Knowing God

              What matters is knowing God. Certainly there are decisions that we make; we need to hear the voice of our teacher telling us what to do, to hear that voice behind us saying, “this is the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) But what matters first of all is that He is no longer hidden (vs.20). When Mary Magdalene in the garden was weeping, there was a man—she supposed him to be the gardener—who spoke with her but then after having turned away she heard his voice, saying her name, “Mary” and she turned towards him and said, “Rabboni” which means in her home language of Aramaic, “My teacher.” She knew him now and then he gave her work to do, “Go to my brethren…” So we see, the first thing in both the Old and New Testaments, is to know the Lord; this is the precious pearl of great price. When Jesus said her name, it was the same as when he said, “Lazarus, come out.” He had awoken her heart to see. Everything begins here with the Lord speaking a word and calling into being the things that are not. The reason why the assembly and even sometimes the church building itself is a sanctuary, a place of refuge is because Jesus is our sanctuary, we cannot help but follow after him, even the church building can’t help but become something of a sanctuary, “the very stones… “(Luke 14:40). Why then is the church is locked during the week? Why would it ever be locked on  Sunday morning? This looks too much like the disciples locking themselves in. They inadvertently were preventing Jesus from entering, preventing the cure to all their diseases from entering! Were it not for his resurrected strength and power he would not have been able to go in and save the disciples. But he passed through the locked doors, destroying their self-imposed prison house. My foster sister in Chicago went to churches on Sunday morning trying the doors last month; they were all locked but then she came to a church worshipping, praise God! The church building itself is a sanctuary but the assembled worshippers even more a sanctuary.  And let us not forget the expectation of privacy in these troubled times. No arm of the government, no one not “in-house” should ever be advised by minister or anyone else who worshipped and when. The church, the assembly is a refuge because this is what the Lord is and looking at him we become like him.