Quotes About Presence

Something - a flick of color, the faint beat of the earth under my feet, or maybe my name in someone's thoughts - made me lift my eyes.

I did not know, until then, that you could disappear into someone's gaze, that bone and heart and breath could melt like shadow into light, until only light was left.

He had, she realized slowly, a gift for silence. When he chose, it seemed to ebb out of him, the word silence of old trees or stones lying motionless for years. It was measured to his breathing, in his motionless, scarred hands. He moved abruptly, soundlessly, and it flowed with him as he turned...

If he knew anything of her habits, she was certain to be somewhere about. He was not looking for her. He was submitting himself to the possibility of encounter.

Why do you suppose those moments of solitude offer us such relief ? … Because they give us a chance to simply be ourselves, to enjoy what and where we are, to savor just being. Alone with God, we feel no need to perform, to do. — FRANK BIANCO AMERICAN JOURNALIST/PHOTOGRAPHER

The command is Do no work. Just make space. Attend to what is around you. Learn that you don't have to DO to BE. accept the grace of doing nothing. Stay with it until you stop jerking and squirming.

Living in the kingdom of God is a matter of living with God's action in our lives.

God's presence is everywhere around us. God is able to penetrate intertwine himself within the fibers of the human self in such a way that those who are enveloped in His loving companionship will never be alone. page 59

Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us.

Hearing God cannot be a reliable and intelligible fact of life except when we see his speaking as one aspect of his presence with us, of his life in us. Only our communion with God provides the appropriate context for communications between us and him.

Immerse them together in the presence of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yes, baptize them in the name, but, dear friends, that doesn't just mean getting them wet while you say those names. It means to immerse them in the Reality.

This impotence of "systems" is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students out to start governments or even churches as we know them today, which always strongly convey some elements of a human system. They were, instead, to establish beachheads of his person, word, and power in the midst of a failing and futile humanity. They were to bring the presence of the kingdom and its King into every corner of human life simply by fully living in the kingdom with him.

Father, we remember now that we are right here with you and that you are in our midst and that you love us and that you long for us to be healed and whole and that we do not do any of this on our own and that this universe is a perfectly safe place for us to be and that you are closer than the air we breathe. And so we ask that you would be at work now and help us and give us energy and openness and strength, and we pray this together in Jesus' name. Amen. John Ortberg

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in the first chapter of his wonderful book Life Together, has a discussion of how Christians never meet one-on-one; they always meet under the presence of Christ. That's the way we escape the dreadful habit that human beings have of sizing one another up. Does that identify anything that you are familiar with? It's one of the most dreadful things in human life, and only the love of Christ and the presence of the kingdom can bring us beyond it.

With this magnificent God positioned among us, Jesus brings the assurance that our universe is a perfectly safe place for us to be. The

Those who have attained considerable spiritual stature are frequently noted for their "childlikeness." What this really means is that they do not use their face and body to hide their spiritual reality. In their body they are genuinely present to those around them. That is a great spiritual attainment or gift.

The experience of a life without lack depends first and foremost upon the presence of God in our lives, because the source of this life is God himself.

A day shared with Jesus is a day of continuous conversation. We will learn to hear his voice.

it helps to have some idea of what it would be like to go through a day with Jesus.

You need to imagine what your day would look like with Jesus at your side—as he will be.

As Frank Laubach says: "The simple program of Christ for winning the whole world is to make each person he touches magnetic enough with love to draw others."13 If we grow our fellowship in this direction, it will naturally affect those around us, whether in the fellowship or not. This kind of love and the "Presence" go with us wherever we go. They cannot be hidden.

kneel for five or ten minutes and welcome the presence of Jesus. You may not think it will make any difference to kneel when you pray, but try it anyway. Then consider the difference it may have made. As you pray, give the day up to God, renewing your invitation to him to be with you each moment.

The Opening Door Enter, Lord Christ— I have joy in Your coming. You have given me life; and I welcome Your coming. I turn now to face You, I lift up my eyes. Be blessing my face, Lord; be blessing my eyes. May all my eye looks on be blessed and be bright, my neighbors, my loved ones be blessed in Your sight. You have given me life and I welcome Your coming. Be with me, Lord, I have joy, I have joy.*

The secret to this blessed life is God being with them in the here-and-now of their real lives. Spending a day with Jesus is an opportunity to live in acknowledgement that this is so.