Where is God?

Friday, September 23, 2022

Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the Lord.  “No, I am far away at the same time.  Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?  Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord.  Jeremiah 23:23-24

There are at least two different ways to interpret the question:  Where is God?  You can be asking about location, in the sense that you want to find God’s presence, either out of curiosity, or, more profoundly, out of need to know you’re not alone in this universe.  The second, and more publicly common way to ask, is the defiance motive…you’re asking about God’s location, or more accurately, his absence during an event that could have been prevented from becoming a tragedy.  It’s asking:  Where was God when my child died?  The first kind of interpretation is a seeker of God; the second is a judge of God.  Truth be told, it could always be both.

Some would deny ever being angry with God.  I’m not one of them…now!  I could never quite bring myself to admit it, but there have been those times.  One of those was when my grandmother died.  I loved Grandma Carrie.  She had a kind face, and was not above slipping a cookie in your hand, even just before dinnertime.  She was a patient sort; married to an alcoholic, she had to have the patience of Job.  When cancer took her from us, I cried for weeks.  As a pre-teen, anger was my emotional response to the grief that told me I would never see her again.  A lot older now, and, hopefully, a little wiser, I realize Russell, the child, was asking the defiant kind of question born of pain:  God…where were you when cancer took my Grandma? 

As a child I had to lay the blame for what was wrong in my life on someone.  Just as Adam passed along his guilt onto Eve, making God the culprit of Adam’s sin and failure for giving him that dangerous play toy, God was also to be my whipping boy.  He should have been there…and He wasn’t. 

Now, as an adult, with the blessing of a rearview mirror, the guidance of God’s Spirit through God’s Word, plus a whole lifetime of experience, the question I have no longer focuses on the whereabouts of God.  Life and God’s gentle guidance have taught me of His omnipresence in every moment and place I’ve ever walked.  Now the question is more appropriate:  Where is Russell?  Where is Russell’s mind and heart, in relationship to the God who is everywhere, sees everything, and understands every DNA molecule He used to fashion my body, and stamped on my invisible soul?  Mr. Wesley’s question:  How is it with your soul…is the question I now ask in the mirror every day.

For You Today

If you’ve been through some tough living, and you’re tempted to ask the judging question, it would be better to stand facing the mirror.  But if the pain is too great, go ahead and ask God where He’s been…He’s got big shoulders.  My experience is that He will gently remind you that He’s where He’s always been, right next to you, waiting for you to turn….so He can wrap His arms around you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

In That Day and The Doily

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

1 John 3:1-5 Heaven Series #7. Will We Know Each Other in Heaven?

[i]

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!  But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.  Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.  But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.  And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.  1 John 3:1-3^(NLT)

George MacDonald was a great Scottish preacher of another generation.   He was asked one time if we will recognize one another in Heaven; he responded:

Shall we be greater fools in Paradise than we are here?[ii]

Randy Alcorn in Heaven poses this question as a problem many people have with being able to recognize their loved ones at the reunion.  He says:  What lies behind that question is Christoplatonism and the false assumption that in Heaven we’ll be disembodied spirits who lose our identities and memories.  How does someone recognize a spirit? [iii]

Plato was the philosopher who considered the body as more of a liability than an asset.  Plato’s idea that we are much better off without these mortal bodies has affected (and infected) many believer’s view of what it will be like to live with God in the new heaven and earth.[iv]

There is no “memory wipe” even suggested in Scripture, where we would forget what our loved ones look like, or that they would forget.  This is based on human limitation to understand what heaven would be like, not sound theology. 

What about evidence to the contrary such as Mary at the tomb, and the two disciples on the Emmaus Road not recognizing Jesus?  These are troubling, but certainly explainable.  Mary lived in a culture where women did not make eye contact with men; she imagined it was the gardener.  But the instant Jesus called her by name she recognized him.  Likewise, the Emmaus Road disciples didn’t know Jesus at first, but there was a supernatural intervention that kept them from recognizing him ^{(Luke 24:16)}. 

So, contrary to the troublesome ideas that we won’t know each other in Heaven, let’s look at the Biblical evidence, starting from John’s epistle that we will not only know each other; we are going to know each other more deeply and completely than was ever possible here on earth!

1.     John says: We will be LIKE Him

After last week’s service one of our church members, Marie Cavaletto shared with me how someone had once told her there will be no babies in heaven, that we would spend eternity like Jesus, at age 33.  I’m not sure I like that…I did some pretty dumb things at age 33! 

