October 21, 2017
WHERE IS GOD? UNION LIFE
Tribe Recap of October 21, 2017 | Guest Speaker: Lincoln Murdoch
Imagine you're on the TV game show, "The $10,000 Pyramid" and the person that is sitting across from you says, "A stray dog laying on your front yard....a humming bird at the feeder on the deck....an out-of-town relative who rings the doorbell surprising you..." And your response is, "THINGS THAT SHOW UP!"
Ding, ding! You would be right! Three things are true about things that, "show up." One, they were not there before they showed up. Two, they came from somewhere else. And three, they will once again leave.
None of these apply to God / God's presence. He is ALWAYS with us, among us and in us (me) as we see in Ps. 130:7-10, Matt. 18:18,20, Matt. 28:19,20, John 17:23 and Col. 1:27. King David stated that even if he TRIED to get out of God's presence, he couldn't. Yet many Christians strive thinking they aught to try to GET into God's presence...when they are already there. "IN Him we live and move and have our being," Acts 17:28.
As His followers we are always IN HIM, Eph. chs. 1 and 2. It's like Mr. Costco telling me he's giving me the Costco store at 120th and Dodge. I now own it and everything in it. He'll keep it fully stocked all the time with an endless supply and I can live IN COSTCO. Now, everything I need to live is there. Need a mattress? I pull it off the rack. Need sheets and a pillow? I grab them and make the bed. Hungry? I go to the food section. I want to watch the Huskers (well, maybe not this season)? Go watch them on an 80" high def. TV....or ten of them at once! Everything I need for life, I'd have in Costco.
Likewise, we're IN CHRIST and so everything we need for life and Godliness we have because we're IN Him. Now, we have to abide right there (John 15) and appropriate what is ours. Though all I need to live is in Costco, I have to go grab the mattress, sheets, food, etc. to live, i.e., taking hold of what is mine....BUT...it's not that I don't have already have it. I do. It'll all mine because I'm...IN Costco.
Do you live, talk, pray, etc. as if God is distant, separate from you and you need Him to "come" to you? Do you hope that He will "show up?" Or, do you wake up in the morning, aware of His precious presence with you and say, "Well Lord, what are WE going to do today?" Asking God to "come" or "show up" is separation terminology vs. New Testament union terminology. I don't ask my liver or spleen to show up or come because they're in me and go wherever I go.
Since the very, real presence of Christ is in us always, we start right there...thanking Him FOR His presence and going into our day (or church service) with great confidence knowing that within us is an infinite supply of all I need. "Every demand placed upon me, is a demand placed upon the life of Christ within me." Wonderful!!
Just as radio waves don't "show up" when we turn on the radio (because they are already there moving through the room,) God's can't show up. He's there already. He's here, He's there, He's everywhere. We need to turn the radio (of our spirit) on...and fine tune it, then the radio simply manifests what is true....radio waves are here! So, this week, turn on and tune in to the truth that you are IN CHRIST and that He is IN YOU!