Coming Face to face (Thought for September 2023)

Many of us will enjoy reading a good book or watching a film or tv programme in our leisure time. As we near the end of summer and as I look back I can be thankful that I have been able to enjoy several live events as well. There have been cricket matches at Hove, tennis at Eastbourne and football now started at Horsham’s still ‘new’ stadium at Hop Oast. It is always good to see some of the well known players close up and in person. I also enjoyed watching my grand-daughter perform in Bugsy Malone at Cranleigh Arts Centre and just today was fortunate to see the latest production of ‘The Sound of Music’ at Chichester Festival Theatre. Seeing these performances live is always more memorable than reading the book or watching on TV and it got me thinking about how we react when we read our Bibles.

The ‘story’ that we read in the Bible is the ac-count of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and his relationship with his people, man-kind created in his image. Although we have never seen the Lord ‘live and in the flesh’ we have the faithful testimony of the Lord’s servants at the time who did see the story as eye witnesses to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and testify that the only way we can come before him, knowing our sins to be forgiven is to repent and put our trust in him.

Yet this is a story that when we follow it to it’s logical conclusion will also lead us to the greatest live event that we could ever wish to see – it leads us to an audience with our Father God and Jesus the Son in person, a live audience that we know we will face one day. At the end of the book of Revelation we read that The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. (Rev 22:3b-40)

Yes, we will see him face to face when Jesus returns to draw his faithful followers into his presence, but hereby comes a but. In Hebrews 12:14 it says ‘Without holiness no one will see the Lord – echoing the words Jesus himself spoke in Matthew 5:8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God’. Without holiness, without purity, we cannot stand in the Lord’s presence and so we have a clear command to live lives worthy of that calling. That challenges me and I trust it challenges you as well.