Reference

Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42-47

Good morning my name is Pastor Justin. If you weren’t here a couple of weeks ago when I brought the message, I talked about three areas that God convicted me about while I was on my Sabbatical. One was in the area of rest, another was about getting to know newcomers, and then I talked about the gospel and the difference that it makes in a community of believers, and how I see a difference between what I read in scripture and what I see in churches across North America, including here. This week I want to dive a bit deeper into that third topic a bit more because there is a lot more that God spoke to me about.

Late last year, I was putting my daughter to bed. We were lying in bed talking, and Allison asked me a great question. She said “Dad, if God is everywhere, why do we say that He is in our heart? If He is everywhere, wouldn’t he be in everyone’s heart?” Good question! So I explained to her that it’s sort of a figure of speech we use to explain God’s presence in us. The Bible often says that Jesus lives in us; like in Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Although God is everywhere, his presence can be in certain places in a different way. Almost like a special concentration of his presence. And she was good with that answer, but it stirred me to start thinking about God’s presence. And at the same time, in the way God often works, I was meeting with Logan and we were going through the book ‘Multiply’ together and we came to a chapter on God’s presence. Which then got me thinking about the history and theology of God’s presence. And it’s really interesting.