When Leonardo da Vinci began his famous painting The Last Supper, he chose an innocent and serene young man named Pietri Bandanelli. who was in the choir of Milan Cathedral, to pose for the face of Jesus. Years later, when Leonardo was ready to paint the face of Judas the betrayer of Jesus, he sought out the most evil-looking character he could find on the streets of Rome. In the studio, the model looked around and said, “Maestro, I was in this studio twenty-five years ago, when I posed for the image of Christ!” During the interval, the young man had completely turned away from God and had followed his own lusts and desires! Sin separates us from God, but also sin hides us from God until we are ready to accept the forgiveness of Jesus by giving our lives to Him.
An atheist named Edward Tabash once challenged God in these terms: “If you are listening and are really there, show yourself right now – do a colossal miracle- show me something more than ancient hearsay to prove your existence!” When nothing happened, Tabash claimed to have proved his case! But Tabash missed the point that a God who would allow Himself to be ordered around in this way would not be the Ruler of the Universe! By giving God orders, we are trying to replace Him with our own authority and thereby making ourselves rulers of the universe! Tabash’s mistake highlights the three main reasons God hides from us:
He is too intense for us (to meet Him face to face): Too overwhelming to meet on a personal physical level! I once heard an evangelist named John Chapman say something very strange: He said, “Most people believe in a God who doesn’t exist!” He then explained that the God who does exist is not a little old man sitting on a cloud, but the Lord of the universe – the God whose presence on Mount Sinai was so overwhelming to the Israelites in Exodus 20, that they had to ask Moses to stand between them and God – and that was just His voice! One writer has said, “Mystery is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can comprehend!” My story of the ants illustrates that God is too overwhelming to reveal Himself to us just as we are too big to communicate with minute ants! For that reason, He became one of us in the Person of Jesus! We cannot cope with the mystery and majesty of God’s presence! IN the Book of Revelation, John’s impression of God’s presence is so overwhelming, that he can only describe it in words and images – an exact description is impossible! Even though God appeared to us as a man through Jesus, He is still too daunting for some of us! We can cope with ‘visions’ of the Virgin Mary, and even with the ‘Force’ in Star Wars, but not with the Man who died on the Cross to give us personal forgiveness and a personal relationship – perhaps because we can’t cope with a defeated God, or perhaps because we don’t want our lifestyle challenged!
He does not want to force Himself on us! He gave us the freedom to accept or reject Him! He does not twist our arms to make us believe in Him! He wants us to have the freedom to “live by faith – not by sight” so that we can come to Him whenever we’re ready! God’s gentle manner in inviting us to receive Him is in stark contrast with Satan’s way of imposing himself in our lives. Take for example the case of the young man who was possessed by an evil spirit in Mark 9: “Whenever it seizes him, it throws him on the ground...to kill him!”God on the other hand, invites us to meet Him in different ways: On 10th September 2001, the day before the Twin Towers collapsed, a Christian passenger noticed the way a young stewardess was breaking ice with a bottle and he expressed his concern for her. She was so impressed by his concern that she accepted a Christian tract entitled, “What does God want from me?” When she asked, the man replied, “Your life!” Less than 24 hours later, her plane was the first to crash into the first Tower, but God had arranged for her to meet his servant in time for her to meet Him before she died! We don’t know whether she accepted Jesus; we know that He gave her the opportunity to do so. Whatever choice we make about Him, he honours for eternity, either by granting us His free salvation or allowing us to face the judgment of eternal separation as our sins deserve! On a TV movie, a girl asked her father if he was going to heaven and he replied, “I hope so!” Anyone who gives this answer probably isn’t going there, because if they’ve accepted Jesus, they know for sure where they’re going!
God is in charge! We’re not! (The whole message of the Book of Job). Job’s story tells us that it’s less important to know the answers than to know the One who does! We should adopt the slogan of Freedom Furniture and “Think outside the square you live in!” Sometimes we look at the circumstances and disasters of our lives and wonder why God seems so far away! Philip Yancey quotes a nun who says, “When your spiritual well runs dry, dig deeper!””
Gregory of Nicea called the faith of St Basil ‘ambidextrous’ because he welcomed pleasures with the right hand and afflictions with the left – convinced that both would serve God’s purpose for him! (Hence Romans 8:28) I once spent three years in an unfortunate little town called Kandos (not just unfortunate because I was there, but depressing in its own right!) I told a colleague who complained about life in this town that there must be life after Kandos, because I remembered life before it! Likewise, we need to say to ourselves, “I know what God has done for me in the past and therefore I know I can trust Him with my future!”
When my daughters were very small and got into deep water at the beach, I would tell them, “You’re always safe with your Daddy!” They may not believe this now, but when we consider who God is, we can apply these words to Him – “You’re always safe with your Heavenly Father!” We may not understand where He is taking us, but we know we can trust Him!
If God seems hidden or silent when you are most in need of Him it is useful to follow Paul’s advice in Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer!” Here are some verses to remind us just how much God cares about us and how He has permitted us to become part of His Kingdom:
John 13:18 “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen.”
John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.)”
Ephesians 1:4 “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
Gregory of Nicea called the faith of St Basil ‘ambidextrous’ because he welcomed pleasures with the right hand and afflictions with the left – convinced that both would serve God’s purpose for him! (Hence Romans 8:28) I once spent three years in an unfortunate little town called Kandos (not just unfortunate because I was there, but depressing in its own right!) I told a colleague who complained about life in this town that there must be life after Kandos, because I remembered life before it! Likewise, we need to say to ourselves, “I know what God has done for me in the past and therefore I know I can trust Him with my future!”
When my daughters were very small and got into deep water at the beach, I would tell them, “You’re always safe with your Daddy!” They may not believe this now, but when we consider who God is, we can apply these words to Him – “You’re always safe with your Heavenly Father!” We may not understand where He is taking us, but we know we can trust Him!
If God seems hidden or silent when you are most in need of Him it is useful to follow Paul’s advice in Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer!” Here are some verses to remind us just how much God cares about us and how He has permitted us to become part of His Kingdom:
John 13:18 “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen.”
John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.)”
Ephesians 1:4 “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
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