{"id":21269,"date":"2017-01-18T00:10:19","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T08:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=9926"},"modified":"2017-01-18T00:10:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T08:10:19","slug":"january-18-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/01\/18\/january-18-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"January 18, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cFor thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: \u2018I am the Lord, and there is no other.\u2019\u201d<\/em> Isaiah 45:18<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, Day 18<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Staring<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I love to be out in wide, open spaces: the ranch landscape with its bald hills and endless pastures; the oceanside with its vast beach and immense ocean; the thousands of acres of agriculture, orchards, and vineyards; any place I can see horizons; the clear winter night\u2019s stars that stand in blinding relief against the black, and the summer night\u2019s stars that fly across the sky as if shot from a silent cannon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anything that appears to be limitless and neverending intrigues me, and I just have to stand and stare. Not merely gaze, look, glance, or see. I take a long, fixed stare. I do not move; I barely breathe. It seems to get inside me. It awakens me. I get lost there.<\/span><\/p>\n

When our church hosted the group that brought a life-size replica of the biblical tabernacle and set it up on the lower property, I took a turn walking through it. It had this same profound effect on me. I did not hurry\u2014I found that I couldn\u2019t. I lingered at each place, listened to the headset, and then could not move from that spot for a long time. I felt the Lord was infusing me with truth and understanding, with His purpose and presence. To move would be to break the stare\u2014the transfixed heart, the focused mind. Reluctantly, with heavy steps, I eventually moved to each station, and it all began again. When the tour was over, I stood at the \u201cgate,\u201d unwilling to leave that place of peace and transformation.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we want to cultivate awe and reverence for God, we must eventually stop all of what seems so important to get done, and stare at Him. It is breathless encounter with the Ancient of Days, the only Holy God, the Consuming Fire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do we do this? How can we be with Moses at the burning bush? How can we be with Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration? How can we be with Mary at the empty tomb? Or with Paul on the road to Damascus? Or with Jacob when he wrestled with God? What place and time will God be close enough that we can stare at Him?<\/span><\/p>\n

He is ready to meet us always. Any time. Now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where do we see Him so that we can stare for a good, long time? In His Word. That is where He tells us about Himself. He reveals Himself in those pages, intending for us to know Him in that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stare at what He says about Himself. He is saying, \u201cThis is what I want you to know about Me. This is how I am. Here is what I think, in black and white. You do not have to wonder what I\u2019m thinking or how I feel. I am not hiding. Here I am!\u201d “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, \u2018Seek Me in vain\u2019; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right”<\/em>(Isaiah 45:19).<\/span><\/p>\n

When we read something God says about Himself, or that is said about Him in His Word, stop and pay attention. Ponder. Meditate. Consider. Stare.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMighty God, may it not be presumptuous of us to ask that You stir us up by Your Holy Spirit Who indwells us, that we may see and know You more. May our eyes behold Your beauty. May our fleshly bodies kneel before Your sovereignty. May our minds grasp that You have all wisdom at all times for all things. We come boldly, by the work of the blood of Jesus, to Your throne of grace with this request. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5x3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}