R.C. Sproul

He says the feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide, pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship.

It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant.

until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its profane, non-religious mood of everyday experience.

Can you relate to that?

We've all had those mountaintop experiences that are thrilling, but inevitably they fade and we return to our earthbound profanity.

He says it may burst in sudden eruption up from the depths of the soul with spasms and convulsions or lead to the strangest excitements, to intoxicated frenzy, to transport and to ecstasy.

It has its wild and demonic forms and can sink to an almost grisly horror and shuddering.

It has its crude barbaric antecedents and early manifestations and again may be developed into something beautiful.

and pure and glorious, it may become the hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of whom or what?

in the presence of that which is a mystery, inexpressible, and above all creatures."

What he is describing here is what I call the human experience of holy dread, a pervasive, chilling, blood-curdling sensation that we associate

withdrawing near to the living God.

We need to explore that and to explore it deeply.

I want to leave you with this question that you, I hope, will ask of yourselves.

How do you feel?

How do you respond when you have any sense of the presence of God?

If you can think in those moments in your life,

where you have sensed His presence?

Did you want more or did you want less?

Did you want to come closer or did you want to fall back and retreat?