So on Wednesday morning at 6:30 sharp I got to talk on the 15 minute slot that the Church we’re working with has here at the radio station. Pretty crazy huh? I named my time slot “Good Morning Uganda.” It wasn’t as strange as I thought it would be. I basically felt like I was talking to my friends in the room except instead of looking at them I looked at the mike and my notes. I’d been a little nervous about talking for 15 minutes, but by the time was up I had to skip some stuff and wrap it up. I had a plan to sing songs from the Lion King if I ran out of things to say. So Praise the Lord it went well, it was definitely by His grace. I shared what I’ve been learning for the past couple of months, and a little from a pod cast I listened to recently by Allen Hood called The Playfulness of God (great sermon!) . Topic of the month: God delights in us, and we learn to delight in Him through intimacy, and we grow in intimacy by seeing Him rightly, as He is.
We’re created to worship God , yes, but there is more to that than we think. We are created to delight in and enjoy the Lord just as He delights in us. It is through intimacy with Him that we learn to delight in our relationship with Him. We weren’t created to simply observe Him, just to sing about Him and talk about Him. The God of the Universe wants to be known and loved by us, wants intimate relationships with us, and is the greatest Pursuer there is! It’s crazy to me that He wants our love, that it means something to Him, it affects His heart to be loved by us. Crazy.
In order to have intimacy with the Lord we have to see Him rightly, to have an accurate perspective of Him, to know His character.
Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” I think part of seeing Him rightly, part of knowing Him, is knowing that He loves to encounter us.
Proverbs 149:10 “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people.” We see the Lord showing up all throughout scripture and surprising His people. Revealing Himself and encountering them, pursuing their hearts. Moses is one of my favorites. In Exodus 33-34 Moses has a beautiful encounter with God. He asks to see His glory, to which the Lord says yes! So He hides Moses behind a rock and all His goodness passes before Him, and then He declares what He is like. It seems like His glory is His goodness.
We see His heart for us, His desire for us, in Jesus. This is my favorite quote from the sermon I mentioned ” The God we worship dreamed up the sacrificial system and the cross to show us how extravagant His love for us is. We weren’t made to stand at the cross and observe, or to come only to repent, we were made to enjoy the heart of the King who dreamed it up.”
Praise. That’s what pours out of intimacy, of seeing the Lord for who He is, of finding all of our delight in Him. Man He is GOOD.
He is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds. He keeps all who love Him. Gracious and merciful. Slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.” Psalm 145.
