It looks like he just came down Mount Sinai

That was a text message I got from a friend last week. A text message that has rocked me and made me dwell on it all week. Last week there was a conference for college students, and all the main sessions were streamed online (technology is great!). As I sat in my house watching the night session, I received that text from a friend who was also streaming, as soon as the speaker walked on stage. And it hit me hard, I dwelled on it all night and the next morning driving to work I was still chewing on it. So I text my friend and told him I couldn’t stop thinking about that, and his response was “Nick, as soon as he walked on stage, before he even said anything I was convicted.”

WOW! As I have thought on this, the thought is what a complement! For someone to walk on stage, or to walk up to someone and their first thought is this person has been spending time with God is amazing. If you don’t know the story, its out of Exodus 34, Moses is up on the Mountain meeting with God, and when he comes down his face is shinning, so much so that all the people of Israel were afraid to come near him. After he tells the people what God had said, he covers his face with a veil. And this was his practice that he kept his face covered except when he was meeting with God or telling the people of Israel what God had said. Because his skin was glowing!

Here are my random thoughts as I have chewed on this all week:

• Would anyone in their right mind ever say that about me?
• If you were to ask someone to describe me, how long would the list be before they got to Nick loves God and spends time with Him? That Nick loves like Christ loved?
• Why don’t we look like this to the world? If God really is who God says He is, and if we really believe that, shouldn’t our lives look different?
• How much would you love for that to be said about you? – Not for bragging rights, but because you were that in LOVE with Christ it was evident in your life
• Reminded me of another story I heard one time of a man who said spending time with a pastor he knows gives him the feeling of this is what is must have felt like to walk with Christ!
• Why don’t we live like this?

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abide in us and His love is perfected in us.   ~ 1 John 4:11-12

No one has ever seen God, but if we love His love is perfected. How are we perfecting His love in our day-to-day activities? We are the remaining evidence of the love of Christ in the world today. How are we doing?

All this made me think of Acts 4:13 where is says the Council knew Peter and John were uneducated and common man but were astonished and took note that they been with Jesus! I have always loved this verse, but it’s also convicting, can anyone take note of the fact that I have spent time with Jesus?

If God is who He says He is; and if I believe this, then my life should look different. 

When I talk with someone, or get up to preach, I want people to be able to say, he has been spending time with God!

To get there, we must spend time with Him, be willing to dwell in His presence.