Recognizing God's Presence in Everyday Life

the invitation today is look for god expect god search for him be open to him there's a section in ellis walker's book the color purple where she writes this is a bit of a paraphrase i think it takes god off when people go through a field where there's purple and they don't notice people think all god cares about is us pleasing god and we do not notice how ceaselessly the world pleases us or seeks to please us how god puts beauty purple everywhere and we just we don't notice it we don't notice him [00:25:12]

we're walking through very near the end now of renovation of the heart dallas willard's book and he talks about how this is the great task taken from the words of jesus himself where jesus says now as you're going through the world make disciples make apprentices help people sign up in the great project of being with me to learn from me how to live like me in in my power and then uh in the text normally it's translated baptizing people in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit but dallas talks about the notion of baptizing you know is to immerse or to have something be surrounded by [01:03:31]

dallas says the idea is not just that you're supposed to dunk people in water or sprinkle them depending on your review of baptism but you are to immerse them in the reality in the presence of the trinity here's what he writes this stage has to do with immersing the apprentices into the trinitarian presence inhabiting and then closing the group once we have a group of apprentices to jesus this is the single major component of a local congregation's prospering in spiritual formation the teaching god father son and holy spirit in their midst [02:41:36]

it is not a human work thank god this is not just up to us although it constantly is an interaction with uh the human work of learning to do what it is that jesus teaches us the presence of god in the midst is the only sure mark of the true ecclesia of the true um congregation of people who are following jesus we ought to expect it to be a place where the divine life and power is manifestly present to glorify god and meet the needs of repentant human beings [03:20:80]

recognition is the first human quest after an ordinary delivery after the first few startled cries newborn infants typically spent an hour or so in the stage doctors call quiet alert though they can only focus their vision roughly eight to twelve inches away their eyes are wide open they are searching with an instinct far deeper than intention they're looking with their whole heart they're looking for a face and when they find one especially a face that gazes back at them they fix their eyes on it having found what they were most urgently looking for [04:52:32]

recognition is the primary task of infancy feeding crying even sleeping are just the support system for the most essential work of figuring out who we are and somehow we were made designed by god to do this when a little infant finds another set of eyes another face that will hold the infant's gaze that will stare back and communicate to the infant a sense of recognition that you matter a recognition of what it is that that little infant is feeling [06:04:88]

we were made to look for god and to see his face now how do we do this well amazingly enough probably the primary way that we immerse uh probably the primary way that we are immersed in the trinitarian presence is when we seek to immerse other people in the presence of the trinity when we seek to bless them all day long as we walk through the world when we look at beauty when you hear the sound of a bird when you see a leaf on a tree or the sunlight dabbled against it or the color purple we are able we are called to remember god is here god is here god is here [08:33:12]

andy writes about a kind of spiritual exercise one day he was at the o'hare airport and he had nothing to do so he took a long walk through all the concourses and every time he would see a person he would say to himself image bearer to remember that this person bears the image of god an old man shuffling slowly through the airport somebody waited down by a heavy backpack a woman in a sari somebody weaning a stroller with a little baby in it tsa workers image bearer image bearer image bearer [09:15:44]

it's amazing to me how easily i can look at people uh as paul says through the eyes of the flesh and just judge them how are they dressed how functional do they look how old they're young how healthy or not healthy are they attractive or not attractive and be quite judgmental and it's such an amazing thing to just look at people and say image bearer image bearer image bearer so that's the invitation today [09:48:24]

look for the color purple you know in the ancient world in the bible it was a sign of royalty or majesty we are told in the gospel of john chapter 19 verse 2 that when jesus had been arrested and had been tried and was about to be crucified in order to mock him soldiers placed john says a purple robe on him god himself bears the color purple although in mockery and humiliation for our sake so that we could see the king present in our midst [10:18:40]

as i go through this day like a little baby is gazing for another face that can tell me i'm a person i look for the presence of god to remind me my life matters my life matters to god and especially i try to immerse other people into the trinitarian presence that's what it means to baptize people in the name of the father son and spirit immerse them in the presence of god and i find as i do that as i try to love as i try to bless as i try to notice as i try to see i myself am immersed in that presence [10:52:48]

we live today look for the color purple guard your heart see you next time [11:24:40]