Contemporary Christendom has utterly destroyed this truth about the presence of God (perhaps absent-mindedly, like paving another brick in the road to hell). Coming into God's presence today means being flooded over by the feeling of some abstract "ooey gooey goodness." Such sentiments are shallow nonsense that rob us of the true nature and full awe-inspiring view of the presence of God.
Do not get ahead of me. I am not saying that the belief that God's presence is full of joy and pleasure is untrue. Of course His presence is full of joy and pleasure (see esp. Psalm 16:11). I am not saying that they are not there, but that they are not all that is there. That is the lie that Contemporary Christendom has beaten to death over our own heads.
Coming into God's presence (whether at church during official worship, or at home, or driving the car, or anywhere else God finds you) is not coming into the presence of joy and pleasure; it is coming into the presence of the Truth, i.e., all things true, all things real, Source, Perfection, Wholeness; the presence of unclouded, illuminating REALITY. Coming into God's presence means stepping into the sphere where you see all as God sees: no illusions, no darkness, just what is real.
Oh, and in case you're wondering: yes, I am a Platonic Christian (but not a Christian Platonist).
"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving," says Psalm 95:2. Why should we? Because after verse two are verses three through eleven, which are a resounding list of who God is, who we are, and what He has done for us, i..e, nine verses of comprehensive and comprehended reality.
But the comprehension of what is real is why God's presence is not merely joyous. "The Truth hurts," so it has been said, and the presence of God brings sorrow as well as joy. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," (Hebrews 10:31) i.e., into the hands of Living Reality. Look at Isaiah again: he sees God "high and lifted up," and cries "Woe is me!" In the presence of Reality (in the presence of all things true/real), Isaiah sees himself (and his people) as they really, truly are, and it shatters his heart.
The truth lost today about God's presence is that it is the presence of all things true/real. Contemporary Christendom has lost this by stripping God's presence down to one aspect of God: joy, or love, or mercy, or whatever. What is produced is the wussy "grandfather" God, and subsequently a wussy Christianity, made up of wussy Christians who would fade like chaff in the fire if they every set foot into the presence of the Living God. How absurd it is that we sing with a happy-go-lucky feeling, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord! I want to see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory!" When we sing such things, do we really know what it is we are asking for? I daresay if we did, we would take this whole business of worship, and Christianity in general, more seriously.
Of course, that is my point. I am not saying "take the fun out of it," but "take the frivolousness out of it." Nothing in Christianity (or anywhere else, for that matter) is done or taken seriously; or better yet, nothing is taken or done with a sense of the sacred, and that is what I am calling foul over: the loss of the sacred. God's presence is whittled down to coming into the presence of Dr. Feelgood instead of coming into the presence of the One who the woman at the well testified, "He told me all that ever I did." (John 4:39)
The loss of the sacred has turned Christianity into a massive self-help organization, Christian worship into a pep rally, and God into one of many helps for your life. (God, by the way, is not a "help" in your life; He is an overhauling of your life with His).
There is joy in God's presence, and their is sorrow. There is pleasure, and there is pain. Laughter, and tears. Desolation, and Glory. There is everything that Reality will bring, everything that you can comprehend when you are where all things are clear and unshadowed, everything that you can see in the presence of One who "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." (I John 1:5)
It is good that we ask to "see God" (that was the blessing Job received for all his trials; Job 42:5). When we do, however, may we know and take seriously and sacredly what we are asking for: pure, illuminating Reality, and all the pleasure and pain that goes with it.
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