spectator.

If the earth is filled with His glory,  let’s pray for seeing eyes this week!
 

What did David mean by ‘the house of the Lord’? The tabernacle of Moses had long gone and the temple was yet to be built. David had erected a tent for worship; although there’s no record of its design, and it was not known for its beauty; this ordinary space housed the most important item in the world. The Ark of the Covenant, on which the Presence of God rested, sat for the first time in open view; anyone could approach it, there being no dividing curtain.

In doing this, David violated many of the instructions given to Moses; and couldn’t even claim Levitical authority as he came from the tribe of Judah, which significantly means ‘praise’. David knew that the success of his calling was totally dependent on having the Lord’s presence with Him, and this was a physical expression of that understanding. David’s tent was not known for its sacrifices (which continued at Shiloh), but for its 24-hour praise.

This whole episode was a prophetic act looking forward to the time when no further sacrifice would be necessary, when everyone would have access to the Presence, and the response to that invitation would be whole-hearted worship. And it’s that ‘tent’ that James believed was being restored, as the Spirit was poured out across the Jewish and Gentile world [Acts 15:16].

And David had tasted of that superior reality – and made it accessible to others. (I know he wanted to build a temple later on in his life – but that’s another story…..) However, I don’t think it was the tent of worship David was referring to in this verse, as amazing as it was, because it wasn’t practically possible to spend all his time in the tent, he had to go about his business. So either David was speaking figuratively, or was meaning something else. David had discovered something very important during his years as a shepherd – the presence of God was not confined to a place. His ancestor, Jacob, had had a revelation of this many years before. The first mention of ‘house of God’ in the Bible does not refer to a building but an experience on a hillside [Genesis 28:17]. And the word for ‘house’ does not necessarily indicate a structure, but means ‘habitation’ or ‘dwelling place’.

David had learned that the dwelling place of God was to be found all around him, at every moment of the day:

The habitation of God was one he could enter whenever he wished. Interestingly, the word for ‘dwell’ means essentially to ‘sit down’ & was specifically used of thrones and judgement seats used for the exercise of authority. As king, David had learned that the safest place from which to rule was the presence of God.

David looked prophetically to a day when these things would find their fulfilment. We are privileged to live in that day. We have Jesus’ promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. Not only do we live and move and have our being in Him, but He also has taken up residence in us – Emmanuel really has come to us. And ‘forever’ means just that. When Jesus came to earth He brought His world with Him; eternal life starts as soon as we believe.

The invitation is there – to dwell in His Presence forever.

Let's declare the words of Psalm 139 over ourselves.....

I love traditions; the sense of continuity with the past, of being rooted in something more than your own personal space, of being connected with those who have gone before. But the truth is tradition can kill you; people have actually given their lives for the sake of tradition rather than truth. For most of us it is not that dramatic, but we have to wary of the snare; we may not be in physical danger, but our spiritual health and inner peace may be in jeopardy.

This year, four members of the family, and our tiny grandson, will be absent from our Christmas dinner; we will see some in the days before, and all of them afterwards, but I was taken aback at the strong reaction I had to the change in circumstance: Christmas dinner had always been a family affair, with Mum presiding!

A momentary bit of foolishness, that’s all – soon released to the Lord, and rest restored. But how many people live with discontent and distress because the breaking of a tradition has thrown them into crisis? How many live with disproportional stress  because family members have different priorities,  work patterns interfere with long held practices, or they can’t get hold of that vital ingredient……?
 How many are unable to celebrate, unable to enjoy what they have, because of what is missing?

Jesus warned about putting traditions first:

and Paul cautioned about judging both ourselves and others regarding the keeping of festivals

Holding traditions lightly, is key to a rest-filled Christmas, because the truth is, none of it really matters, in the light of eternity. The command of God is not Thou shall keep Christmas according to all the precepts of the commercial (and religious) market; but that we should first of all love Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds.

Emmanuel is the reason for the season; God with us. His presence is what changes things, and is worth laying down any tradition for. Better bread and soup in His presence, than a feast with all the trimmings in an atmosphere of discontent. So yes I love traditions – I've just written a book about a favorite one – but I want to hold them – and my list of things to do before Christmas - lightly; and seek the one thing we really can't do without, the presence of Jesus.

