Fabulous Views
Fabulous Views
“Fabulous views, too little vision.”
So ran the headline for an editorial column in a recent edition of “The Sydney Morning Herald”. The essay lamented a long-term lack of forward town-planning, summed up by the juicy comment, “Sydney stumbles into the future looking backwards.”
I took this to be what I call a “secular prophecy”, because I do believe it speaks plainly of the general condition of the Western Church in our day. We are so full of an astonishing array of views…opinions, ideas and notions. In other words, we have “fabulous views”, but sadly there is little doubt in my mind there is much “too little” of what our God would consider vision! And this lack has not been diminished or remedied at all by the current fad so many churches have for creating and trumpet-ing forth jazzy, voluminous, even grandiose “vision statements”.
As I pondered all of this and prowled and prayed around the house where I am staying, (which by the way does have “fabulous views” of Sydney Harbour) my mind was turned to the Psalms…especially 42 and 27.
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God…when can I enter and see the face of God?” (vs. 1-2)
“Hear my voice when I call, O God; be merciful to me and answer me. When you said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek’. Do not hide Your face from me.” (vs. 7-9)
My heart was truly pierced anew by these words. As a youngish Christian back in the 70’s, I was for quite some time possessed by the strong desire to literally see God! As odd as it may sound now, I often used to go outside at night, kneel on the wet grass, stare open-eyed into the darkness, waiting to see the Lord. As time went by and I became “more experienced?” and “wiser?” I came to regard this activity as being both naïve and arrogant. Sadly, I had “grown up” content to splash about in puddles, rather than dive into the mysterious and awesome depths of the great I AM.
Now I have decided to abandon being “experienced” and “wise”, and deliberately return (literally “be converted”) to my youthful naivety. For I now believe that if any of us does presume to speak about “vision”, then we must speak of nothing less than Epiphany…the manifestation of the Divine Reality…God’s appearing in manners, times and places sovereignly chosen and ordained by and for Him. Forgive me if I sound a bit cranky, but I’ve been around the block a few times and I’m just so weary of hearing (and singing?) all about us…who we are, what we’re doing, where we are going. Now I do understand that these are important issues…but do they really qualify as vision? What about God? What about Jesus? What about the Holy Spirit? I want to see His face. I want to hear His voice. I want to know what He’s doing and where He’s going. That’s vision! The rest is secondary…consequential.
“When You said, ‘Seek My face’” (Psalm 27:8) Here is the very Word of God. He does want us to really and truly seek His face…no matter how naïve, or strange or impossible a mission others may judge it. And if God calls us to do something, He is not taunting or mocking or out to frustrate us. If He calls us to do something, He knows that we can do it…with Him.
Then all that is required of you and me is that we respond, “When You said, ‘Seek My face’, my heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’ Do not hide Your face from me…” (Psalm 27:8-9)
After I preached this message yesterday to a gathering of pastors, one publicly asked me, “Okay …but tell us how to do this practically?” I replied, “I can’t help you. This is something we have to do alone.” Because when you do hear God saying, “Seek My face”, then it is your heart that has to reply, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
God bless you and help you in this Last Hour for He is indeed saying today, “Seek My face.”
“Seek, and you will find.” (Matthew 7:7)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
“Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!” (Psalm 80:3)
“Mercy and truth go before Your face.” (Psalm 89:14)
“Seek His face evermore.” (Psalm 105:4)
