I’ve recently been going through a book by Darren Wilson called Finding God in the Bible. In one chapter the author points out that while Moses has one of the most intimate relationships with God described in the Bible, it’s possible that Enoch was even closer. Think about it. This guy walked with the Lord for three hundred years and then the Lord just took him away. Why does he only get a few sentences in the Bible? Imagine all of the things they probably did together here on this earth.
How many problems can you find with this picture, kids?
Not much better. But gotta love that DragonBall Z feel.
Darren points out that Enoch’s life is probably intentionally obscured just to let us know that it’s ok for some things to be just between us and God.
I remember one of the first songs I wrote to God. I told him that I would never show it to another human soul. That’s so freeing. We can easily turn our relationship with the Lord into fodder for the next small group meeting. Especially if our conversations with him are few, it is only natural that we share every little thing that he says.
But God is calling us to a deeper intimacy, where we walk and talk with him so much that we can’t even recount all the things He has spoken to us in a week.
I love reading about Brother Lawrence. He walked in such an intimacy with his God that when the monks in charge would send him away from his duties to pray he was all like “sure, I guess, I mean we were already talking but ok” (my paraphrase of brother Lawrence)
So many of the great men and women of history have lived bold lives for God because they were more aware of him and pleasing him than they were about people. This is why Peter gets up in acts chapter four and is all like “are you kidding? Obey the God of the universe or your fancy duplicate cease and desist? Eeeeesy decision” (my paraphrase of the apostle Peter)
This is why Jesus says in Matthew six to go into the secret place to pray. It is crucial to our spiritual walk that we have a secret life with the Lord. Jesus invites us into the joy of walking in his presence daily. He is constantly singing Norah Jones lyrics to our hearts “Come away with me, on a mountaintop come away, come away with me on a bus come where they can’t tempt us with their lies” (my paraphrase of Song of Solomon chapter 2)
Norah
I believe this secret life with the Lord is the root cause for the faith of George Mueller, the boldness of the martyr Stephen , and the passion of Jim Elliot. These lives were aflame because they spent a good amount of time in the cooker, just hanging out with the Author of the Universe.
So my soul sings back to God “ I want to wake up with the rain falling on a tin roof while I’m safe there in your arms. So all I ask is for you to come away with me in the night” (My paraphrase of Psalms 63:6)
