Here and Never Silent

Those who have known me for even a short time, can testify to the fact that Mark Aikins loves his church!

But maybe they walk away scratching their heads wondering, "How come?" Could it be that Mark is kinda sentimental? That church makes him remember happy occasions from his childhood? Or is the guy a bit soft in his head...or feels inadequate and needs a psychological "crutch"?

I'm not beyond admitting that sentiment and memories and emotional neediness sometimes come into play, but lately it has been striking me that one of the most important reasons for my ecclesiastical love affair has a lot to do with the actual presence of Christ Himself.

I often plug my church to friends and co-workers with such talking points as: "the people are so warm" and "the teaching is so super" and "the worship is so meaningful" and "they take God and His Word so seriously" ...but the unanswered question in all of those advertisements is: "What is the key factor that makes all of those things TRUE?

Jesus is there.

This fact was driven home to me a couple of weeks ago in a message shared in Sunday School by a visiting pastor from North Dakota, Doug VanderMeulen. Pastor Doug reminded us that when the Old Testament spoke of the promised "new covenant" in passages like Ezekiel 37, one of the assurances from God that the prophet passed on to us was "They will be my people, and I will be with them and will be their God." He helped us recall that one of the titles of the incarnate Son of God is "Immanuel"--God with us.

Jesus Himself even promised His disciples: "Where two or three of you are gathered together in my name, behold--there am I in the midst of them." While it is certainly true that the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are present everywhere, there is a special promised sense in which they are present in the midst of His gathered people!

There is also a true, yet mysterious, sense in which the living Word who was from the beginning, is present in the Holy Word of Sacred Scripture. As the Bible is read, preached and sung in our services of worship, by faith we understand that Jesus is there reading it, preaching it, and singing it to us! This is an amazing realization, yet one that should hardly surprise us. The Bible is much more than a "how-to manual." For thousands of years, God moved through various human instruments to communicate with us--to reveal Himself to us! And the Lord Jesus continues to use those scriptures to teach us and make us holy like Him.

Want another amazing idea to chew on? Not only does every page of the Bible point toward Jesus Christ as the divine God-man, it actually reveals the heart and mind of Christ, how He thinks and feels and longs after God and His people. The book of Psalms especially unveils the passionate feelings and thoughts of Jesus and stands as a model for the thought-life and emotional life of every Spirit-filled believer.

Yes, Jesus is there at my church, in a surprisingly real, manifold, mysterious, satisfying way. Indwelling His people, hearing their prayers, teaching and preaching to them, singing the timeless truths of His merciful gospel.

Coram Deo,
Mark