Before God's Face

By Andy Daugherty

“At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His Presence.” – A.W. Tozer
David was a man after God’s own heart who wrote such inspiring scriptures as, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack anything...” (Psalm 23) and “I will sing of your love and justice; to you O Lord, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life – when will you come to me?” (Psalm 101)
Yet the scriptures reveal that David was embroiled in an affair with Bathsheba, breaking multiple commandments including the treachery of having Bathsheba’s husband, who was one of David’s own soldiers, murdered. How can this be?
The Bible is Not filled with two-dimensional comic-book-like heroes that always do good and never stumble. God’s Word gives us a realistic picture of authentic people of faith who are tempted by sin and sometimes fall. Their stories are preserved for us as teachable moments. Are we listening?
You can find books about “affair-proofing” your marriage or a 1001 ways to lose belly-fat. However, what about down-to-earth books on taking some intentional steps to guard our faith?
“Before God’s Face” looks at some familiar Bible stories and asks the question: What can we learn so that we can have a closer walk with the Lord? This study looks at Bible stories using a lens that is summed up in the Latin phrase: coram Deo. It means ‘in the presence of’ or ‘before the eyes of God’.
By putting elements of this discipline into action, we can protect ourselves from spiritual amnesia and other pitfalls and enhance our walk with Christ. We need to learn to live with the constant awareness of the presence of God and act accordingly. Developing this approach over the past few years has made a big difference in my life and I pray that it can do the same for you.
Seeking His face is living coram Deo. Brother Lawrence said, “And I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence .... in a word, this is our profession... we must learn it”
It is my reverent prayer that the advice in this book will inspire readers to seek God and pursue a closer walk with Him. The best way I know to learn this discipline is for us to learn to dwell in His presence, in the light of His face as if we were literally before Him. I invite you to take this journey with me as together we learn the spiritual discipline of coram Deo.
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord. (Psalm 89:15 NLT).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Each Voice Publishing
• Release date: Apr 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9780989210522

Book preview

Foreword

Life is full of choices. Men and women choose regularly whether to live life with God or without Him. When we experience a true encounter with God, our perspective and our priorities certainly change. Throughout the Bible, we read the accounts of individuals and their responses to an encounter with God. The struggles we often encounter are a result of our failure to live in coram Deo, in the presence and before the eyes of God.

The early church was filled with respect and fear for the Almighty God. In the following pages, you will learn of those who walked with God and those who turned from God. We all need help establishing and maintaining an alignment with God. God has a mission for your life. Are we willing to surrender our will to the will of God, allowing Him to examine our hearts? Will we take intentional steps of faith toward God?

A life that is pleasing to God is one that is truly lived in the presence of God. God grants the humble and faithful with His presence and power to overcome the foolishness to which many succumb. Living with a constant awareness of the presence of God brings victory in faithful living. The world today is full of religions, but seemingly fewer and fewer seek a life of faith that truly pleases God and desire unashamedly to do His will. Repeatedly, we become aware of examples of those who have known God, but recklessly live their lives as if He were not watching.

Before God’s Face: The Discipline of Coram Deo is a great source of encouragement to prevent us from losing our bearings in this journey of life. We will seek God and find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts. A life of faith is critical and living in the presence of God is essential. If our life is truly a vapor, a mist that appears and then vanishes quickly, I challenge you to embrace coram Deo and live in the presence of God.

Paul Leslie

Senior Minister at McDonough Christian Church

Preface

Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord (Psalm89:15 NLT).

Like millions of American children born in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I was regularly taken to church by my parents, which was common if you lived in the South as I did. My family rarely missed a service. This included Sunday school followed by Sunday morning worship, Sunday night worship, midweek Bible study on Wednesday night, vacation Bible school during summer break, and occasional revival meetings. If the church doors opened, my family went. My parents, my three siblings, and I were always among the faithful.

Our church, like any church, had members who were at various levels of commitment. I soon learned the reality of the concept that twenty percent of the congregation did eighty percent of the church work. I think it is fair to say that we were somewhere in the mix of that twenty percent that took serving in the church seriously. My dad was a deacon and a Sunday school teacher, and my mother was the queen of the cradle roll. She knew every little kid in diapers and could tell colorful stories of fond memories about my older siblings’ peers when they were in diapers a decade before. She loved taking care of babies. Both my parents were spiritual examples to me and taught me the importance of knowing the Bible and the value of volunteering.

