31 Days Toward Intimacy with God (Hardback)

Chapter One

This is a crazy world.

TV ads for luxury SUVs and sports drinks bookend stories of car bombings in Baghdad. A handicapped infant is left to starve to death in a neonatal unit, while a couple two thousand miles away search high and low to adopt a child-any child. Millions of dollars are spent to protect the eggs of birds on an endangered species list, while human babies are aborted in the third trimester. Battered wives paste on smiles as they dress for church. A preteen girl writes in her prayer diary, "My daddy took away my innocence last night."

It's all crazy.

I've seen the insanity and cruelty of man in places such as Bucharest, Manila, Quito ... Auschwitz.

The madness began in Eden, where man and woman chose to part company with their Creator. Whenever man gains control, chaos and darkness reign. It is insanity that blights beauty, shatters peace, and brings hurt and injustice and cruelty and neglect. It is an insanity that preys upon the innocent and crushes dreams and quenches the light of hope in young eyes.

But this is still "My Father's World."

He shines in all that's fair; In the rustling grass I hear Him pass; He speaks to me everywhere.

In His coming, the Lord Jesus hallowed this broken, crazy world. He breathed earth's air and felt the warmth of its sun and drank its cool water and walked its dusty highways. Earth's soil drank in drops of divine sweat, tears, and blood.

The Holy Spirit is here, the wise and gentle Counselor. He speaks through His Word, and He shines through the lives of countless believers all over the world.

It is a crazy world. We keep crazy schedules. Life speeds by at a blur. The crazy waves of circumstance roll over us, overwhelm us, threaten to drag us under.

Yet God is with us, no matter where we find ourselves in life. Right in the middle of the insanity. And anywhere, at any time, we may turn to Him, walk with Him, talk to Him, hear His voice, feel His hand, and catch-even if just for a moment-the fragrance of heaven.

Intimacy with God is an island of sanity in a sea of confusion. It is a quiet place, and it is ours. Whenever we look up into the face of our Father ... whenever we reach for His hand ... whenever we quiet our spirit to hear His voice ... we have found a place of refuge and intimacy that nothing in this crazy world can take away.

A Step Closer

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1, nasb

Please pray with me: Lord, even though I face a busy day (or have just lived through one!), even though I find myself running from this to that, from here to there, I still want to crawl into the shelter of Your arms. Even though my life moves at a blur, I want to still myself in Your strength. I want to rest in Your protection and tender care, even when I feel like I'm wrestling alligators. I take refuge in You, Jesus. This day, all day, and all days.

(Continues...)