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Overview
What Are You Waiting For?
Intimacy with God can happen right now if you want it. A closeness you can feel, a goodness you can taste, a reality you can experience for yourself. That's what the Bible promises, so why settle for less? God is closer than you think, and connecting with him isn't just for monks and ascetics. It's for business people, high school students, busy moms, single men, single women . . . and most important, it's for YOU.
God Is Closer Than You Think shows how you can enjoy a vibrant, moment-by-moment relationship with your heavenly Father. Bestselling author John Ortberg reveals the face of God waiting to be discovered in the complex mosaic of your life. He shows you God's hand stretching toward you. And, with his gift for storytelling, Ortberg illustrates the ways you can reach toward God and complete the connection--to your joy and his.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780310565819 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Zondervan |
| Publication date: | 05/18/2009 |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishing |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 96 |
| Sales rank: | 385,210 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
John Ortberg is the senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (MPPC) in the San Francisco Bay Area. His bestselling books include Soul Keeping, Who Is This Man?, and If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. John teaches around the world at conferences and churches, writes articles for Christianity Today and Leadership Journal, and is on the board of the Dallas Willard Center and Fuller Seminary. He has preached sermons on Abraham Lincoln, The LEGO Movie, and The Gospel According to Les Miserables. John and his wife Nancy enjoy spending time with their three adult children, dog Baxter, and surfing the Pacific. You can follow John on twitter @johnortberg or check out the latest news/blogs on his website at www.johnortberg.com.
Read an Excerpt
God Is Closer Than You Think
Copyright © 2005 by John Ortberg
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ortberg, John.
God is closer than you think / John Ortberg. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-10: 0-310-25349-7 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25349-5 (hardcover)
1. Presence of God. 2. Christian life — Presbyterian authors. I. Title.
BV4509.5.O78 2005
248.4 — dc22
2004024716
This edition printed on acid-free paper.
Some names and details have been changed in order to protect the privacy of people
involved in true stories told in this book.
The Scripture versions used in this book are listed on page 169, which hereby becomes
a part of this copyright page. Italics in quotations of Scripture have been added by the
author for emphasis.
The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to
you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the
part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without
the prior permission of the publisher.
Interior design by Michelle Espinoza
Printed in the United States of America
05 06 07 08 09 10 11 • 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Chapter 1
God’s Great Desire
For over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a
premonition of richer living. . . .
Thomas Kelly
During the first year of our marriage, Nancy and I spent two
months traveling around Europe. We lived on a budget of
$13.50 per day for food, lodging, and entertainment. We breakfasted
every morning on bread and cheese. We lodged in accommodations
compared with which the Bates Motel in the movie Psycho would be
an upgrade. Entertainment on that budget consisted of buying Time
magazine once a week and ripping it in half so we could both read it
at the same time.
We splurged in Italy, where we blew one whole day’s allowance
on a single meal and spent money we could not afford to look at the
treasures of Western art. The highlight of the day came after standing
in line for hours at the Vatican to view Michelangelo Buonarroti’s brilliant
painting of God and Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
His masterpiece is one of two works of art that serve as touchstones for
this book. (I’m saving the other one for the next chapter.) If you look
carefully at the painting, you notice that the figure of God is extended
toward the man with great vigor. He twists his body to move it as
close to the man as possible. His head is turned toward the man, and
his gaze is fixed on him. God’s arm is stretched out, his index finger
extended straight forward; every muscle is taut.
Before Michelangelo, art scholars say, the standard paintings of
creation showed God standing on the ground, in effect helping Adam
to his feet. Not here. This God is rushing toward Adam on a cloud,
one of the “chariots of heaven,” propelled by the angels. (In our day
they don’t
look quite aerobicized enough to move really fast, but in
Michelangelo’s day the angels suggested power and swiftness.) It is as
if even in the midst of the splendor of all creation, God’s entire being
is wrapped up in his impatient desire to close the gap between himself
and this man. He can’t
wait. His hand comes within a hairbreadth of
the man’s hand.
The painting is traditionally called The Creation of Adam, but
some scholars say it should be called The Endowment of Adam. Adam
has already been given physical life — his eyes are open, and he is
conscious. What is happening is that he is being offered life with God.
“All of man’s potential, physical and spiritual, is contained in this one
timeless moment,” writes one art critic.
Apparently one of the messages that Michelangelo wanted to convey
is God’s implacable determination to reach out to and be with the
person he has created. God is as close as he can be. But having come
that close, he allows just a little space, so that Adam can choose. He
waits for Adam to make his move.
Adam is more difficult to interpret. His arm is partially extended
toward God, but his body reclines in a lazy pose, leaning backward as
if he has no interest at all in making a connection. Maybe he assumes
that God, having come this far, will close the gap. Maybe he is indifferent
to the possibility of touching his creator. Maybe he lacks the
strength. All he would have to do is lift a finger.
The fresco took Michelangelo four years of intense labor. The
physical demands of standing on a scaffold painting above his head
were torture. (“I have my beard turned to the ceiling, my head bent back
on my shoulders, my chest arched like that of a Harpy; my brush drips on
to my face and makes me look like a decorated pavement. . . . I am bent
taut like a Syrian bow.”) Because he was forced to look upwards for
hours while painting, he eventually could only read a letter if he held
it at arm’s length above his head. One night, exhausted by his work,
alone with his doubts, discouraged by a project that was too great for
him, he wrote in his journal a single sentence: “I am no painter.”
Yet for nearly half a millennium this picture has spoken of God’s
great desire to be with the human beings he has made in his own
image. Perhaps Michelangelo was not alone in his work after all. Perhaps
the God who was so near to Adam was near to Michelangelo as
well — at work in his mind and his eye and his brushes.
The “Everywhereness” of God
This picture reminds us: God is closer than we think. He is never
farther than a prayer away. All it takes is the barest effort, the lift of
a finger. Every moment — this moment right now, as you read these
words — is the “one timeless moment” of divine endowment, of life
with God.
“This is my Father’s world,” an old song says. “He shines in all
that’s fair. . . . In the rustling grass I hear him pass, he speaks to
me everywhere.” The Scriptures are full of what might be called the
everywhereness of God’s speaking. “The heavens are telling the glory
of God; . . . day to day pours forth speech.”
He talks through burning bushes and braying donkeys; he sends
messages through storms and rainbows and earthquakes and dreams,
he whispers in a still small voice. He speaks (in the words of Garrison
Keillor) in “ordinary things like cooking and small talk, through
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments…9
1. God’s Great Desire…11
2. Where’s Waldo?…27
3. Life with God…45
4. The Greatest Moment of Your Life…61
5. A Beautiful Mind…77
6. Waldo Junior…95
7. Spiritual Pathways…109
8. “As You Wish”…125
9. When God Seems Absent…139
10. The Hedge…155
Scripture Versions…169
Sources…171