Perhaps the person meant that since the Lord’s ministry culminated at that age, we will be like that…fully matured, fruitful and not elderly-weak, or childishly young.  I like to think that age won’t be a factor at all.  Eternity will change a lot of our earthly concepts, freeing us to understand that what we look like will not matter, because what we are matters more than anything.

That means, being like him will involve:

Gathering

Jesus appeared to more than 500 witnesses after the resurrection^{(1 Corinthians 15).}  According to John’s Gospel^{(John 21)} Jesus cooked breakfast for his disciples, and ate with them after the resurrection.  That means, with all due respect to Plato, the body Jesus had was real, and therefore vital.

If we’re going to be like Him, we will also have bodies, and not have to try to recognize which ghost used to be our mother-in-law!

Remembering

When Jesus appeared to his followers the first time in the upper room, Thomas was AWOL.  The next time Jesus offered his hands and side to the doubting disciple and told him to check out the scars^{(John 20).}  The fact that we are going to be like Jesus means we will retain recognizable characteristics of our earthly bodies.

2.     John Says:  We will SEE Him Like He Is

One huge mistake the people of Jesus’ day made was failing to recognize God among them. 

Mary at the tomb, and the Emmaus travelers didn’t realize they were face to face with Almighty God.  But in that day our eyes will be opened

The Book of Revelation says much about the unveiling of Christ; in fact, the word “revelation” itself means to draw back the curtain. 

Everything about our misconceptions of who Jesus is, and what He is really like will clear away like a fog lifting in the morning.  We shall see Jesus without limitation!

He is Omnipresent

Omnipresence requires that a person is everywhere at once.  In the account of the transfiguration^{(Luke 9)} Jesus took James, John, and Peter up to a place they couldn’t describe.  There they met (and recognized) Moses and Elijah. 

Scripture says Jesus’ whole appearance was otherworldly…transfigured and different than anything they’d ever seen.  And the disciples recognized the two prophets who had died hundreds of years before.  They’d never so much as seen a Facebook picture, yet they knew them. 

Some scholars, professors and pastors I’ve known have held that we will move at the speed of thought from one physical location to another.  I personally believe that’s too tame; if we’re going to be like Jesus, I don’t think omnipresence is too much of a stretch. 

He is Omniscient

Omniscience defined means knowing all there is to know.  This certainly includes knowing and recognizing our loved ones. 

But I believe there is much, much more to it than that.  I believe it means we will know as God knows…omnisciently understanding in every way all the strengths, weaknesses, joys, and sorrows our loved ones had and remember.

In heaven, because of knowing all there is to know there will never be any kind of communication breakdown. 

We will even understand ourselves perfectly!

He is Omnipotent

Because God is omnipotent, all-powerful (which is certainly going to be displayed at Armageddon), there will be the destruction of sin, death, tears, sorrow….all things will be made new.

What’s so utterly inconceivable is the incredible contrast between the Jesus of Bethlehem and the Lord of Heaven’s armies, who, with the breath of his mouth, the Sword of judgment slays every enemy with a single word.

We shall see that; and we shall share in that.

3.     John says: Knowing this changes us

In our text John writes that everyone who has this expectation…keeps himself pure. 

With everything we will see and all the people we will recognize and enjoy, as we gather and remember, in the joy of our omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent Lord, who will transform us to be just like him…it is no wonder Jesus took great pains to tell us to prepare.

And so, I ask you a much more pressing question than whether you will know, recognize and remember anybody; that question is:  will you be there to be known, recognized and remembered?

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

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Notes                               

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[i] Title image: Russell Brownworth, Thunder Struck Ridge, Blue Ridge Parkway, 2006

[ii] Randy Alcorn quoting MacDonald in Heaven, (Carol Stream, Il, Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), p.345

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Alcorn, paraphrased from Appendix A, p.475

The Doily

[1]

Thursday, March 10, 2016

VIDEO

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! 

I can never escape from your Spirit!  I can never get away from your presence!  If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.  If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.  To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.  Psalm 139:1-12^(NLT)

You know how “family stories” are; something happens that’s weird or funny and for the next forty years all you have to do is mention the first word of the story at a family gathering and everyone is suddenly grinning. 

My bride has provided us with more than a few of these moments.  One such time that she often tells on herself (and which I would be most foolish to reproduce here were it not for her permission) is about the doily.

Elizabeth is a “clean freak”.  She was called The White Tornado by our children for years.  Even though the house is always in order and could pass a military inspection, when company is scheduled to come, it’s all-hands-on-deck until it all shines!

