Where’s My Cloud?

The Israelites had the cloud by day and fire by night to assure them that Yahweh was with them. They stayed when the cloud stayed and moved when the cloud moved. That probably doesn’t seem relevant to a Christian today, but there may be a reason to look for “clouds.” I think Jesus could “see” the cloud when He was on earth. He said He only did what He saw His Father doing. When the Father moved, Jesus moved. Paul says each believer is a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we should be conscious of a cloud-presence around us. If we are sensitive to the moving of the Spirit, we will move the tabernacle when the Spirit moves.

If we are going see what our Father is doing, we have to know Him. Jesus said true life (zoe) is found in knowing God and Jesus. (Jn. 17:3) Paul said everything else is rubbish compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. (Phil. 3:8) Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10) David told Solomon, “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (1 Chron. 28:9). Similarly, God told Jeremiah, ““You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).

In The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer, one of my favorite 20^th century authors said, “The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason, the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”

There can be no argument that the Bible recommends getting knowledge about God. Nor can there be any doubt where to find that knowledge. Sadly, not many people are making the effort these days. George Barna, the Christian pollster, reports that only one in six adults in the United States reads the Bible  at least once each week. LifeWay Research finds that although Americans express admiration for the Bible, more than half of them have read little or none of the Scripture. Lifeway also reported that, “Less than a quarter of those who have ever read a Bible have a systematic plan for reading the Christian scriptures each day. And a third of Americans never pick it up on their own”. 

Another LifeWay study found that the level of Bible reading among people who attend Protestant churches regularly is not encouraging. While three in ten people surveyed say they read the Bible every day, a disappointing four in ten read it only once a week or less. Even more discouraging is the rising number of people, even among believers who don’t consider the Bible to be the literal Word of God. According to a Gallup poll in 2017, only 35% of Protestant Christians believe the Bible is to be taken literally. Another 51% say it is, “the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally.”

I doubt that the Gallup poll required a careful definition of the word “literal.” In my experience, I have found that people who speak of taking the Bible literally usually mean that we should believe it and do what it says. Those who question the literal nature of the Scripture are often looking for a way to dodge the more uncomfortable passages regarding certain pet behaviors (aka sins). Mature students of the Bible know that it contains more than one genre of literature; as such, some things are not meant to be taken literally. This does not give license to downplay the lessons those passages teach or to ignore them completely. It certainly does not lessen the conviction that the Bible is meant to be a guidebook for knowing God and discovering His intentions for us.

Commenting on the results of a survey done several years ago, George Barna said, “Many Christians are hard-pressed to convert their beliefs into action. The ultimate aim of belief in Jesus is not simply to possess divergent theological ideas but to become a transformed person. These statistics highlight the fact that millions of people who rely on Jesus Christ for their eternal destiny have problems translating their religious beliefs into action beyond Sunday mornings.”

While I agree with Tozer that our conception of what God is like is more important than our behavior, our behavior must be instructed by our conception of God. If a believer is not regularly in God’s Word endeavoring to know God personally, one must question the authenticity of that person’s faith. John MacArthur said, “Spiritual growth progresses from knowing you are a Christian to knowing the Word of God to knowing God Himself.” Because our chief end in life is to glorify God, it is essential that we know who God is so that our behavior will bring glory to Him. I cannot expect the cloud of God’s presence to inhabit the tabernacle of my life if I don’t know the God I am inviting in. With that in mind, I am praying for more cloudy days in my life.

Related posts: Daily Bible Reading; That’s Not God