God has a purpose for your life. If that weren’t true, He’d have taken you home to heaven at the moment of salvation. Do you ever wonder why He left you here?

The Lord intends to influence others through you. Our purpose is to be a vessel through which Christ overflows to others–touching those who hurt and desperately need a Savior. Once we are saved, Scripture teaches, our involvement is threefold.

First, we love others. Jesus clearly stated that this was one of the two greatest commandments (Matt. 22:38-39).

Second, we share the good news of salvation (Acts 1:8). Some travel across the world to spread the gospel, while others teach neighbors across the street. The Holy Spirit will direct us to the right people if we are willing to obey.

Third, we serve in a variety of ways, like helping those in need, sharing our resources, and lifting others in prayer. Jesus is our perfect example of all three. His entire life was marked by caring for people–both those who loved Him and those who did not. In fact, the Bible teaches that He humbled Himself and became like us, willing to give up His life for our redemption. There is no greater love; there is no greater act of service.

Scripture clearly defines the believer’s purpose. Aligning ourselves with God’s intentions for His children–loving others, witnessing, and serving– bring us great satisfaction. In fact, we’re still on earth not merely to hear more teaching but to act on it and share with others what we learn.

 Why isn’t God more obvious? This question is often asked in many ways and in many contexts. When prayers go unanswered, why is God silent? When suffering or tragedy strikes, why would God allow this to happen? When struggling over the countless millions who do not know about God revealed in Jesus Christ, why wouldn’t God want more people to know this great, good news? When all the “evidence” seems to counter the biblical narrative, why doesn’t God just give a sign? When God was revealed through many wondrous signs and miracles throughout the Bible, why doesn’t God act that way today? All of these examples get at the same issue–the seeming “hiddenness” of God.

 Atheist Bertrand Russell was once asked what he would say if after death he met God. Russell replied: “God, you gave us insufficient evidence.”(1) While many who have found God quite evident would balk at Russell’s impudence, a similar struggle ensued between the psalmist and his hidden God. “Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalms 10:1). Indeed, the psalmist accuses God of being “asleep” in these plaintive cries: “Arouse, yourself, why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, and do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?” (Psalm 44:23-24).

 Indeed, the belief in a God who can be easily found, and who has acted in time and space makes the hiddenness of God all the more poignant and perplexing. Theologians and apologists have offered many explanations for God’s hiddenness: because God seeks to grow our faith, because our sins and disobedience hide us from God and keep us from seeing God properly, or because God loves us and knows how much and how often we need to “find” God. If we are honest, perhaps we are just as likely to hide ourselves from God because of our own sense of guilt and shame, just as the narrative in Genesis tells us Adam and Eve hid from God in the Garden. But, what of those who relentlessly seek after God and who are “blameless” with regards to willful hiding? Like the ancient sufferer Job, the cry rises up within us wondering why God stays hidden away in unanswered prayers and difficult circumstances. “Why do you hide your face, and consider me the enemy?” (Job 13:24).

 The hiddenness of God is problematic for theists and atheists alike. Christians often take for granted that we have a scripture which provides a record of God’s revelation. We have the benefit of a book full of God’s speech. God speaks in the wonder and mystery of creation; God speaks through the history of the nation of Israel; God speaks through the very Word of God incarnate, Jesus Christ. His life reveals the exact nature of God, and places God’s glory on full display. Atheists take the seeming silence of God a justification for their atheism.

 Regardless, all may wonder whether the only place to hear God speaking is in the past. Is God still speaking today? Has God not given any contemporary witness for God’s presence and activity in the world today?

 In fact, God is often found in one of the last places we think of—the church. For when the church is at its best, the church tells fresh the story of God’s good news across the ages. But the church can become the living embodiment of God’s presence; encountered in the love and care demonstrated by the community for each other, for the sake of the world. At its best, the church can be such a community, and can be a symbol of God’s presence among us as “God-found,” and not “God-hidden.”  The church can be the arms of God around us when we are hurting, or the voice of God speaking when we feel we haven’t heard from God in years. Such a community can be like the faithful friends who carried their paralyzed friend to hear Jesus. His faith didn’t heal him, but the faith of his friends did!(2) The church can be God’s voice, God’s hands and feet as they extend out into the broken places of the world to bring healing, help, and comfort. Through worship and liturgy, prayer and communion, service and sacrifice the church is to reveal the God who spoke and is still speaking.

 God is not often revealed in the roar of the hurricane or the loud-clap of thunder, but in a “still, small voice”—a voice that is often barely audible except to the most patient and still. But when the Church, broken and human as it is, seeks through the power of the Spirit of Christ to accomplish “greater things than these,” we see God and hear God, and find God beautifully obvious.

 For those who long to see God, who long to find God in the darkest hour, we may not find God in the dramatic or the victorious, the miraculous or the stupendous. Instead, we may yet hope to find him in the pew, at the table of the Lord’s Supper, or in the faithful friends who encircle around, fellow seekers who long to find God too.

 Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.

 (1) Cited in Dr. Paul K. Moser’s booklet, Why Isn’t God More Obvious: Finding the God who Hides and Seeks (Norcross, GA: RZIM, 2000), 1.
(2) Mark 2:1-12.

Morning   “Sanctify them through thy truth.”    John 17:17

 Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that

new living principle by which he becomes “a new creature” in Christ Jesus. This

work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways–mortification,

whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and vivification, by

which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water

springing up unto everlasting life. This is carried on every day in what is

called “perseverance,” by which the Christian is preserved and continued in a

gracious state, and is made to abound in good works unto the praise and glory of

God; and it culminates or comes to perfection, in “glory,” when the soul,

 being thoroughly purged, is caught up to dwell with holy beings at the right

hand of the Majesty on high. But while the Spirit of God is thus the author of

sanctification, yet there is a visible agency employed which must not be

forgotten. “Sanctify them,” said Jesus, “through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

The passages of Scripture which prove that the instrument of our sanctification

is the Word of God are very many. The Spirit of God brings to our minds the

precepts and doctrines of truth, and applies them with power. These are heard in

the ear, and being received in the heart, they work in us to will and to do of

God’s good pleasure. The truth is the sanctifier, and if we do not hear

 or read the truth, we shall not grow in sanctification. We only progress in

sound living as we progress in sound understanding. “Thy word is a lamp unto my

feet and a light unto my path.” Do not say of any error, “It is a mere matter of

opinion.” No man indulges an error of judgment, without sooner or later

tolerating an error in practice. Hold fast the truth, for by so holding the

truth shall you be sanctified by the Spirit of God.

 

Evening  “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul

unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” Psalm 24:4

 Outward practical holiness is a very precious mark of grace. It is to be feared

that many professors have perverted the doctrine of justification by faith in

such a way as to treat good works with contempt; if so, they will receive

everlasting contempt at the last great day. If our hands are not clean, let us

wash them in Jesus’ precious blood, and so let us lift up pure hands unto God.

But “clean hands” will not suffice, unless they are connected with “a pure

heart.” True religion is heart-work. We may wash the outside of the cup and the

platter as long as we please, but if the inward parts be filthy, we are filthy

altogether in the sight of God, for our hearts are more truly ourselves

 than our hands are; the very life of our being lies in the inner nature, and

hence the imperative need of purity within. The pure in heart shall see God, all

others are but blind bats.

 The man who is born for heaven “hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity.” All

men have their joys, by which their souls are lifted up; the worldling lifts up

his soul in carnal delights, which are mere empty vanities; but the saint loves

more substantial things; like Jehoshaphat, he is lifted up in the ways of the

Lord. He who is content with husks, will be reckoned with the swine. Does the

world satisfy thee? Then thou hast thy reward and portion in this life; make

much of it, for thou shalt know no other joy.

 “Nor sworn deceitfully.” The saints are men of honour still. The Christian man’s

word is his only oath; but that is as good as twenty oaths of other men. False

speaking will shut any man out of heaven, for a liar shall not enter into God’s

house, whatever may be his professions or doings. Reader, does the text before

us condemn thee, or dost thou hope to ascend into the hill of the Lord?

If we endure, we will also reign with him.   2 Timothy 2:12 

We must not imagine that we are suffering for Christ and with Christ if we are not in Christ. Beloved friend, are you trusting in Jesus only? If not, whatever you may have to mourn over on earth, you are not suffering with Christ and have no hope of reigning with Him in heaven. Neither are we to conclude that all a Christian’s sufferings are sufferings with Christ, for it is essential that he be called by God to suffer.

If we are rash and imprudent and run into positions for which neither providence nor grace has fitted us, we ought to question whether we are not rather sinning than communing with Jesus. If we let passion take the place of judgment, and self-will reign instead of scriptural authority, we shall fight the Lord’s battles with the devil’s weapons, and if we cut our own fingers we must not be surprised. Again, in troubles that come upon us as the result of sin, we must not dream that we are suffering with Christ.

When Miriam spoke evil of Moses, and the leprosy polluted her, she was not suffering for God. Moreover, suffering that God accepts must have God’s glory as its end. If I suffer that I may earn a name or win applause, I shall get no other reward than that of the Pharisee. It is required also that love for Jesus and love for His people should always be the mainspring of all our patience. We must manifest the Spirit of Christ in meekness, gentleness, and forgiveness.

Let us search and see if we truly suffer with Jesus. And if we do suffer in this way, what is our “slight momentary affliction”1 compared with reigning with Him? Oh, it is so blessed to be in the furnace with Christ, and such an honor to stand in the jail with Him, that if there were no future reward, we might count ourselves happy in present honor; but when the recompense is so eternal, so infinitely more than we had any right to expect, shall we not take up the cross with enthusiasm and go on our way rejoicing?

12 Corinthians 4:16

Family Reading Plan    Isaiah 65    Matthew 13