Does God Have A Physical Location?

 God is metaphysical, not physical, with no dimensions for dimension simply a limit or definition. He is truly extra-dimensional in a sense. Dimensions have to do with the time-space continuum of which He created and is over and superior to and not subject to. He is above and beyond, truly transcendent to our physical cosmos, yet immanent or near us. “Do not I fill the heaven and the earth?”(cf. Jer. 23:24) and omnipresent or present everywhere fully at once known as His immensity. “Am I only a God nearby,” … “and no ta god far away?” (cf. Jer. 23:23).

He has no stellar or galactic address that we can go visit Him. No one can see Him even in heaven for spirit can not be seen. He dwells in the third heaven with the saints and angels. God is not far from every one of us and in Him, we live and move and have our being (cf. Acts 17:27–28). Then we see that God has no specific whereabouts or spiritual waiting and visiting room.

Most of all, God is spirit (cf. John 4:24) and cannot be put into a box or limited by us. The maxim that the finite cannot grasp the infinite holds true for HIm. “Canst thou by searching find out God?” (cf. Job 11:7). God can be found spiritually but not located., but He dwells within the souls of His children. it is said that Christianity is about the God who is there, as Francis Schaeffer said, “He is there and He is not silent.”

Job asked; “O that I knew where I might find Him.” (cf. Job 23:3). David asked: “Where should I go from Your Spirit? Where should I flee from Your presence?” (cf. Psalm 139:7). We can only find HIm if we search with all our heart (cf. Isaiah 55:6; Jer. 29:23). He dwells in the high and holy place and inhabits eternity (cf. Isaiah 57:15). “Behold, You are a God who hides Yourself…” (cf. Isaiah 45:15). When we find God, it’s a spiritual renewal awareness, an awakening of our spirit, not in knowing His physical address or heavenly GPS.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Wherefore Art Thou, My God?

"There is no one who understands; no one who seeks God" (Romans 3:11,

HCSB).
"'Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it'" (Gen. 28:16, HCSB).
"... [W]hile my enemies continually taunt me, saying, 'Where is this God of yours?'" (Psalm 42:3, NIV).
"Why let the nations say, 'Where is their God?'" (Psalm 115:2, NIV).

NB: WHEN ASKED, "WHERE IS GOD?" WE OUGHT TO REPLY, "WHERE ISN'T HE?"

Job wondered of the whereabouts of God and sought Him wholeheartedly, only to be finally rewarded by His visitation. Remember: God didn't move, we did! "If only I knew how to find Him so that I could go to His throne" (Job 23:3, HCSB). If Job can wonder, so can we; not that He's deserted or left us alone, but that we sense His presence and feel in His will and at peace with Him. The Lord promises to be found by all sincere searchers, but His pet peeve or main complaint against man is that he doesn't seek God (cf. Rom. 3:11).

"... But from there, you will search for the LORD your God, and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Deut. 4:29, HCSB). Jesus reiterated that if we seek, we shall find; God is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself. But Isaiah even recognized that God is making Himself known to triflers and the merely curious or disobedient, in that he said, "Yes, You are a God who hides Himself..." (Isa. 45:15, HCSB). Jeremiah also noticed that if we seek we will surely find God, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you..." (Jer. 29:13-14, HCSB).

Our God is the God who is there (Jehovah Shammah) and He is here even when we don't know it, for He's always as close as the mention of His name. Some people think they have found God, but He found them first: Pascal said, "I wouldn't have found God, had He not first found me." Jesus is the great Hound of Heaven in search of lost sheep and He will find them. This is verified in Scripture, Isaiah 65:1, HCSB, as follows: "'I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek Me...." There used to be a bumper sticker that proclaimed, "I found it!" but they obviously didn't realize what Amazing Grace says, "I was lost, but now am found." (Then they changed their rallying cry to "He found me!" He found them! God wasn't lost! And God is not called it!

Francis Schaeffer wrote a book about God's presence saying "He is there, and He is not silent." He said that Christianity is about the God who is there! Many who search for Jesus have just missed the boat on fellowship and have unconfessed sin or spiritual skeletons in their closets, and forget that He's as close as confessing all known sin, (call it as it is without cover-up) for God indwells each believer and sometimes we quench the Spirit's fire and even insult the Spirit of grace, which grieves Him. Let us always live up to the calling we have received in a worthy manner (cf. Eph. 4:1).