Growing up in the church I also became aware of a few people who were very devoted to serving in church for a while and then sort of faded away. Of course, we had all seen the tabloid news of disgraced TV evangelists caught up in some controversy that alienated their family and their church, but this type of scandal was an anomaly and didn’t happen at our church. Usually if someone left the church, it was because he or she either moved away, or started attending another local church because of some offense over a personal matter. Our family experienced occasional strife in the church such as small spats with other members, but it was nothing that ever concerned me. I am eternally grateful for my upbringing with both parents serving in the church.

In my freshman year of college, my world was rocked when, one October day, my dad came home from work, packed his bags, told my mom he wanted a divorce, and walked out. They had been married thirty years. We later discovered Dad had been having an affair with another woman for over a year. He had it all planned out. He waited until I graduated from high school and started college before bailing out. When his opportunity to leave with some semblance of completing the responsibility of raising four children, he left his wife, his youngest son, his home, and his church. It was a nightmare.

As a teenager, I didn’t know how to process the betrayal. How does someone walk off like that? How does a committed church leader, father of four, husband of thirty years shed the values he held so dear and leave it all behind? This wasn’t just anyone walking away from his family and faith. This was my dad, my spiritual mentor, and one of my male role models, not to mention the sole breadwinner of the household. Words cannot express the shock and shame I felt in the fall of 1984. This series of events tested my young faith like nothing else had.

Even now, after thirty years, it baffles me. I have now been married for twenty-eight years, am a father of two and an active servant in the church. My dad’s behavior still makes no sense to me. How does someone who had a saving faith in Jesus Christ, who sacrificially served His church for decades, and who brought up his family on the straight-and-narrow just check out as he did?

Have you had similar experiences? I imagine most adults reading this book have probably known people who have abandoned their faith. Maybe you know of a story more dramatic than my dad’s story, maybe not. Nevertheless, you have probably known someone whose faith was once strong, and then, over time, wavered in some way. Maybe the person that comes to your mind stopped volunteering and participating and then eventually stopped attending church altogether. Of course, if you ask that person about what happened, he will have an explanation of some sort. It is likely he will say he appreciates your concern but everything is fine. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, knowing that He died for us, His Bride, how do you get your head around someone having that same knowledge and walking away from the church?

Our discussion is not about questioning someone’s salvation. The point is not even for us to investigate or speculate about other church members’ lives to see how or why their faith faltered. This book will not debate eternal security, free will, or doctrinal foundations of backsliding. The point is much more practical and pragmatic. The focus is how we, as fully devoted disciples of Christ, can live a life worthy of our calling, protected from gross mistakes like those described, and have an effective Christian walk.

History reveals to us that mankind’s past is littered with people who started off knowing God, possessed a deep faith in their Creator, and then somehow lost their bearings. The Bible gives us many examples of people who lost their way, real men and women of faith who witnessed God’s power and yet later seemed to contract spiritual amnesia and make huge mistakes. The results were devastating.

This study will look at Bible stories and ask the questions: What can we learn? What is the purpose of certain Bible stories being preserved for all time?

Our study will, for example, consider these stories:

Adam and Eve

Moses

King Saul

King David

Jonah

Simon Peter

All these people of faith knew God. Every one of them witnessed God’s power or experienced His presence in some significant way. Yet at a certain point, each of them acted as if God were not present or not watching. The results were painful and sometimes catastrophic.

This study will look at these Bible stories and others using a lens that is the Latin phrase: coram Deo. We will examine several Bible stories through the prism of God’s presence.

During the Reformation, ‘coram Deo’ became the rallying cry for reformers [like Martin Luther] …. [It is a Latin phrase that means] ‘in the presence of’ or ‘before the eyes of God’.¹

Charles Colson also refers to R.C. Sproul who wrote that nothing marked the Reformation more than the awe of the holy, majestic God that drove the reformers to their knees in fear and reverence. The early church was marked with wonder, holy fear, and reverence (Acts 2:43; 5:11).

What the modern church desperately needs is a realization of God’s presence and a new sense of wonderment. We need a healthy dose of the awe (fearful respect) that characterized the early church.

