The Place Of The Everlasting God

"God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in time of trouble" (Psalm 46:1, NIV).
"GOD IS our refuge and strength, a very help in times of trouble" (cf. Psalm 46:1, KJV).
"You are my hiding place..." (Psalm 32:7, NKJV).  
"You are my hiding place and my shield..." (Psalm 119:114, NKJV).
"Am I a God near at hand, says the LORD, 'And not a God afar off?  Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?' says the LORD; 'Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD."  (cf. Jer. 23:23-24).  
"The eternal God is your dwelling place [refuge], and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27, ESV). 
"He is there, and He is not silent."  --Francis A. Schaeffer

Abraham sure found out that God is never AWOL, or even MIA, but always the "God who is there," to borrow from one of Francis Schaeffer's books.   He is the God "who was, who is, and who is to be": the everlasting God--El Olam.   We can be assured that God is not some state of being (Is-ness), but a living Being (Is-ing) that is alive forevermore.  Jesus was dead and is alive and is the eternal Son of the Father---He didn't become the Son upon birth.  

God's nature is permanent--we can sure count on God--and God is always in character--never capricious, arbitrary, or whimsical like we are; He is predictable in the sense that He is the Great Promise Keeper and can be counted on to live up to His Word, which He exalts above all His name (cf. Psalm 138:2).  "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8, NIV); this should give us comfort that He will never change His mind concerning us and our status in Him, though our state of fellowship may vary--we're still family to Him. 

Abraham found out that God was still God no matter where He went and that He wasn't just some local deity that ruled Canaan.  We cannot escape His sovereignty or power!  God transcends time because He created it!   The time-space continuum is relative to us and doesn't relate to God at all, for He is neither defined, confined, controlled, limited, nor improved by time itself.   What is time but a corollary of space and matter, and if neither of these existed, neither would time!  In our conception, things only go in succession--forward as they progress.

Therefore, we conclude that everything in the time-space continuum had a beginning or origin, even the universe--God is not in that continuum and therefore had no beginning.  Scientists even speculate that time began at the big bang; Scripture references the inauguration of time in 2 Tim. 1:9 and in Titus 1:2.  So theologians knew this before scientists "discovered time."  Now, the concept to be understood, is that if God created or invented time, He cannot be subject to it nor controlled by it as its slave--God is totally free and self-existent, slave to nothing.  God is outside time as it were and is able to manipulate it to His will--one year is as a thousand!

We can be assured of God's providence and guidance because He controls the future and also is able to know it by virtue of His sovereignty over time.  Everything seems like NOW to God!  He dwells in eternity and we live as the slaves of time.   But what happened at the incarnation of Jesus, but that God the Son entered our dimension of time and lived in subordination to the Father, emptying Himself, known as the kenosis, of the independent usage of His divine nature. 

This fact of the eternity of God may have been novel.  Had it dawned on him that God is still God everywhere and isn't territorial or local?  It was also in vogue to think that the more gods, the better! But having knowledge of the one true God was enough for him to feel secure and safe from his enemies.  Abimelech told Abraham that God was "obviously" with him "in everything [he does]." The testimony of the eternal God is apparent even to the outsider as we witness to them.

It is the preaching of the Word that can brings conviction, not our brilliance or arguments (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5); 2:13)--Abraham kept his faith in God and it showed.  Thanks be to God that we can count on Him always being in character and never out of harmony and sync with His plan (we can be on the same page of His will)--for He's not subject to moods, maudlin sentimentality, nor any human vulnerability.      Soli Deo Gloria!

Wherefore Art Thou, My God?

"God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us" (Acts 17:27, NIV).
 "Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).
"Oh, that I knew where I might find him..." (Job 23:3, NIV).

"I am sought of them that asked not for me, I am found of them that sought me not..." (cf. Isaiah 65:1). 

Paul reminded the Athenians that God isn't far from any one of us (cf. Acts 17:27)!  The whole message of Christianity is that we can actually find God!  Job thought he lost God and despaired where he was: "O, that I knew where I might find Him."  God is not hiding, He just wants us to search earnestly and sincerely.  God is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to us for seeking Him. Pascal wondered this very point:  What we see is not the manifest presence nor total absence of God, but the presence of a hidden God.

God doesn't want to be so obvious that it takes no faith to see Him, but there is enough light if one chooses to see, and enough darkness to keep the stubborn and rebellious blinded.  There is always enough evidence for the willing, or never enough evidence for the unwilling. No one can claim ignorance due to lack of evidence, for the heavens declare the glory of God; no one has an excuse in God's view. 

The doctrine of the immensity of God and the omnipresence shows that God is wholly present everywhere!  He says, "...' I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite'"(Isa. 57:15, NIV).  When God seems distant or MIA it is not His fault, but ours:  He didn't move; we did!  Recall how God asked Adam as an analogy: "Where are you, Adam?"  This is where walking with Christ matters, to keep in touch with the Almighty on an intimate basis.

It is a fact that God tests us by removing some of the sense of His presence as He did to Hezekiah to see what was really on his heart (2 Chron. 32:31).  Our faith must be tested by fire!  (Cf. 1 Pet. 1:7). The measure of our faith is not our ecstasies or experiences, but our obedience!  Abraham by faith obeyed!  Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous dictum is pertinent:  "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."

Christianity, in essence, isn't just about believing in God, but God in us and about the God who is there!  As Francis Schaeffer wrote:  "He is there and He is not silent."  That's why we must maintain our dialog and communication link open to become intimate and near to God as our Father.  We are never alone if God is with us!  We have not lost all if God is in us!  We must examine ourselves to see if Jesus is indeed in us (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5)!

And so God is transcendent, ubiquitous, and immanent:  He is both above and beyond as well as near to every one of us.  It's not about a galactic address but a spiritual realm or domain we cannot see.  The reason is that He is not defined, bound, or confined by space, for He cannot be limited by the time-space continuum that He created.   In a sense, God is extra-dimensional!  However, we can enter His presence in the privilege of prayer!    Soli Deo Gloria!