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I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Where Is God?

 What I wonder about is the “special” presence or blessing of God and Jesus at the time such as “when two or three are gathered in [His] Name” (cf Matt. 18:20) in prayer, or when He manifests Himself. We are not to believe it when people claim: “Christ is here.” But we have no excuse for not having the presence of God within us.

New Age spiritualists, who even take over some churches, seek the “God within.” Does any “church” or people have a monopoly on the presence of God then? Don’t believe it if people claim this: “Christ is here or Christ is there.” However, since the ascension and the coming of Pentecost, we are better off with the Holy Spirit’s residence than they were with Jesus’ presence.—another mystery.

Do we need to seek the presence or “face” of God or is it automatic because we can be filled with the Spirit, and we just don’t’ recognize it like Abraham in Gen. 28:16, “Surely the LORD is in this place: and I knew it not.” So, God is everywhere and we just don't know it or comprehend it—it’s our fault for not knowing it. We cannot limit God at all or put Him into a bo and restrain His presence. God is big!

To Christians, God has made His home within our hearts and dwells within (cf 1 Cor. 3:16). Thus, it’s not a matter of God being here or how much He is, but how surrendered we are and how much of us the Spirit has—not how much of the Spirit we have. We don’t need more of God, but to give Him more of us.

Some even go so far as to say that the Lord is present in a special way at the Lord’s Supper. But God is truly “far” from the wicked, a form of judgment. And if God is in hell, and being omnipresent implies that, is this also means that He is not there is His goodness and mercy, but only in His judgment.—God is able to manifest aspects of Himself or of His divinity at will. “Showing His goodness or His glory.” God made this point clear to Israel because they intended to believe Gods were territorial and Yahweh was only Israel's deity and not around the world.

But some theologians say that God is ‘fully present” everywhere (immensity of God). Yet He judges by withdrawing presence-a paradox. He fills the heavens and the earth (cf. Jer. 23:23–24) and we just cannot see it, like the fact that he “inhabits eternity” and also the “praises of His people.” (cf. Isa. 57:15 Ps. 22:3)

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