Biography
Dr. Bruce W. Thielemann is one of the most highly sought after speakers in the country and around the world. During his thirty years in ministry, he has visited sixty countries and lectured on more than two hundred university campuses. After serving churches from California to Pennsylvania, he has been the Senior Minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh since 1984. In 1986 he was named Pittsburgh Man of the Year in Religion. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"The Presence, The Path, The Pleasure" 
Of all the sacred literature in the world, from whatever time or clime, there is one book which speaks more of joy than any other and that is the Bible. Go back to the early pages of the old Testament and you hear the Psalmist say, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord." Listen to the words of the prophets, "Let us hear the voice of joy for God is good." Think about Nehemiah, the old Testament builder. "Joy," he said, "is the strength of the Lord." When the angels sang over the fields at Bethlehem, they brought good tidings of great joy. Jesus said to His disciples, "These things I have said to you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full."

The Bible is the place where joyless people find joy. In the Bible, the word joy is used in two different ways. It is used in a secular sense as, for example, the joy of a great harvest or a successful venture. But, it is also used in a sacred sense. When it is so used, it refers to a kind of disposition or attitude of spirit. It concerns a right relationship with God. This more profound understanding of joy is sung by the Psalmist in Psalm 16 at verse 11. There he writes these words, "Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore."

Think about those words. They speak of the PRESENCE, the PATH and the PLEASURE. With regard to the presence, the Psalmist writes that the presence of God in a life is what brings joy. When God is resident in a human heart, joy is there. Many people do not know that joy. They never received God into their hearts because they cannot conceive that an infinite God would be interested in taking up residence within them. They believe that the possibilities of the indwelling of God are simply too good to be true. It is sad that people think this way.

There are other examples in life where such things are every day and very beautiful. Think of marriage, for example. The healthiest, the happiest and holiest marriages I know are those in which both the man and the wife think, "Gee, how lucky I am to have someone like him or her." It is an expression of amazement. They repeatedly say, "It's just too good to be true."

Many years ago a man said to me that I should never marry any woman who I didn't think was so wonderful that I was incredibly lucky she would have anything to do with a person like me. I don't think that is bad advice. Yes, marriage involves a lot of things intimacy, delight, friendship, the gradual coalescence of wills. All of these things are important. But, there is this constant element of surprise in the finest marriages. "Gee, how lucky I am that she feels about me the way that she does. It's just too good to be true."

It is just so in the experience of God. We may not be able to explain the indwelling of God, to define it, measure it or calibrate it. The fact of the matter is that He loves each of us as if there was only one of us to love. Amazing as that may seem, He wants to take up residence within us.

Some years ago a number of young college boys tried to pull a little prank out in Yellowstone National Park. They took a great big valve with a couple of pipes attached to it. They went to a place about thirty yards from the Old Faithful geyser. They rammed the pipes dawn into the earth. Then, knowing just about the time the geyser would begin its eruption, they began to turn the valve slowly. As they did so, the water and steam came up. They knew just how long it would take to reach its apex and then begin to decline. When the decline started, they began furiously to turn the valve in the other way as if they were turning it off. All who saw it agreed it was a good joke.

There is a side to that which isn't funny but wonderfully true. It is this: You can't turn joy on or off like a valve. It is as natural a phenomenon as Old Faithful. Whenever God dwells in a person, joy is going to be there. It is absolutely dependable and absolutely inexplicable, just as the Old Faithful geyser. We know it will happen but we do not fully understand how or why. When it comes to thinking about God being resident in you, do not seek to understand all that this involves, to rationalize the procedure. Instead, simply be open to it.

I have a minister friend who lived and worked in New York City for many years. On one occasion he asked a noted surgeon from that city what was the most significant operation procedure in which he had ever been engaged. The surgeon said, "I can tell you that immediately. I was operating on a little girl who was eight years old and who was very ill. I can remember she was so frail that when they wheeled her into the operating room on the gurney, she hardly made a rumple in the white sheet that covered her. As I approached her to chat for a moment before they began the anesthesia, she looked up at me and said, ‘Doctor, I am going to go to sleep now, I know. I always say my prayers before I go to sleep. Can I say my prayers now?' I looked at her and smiled and said, ‘Yes, and when you are praying would you pray for me, too? I need prayers also.' The little girl closing her eyes said, ‘Dear Jesus, tender shepherd, look upon your little lambs tonight for we both have big troubles to solve. Amen.' With that she went to sleep."

The doctor was moved because he had some great personal difficulties with which he was wrestling in his life and he began to weep. He turned aside, quickly refrained himself and then went to the surgery. The operation was a success. "But, that," he said, "is not what made it the most significant operation in my experience. It was the fact my life was transformed that night." He had a new experience of God, not because he had approached God with all of the sophistication, professional skills, the graces and the talents which were his and which were natural and carefully developed in him. But, he had listened to a little girl who simply said, "Dear Jesus, tender shepherd, look upon your little lambs."

There wasn't great understanding in that, but there was great experience. Out of that experience, came the reality. When God becomes present in your heart, that reality is yours. A new joy is born.