Now God has no galactic address or physical place of residence, for His everywhere-ness is apparent in His Providence and dealings with man. For God is spirit! If we approach Him in prayer and get entree to the throne room of grace and mercy, it's like entering another dimension and the presence of God. For it has been postulated that God is invisible because He's in another dimension! But we are not capable of seeing the invisible and the spirit world.

So where is God? "'Am I a God who is only near'--this is the LORD's declaration--' and not a God who is far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places and where I cannot see him?'--the LORD's declaration.. 'Do I not fill the heavens and all the earth?' --the LORD's declaration" (Jer. 23:23-24, HCSB). Thus we are not capable of comprehending His presence: "The finite cannot penetrate (grasp, or contain) the infinite" (old axiom).

In sum, after Adam had rebelled and fell in the Garden he hid out of shame and guilt and possibly wondered where God was or even wasn't, only to find out that God didn't hide, he did--and to discover you cannot hide from God!


PART II

"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!

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)

Where Can I Meet God?

 I believe you mean, “Where can I find God?” ”Truly You are a God who hide Yourself, O God of Israel …” (cf. Isaiah 45:15). Christians believe in the God who is there; He is there and He is not silent! Jehovah-Shammah means “the God who is there.” Jesus name means “God is with us,” meaning that He lives in us through the Holy Spirit when we believe in Him (cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; Col. 1:27). Jesus promised to always be with us (cf. Matt. 28:20). “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” (cf. James 4:8). He is not far from any one of us (cf. Acts 17:27). Caveat: No one comes to the Father except through Jesus the Son. (cf. John 14:6).

Even Job wondered at God’s presence,, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him…” (cf. Job 23:3). God promises that all those who seek with their whole heart or sincerely and not as triflers will find Him: “if you search for Me with all your heart…” (cf. Jer. 29:13; Isaiah 55:6; Deut. 4:29). Jesus even said that if we seek we shall find (cf. Matt. 7:7). God is the great Promise Keeper and is no man’s debtor, but will honor His Word. But He desires faith and not to force Himself on people. Faith pleases God (cf. Heb. 11:3). He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (cf. Heb. 11:6).

But God hides Himself (cf. Psalm 13:1; Isaiah 45:15). As for God’s whereabouts, His home and throne is in the heavens (cf. Psalm 115:3). “ But the LORD is in his holy temple…” (cf. Hab. 2:20). However, even the highest heavens cannot contain Him (cf. 1 Kings 8:27). He is not only a God at hand but afar off, for He fills the heavens (cf. Jer. 23:23–24). We cannot hide from Him (cf. Jer. 23:24; Psalm 139:7–8). His omnipresence or ubiquity means He is everywhere at one time fully (in all his deity or called His immensity).

Blaise Pascal was a Christian scholar, mathematician, theologian, scientist, philosopher who said, “What can be seen is not the manifest presence of God, nor His absence, but the presence of a hidden God.” Note that God is not playing a cosmic game of hide and seek but desires to be looked for. However, when we are saved we are found by Him: “I was lost but now am found.” “I was found by those who weren’t looking for Me,” (cf. Isaiah 61:1).

NB: Sincerity matters, but it isn’t everything; you can be sincerely wrong.

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?

"There is no one who understands; no one who seeks God" (Romans 3:11, HCSB).
"'Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it'" (Gen. 28:16, HCSB).
"... [W]hile my enemies continually taunt me, saying, 'Where is this God of yours?'" (Psalm 42:3, NIV).  
"Why let the nations say, 'Where is their God?'" (Psalm 115:2, NIV).  

NB:  WHEN ASKED, "WHERE IS GOD?"  WE OUGHT TO REPLY, "WHERE ISN'T HE?"  

Job wondered of the whereabouts of God and sought Him wholeheartedly, only to be finally rewarded by His visitation.  Remember: God didn't move, we did!   "If only I knew how to find Him so that I could go to His throne" (Job 23:3, HCSB).  If Job can wonder, so can we; not that He's deserted or left us alone, but that we sense His presence and feel in His will and at peace with Him. The Lord promises to be found by all sincere searchers, but His pet peeve or main complaint against man is that he doesn't seek God (cf. Rom. 3:11).

"... But from there, you will search for the LORD your God, and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul."  (Deut. 4:29, HCSB).  Jesus reiterated that if we seek, we shall find; God is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself.  But Isaiah even recognized that God is is making Himself known to triflers and the merely curious or disobedient, in that he said, "Yes, You are a God who hides Himself..." (Isa. 45:15, HCSB).  Jeremiah also noticed that if we seek we will surely find God, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you..." (Jer. 29:13-14, HCSB).

