The Road to Intimacy – Part 4

Faith leads us to intimacy with God.

God has made a way for all of us to know Him through Jesus Christ. He has revealed Himslef to us through Jesus and has shown us the way to intimacy with Him. God desires intimacy with all who will believe and put their faith or trust in Him.

“Loneliness is the most terrible poverty” – Mother Teresa

You can know God by faith.

“Trust in the LORD forever,
For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.” – Isaiah 26:4 (NASB)

“…these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” – John 20:31 (NASB)

Faith is believing what you cannot see.

“Seek the LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.” – Isaiah 55:6-7 (NASB)

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once…” – 1 Corinthians 15:3-6a (NKJV)

Prayer is an expression of faith.

Talking to God is sometimes called prayer. When we talk to God we demonstrate our faith or trust in Him. You can talk to God intimately any time you want.

The Road to Intimacy – Part 3

God provides the way to intimacy.

God desires to walk with us in intimacy. Our sin keeps us from walking with Him in unashamed intimacy. in is an offense to God and when we offend someone we need to make restitution and seek forgiveness. Our disobedience to or disbelief of the revelation of God has caused separation from God. Through Jesus, God has made restitution for our sin. God has made a way for our sin to be forgiven and forgotten.

“The more we know, the better we forgive. Who’er feels deeply, feels for all that live.” Mme. de Staël

Forgiveness brings us close to God.

“Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.

When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.

For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Selah

Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD “—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin.” – Psalm 32:1-5 (NIV)

“…the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:7b-9 (NASB)

Jesus is the way to intimacy with God.

“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:34 (NASB)

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.’” John 14:6-7

In sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, God has provided the way to regain lost intimacy with Him – through Jesus Christ.

Stay tuned for Part 4.

The Road to Intimacy – Part 2

Sin separates us from intimacy with God.

In the beginning, perfect intimacy existed between God and man, between God and woman, and between man and woman. That intimacy was broken by sin. Adam and Eve doubted God’s care for them and chose to trust the word of another over the word of God. Trust is essential to sustain intimacy. When they began to doubt God, their intimacy with God was broken. Ever since then we have all been separated from intimacy with God by our sin.

“Doubts and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer and the large mind transcend.” – Helen Keller

Sin is disobedience to or disbelief of the revelation of God.

“All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV)

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 (NIV)

God wants to forgive our sin.

“The Lord longs to be gracious to you, and He waits on high to have compassion on you.” Isaiah 30:18 (NASB)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
(Death here refers not only to physical death, but a spiritual death and eternal separation from intimacy with God.)

Stay tuned for Part 3…

The Road to Intimacy – Part 1

I am including the contents of a women’s devotional I put together a few years ago. I am revisiting it in response to Scot McKnight’s teaching on “mistakes missional gospel folks need to avoid.”

Please comment and let me know which mistakes I may not have avoided well in this piece. I will include the whole text over the next few days.

The Road to Intimacy – Part 1

This life is like a Journey,
but I do not know the end.
Where will this road lead to?
Will I travel with a friend?

The road to intimacy is an oft traveled one. We meander down that familiar route hoping to find the desire of our soul, but too frequently we are disappointed. Companions promise to travel with us and satisfy the longing in our heart, but many turn instead and go another way. There is one companion, however, who not only desires to waslk this road with us, but who will never leave us.

God desires intimacy with us.

God created us to know Him and to walk with Him in this journey of life. God walked with the first mand and woman in the beginning of creation. Adam and Eve were intimate with God and with each other. Completely comfortable in each other’s presence, they walked naked and unashamed. God created us for intimacy and He wants to fulfill our need.

“Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor to measure words but to pour them all out, just as it is, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keeping what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” – George Eliot, a female writer in the Victorian Era.

God wants us to know Him and live with Him forever.

“Be still and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3 (NKJV)

God has always loved us.

“Yes, I haved loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NKJV)

Coming soon – The Road to Intimacy – Part 2