Reading: Genesis 3:8

The realisation that “God is there” is acknowledged by many heathen philosophers (e.g., Acts 17:18). Many today with the realization of sin feel an awkward presence following them and with the Psalmist say, “Whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalm 139:7). One can be conscious of the existence of God, aware of a breach in relationship with the creator, mindful of a fall in morality, and yet be at a loss to comprehend it all or to mend it. This is where we find Adam, bewildered, with a mind filled with questions but a heart too depraved to find the answers.  

We see this throughout all of society in every age and in every social stratum. In adolescence we often call it teenage awkwardness; in older life we call it mid-life crisis. When we see it in families, we call them dysfunctional. We see it in the streets among the vagrants. We see it in the eyes of unhappy children and in discontented parents. We hear it in the voice of unfulfilled and unsatisfied young people. We see it coloured and glamorised in the vagaries of Hollywood celebrities. It is all around us; it is the “noise of God” who is there.

How is this knowledge of God manifested in me? Is it in the peaceful reliance of relationship or in the restless activity that runs from God and tries to smother His presence in the stuff of life? The noise of the Lord God is “walking.” This is a figure of speech which indicates progression (Exodus 19:19: “long”; Proverbs 4:18: “more and more”). When Adam heard the Lord in the garden, it was the noise of the Lord approaching him, and it grew louder. God makes Himself known and men are without excuse (Romans 1:20).

“True spirituality consists of being in the correct relationship with the God who is there, first in the once for all act of justification, secondly by being in that correct relationship as a continual moment-by-moment reality. This is the biblical emphasis of true spirituality.” Francis Schaeffer (The God Who Is There; Sect. V, Ch. 2)

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