Thoughts on Christian Living Book #2 by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

HOW FAR AWAY?!

“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.” Acts 17:27

A line in the song, “My Girl Back Home” in Rodgers and Hammerstein's production of the movie SOUTH PACIFIC included, “How far away, Little Rock, A-R-K, Princeton, and Jay, how far are they?” Well, they were a long way from the war torn Islands of the South Pacific, the setting of the movie, and it occurred to me that there are a lot of Christians who, as those in the movie, see themselves as a long way from God. It just seems that He is a good idea, and they have learned much about Him, but the nastiness of the world, on the one hand, and the comfort zone of modern amenities on the other make Him seem remote. What about this?

What does the God who created the vastness of the universe and keeps it in balance; Who created creatures of the sea yet uncataloged; Who created multiple worlds of life cycles too small for the human eye to detect: Who makes all things material of atoms, and mysteriously causes some of them to form a stone while others form plant and animal life, etc., what to Him is man that He is mindful of him? Psalm 8:4 and Hebrews 2:6 poses this question, and the answer is not elusive. God is mindful of man because He made man in His own image, and has predetermined to bring a remnant of the species into final glory with Him. To that end, He is not remote, nor His ear dull of hearing. Consider some specific references from the eternal Word. Paul preached on Mars Hill in Acts 17:27, “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.” The prophet Isaiah implored us all, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” 55:6. The psalmist wrote, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” 34:15, and Solomon wrote, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:3.

If it appears that God truly is remote, it is a sure thing that somebody moved: guess who? “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” said David in Psalm 66:18. “Your sins have hid his face from you,” Declared Isaiah 59:2. Finally, I Peter 3:12 forthrightly declares, “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”

102