"But no one asks, 'Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night'" (Job 35:10, HCSB).
"Yes, You are a God who hides Himself..." (Isa. 45:15, HCSB).
"'I was sought by those who did not ask.' I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said: Here I am, here I am..." (Isa. 65:1, HCSB).
"What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence of God nor his manifest presence, but rather the presence of a hidden God." --Blaise Pascal
Jesus' name is Immanuel or "God with us" as interpreted. Christian faith can be reduced to knowing Christ and making Him known, done by living for Christ and having a consistent testimony that isn't jeopardized. We know God well enough to recognize His presence and the moving of the Spirit. Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is about the God who is there! It's not just believing in God, but God in us! We must believe in God as He is and not as He isn't; i.e., in truth! There is another Jesus, another gospel, and another Spirit to beware of (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4). We don't just believe there is a God but believe God!
The point is that God resides in every believer via the presence of the Holy Spirit, and Christ in us is the hope of glory. We are His heart to spread love, His ears to listen to those in need and troubled, His hands to do His work, His voice to speak up for Him, and His mind to think His thoughts and explain or defend God to the unbeliever.
One prof wrote GODISNOWHERE on the blackboard and asked his students what they saw: most thought it meant that God is nowhere! It should be: God is now here! We see what we want to see or are conditioned to see, and if we have no faith in God we will not believe He is here! Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place! As Francis Schaeffer postulated: "He is there and He is not silent." Don't rule God out of the picture, for only He sees the big picture! God is ubiquitous or omnipresent and has no interstellar address! He literally fills the heavens! His immensity refers to the fact that all of His attributes are everywhere present, not limited or bound by space or time. Think of God as dwelling in another dimension in which we are unaware. But we know He exists because of the things He does just like we know the wind exists by its effects. This explains William Cowper penning his hymn: "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform."
We need not wonder of God's whereabouts, for He's always as close as the mention of His name--He is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to everyone who diligently seeks Him (seek and you will find!). When the skeptic asks, "Where is God?" Reply, "Where isn't God?" The believer sees God in all of creation from the sub-atomic to the interstellar with everything in its order and design according to the Designer.
God is both transcendent and immanent! He is"not far from each one of us" (cf. Acts 17:27), yet He dwells in the heavenly spheres (cf. Isa. 57:15). He is present through the ministry of the Spirit and works in each of us according to His will. Since God created the time-space continuum, He is not obliged to be limited to it nor defined by it but can suspend its power and act outside its forces. Christians are more fortunate than contemporary believers who didn't have the resident Holy Spirit and the complete canon of Scripture to be our plumbline.
In summation, we should all be like famed Bro. Lawrence, a French Carmelite monk, who practiced the presence of God even doing the mundane chores of dishwashing and wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, a good-read and classic study in the discipline of one's prayer life. NB: "... [A]nd the name of the city from that day on will be: Yahweh [the LORD} is There" (Ezek. 48:35, HCSB). I'll close quoting Francis Schaeffer again: "He is there and He is not silent." Soli Deo Gloria!
"Yes, You are a God who hides Himself..." (Isa. 45:15, HCSB).
"'I was sought by those who did not ask.' I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said: Here I am, here I am..." (Isa. 65:1, HCSB).
"What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence of God nor his manifest presence, but rather the presence of a hidden God." --Blaise Pascal
Jesus' name is Immanuel or "God with us" as interpreted. Christian faith can be reduced to knowing Christ and making Him known, done by living for Christ and having a consistent testimony that isn't jeopardized. We know God well enough to recognize His presence and the moving of the Spirit. Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is about the God who is there! It's not just believing in God, but God in us! We must believe in God as He is and not as He isn't; i.e., in truth! There is another Jesus, another gospel, and another Spirit to beware of (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4). We don't just believe there is a God but believe God!
The point is that God resides in every believer via the presence of the Holy Spirit, and Christ in us is the hope of glory. We are His heart to spread love, His ears to listen to those in need and troubled, His hands to do His work, His voice to speak up for Him, and His mind to think His thoughts and explain or defend God to the unbeliever.
One prof wrote GODISNOWHERE on the blackboard and asked his students what they saw: most thought it meant that God is nowhere! It should be: God is now here! We see what we want to see or are conditioned to see, and if we have no faith in God we will not believe He is here! Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place! As Francis Schaeffer postulated: "He is there and He is not silent." Don't rule God out of the picture, for only He sees the big picture! God is ubiquitous or omnipresent and has no interstellar address! He literally fills the heavens! His immensity refers to the fact that all of His attributes are everywhere present, not limited or bound by space or time. Think of God as dwelling in another dimension in which we are unaware. But we know He exists because of the things He does just like we know the wind exists by its effects. This explains William Cowper penning his hymn: "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform."
We need not wonder of God's whereabouts, for He's always as close as the mention of His name--He is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to everyone who diligently seeks Him (seek and you will find!). When the skeptic asks, "Where is God?" Reply, "Where isn't God?" The believer sees God in all of creation from the sub-atomic to the interstellar with everything in its order and design according to the Designer.
God is both transcendent and immanent! He is"not far from each one of us" (cf. Acts 17:27), yet He dwells in the heavenly spheres (cf. Isa. 57:15). He is present through the ministry of the Spirit and works in each of us according to His will. Since God created the time-space continuum, He is not obliged to be limited to it nor defined by it but can suspend its power and act outside its forces. Christians are more fortunate than contemporary believers who didn't have the resident Holy Spirit and the complete canon of Scripture to be our plumbline.
In summation, we should all be like famed Bro. Lawrence, a French Carmelite monk, who practiced the presence of God even doing the mundane chores of dishwashing and wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, a good-read and classic study in the discipline of one's prayer life. NB: "... [A]nd the name of the city from that day on will be: Yahweh [the LORD} is There" (Ezek. 48:35, HCSB). I'll close quoting Francis Schaeffer again: "He is there and He is not silent." Soli Deo Gloria!
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