Come By Here

"And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." - Genesis 3:8

A couple of days ago, I was sitting in an upstairs room that we call the baseball room of our house, at the computer. I was scrolling through so many facebook statuses, reading, while at the same time pondering some events that happened at our house last week, and it came to me...

I wonder if part of our problem is that we no longer sing Kum Ba Yah. The very translation of Kum Ba Yah is, "Come By Here." Since when did we become so sophisticated that it was no longer acceptable to ask or seek God's presence???

The truth is that we aren't the first to fail to seek God's presence... As you can tell from our scripture at the top of the page, Adam and Eve took the prize there. And we've failed to seek His presence since then.

I've even heard this from a pulpit (or two or three) from a "super cool" pastoral type when visiting churches in the past: "It's not like we're just going to stand around in a circle and sing Kum Ba Yah...." 

Uh. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah... Nope. Sounds really cool like ... maybe it will even meet the approval of the Hollywood crowd... but I think I want to be in a church where God is present and we aren't too afraid to ask Him to be present, and we aren't ashamed of trying to please Him. (And, thankfully, I have experienced that at our home church!)

Seems to me that the first priority of our worship is to seek God... and to ask Him for His presence... And those above anything else. We should seek to be in His presence, and for Him to move among us. Never should we assume anything or that we deserve to stand in His presence. Only Jesus is worthy of that. But His Word does say that we can go boldly before the throne of grace.... And by doing so, we are worshiping the Father.

Romans 12:1-2 says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  (ESV)

Could it be that our spiritual act of worship is turning to God in our daily tasks???  I believe that was exactly what Paul was saying! So.... What would our lives be like if we asked for God to show up at the routine times of our daily lives? What if we asked Him to "Come by here" when:

When we are hanging with friends...

Someone's laughing, Lord. Come by here.

At the beginning and ending of life... (and all of the days in between)
Someone's crying, Lord. Come by here.

When we need talk with Him...
Someone's praying, Lord. Come by here.

When we're driving down the road and singing with the radio at the top of our lungs...
Someone's singing, Lord. Come by here.

At life's joyous occassions...like a wedding... the birth of a baby... graduations...
Someone's dancing, Lord. Come by here.

When you realize a loved one's journey will soon end....
Someone's dying, Lord. Come by here.

When your feelings are crushed.... or you are the object of gossip or some misunderstanding.
Someone's hurting, Lord. Come by here.

When you've messed up and need forgiveness....  Someone's sinned, Lord. Come by here.

When you are in need of a Savior...
Someone needs You, Lord. Come by here.

Oh, Lord. Come by here....