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The invitation is this: to live in the Father’s love, to love Him back & then to let that river of love flow out to touch everyone around us. And none of this by our own effort; the Holy Spirit, the great enabler, has been given to us to empower us to live this life of love.

Jesus wants to move us from a servant-master relationship to a friendship [John 15:14,15]. Servants are task-oriented, friends are relationship motivated. Servants listen unquestioningly for commands, and focus on performance. A good servant is one who completed every task successfully. A servant, however, is not usually accepted as part of the family, and does not have a voice into the affairs of a household.

Friends, on the other hand, get to partner in the process, to work with, rather than for, another. Good friends value relationship over activity, intimacy over performance. Good friends love to just be with each other. Good relationships take time.

Amazingly, God offers us friendship: the opportunity to spend time in His presence, to show us what He is doing, and invite us into partnership with Him. He wants us to know Him, to hear His ‘heartbeat’, and for us to share ourselves with Him.

But often we settle for servanthood instead. And our Christian walk becomes a list of things we should do to please the Lord. We can talk at Him, but never really be with Him. We can rush into His presence with our shopping list of requests, we can make our declarations, and quote scriptures to Him, and there’s nothing wrong with any of that, except we can do all of those things and never actually be present to Him. We can turn up for every possible meeting or event, serve on a host of ministry teams or even be in church leadership, and never learn to live in His love.

Let’s carve out time to spend time in His presence; to be really quiet & just be with Him, to listen and catch His heartbeat. And let’s ditch some of the stuff which keeps us from hanging out with Him. It takes time to be intimate.

Got questions or an opinion?

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For more on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit: OVERFLOWING WITH LIFE
For more on living in the presence of God: ENCOUNTERING GOD

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There is a difference between the omnipresence of God, and His manifest presence. Omnipresence means that God is present everywhere at the same time. There are no places where He is not present, and He is present whether people believe in Him or not. Because this fact is not discerned with the senses, it often produces the idea that God is far-off, distant from the affairs of humanity.

What we need is to experience His presence, to know that He has come close. The manifest presence of God is when we are aware of His presence in time and space. In those moments we know we have had an encounter with the living God.

We need to get hold of the truth that Jesus is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us. He has no favourites, He wants to come close to me, therefore I need to stay expectant, alert, & exercise faith. And I also need to respond to His overtures.

The stories of the appearances of Jesus after His resurrection are interesting because it seems that at times He was recognisable as the Lord with whom the disciples had lived for three years, and ‘solid’ enough to take food & drink in their presence, but at other times they weren’t quite sure. Recognising the manifest presence of the resurrected Jesus was a new experience for the first disciples, as it is to many of us; however, their learning curve does provide us with some signposts.


SEVEN THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR, SO WE DON’T MISS THE LORD WHEN HE COMES CLOSE:
 
1. The significant word: One word, ‘Mary’, was all it took to convince Mary Magdalene of Jesus’ presence in the garden [John 20:16]. Sometimes the Lord attracts our attention with a simple word or phrase. It may be an audible voice, but more often it’s the still small voice that Elijah heard [1 Kings 19:12]. We need a listening attitude.
 
2. Physical sensations: On the road to Emmaus the two disciples experienced ‘burning hearts’ as Jesus began to talk to them [Luke 24:22]. I wonder how many encounters with Jesus have been missed because we have ignored physical sensations?  For some it may be a rush of unexpected tears; for others, tingling fingers, an experience of heat or shaking limbs. We are all wired differently, and it is important to note that no one sensation is more ‘spiritual’ than another.

3. Revelation: most of us have had experiences when a passage of Scripture suddenly ‘speaks’ to us, or when we suddenly ‘see’ a truth [Luke 24:27]. Revelation should always lead us to encounter, so it’s important to push past the insight to an meeting with the author!
 
4. His fingerprints: Sometimes we can become aware that we have suddenly stepped on to holy ground. We become conscious that a person, conversation or situation has the Lord's fingerprints all over it, just like when Jesus was recognised by the disciples at Emmaus, because of the way He broke bread [Luke 24:30,31].
 