Once, when guests were almost due, our daughter, Jennifer, was finishing off the dusting.  As she picked up the lace doily from the piano, she noticed a tear in the pattern and yelled to Elizabeth in the next room:  The doily on the piano has a hole in it.  Without skipping a beat, the Tornado yelled back:  Just turn it over!

I don’t know why the thought of hiding one side of a hole by turning it over to expose the other side of the hole, can turn our family conversation to the absurdly funny…but that is one that never fails!  Turn the doily over!

The Psalmist had that kind of revelation about hiding from God.  God knows everything about us.  Like a doily, it does not matter which way we try to hide or bury our innermost thoughts and the most secret of our deeds – the holes in our character cannot be hidden by turning a different side to the light.

And He is always there.  If we run to the uttermost remote parts of the universe, God is there first; morning, evening or the dead of night, our God is ever present.  We can try to hide in our memories, or busy ourselves with the present, or promise better behavior in the future – but our lives are transparent to an all-knowing God; every stitch of our existence is illumined to the Lord…on every side.  You can turn over that doily of your life’s doings all you want to make it seem different or better than it really is…but, as the old saying has it…you can run, but you can’t hide; not from Him!

And that brings us to the main point – confession!  The word “confess” in Scripture means to say the same.  It means to look at what our thoughts, words and deeds have been and tell it like it is – to name it as God calls it.

In our culture confession has become obsolete – replaced by excuse, or worse – explanation which lays the blame at someone else’s feet. 

But that simply turns the doily over; it never mends the holes!

For You Today

Remembering that the Father already knows all about you, don’t turn the doily over.  Why not start the day with saying the same – confessing your sin, and being forgiven?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  By Blanka Luppová, via Wikimedia Commons

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”  The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.  So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.  And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline:  Let them sit alone in silence beneath the Lord’s demands.  Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last.  Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies.  For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.  Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.  For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.   Lamantations 3:22-33 ^(NLT)

For the second half of last week I woke up to the sights and sounds of Lake Junaluska, sometimes known as Methodist Holy Land!  The serene backdrop of mountains, lake and God’s wonderful creation is a blessing.  It always leads me to reflect on the goodness of God in sharing this beauty with his created beings.  I am always strongly moved to worship.

There is something about worship that demands we should have our entire beings focused on God, thankful to God, and submitted fully to whatever God wants to do with us in this moment and for a lifetime.

I believe Great Is Thy Faithfulness[1] is one of those worship songs that truly helps us move in that direction.  The words and heart-reaching music reflect the thankful heart of one who is ready to surrender to the God of Heaven, and serve Him forever.

As we sing this hymn today, place your worries and thoughts of all you have to do this week on hold; give yourself fully to the worship of our covenant God who died for us that we might be the redeemed people of His flock.

This, after all, is the God whose mercies are new every morning, and has provided everything you’ve needed since before you were born. 

And isn’t that part of the “Great” in Great is thy Faithfulness?

Stanza 1. The Eternal and Unchanging God

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Shadow of turning is a phrase that speaks of the passing of time.  Our God is eternal; He is above time.  As Creator, God would have to be greater than what is created.  The one who created time, space, and every molecule in the universe has no time passing Him or before Him – there is no shadow of turning.

Our God holds eternity in His hand…unchangingly.

“For I, the Lord, do not change.  Malachi 3:6a^(NLT)

God is the only one whose character and actions are entirely and eternally consistent.  It is not so with us – or the things we “create”.  We change, come unglued, and eventually come apart altogether.  So does our stuff.

Our air-conditioner coughed, sputtered and gave up the ghost a week ago.  That’s not a good thing when the temperatures are nudging towards 100°!  It’s also not very fair; the warrantee was supposed to be for 15 years. 

But the one thing that I can say was right on schedule with that machine is that it was entirely predictable; a machine will break down and disappoint you at the moment you need it most!  It’s that way with cars, boats, and certainly air conditioners.

But it is never that way with God.  His character, love, and promises are faithful to us…eternally and unchangeably! 

Stanza 2. The Sovereign and Omnipotent God

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

To be “sovereign” means nobody else is in charge; “omnipotence” means one possesses all power.  Frankly, not everyone is pleased that only God is sovereign and has the power to back it up.

A Sunday school teacher was examining her pupils after a series of lessons on God’s omnipotence.  She asked, “Is there anything God cannot do?”  There was silence.  Finally, one little guy held up his hand.  The teacher, disappointed that the lesson’s point had been missed, asked resignedly, “Well, just what is it that God cannot do?”  “Well,” replied the boy, “He can’t please everybody.”[2]

The reality is that not everybody needs to be pleased.  Every aspect of nature is witness to the sovereignty and ultimate power of God.  Consider the examples

     ·        The Creation testifies of God’s control and power.  Psalm 90 declares that before the mountains were created, God is sovereign.

