Last week Mark Gyde spoke on our Zoom meeting about how we sometimes compartmentalise our Christianity and we not only end up in a neat little box but we place God there as well. But He is so much greater and so is our walk with Him. Jesus came that we would have freedom and explore the wide open space set before us. One of my most favourite scriptures is Isaiah 40:31 " ..but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint". I believe we are made to fly!
Last September I went on a road trip to Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon & Zion Park. I had time share points I needed to use and when I booked it I had hoped I'd find someone to travel with me. I didn't, so as the time approached I was slightly apprehensive about driving from Phoenix to Las Vegas via the Canyons. I needn't have been. I felt the presence of the Father the whole time and it actually felt like I was on a road trip with Jesus. It was quite busy at some of these places but He would always help to find a quiet peaceful place off the beaten track. Or when in need of company I would meet amazing people. There was never any fear and I felt He was with me the entire time, whether walking a Canyon or on horse back. My hope in the Lord was there always and I never grew weary, even driving for hours on end. I truly believed I could fly! So much so (and this may shock some of you!) that while I was in Las Vegas overnight I had an eagle and the scripture reference tattooed on my back. My family thought I was crazy but I feel it is a scripture very significant to my life and if you can't have a tattoo at my age, when can you? I also think the wide open spaces in that vast country, which had my jaw dropping open at what I saw, is evidence of it being impossible to put God in a box. And that is just two States in one country in this world. Out there is the whole Universe and beyond.
If someone quotes something out of a book and I like it I usually end up buying the book and putting it to one side until I have time to read it. I have bookshelves full of books like that! One such book was A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy. After Mark had spoken last week it caught my eye and it opened at the page that said this: "God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven and hell. Because God knows all things perfectly. He knows no things better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything. He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor does He seek information or ask questions........He knows what no other creature can ever know - Himself perfectly." And He is our Father and we are His children. How can you put someone like that in a box? Tozer's book (although I still haven't read it all) was written in 1961 and is about how the church had lost the sense of the majesty of God, how it had gone from seeing God as a lofty distant being to almost making Him equal or lower to us. We have lost the awe of His Majesty. He knows Himself perfectly but also knows us perfectly. He created us in His image but He is still Almighty God and in Him we live and breath and have our being. We are His children. Tozer also says “ We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words “ Be still and know that I am God” mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth century.” This was written 60 years ago but I think we need to know that stillness again, which doesn't mean we make ourselves smaller but in doing so we explore those wide open spaces with Him. We come to know Him in a deeper way and that's where freedom stems from........ soon we will fly like eagles!