Our God is the God who is there (Jehovah Shammah) and He is here even when we don't know it, for He's always as close as the mention of His name.  Some people think they have found God, but He found them first: Pascal said, "I wouldn't have found God, had He not first found me."  Jesus is the great Hound of Heaven in search of lost sheep and He will find them.  This is verified in Scripture, Isaiah 65:1, HCSB, as follows:  "'I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek Me...."  There used to be a bumper sticker that proclaimed, "I found it!" but they obviously didn't realize what Amazing Grace says, "I was lost, but now am found."  (Then they changed their rallying cry to "He found me!"  He found them!  God wasn't lost!  And God is not called it!

Francis Schaeffer wrote a book about God's presence saying "He is there, and He is not silent."  He said that Christianity is about the God who is there! Many who search for Jesus have just missed the boat on fellowship and have unconfessed sin or spiritual skeletons in their closets, and forget that He's as close as confessing all known sin, (call it as it is without cover up) for God indwells each believer and sometimes we quench the Spirit's fire and even insult the Spirit of grace, which grieves Him.   Let us always live up to the calling we have received in a worthy manner (cf. Eph. 4:1).

Now God has no galactic address or physical place of residence, for His everywhere-ness is apparent in His Providence and dealings with man.  For God is spirit!  If we approach Him in prayer and get entree to the throne room of grace and mercy, it's like entering another dimension and the presence of God.  For it has been postulated that God is invisible because He's in another dimension!  But we are not capable of seeing the invisible and the spirit world.

So where is God?  "'Am I a God who is only near'--this is the LORD's declaration--'and not a God who is far away?  Can a man hide himself in secret places and where I cannot see him?'--the LORD's declaration..  'Do I not fill the heavens and all the earth?' --the LORD's declaration"  (Jer. 23:23-24, HCSB).  Thus we are not capable of comprehending His presence:  "The finite cannot penetrate (grasp, or contain) the infinite" (old axiom).

In sum, after Adam had rebelled and fell in the Garden he hid out of shame and guilt and possibly wondered where God was or even wasn't, only to find out that God didn't hide, he did--and to discover you cannot hide from God!     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! 

Prone To Wander

"Return, Israel, to the LORD your God, Your sins have been your downfall! ... 'I will heal their waywardness [backsliding] and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them" (Hosea 14:1,4, NIV). 
"Backsliders get what they deserve..." (Prov. 14:14, NLT).  
"Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).  
"But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night...[?]'" (Job 35:10, NIV).
"... God left him to test him and discover what was in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:31, ESV).  

Robert Robinson wrote the famous hymn  "Come Thou Fount" to show his struggle with the faith and how God got him through the hard times. Everyone is subject to backsliding, depression, and wandering from the faith because this is the natural inclination of our sin nature.  Robinson was indeed a man of struggles and hardship and suffered melancholy, known today as depression.  In fact, in his later years, he would've given anything to feel like he did at twenty-two writing that hymn.  It would seem it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The feelings come and go like a yo-yo and a weather-vane in a storm, but our faith must endure.  We must learn Reality 101 that we also must not depend upon feelings as a measure of our faith, but obedience.  Sooner or later, we must face the reality of the test of our faith.

We may wonder about the whereabouts of God as Job did ("If only I knew where to find him..." in Job 23:3, NIV) and if He is meeting His end of the deal and if we do really have faith after all.  The fact is, is that the same trials make some bitter, and some better.  We ought to rejoice in our sufferings (cf. Rom. 5:3) and that we are considered worthy to suffer for His name's sake.  There may be times when there seems no hope like Job experienced, or one may be at the end of one's rope and their hope has perished like Jeremiah's.  But we must learn to acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of the storm and if He got us to it, He'll get us through it!  We don't have to wonder where God is, but where our faith is!  God can calm all the storms of life and every stormy relationship or stressful event.  We hang in there like Job in Job 14:14, NIV:  "...All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come."

