For all of us there are songs that resonate to the depths of our being. “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe was one of those songs for me. I’m thrilled that it’s back to the top of the charts and reaching a whole new generation of listeners. I’m also thrilled that it has inspired me to delve into Scripture to see what it was like for others to have face-to-face encounters with God.
Join me as we skip through the entirety of Scripture to “imagine” what it will be like for us to meet our God and Savior face-to-face.
On this episode I discuss:
- Taking a B.I.T.E. out of Scripture – this week’s Bible Interaction Tool Exercises include:
- Explore a topic
- Meditation
- Consider the metanarrative (God’s grand story of the Bible)
- “When the Bible is broken up into little bits and chunks — theological, devotional, spiritual, moral or worldview bits and chunks — then these bits can be nicely fitted into the reigning story of our own culture with all its idols!” – Albert Wolters
- “Act One” of Scripture where we see mankind CREATED to walk in face-to-face relationship with God
- “Act Two” of Scripture where we see man banished from the garden and tension that needs to be resolved
- “Act Three” of Scripture we see God’s plan to crush sin as he sets up a people and a system to point to his grand plan for all people
- Moses’ face-to-face relationship with God – Exodus 33:7-11
- Moses’ face-to-face chat with Jesus – Matthew 17:1-3
- “Act Four” of Scripture where we see Jesus take the stage…God in human form
- “Act Five” of Scripture where we find ourselves — the era of witnesses who are called to make disciples until the final act
- “Act Six” of Scripture where we await the final work of judgement and renewal
- How John responded when seeing the “Living One” face-to-face – Revelation 1:9-18
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If you have never heard this song before, you can watch the official music video on YouTube below.
Additional Resources
This Week’s Challenge
Explore Scripture on your own! Perhaps you can think of another area of Scripture you would like to explore on this topic of seeing God face-to-face — there are more, I only scratched the surface. Read about how God initially created a face-to-face relationship with Adam and Eve in Genesis 1-3. Explore Moses and his relationship with God in all of Exodus, but specifically review what we discussed today in Exodus 33. Zip over to Revelation chapter 1 to see what type of response we may have to seeing the “Living One” face-to-face. It doesn’t hurt to sit around and imagine spurred on by God’s Word!