The Psalmist says that when we have this presence within us, we have a special light upon our paths. There is an interesting place in the Congressional Record — it's back many, many years ago now — in which the minister who was to open the session with prayer didn't show up. They waited for a while. Finally, the speaker began the session. The minutes of the session record his opening words which read as follows: "The clerk will please read the journal. We will proceed without divine guidance." It is not noted that anyone objected to this fact.

The interesting thing is there are a lot of people who do not object to the fact that they have no divine guidance in their lives. The reason they don't object to it is because they have never experienced it. They don't know what it is to have the love of God illuminating the course of their lives. But what the Psalmist says to us in the passage before us today is this, "Thou dost show me the path of life."

God shows us the path of life in two different ways. First, He shows it to us by the earthly example of Jesus of Nazareth. When we look at Jesus' life, we see the life of one who seeks to follow everything that His Father wills He should do. When He was twelve years old, He said, "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" Later when the disciples were questioning Him, He says, "My meat, that is the very food of my life, is to do the will of Him who sent me." In another place He suggested that, "I must work the works of Him who sent me." The great goal of Jesus' life was to model Himself after the will of God.

If we look at Jesus' life as recorded in the scriptures, we see Him in solitary places, crowds, and synagogues. We see Him in times of crisis and trial, at parties in times of laughter, and in all kinds of different experiences. By looking at Him, we can discover how we should be walking and moving in the varied experiences of our lives. This is one of the ways in which His example is made evident to us. I call this the earthly model. We follow His footprints, if you will.

The second way is more wonderful. According to Christian teaching, we not only have the model of Jesus to look back upon but the example of God in our lives today. This is echoed by many other faiths as well. God by His Holy Spirit moves in the course of our experience here and now. We are not only following footprints from a long time ago, but listening to footsteps which are following us. We can hear them and go in their course. What I am saying is that God is willing to be our guide through the person of His Son.

Think of it. The guide is sitting at the right hand of God and knows us personally. He knows our history, background, failures, blunders and errors. He knows our successes, accomplishments, talents and gifts. Not only that, but He knows God's purpose in our life. He knows the direction in which we are to be moving; the reason that we have been put here.

Perhaps more important than both of these things, He goes with us on the journey. He is not someone who sits on a silver cloud and drops directions periodically for our counsel and instruction. Rather, He is one who takes us by the hand and walks shoulder to shoulder with us.

A good example of this comes to us out of Alpine lore. There was an alpinist who was taking a group of amateur mountain climbers up onto a slope. He knew these people were not very gifted or talented and had not learned much up to that point. They started out, had gone a number of hours and were coming to the place where they would rest for the night. As they moved along, a storm began to brew. This did not concern their guide much. He knew they were close to the place where they were stay that night.

As they came around to the bend in the trail, they discovered a large boulder directly in front of them which had rolled into that place. There was no way that one could get around the boulder without rappelling around it — you know, fastening a rope above and then swinging out around. This is not something that those who have not practiced it can do with grace or ease. These people were largely untrained. The guide understood that. He knew he couldn't take them back whence they came; that was too far away. They would never make it before the storm broke. On the other hand, there was no apparent way for them to go ahead. They didn't know how to rappel around that stone. He didn't say to them, "Well, you're on your own." He didn't give them a quick course in rappelling and say, "Good luck." Instead of that, this man gave them these instructions. "I shall rappel around the boulder. I shall then lie down on the trail and reach out around and hold my hand out at the point of the boulder. You step from the trail where you are into my hand, then from my hand onto my back and then from the back to the trail. This way you will be safe."

They held back in trusting their weight to his hand extended with nothing below them for a long, long way. He looked at them and said, "Do not be afraid. This hand has never lost a climber yet." He rappelled about the stone, stretched out on the path and held out his hand. Each of them followed after stepping first into the hand, then onto his back and then onto the trail. This guide understood the problem. He knew the goal. He understood the capacities and the lack of capacities of those he was leading. He knew also that he was responsible for their safety but, most important, he went ahead. He risked himself in order to preserve them.

That is exactly what God does. It is the way His guidance is made known to us in life. When we put ourselves into His hand, He carries us through. His hand has never lost a trusting person yet.

The Psalmist also says that we will have pleasure in our hearts if we know the joy of God's presence and His light on the path. Listen to His words again: "Thou did show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore."

In the Bible, the word pleasure means harmony. It means to move gracefully with God in oneness. There is a certain smoothness to it, a coordination which is beautiful to see. You might think of it this way the most comfortable shoe is the shoe that you never think of; you never remember that you have it on. If you are reading a really good book, you don't even think about the book. You are not counting the pages. The story carries you away. If you are in a perfectly planned worship service, the service will be so perfect you will never think of it at all. You will be focused entirely upon God.

C. S. Lewis referred to it in terms of dancing. He said, "When you are dancing, if you are thinking one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four and measuring your steps, how far and how fast, then you are not dancing. You are learning to dance. When you get to the place where you don't have to think about the counting, the direction and all of those details, then you can begin to move gracefully and harmoniously with your partner." The Bible says that pleasure is when we dance with God like that.

