The Accidental Pharisee

Monday, January 28, 2008

Face to Face with God

"... the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face , just as a man speaks to his friend ... " Exodus 33:11

Have you ever heard the question What is God doing today?
Well, here's another question for you: Have you ever taken a good look at what God was doing long, long ago?
I'm sorting through my relationship with God--defining the relationship, you might say. Trying to figure out where I've got it wrong and where I've got it right. (See? I'm giving myself some grace and assuming I haven't gotten it all wrong!)
I wandered all the way back to the second book in the Old Testament and found a standard for my relationship with God in chapter 33: I want to be God's friend. I want God to be my friend.
That's a bold statement for an Accidental Pharisee to make.
Friendship. That's awfully up-close-and-personal. That kind of intimacy with God is going to muck up my black-and-white self-righteousness with an awful lot of gray.
But it can be done.I can have a friendship with God. I mean, if Moses can be friends with God, can't I be friends with God?
God spoke with Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
I've gotta think about that for a minute.
I just came back from a visit with my forever friend, Fran. We talked and laughed and cried and prayed together ... and sometimes she listened while I talked and sometimes I listened while she talked ... and we went shopping and had lunch ... and we just loved every minute of it. It was all about being together.
Can my relationship with God be all about being together?


Thinking Out Loud here: We Accidental Pharisees make God too complicated. We throw too many dos and don'ts into the relationship. We come up with our own set of rules--and we borrow others, if those rules sound good too. We focus on doing and forget about being. There's no real face-to-face time with God if I'm all caught up in getting it right--no chance to talk together as friends.

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