5. A shift in the atmosphere: Jesus had taught His disciples to expect a change to take place when they extended the common Hebrew greeting: ‘Peace be with you’ [Matthew 10:12,13]. It’s inconceivable that He would have extended the same greeting, without expecting it to have an effect [John 20:19]. Therefore   His arrival would have brought a sense of peace descending.
The Hebrew word for ‘glory’ comes from a root word meaning ‘weight’. Sometimes during worship or in the midst of beautiful scenery, people feel a sense of weight in the atmosphere - there is a change which announces the manifest presence. And some people even register God’s presence with their noses, a room becomes filled with a sweet fragrance.
 
6. A miracle: God doesn’t send ‘relief parcels’ in answer to prayer, He comes Himself. A miracle of healing, deliverance or provision, or anything else announces His presence. And while miracles are a great blessing in themselves, they are also supposed to be great ‘signs’ which point us to the greater reality of our heavenly Father. The disciples were blessed with another miraculous catch of fish, which carried the promise of continued provision; but breakfast on the beach with Jesus probably was the highlight of that day [John 21] .
 
7. Meeting the conditions: Lastly, when we meet the biblical requirements for His presence being realised, God shows up. For example, the two disciples at Emmaus met the conditions for two or three gathering in His name, & there as promised, was Jesus [Matthew 18:20]; during praise & worship, God comes close and actually takes a seat on our praises [Psalm 22:3]; when we make disciples, He promises to be with us [Matthew 28:19,20], and when we break bread He comes present in the bread & wine [ 1 Corinthians 10:16].
 
In each of the above ways, the Lord announces He is present & waiting for us to respond. The question is, then what?

The most important thing is to turn aside, like Moses did when he spotted the burning bush
[Exodus 3]. We need to stop & refocus. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, these sign posts don’t always come at convenient moments, many times it takes real discipline to put down what we’re doing & pay attention to the Lord.

Then we need to turn our hearts of affection towards Him & welcome Him, waiting and listening with expectant faith. The rewards are worth it….

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For many, God is a concept, an abstract, or at best, a far-off Being unengaged with routine human affairs; someone to be blamed in times of crisis, but never experienced in the everyday. However the cry of the human heart is that if there is a God, we want one who is present, who is close by in the stuff of life.

Others have heard that that longed-for Presence is to be found in religious buildings, or special places, and if they can only get to those specific locations they can meet with Him. And so many take time out to make pilgrimages, or attend special services in the hope of meeting God.

Undoubtedly there are places were His Presence is palpable, and we talk of it being manifest. But what about those who don’t live in reach of such a place, or can’t spend 24 hours a day in a religious building? (That’s all of us!) How do ordinary people experience the living God in the routine of their everyday lives?

The resurrection stories give some answers. We read that after Jesus rose from the dead, many people had encounters with the risen Christ. What is interesting is that there is no record of Him appearing in the temple or the synagogues, or places of religious significance, and He didn’t appear to the religious or civil authorities (Now that’s something to ponder….)

Instead He appeared to ordinary people in very ordinary circumstances: in a garden [John 20:10-18]; on a journey [Luke 24:13-29]; in homes [John 20:26-30]; during meals [Luke 24:30-32, John 21:7-14]; in a rural backwater[Matthew 28: 7-10, 16-20], on a hillside [Matthew 28: 16-20]; at work [John 21:1-6]; and in the city [Luke 24; 45-51].

When Jesus was born it wasn’t in the kind of place people might have expected, His arrival wasn’t heralded with human pomp and circumstance, instead He came quietly to the commonplace, and the first people to see Him were very unremarkable working men. And although the angels made quite a racket, it seems that most people were oblivious. If the message of Christmas is that God comes down to meet us where we are; the message of Easter is exactly the same: the risen Christ wants to meet us in the everyday circumstances of our lives. His mission is to sanctify and transform the commonplace.

We worship a God who will not be confined to special times, seasons and places. The resurrected Christ offers a transformational encounter to all who will welcome Him. His manifest presence is available to you and me in the stuff of life, filling the familiar with heaven.