The whole message of the Psalmist is that if you have the presence of God in your life — you don't have to be able to understand that, just accept it — then you get light on your path. That light on the path gives you guidance and direction, a feeling of security. With that security comes ease, relief and pleasure.

There is a very old story about a doll made of salt. One day the doll came to the edge of the sea. She had never seen the sea before. She said, "What are you?" The sea replied, "I am the sea." She said, "Who are you?" "I am the sea." "I do not understand you," she said. "I have never seen anything like you." The sea said, "Step forward and touch me." She walked down to the edge of the sea and extended her foot into the water. As soon as the water touched her salt toes, they were dissolved by the sea. When she pulled in her foot she said, "Where are my toes?" The sea responded, "You have given something in order to understand. You must always give something in order to understand. If you would understand me in all of my fullness, then you must give yourself to me."

The little salt doll began to walk into the sea. "Who are you, sea?" "What are you, sea?" Deeper and deeper she went. As she went, she understood more and more until a little wavelet came and passed over her. In the instant in which she dissolved and became one with the sea she was heard to say, "The sea — I am the sea."

There is a lot of truth in that. It is as we give ourselves to God. We allow ourselves to be absorbed into the vastness of His love; allow ourselves to move and have our being in the presence of God; we become so much one with Him that we become literally God's dream for us. We may not understand that, but we can experience it. With that experience, comes great joy.

I wish for you the presence of God in your life which is the fullness of joy. I wish for you the guidance of God in your life which is the peace of joy. I wish for you pleasure, also; to be in such harmony with God that you will know the great mystery of joy. I wish for you, my friend, that you could say with the Psalmist, "Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy and at thy right hand is pleasure for evermore." May God bless to you this simple witness in His name.

Interview with Bruce Thielemann
Interviewed by David Hardin

David Hardin: How many churches are in downtown Pittsburgh?

Bruce Thielemann: We have five congregations in the city. They are all of different denominations.

Hardin: Do they connect in any way?

Thielemann: Oh, yes. We have a great number of mutual ministries. We run a housing program for street women; we run an extended housing program for street men; we have joint youth programs, as well as a great number of community programs that deal with such things as the National Day of Prayer, Thanksgiving, national holidays. We have a big celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday each year. Right now we are developing a drug rehabilitation program and we do all of these as joint ministries.

Hardin: This wouldn't be possible if you weren't cooperating or doing it together as five different churches.

Thielemann: Absolutely. It could never happen under any other circumstances. No one of us would be able to do it individually.

Hardin: That brings me to the broader issue that I would like to talk about with you. The planet is obviously shrinking. We are looking at ecological issues and at a world community where each of us is affected by what everybody else does. The Brazilian rain forest provides our oxygen. our acid rain destroys Canadian forest, etc. What is the role of the Christian in looking at the planet and its needs?

Thielemann: It is an interesting thing. Religious denominations as such only came into the history of the church about three hundred years ago. I think they are moving out of history now. When the history of the church of this millennium is written, I think they will be only a kind of minor footnote because we are learning we have to do things together. The place we first learned that was on the mission field. Competing denominations would go into the same area, for example, to seek to win the same people, while other areas weren't being reached at all.

The lessons we learned there, I think, are applied now to other global concerns. For example, when we are dealing with hunger, we have different areas of focus. We don't duplicate our efforts at any point. I think it is very interesting, for example, to mention one right here at home when hurricane Hugo hit. It was an ecumenical effort involving a great number of denominations seeking to meet the needs of those particular people at that place. The church can have a greater impact in terms of its influence on world affairs when it speaks as one body. Unfortunately, there has been bad press and bad publicity about some groups like the World Council or the National Council of Churches. There are some things which are incendiary questions, but there is a tremendous amount of good that is done by these agencies in dealing with such concerns as ecology. After all, it is a hideous thing when something which God has made, some species of animal, is eliminated from the face of the earth. To bring to nothing what God has made is a terrible blasphemy. The church is involved in things like this and a great number of other concerns. Because we are working together, I think our impact is greater.

Hardin: There has been kind of a break between what we call main-line churches and the more evangelical or between the liberal churches and the conservative churches. Do you see that barrier falling? Do you see us coming together better, or do we have a lot of work to do?

Thielemann: I think we have a lot of work to do but I do think the situation is better. I think we have seen the resurgence of a kind of non-intellectual fundamentalism in the last few years in America. Interestingly, much of it centered around political questions. It had more to do with political connotations than theological ones. The events of the eighties, I think, have demonstrated this. A lot of this is now disappearing and I think this is going to be a mere aberration and that we are going to get back to working together. Even when there is theological difference, there can still be common ministry.

Hardin: You are saying that basically we are coming back to being Christians instead of being Presbyterians and Baptists, etc. You sense historically that some of that is happening.

Thielemann: Jesus said a long time ago, "By this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for the other." As we love each other and work with each other in the church, we demonstrate our discipleship to the world.