     ·        The Exodus: Egypt’s ruler, Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth, keeping God’s children in captivity; God declared through Moses, let my people go.  Pharaoh objected, but in so doing brought judgment down on his own head.  The people left anyway!

     ·        The Cross displayed the ultimate power of God’s sovereignty as Christ claimed in resurrection victory over death for all who believe!

The Apostle Paul’s doxology as he signed off his letter to the Ephesian church brings together glory and power, the sovereign God’s character and omnipotent power:

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!  Amen.   Ephesians 3:20-21^(NLT)

Stanza 3. The Gracious and Present God

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Can you imagine a life with the very presence of God cheering and guiding you, providing strength as the day demands, and hope for your tomorrow that is bright?  That should give anyone a disposition to grin from east to west! 

But that’s not a reality for everyone!  Some people (even quite a few Christians) go through life with a sour look that announces they were raised on lemon juice and never got over it.

There was a Peanuts cartoon with Lucy saying to Charlie Brown, I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!

Charlie says, But I thought you had inner peace.

Lucy replies, I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness[3]

A peace that endures…lasting peace, strong peace, an indestructible peace that passes all understanding…how rare is that?

It may seem rare, but it is readily available in Christ.  Genuine inner peace comes from being forgiven of our sin, and having the assurance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The cross provides a pardon for sin; that’s grace.

God’s presence is His promise to us because, when we’re forgiven, we are also received into the daily relationship that is the reality of the Kingdom of God on earth. 

He walks with us, and talks with us, and tells us we are His own!

What this all means

When you consider what Thomas Chisholm, a Methodist Minister was thinking in 1923 when he wrote the words to this song describing an eternal, unchanging, sovereign, omnipotent, gracious and ever-present God, you can only come to the understanding that Rev. Chisholm had a picture in his mind of God’s Kingdom here on earth – and an unconquerable God who reigns in love and desires fellowship with every one of His creatures.

He sees God as the critical missing piece in our hearts and souls; that which fills-up our longing and emptiness, and makes us whole and complete.

He sees the great faithfulness of God as the assurance Mr. Wesley met on May 24^th at Aldersgate, when God broke into a questioning, seeking heart that needed God-arms wrapped around him for comfort and strength.

This is that great faithfulness – God promises us…Himself!

And when we have HIM….we need nothing else.

Dr. Tom Dooley was a young missionary who organized hospitals, raised money, and literally poured out his life in the service of the afflicted peoples of Southeast Asia in the mid part of the last century.  

Here was a man whose deep relationship with God motivated him to abandon a soft career in the United States for a desperately difficult ministry overseas.  In the end that relationship [with God] enabled him to die victoriously at the age of thirty-four.

Here is the letter which on December 1, 1960, he wrote to the president of Notre Dame, his alma mater:

Dear Father Hesburgh:

They’ve got me down.  Flat on the back, with plaster, sand bags, and hot water bottles.  I’ve contrived a way of pumping the bed up a bit so that, with a long reach, I can get to my typewriter.…

Two things prompt this note to you.  The first is that whenever my cancer acts up a bit, and it is certainly “acting up” now, I turn inward.  Less do I think of my hospitals around the world, or of 94 doctors, fund-raisers, and the like.  More do I think of one Divine Doctor and my personal fund of grace.

It has become pretty definite that the cancer has spread to the lumbar vertebra, accounting for all the back problems over the last two months.  I have monstrous phantoms; all men do. And inside and outside the wind blows.

But when the time comes, like now, then the storm around me does not matter.  

The winds within me do not matter.  

Nothing human or earthly can touch me.  

A peace gathers in my heart.  

What seems unpossessable, I can possess.

What seems unfathomable, I can fathom.

What is unutterable, I can utter.

Because I can pray. I can communicate.

How do people endure anything on earth if they cannot have God?[4]

This is the gracious and present God, Sovereign, omnipotent, eternal and unchanging in His love and promises.

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
  Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
    “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

Great is His faithfulness.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

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[1] Thomas O. Chisholm, ©1923, renewed 1951 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.  United Methodist Hymnal #140

[2] Omnipotence Questioned, A Treasury of Bible Illustrations © 1995 AMG INTERNATIONAL, INC. (adapted)

[3] Barbara Brokhoff, New and Improved Jesus? C.S.S. 1991, p. 53).

[4] COURAGE IN THE STORM, Illustrations Unlimited © 1988 James S. Hewett. All Rights Reserved. (adapted)