NEXT TIME: The resurrection stories show that on many occasions Jesus wasn’t recognised immediately – something which should encourage us! The next post will look at how to spot when the Lord is coming close.

The death and resurrection of Jesus is the way to a brand new beginning.
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Have you ever looked, really looked at just one tree? Seen the pattern of its bark & felt its texture? Noticed how branches connect to strong limbs, the tangle of roots in the undergrowth, and how leaves unfurl from tapering twigs? Have you felt the shiny new growth in spring, and noted the detail of its design, marvelled at its autumn glory, or been entranced by its outline against a winter sky? Have you seen the sun-light dappling the ground beneath, or causing a thousand raindrops to glisten like precious gems? Or taken time to observe the creatures which call it home?

To really observe a tree or anything else, we have to stop and take notice, take time out from our headlong rush, & give our full attention. Romans 1:20 says the Lord’s eternal power & divine nature are revealed in what has been made, and that the whole earth is filled with His glory. But so often we give our natural environment a mere cursory glance as we speed about our business, and don’t take the time to read the ‘book’ of creation. And so miss an opportunity to encounter the Creator.

One of the ways we can train ourselves to see is by ‘adopting’ a tree and observing it through the year, perhaps keeping a creative record* of some sort, such as photographs, poetry, drawings or psalms of praise; and then asking the Lord to speak to us through His creation. Maybe we’ll start to see earth really is crammed with heaven!

How does this relate to stress or the pursuit of rest? Following a tree, or any other natural object, in this way, makes us slow down periodically, put aside our anxieties & concerns, shift our focus away from ourselves, and allow peace to penetrate our souls. In addition it offers an encounter with the living God – the best stress-buster out there!

*Why not send me a copy of your journal as you record  different details, to publish on Rhythms of Grace? Click below for an email link:

There is something about a beautiful garden which appeals at a really deep level. I think it’s probably the call of Eden – the deep subliminal memory of the very first garden, planted not by people but by God, and given to Adam & Eve to enjoy, protect & develop. A Garden is one of those places which perhaps cries ‘home’ to our hearts.

Eden was not only Adam & Eve’s place of work, rest and provision, it was also the place where they met with the Lord. Genesis paints a lovely image of the Lord’s presence in His garden:

So perhaps another part of the appeal of a beautiful garden is a subconscious expectation that here is a place where we might find God. It was a garden that Jesus retired to, to meet with His Father before His crucifixion, and it was in a garden that Mary Magdalene encountered the risen Christ. Time out in a special garden can quiet our clamorous souls, replenish our strength and enable us to hear the quiet voice of the Master.

The Quiet Garden Movement was developed in response to this belief, and has gardens worldwide providing outdoor space intentionally set aside for prayer, silence and refreshment.

Find out more: http://quietgarden.org/

We are also blessed in the UK with an abundance of RHS gardens, city parks and country-house estates open to the public...... So spring bulbs are blooming, and the trees are beginning to bud: let’s take time out for refreshment in a garden, and go with the expectation of encountering the Lord there.

One focus of this website is the relationship between the natural world and the pursuit of rest or stress relief.

I came across recent scientific research, including some conducted by Edinburgh University, into the effect of environment on those suffering with stress, which concluded:

It seems that the natural world is officially a great stress-buster.

The benefits of getting outside are enhanced by the Christian perspective. To engage with creation invites us into an encounter with its Maker.

Check out these verses.....

Now that the days are lengthening, snowdrops are blooming, and spring is tiptoeing in, let’s make plans to get out at regular intervals into the garden, town or country park, hills or beaches. It will do us good - physically, emotionally, mentally & spiritually!

Sources:
  *Studies by Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Ulrich et al, 1991; Hartig et al, 2003; Grahn and Stigsdotter, 2003; Ottosson and Grahn, 2005; Maas et al, 2009; Barton and Pretty, 2010; Roe and Aspinall, 2011. Landscape and Urban Planning, April 2012

**http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494413000959

Check out the following pages on this site:

For those who would like to delve further into recent research, there are interesting lecture videos from Professor Catharine Ward Thompson of Edinburgh University on the following link:

http://www.openspace.eca.ed.ac.uk/resources/videos-and-audio/