We must feel the pain to be able to relate and to and comfort others in their afflictions (cf. 2 Cor. 1:10)!  That's one reason Jesus felt our pains and was a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"--to identify with us.  Even believers may wonder periodically if God is really there, and if He is aware of our situation.  But no problem is too trivial or too big for our God to be able to take care of.  But note that God didn't explain Himself to Job and doesn't need to explain Himself to us--He's too profound!  We all have a cross to bear, a crucible that comes with the territory--no cross means no crown!  It is adversity that builds character and if we had no problems our faith could never be tested--and it's more precious than silver and gold.  So, when your storm comes, learn to seek God and His presence and the comfort of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Jesus isn't asking anything of us He didn't go through Himself (He didn't exempt Himself from predicaments, adversities, and exigencies) but He was honest enough to warn us to count the cost.  No one gets through life trouble free or without any stress or trials; we need it to grow by them though.  We must not question where God is, but ask ourselves:  Where isn't God?  And we must celebrate the fact that the battle is the Lord's, and we are fighting from victory, not for victory.  This is where we find out if we have the right stuff to be disciples and what we are made of.  We cannot skate through life problem-free!  Let's echo Alfred, Lord Tennyson's words:  "I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar."   In the meantime, we are to go over to the other side with Jesus at the helm and simply live a life following Him in obedience to prove our faith and love. 

Note that God is not playing cosmic hide-and-seek and He is not MIA or missing-in-action!  Next time, don't wonder about God, but where you are!  The late Francis Schaeffer said, "He is there and He is not silent."    St. Augustine of Hippo said, "You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you."  Pascal, in the same vein, talked of a "God-shaped blank" or vacuum only God can fill!   Soli Deo Gloria!

God Is Here

"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! 

GODISNOWHERE!

"I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me..." (Isaiah 65:1, NASB)
"Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you" (Hosea 10:12, NASB).  
"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, French mathematician/philosopher).


Reread that title and realize it can be deciphered two ways:  God is now here; God is nowhere. Probably you may preconceive your own interpretation due to prejudice! The query shouldn't be, "Where is God?" but, "Where isn't God?"  The truth is that God is everywhere, even in Hades (though not in His compassion, but only justice).  When we are looking for God, it is not He who moved, but we moved!  We cannot escape the presence of God, as David prays in Psalm 139.

We are commanded to look for God and to search Him out at His invitation:  "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13, NASB).  We are to seek Him while He may be found in Isaiah 55:6 and to find Him while He is near!  When you find God, you realize He was there all the time!  Mention His name and have a sincere, expectant, and obedient heart.

"Truly, You are a God who hides Himself,..." (Isaiah 45:15, NASB).  Job had reason to wonder: "Oh that I knew where I might find Him,..." (Job 23:2, NASB). Sometimes God seems MIA or missing in action, but He is there, and it's likely our sins have built a chasm from fellowship or a breach of our relationship due to the cleavage from our unconfessed sin.  Psalm 66:18, NASB says it eloquently: "If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear." Sometimes God is playing a low profile and doesn't want to be so obvious:  "How long, O LORD?  Will You hide Yourself forever? ..." (Psalm 89:46, NASB).

Yes, the whereabouts of God isn't meant to be a mystery, but He is available to all who call upon His name in penitent, sincere, obedient faith.  Sometimes it seems to others that God has forsaken us, but Jesus promised He never would do that even to the end of the age He would be with us--don't let it get to you if they taunt you saying, "Where is this God of yours?" Because we know He is always here, they are just blind and are turning a deaf ear; only the saved see the kingdom of God and if they want their eyes opened they must repent and believe in Jesus.

God doesn't deal in triflers, and His pet peeve is that people aren't seeking (cf. Rom. 3:11). God is more ready to authenticate Himself to you than you are prepared to meet Him!  "Prepare to meet thy God," He says in Amos 4:12.  Pascal said he wouldn't have found God, had He not searched for him. Everyone has their chance, you might say, and the world has never been without witness (cf. Acts 14:17).  As Christians, we have it better than the Old Testament saints because the Lord dwells within us and whenever two or three are gathered together in His name, there is a special blessing of His divine presence.

Finding God isn't so much as to go where God is, like to church expecting He'd have to be there; it's an individual thing, and if you know the Lord you will indeed find Him.  But the Hound of Heaven pursues us and like a Good Shepherd is constantly seeking out the lost sheep (the believer who has lost his way).  Because of God's transcendence, He fills the cosmos, and because of His immanence, He is also nearby to aid us in our troubles and bless us.  "'Am I a God who is near,' declares the LORD, 'And not a God far off? ... Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD"  (Jer. 23:23-24, NASB).  God is irrespective of the time/space continuum and location is no object to Him because He is Spirit and not material like us who have bodies to limit us--Jesus is both Spirit and body in His incarnation.  Some believers will be known by saying regretfully, "He was there all the time, and I knew it not!"