This study will analyze and reflect on a few key biblical stories of men and women of faith, some of whom stumbled and others who serve as our role models. We must learn from their testimony. Their stories have been preserved for us through the ages for a reason. Hebrews 11:4, speaking of the biblical stories of real people of faith, says they still speak even though they are dead. We must learn from the stories of victorious people of faith, like Abel, as well as tragic stories of those whose faith faltered, like Cain. As we journey together, this book will expand on the discipline of coram Deo. By putting elements of this discipline into action, we can protect ourselves from spiritual amnesia and other pitfalls, and enhance our walk with Christ. We need to learn to live with the constant awareness of the presence of God and act accordingly. Developing this approach over the past few years has made a big difference in my life, and I pray that it can do the same for you.

As we study the faithful walk of our heroes and heroines of the faith, we should ask ourselves, Were these not just ordinary people? As we look at the biblical figures who lost their way, we ought to consider the question, Are we any better than they? We are the church, the adopted children of God. In many ways we, too, have lost our way. We all have suffered from spiritual amnesia. We have lost sight of our purpose in the grand scheme of things.

It is my reverent prayer that the advice in this book on living coram Deo will inspire readers to seek God and pursue a closer walk with Him. We must have constant reminders of God’s power, His purpose, and His presence in our lives. We need to be motivated to change and to be spurred to action. If only we could live in the constant realization that God is an all-knowing, all-present, AND loving Father that only wants what is best for us. If only we, as the church, could learn to maintain a sense of God’s presence.

⁷Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me.

⁸My heart says of you, Seek his face! Your face, Lord, I will seek.

⁹Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior (Psalm 27:7-9).

Seeking His face is living coram Deo.

One tenet of this study is that we need help in getting our heads, hearts, and habits aligned with God. The best way I know to do that is for us to learn to dwell in His presence, in the light of His face as if we were literally before Him. I invite you to take this journey with me as together we learn the spiritual discipline of coram Deo.

Overview of the Chapters

Chapter 1

God’s Design

Genesis 1-3

Plan: God’s relationship with Adam and Eve in The Garden

Chapter 2

Spiritual Hiding

Genesis 3 and Jonah 1

Problem: The Fall of Man, Jonah runs from God’s will for his life

Chapter 3

Realization and Response

Various Passages

Perspective: Jacob, Samuel, Isaiah, and Simon Peter realize God’s presence

Chapter 4

God-Forsaken Times

Job and other passages

Healing: Dealing with those difficult God-forsaken times in our lives

Chapter 5

Renewing Our Minds

Various Passages

Head: Paul, Martin Luther, getting our minds right

Chapter 6

Transformation

Exodus and Acts

Heart: Moses, Saul/Paul, Brother Lawrence; a change of heart

Chapter 7

Our Mission

Various Passages

Habits: Tending our garden, God’s unique calling for each of us

Chapter 8

Spiritual Amnesia

I Samuel, II Samuel

Head: King Saul and King David; focus our mind on God

Chapter 9

Serving an Awesome God

Psalm 139

Heart: Understanding God’s power, a heart for God

Chapter 10

His Presence in Our Present

Various passages

Habits: Enoch, Elijah, Psalmist, and Brother Lawrence on our walk

Chapter 11

Carpe Diem and coram Deo

Various passages

Hurry: The urgency of living in God’s presence every day

All scripture quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) unless specifically noted otherwise.

Chapter 1: God’s Design

Introduction

God designed mankind to have a close relationship with Him. We see that clearly in the book of Genesis as God created the world. We read that God chose to make mankind in a unique way: in His image. Adam and Eve enjoyed a special face-to-face relationship with God in the Garden, literally in His presence (true coram Deo). Although God would have special relationships with others throughout history, He revealed His original design for mankind most clearly in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden. The rest of history can be viewed as God’s pursuit of a restored close relationship with fallen mankind, a quest to redeem us from our sin that separated us from Him. God’s love fueled this quest so strongly that He sent His only Son, Jesus, who descended to Earth as Immanuel — God with us.

Someone has said that man has an innate need for God that only He can meet or fulfill. Many people today are futilely trying to fill that void with something other than God, which is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

In this chapter, we will explore the biblical foundation of God’s special design for man, God’s unique relationship with man, and man’s inherent need for God in his life.

Bible Study

God created man to be special. Many of the intellectuals and scholars of our modern world tell us mankind is no different from the other animals around us except for maybe an opposable thumb and a little more intelligence. However, when we read the creation story, we see a different picture.

God Made Man