Hebraic Musing – Do we always feel like God is Omnipresent?
Have you ever asked, “Where is God when I need
Him”; or ever heard that said? Then we
are reminded of a Sunday School teaching claiming that God is Omnipotent,
Omniscient and Omnipresent; but do we really feel like He is always present
with us? At all times?!? Or do we shy away from its full implications
because there are times we are not proud of what we are doing? We are not worshipping other gods, just doing
“our own thing”.
The Bible starts with
Adam’s sin and the almost humorous account of Adam trying to hide from
God. And David must have thought of
escaping from God’s presence when he wrote – “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from
your presence?” in Psalm
139:7 NIV And then he goes on and on
recounting God’s divine emmanence! And
God not only created us, but He’s constantly seeking us and keeping track of
us. “God did this so that men would
seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from
each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.'” ♫ Acts 17:27-28 NIV
Jacob awoke and
thought “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
Gen.28:16 NIV Many have that problem,
not recognizing that God is in this place!
What a difference it would make if we knew!
When we
approach God with our soul, or when God approaches our soul, this is not in
spatial terms at all. It is not a matter
of miles but of personal experience. In
normal human relationships, we may speak of being near or far from
someone. When we sing “Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,” we are not thinking of nearness of
distance but in nearness of relationship.
It is interesting
to study the Biblical Saints and key characters and realize they were ordinary
people. What was special was their
spiritual receptivity. Something in them
was open to heaven! They had an inward
longing to be close to God; and they did something about it! They were not disobedient to their Heavenly
Vision!
How does modern
evangelism handle the fast-paced generations of Christians with push-buttons
and less direct methods of reaching goals, moving from one book or study to
another. Result – shallow lives and
hollow religious philosophies; but having fun at the gospel meetings glorifying
men while focused on things other than God.
Have we been too blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too
self-satisfied to desire anything better?
Are we satisfied with the average church diet? Does it seem okay because it satisfies
others? Are we garnering from our
fellowshipping instead of from our Omni-Potent, Omniscient, Omni-Present God?
God’s Universal
Presence is a fact, God is here and the whole universe is alive with His
life. He’s the familiar Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who has already demonstrated His love for each of us! Can you count all the ways? ♫ Count
your many blessings, see what God has done. ♫
A truth – No one person is any further from or
any nearer to God than any other person.
Concluding prayer –
O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible
things.
The world has been too much with me.
Thou hast been there and I knew it not.
I have been blind to Thy Presence. Open
my eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me.
For Christ’s sake, Amen.
Points
to ponder
What might God do
for the plain man/woman who seeks His omnipresent face?
The OT & NT
Saints were not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision!
God is always trying
to get our attention, to reveal Himself and to communicate with us.
If we break out of the world’s mold in which we
find ourselves and
go to the Bible itself to get His WORD(s), what/who might we find there? GOD?!?!
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can
I flee from your presence?” Psalm 139:7 NIV
Yosef a.k.a. Joe Brusherd
January
7, 2025
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our
faith”
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)” Weekly “Hebraic
Musings”
Note – Inspired & excerpted from Ch. 5 “The
Universal Presence” in A.W.Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God”
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