Where's Your Hiding Place?

There's a great song called You Are My Hiding Place by Michael Ledner (CCLI Song# 21442, (c) 1981 CCCM Music):

     You are my hiding place.

     You always fill my heart

     With songs of deliverance.

     Whenever I am afraid,

     I will trust in you.

     I will trust in you.

     Let the weak say,

     “I am strong

     In the strength

     Of the Lord.”

Great song. Great comfort in the place of pain. But greater comfort is actually hiding in the Lord in those times. So where do you run & hide when disaster strikes? You can find answers and advice anywhere, but Jesus has the only true answers and the only advice that actually works.

All the Difference

Recently (like in the last couple weeks) I've lost an important relationship, a family member who's cut-off relationship. Even though the person is alive and well, it's like mourning a death. I find myself bouncing randomly between the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance), all of which are important to pass through when mourning any loss. The trick is to not get stuck in one.

But what makes all the difference during a time of grieving is intimate time with Jesus. He understands. He empathizes. He's been there. And he has a strategy of something he's doing in that person's life, and in my life. He's a God of restoration, so I know I will get the relationship back. I just don't know how many months, years, or decades we'll lose.

In the hard, painful times, run to Jesus, not away from him. It's not his fault, and he holds the only true answers. Intimacy with him makes all the difference.

The “Yes” of Is “Experience” Required?

Do we have to have an “experience” to know God? That depends what you mean by “experience.”

See this past Tuesday's post (May 5) for the “no” of “Is experienced required?”

If you define “experience” as intimacy – which is the definition I personally prefer – then absolutely “Yes”. Don't we as Christians all believe that knowing God means having a personal relationship with Jesus? Think about it – “personal relationship” is a synonym for “intimacy.” By definition, you don't have a personal relationship with someone you're not intimate with on some level.

In fact, one could argue that Jesus died primarily so we could have intimacy with God (both with himself and with the Father). Salvation was just the prerequisite.

Now God doesn't necessarily bring an intimate experience the second we get saved (although often he does) because he wants our loyalty to him to rest on faith and not on the experience itself. But he promised that anyone who seeks him will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29, Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 7:8, Luke 11:10).

So if we cry out to him for a greater level of intimacy, that's a prayer he will always answer “yes”. He wants it more than we do.

The “No” of “Is Experience Required?”

Do we have to have an “experience” to know God? That depends on what you mean by “experience.”

If you define “experience” as any specific one – say, speaking in tongues, or falling down under the power of the Spirit, or shaking – then absolutely “No”. All these experiences are good, and they are all (usually) from God. But they are not required. They are not an end in themselves.

We can't take our wonderful experience, make a theology out of it, and impose it on everyone else. God is a personal God, and there will always be someone with whom he chooses to deal differently, outside of our experience. They will have their own experience with him, different form ours, but just a valid.

See this Friday's post (on May 8) for the “yes” of “Is experienced required?”

The Insufficiency of Experience

Our experience with God, real and wonderful though it is, does not provide everything we need. It's incomplete; it's not the point. Jesus is always the point.

Sometimes the experience of God can be so wonderful that people start worshiping the experience. We know we've made this mistake when we start looking down on others with different experiences, thinking we're more spiritual because they haven't had our experience.

It's not about the experience. It's always about Jesus.