Jesus' name is called Immanuel and that is to mean that God is with us and when we have the resident Spirit of Christ indwelling us we never have to lose track of where God is--He will never leave us nor forsake us and will abide with us in a personal sense. We have all the tools necessary to find God, the Word, the Church, the abiding Spirit; so we have no excuse not to be filled with His Spirit and to know Him privately and personally.  Only in our faith do we claim the potential to know God and that God is personal.  "Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace..." (Job 22:21, KJV); "Yield now and be at peace with Him; Thereby good will come to you" (Job 22:21, NASB).

To level with you, most believers are not moved by the Holy Spirit, nor have the discernment to awaken to His presence, simply because they have too much of the world's spirit within them and God cannot fill a space already full!  Before filling, in God's economy, comes emptying!   In sum, it is a boggling affair to know the Lord and to put things into that perspective.  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Whereabouts Of God

"... While they say to me continually, 'Where is your God?'"  (Psalm 42:10, ESV).
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart"  (Jer. 29:13, KJV).  
"Seek the LORD while He may be found; 
Call upon Him while He is near"  (Isaiah 55:6, NASB).  
"... Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"  (Joel 2:17, NIV).
"... Why my enemies continually taunt me, saying, 'Where is this God of yours?'"  (Ps. 42:3, NLT). 

Have you ever felt abandoned by God like Job?  He wondered that, too:  "Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!" (Job 23:3, ESV).  Job was desperate and was confident it wasn't his fault or that he deserved it, but God was MIA to his reckoning.  Sometimes God withdraws from us to see what is in our heart!  Our faith is more precious than gold and must be tested, to see if we are going by feeling or faith; faith is what pleases God, not feelings or sentiment! We must learn to walk by faith and not by sight (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).

 Sin separates us from God (Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart the LORD will not hear me"), and God is not the one who moved, you did!   Even Job didn't realize that his sin was self-righteousness if you look at his boasting in Job 31.  In the end, he found repentance at the revelation of God's greatness and it humbled him.

The fact of the matter is that "he is actually not far from each one of us"  (cf. Acts 17:27, ESV).  God is never further than the mention of His name, but even some believers don't know Him by name--His name isn't "God!"  People often mock believers because it seems like their God has abandoned them, but the fact is that He will never leave us nor forsake us (cf. Heb. 13:8).   Jesus said in the Great Commission:  "...I am with you always...." Jesus name is, in fact, Emmanuel, and that is interpreted as meaning that "God is with us"!  That God is nearby is called the immanence of God as per Isaiah 57:15, which says, "This is the high and lofty One [re the transcendence of God] says--he who lives forever, whose name is holy:  'I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.'" In short, God is above and beyond, yet approachable! 

People often sarcastically inquire where God was in a disaster like 9/11, but people who were there will testify that Jesus was there all the time.  When they ask you where God is, simply ask them where He isn't!  Where was the church?  We don't need a mirror to see that we are walking miracles and, since everything is caused by God, miracles are only unusual events caused by Him, or they'd be called "regulars." There is a God-shaped blank or vacuum in our souls that only God can fill according to Blaise Pascal, and when God lives in our hearts we can communicate and fellowship with Him--that's why we are created in the image of God!  (We alone have the will to obey, the heart to love, and the mind to know God.) Animals never wonder about the whereabouts of God, nor ask, since they are oblivious to the spiritual world and knowledge.

Pascal said that in nature we don't see the manifest presence of God, nor the complete absence of God, but the presence of a hidden God. God wants us to find Him and doesn't show Himself to triflers, but those who seek with their whole heart (cf. Jer. 29:13; Isa. 55:6).  Isaiah announced, "Truly, you are a God who hides yourself..."  (Isa. 45:15, ESV).   It is not a matter of God hiding, but of whether we are looking for Him and seeking His face (as Jesus said in Matt. 7:7, "...[Seek] and you shall find...")! Take comfort in Jesus' promise that whenever two or three are gathered together in His name, there He is among them (cf. Matt. 18:20)!  Sometimes you may honestly wonder where God, is but then you might be finding out where the devil is!

If you think that they had it good in Jesus' day when He was with them, or that some people are more blessed by having had visions, we have it better than they did because we have the resident Holy Spirit and the complete canon of Holy Writ to guide us and for God to speak to us through.  You can find God's presence:  "I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me, I said, 'Here am I, here am I,'...." (Isaiah 65:1, NASB).  Christianity is not belief there is a God, but believing in the God who is there!  As Francis Schaeffer said, "He is there and He is not silent!"  In sum, ponder the song:  "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place...." (cf. Gen. 28:16).    Soli Deo Gloria!