"Walking with God" - Doug Rehberg

In his book, The Magnificent Defect, Frederick Buechner writes: “For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives who may not be writing messages about Himself in the stars but in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world.  It is not objective proof of God’s existence that we want but the experience of God’s presence.  That is the miracle we are really after, and that is also, I think the miracle that we really get.”  And to that, I think we’d all agree.

Several decades ago Brennan Manning was conducting a three-day silent retreat for some women in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  As the retreat opened, Manning met briefly with each woman and asked them to write on a sheet of paper the one grace that they would most like to receive from the Lord.  A married woman from North Carolina, about 45-years-old, with an impressive biography of prayer to God and service to others, said that more than anything else she’d actually like to experience, just one time, the love of God.  And when Manning heard it he assured her that he’d join her in that prayer.

The following morning this woman got up early, before anyone else, and headed to the beach less than fifty yards from the house.  As she walked along the sand on the seashore, with the chilly waters lapping up against her feet and ankles, she noticed some one-hundred-yards down the beach was a teenage boy walking in her direction, followed closely by a woman about her age.  In less than a minute the boy had passed by to her left, but the woman, seconds later, made an abrupt ninety-degree turn, walked straight toward her, wrapped her arms around her, kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “I love you.”  She had never seen this woman in her life.  Within less than twenty seconds the stranger turned and walked away.  The woman from the retreat continued her walk for another hour before returning to the house.  When she arrived, the first thing she did was walk to Brennan’s room and knock on the door.  When he answered she was smiling and said, “Our prayer was answered!”

This week we begin a new, 13-week series called, “The Signature of Jesus.”  And our intent is to examine in considerable detail the profound truth of Jesus’ presence in our lives.  Indeed the whole of the New Testament points to the power of the risen Christ in the lives of all believers.  In short, He writes His signature on our lives.

We’ve selected a theme text for the series from the Old Testament.  It’s from the prophet Micah, Chapter 6:  “He had  told you, o man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”  And it’s only in Christ that anyone is able to do that.  Thus, we begin this first Sunday of the Fall Grove Semester with a message entitled, “Walking with God.”  How is it that we are to walk with Him?  What shape does such a walk take?  What evidence is there that we are walking with Him?  And how will walking with Him produce through us justice and kindness?  There are a number of wonderful answers that we begin to examine this week.  In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

 

1.      What did Jesus mean when He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you?”

2.      How is Jesus’ call in Matthew 4:18-22 a recapitulation of Micah 6:8?

3.      What was the nature of God’s charge against His people in Micah 6:1-5?

4.      What does Micah 6:6-7 say about our basic tenderness toward God?

5.      How could you build a case from Scripture that walking with God is the essence of life?

6.      How do justice and kindness flow from walking with Him?

7.      What does it mean to walk humbly with God?

8.      In what ways are we to humble ourselves?  (See Romans 3:10-12; Romans 5:6; Isaiah 29:13-16; Romans 9:14-23)

9.      Who is G.K. Chesterton?

10.  What did C.S. Lewis learn from him?

See you Sunday for the beginning of “The Signature of Jesus.”