A very personal God

More often than not, we equate our dealings and relationship with God in a corporate manner. That is, we attend religious services, on specific times --days of the week and special days of the year. This is probably common to all religions but more so with the Jewish-Christian ones. Yet, more often than not, we see our forebears, the characters in the Bible seeing and dealing with God on a personal way. From the very first time he met Adam (and Eve) in the garden.

Which might prod us into a self-examination whether we’re in the right footing with the Creator. There is no question God wants us to join corporate worship in church --he specifically commanded us to. The Apostle Paul’s exhortation in Hebrews 10:25 and 1 Timothy 4:13 prods us to regularly meet with other Christian believers who comprise the church. In the original Greek of which most of the New Testament was written, the word “church” (“ekkl?sia”) means the assembly of believers, not a building or organization.

But throughout the history of the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament, God has also dealt with man in a very personal way, that is face-to-face, or what we often call “man-to-man.” To Adam, and later, with Eve, he appeared and talked to them directly. To their sons, Cain and Abel, he likewise talked to, directly. And down the line to the generations from Adam to Abraham, Abraham to David, and David to Jesus Christ, God dealt with men in a very personal way.

Ultimately, God spoke to man, to us, through his Son, Jesus Christ. The Scriptures in Hebrews 1:1-2 says “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son …” And throughout Christ’s three-year ministry before his sacrifice on the cross, he has always tried to talk to and deal with people in a personal way. Except on a few occasions like the feeding of five thousand people or a few public discourses, he dealt with a few --his closest dozen apostles, and some 70 or so disciples he sent out to towns ahead of him.

And so, God speaks to us, today, in a personal way, and we deal with him, in a personal way. We can’t just rely on belonging to a group, or belonging to an organization, or even a church, to define our relationship with the Creator. God is a person and deals with us in a personal way, and we can’t face him behind the façade of belonging to a certain church or group and expect him to judge us because we’re branded as such. At the end of the day, we face God as who we are, devoid of earthly “qualifications” or “memberships” but strip naked of the realities of what was and is and will be in our hearts and our mind.

“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24). Whether in reading the Bible or by praying, we meet God every day, He who also desires to meet us “in person.”