Presence

I've often heard people say (and I've thought this myself) that they're jealous of the people in the Old Testament who got to hear God speak to them directly. I mean, when God speaks to you through a burning bush, his voice and his plan are pretty clear.

But today as I was sitting in my red chair, reflecting on Psalm 139 and enjoying the presence of God, I thought about the role of the Holy Spirit. I thought about how even though God has always been everywhere, there was a time when to really enter God's presence meant to go to the Tabernacle or Temple. If you were lucky, you were permitted into the Most Holy Place on rare occasion. Moses had such special times in the presence of God there that his face glowed. Such encounters were unusual. Magnificent, extraordinary...but not common.

But with the Holy Spirit living inside of me, I am basking in the presence of God everywhere I go. His Temple now isn't some physical place I have to go. It's me. I'm his Temple. Wherever I go, God's presence fills me and goes with me. This is an amazing thing, radically different (and better) than the experiences the patriarchs had with God's presence.

I think that if Abraham or Moses or David had known what God's presence would be like after Pentecost...they would be the ones who would be jealous of us.