EVERYWHERE, EVERY MOMENT...GOD IS PRESENT!

Dear God - Seekers!

Did you know that I have been married to an over-the-road semi-trucker, a professional window washer, a country pastor, a university professor, an international CEO,  and an author of books and magazines? They were all very interesting, hard-working men. Most recently I’ve been married to a corporate consultant.

Oh, okay, you’ve probably figured out that all these husbands are really one person and that it’s Tom, to whom I’ve been married for 34 years this December. (We got engaged on the 4th of July. We celebrate that too!)
He really has done all these jobs and it’s fascinating to note that, except while in the pastorate and washing windows, he has usually traveled some in each position.    
                                                          
Challenging you might think. Yes, to have a traveling husband and dad has stretched us and yet the whole family would say that one of the things that made it workable was that Tom excelled in staying connected with us wherever he was. I will even go so far as to say he succeeded close to 100% of the time! Really!

Though we’ve razzed him plenty of times about his “toys”, he lovingly made it his business to always know of and use the latest device for keeping himself available to us. He’s had pagers, beepers, the latest telephones (even an early “brick”), a blackberry, and now the latest I Phone. I must confess that he and his “toys” were so affective that many, many times I did not and still do not actually know his exact whereabouts on the planet because I can just “ring him up!” (Thankfully Gena, his personal assistant, ALWAYS KNOWS!)

As you know this communiqué is about God NOT about my husband, BUT Tom’s endless efforts in being available to us as a family help bring into focus just a tiny bit our understanding of an OMNIPRESENT GOD. While Tom’s Iphone and Ipad keep him constantly reachable, the system can and does break down from time to time, God is ALWAYS, WITHOUT FAIL, TOTALLY AVAILABLE to me.  HIS SYSTEM NEVER BREAKS DOWN! And…while I don’t always know exactly where Tom is, God is completely different in that regard! I always know where HE IS – NEAR...HERE!

In Behold Your God, Myrna Alexander says, “Right this moment, you are surrounded by the presence of God…You cannot go where God is not. “(Ps. 139:7-12)

Richard Foster reminds us, “Christ is before us, Christ is behind us, Christ surrounds us and is through us.”

Our children, following the example of their dear dad, one by one, flapping their young wings, jumped out of the home nest. Early on they traveled on mission trips often very far away. Our son, starting at age 10 by traveling to Central America with Teen Missions, had traveled to all the continents except Antarctica before college graduation. University studies and finally marriage for our daughters also pulled them out of our sight and out of our physical reach.

Did it stretch us as parents, not being able to see and hold them? Yes, it certainly did, especially when teary telephone calls or e-mails told us of their challenges. With our oldest turning 30 this year, and now the joys of four grandchildren, nearby and faraway, it still stretches us, but a common prayer of truths I personally present to my Father, their Father too is, “You are there, God. You are there! YOU see them. I will trust YOU!”
 

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EVERYWHERE, EVERY MOMENT GOD IS
OMNIPRESENT!

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Webster’s Dictionary
OMNIPRESENT - Being present everywhere at once, universally present
First used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321

AskOxford. com
OMNIPRESENT - widely or constantly encountered

Oxford University Press Dictionary
OMNI - of all things; in all ways or places

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The Bible says:

Genesis 16:13 – Thou God seest me. (KJV)

Psalm 16:11 – In your presence is fullness of joy.

Psalm 32:8 – I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Psalm 73:28a – But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.

Psalm 139:7, 11, 12 – Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?  Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? Surely the darkness shall cover me. But the night shineth as day to God. (KJV)

Proverbs 15:3  - The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

1 Kings 8:27 – Heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You.

Jeremiah 23: 23, 24 – Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Says the Lord.

Acts 17:26b – 28 - He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.

Matthew 28:20 – Lo, I am with you always.

Revelation 21:3 -  Behold the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them.

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Words of the Wise:

BIDDEN OR NOT BIDDEN GOD IS PRESENT (origin unknown)

A. W. Tozer – The word present, of course, means here, close to, next to, and the prefix omni gives it universiality. God is everywhere here, close to everything, next to everyone. Few other truths are taught in the Scriptures with as great clarity as the doctrine of divine omnipresence…They declare that God is immanent in creation, that there is no place in heaven or earth or hell where men may hide from His presence.

Ryrie – Omnipresence says God is everywhere present (though separate from the world and things in it), while pantheism says that God is IN everything. Omnipresence says that God is present in the room…while pantheism affirms that God is in the chair and in the window, etc.
 

Now your presence fills this place
Be exalted in our praise
As we worship, I believe
You are near…
Blessings and honor and glory and power forever!
Hillsong

Wayne Grudem – People ask, “In fact, isn’t hell the opposite of God’s presence, or the absence of God?” This difficulty can be resolved by realizing that God is present in different ways in different places, or that God acts differently in different places in his creation. Sometimes he is present to punish. (Amos 9:1-4)

Bob and Cheryl Moeller -  “Truth that can Heal” - God has always been with you from the moment you were conceived. He is your ever present companion, friend, protector, guide and Shepherd. His Presence has kept you from pain, harm and sorrows you don't even know of. Even your deep darkness is light to Him.


Richard L. Strauss  - God is everywhere: He is with us in temptation...w/ us in need...w/ us in loneliness...w/ us thru difficult service... w/ us in danger... w/ us in death...Begin to cultivate a consciousness of God’s presence. Greet Him at the beginning of each new day. Remember often through the day that He is right there with you. At bedtime rehearse the events of the day and think about how you could have allowed Him to be more a part of them, and what difference it would have made if you had. Say “goodnight” to Him before you drop off to sleep, remembering that He will be with you all night long.

Betsy ten Boom – There is no hole so deep and dark that God is not there! (a paraphrase of her words remembered from The Hiding Place…)

Don Fortner  - Perhaps the most serious, sobering thing my mind has ever contemplated is the fact that I am always in the presence of God. God cannot be shut out anywhere. Even in the most secret recesses of my mind and the deepest, most secluded imaginations of my heart, God is there.  Everything I think, say, and do is done in the immediate presence of God. This fact should cause me to be filled with reverence and godly fear and with great joy too. God is present everywhere to save, preserve, and comfort his elect.

Civilla D. Martin and Charles H. Gabriel (1905) – When Jesus is my portion, a constant friend is He, His eye is on the sparrow, And I know he cares for me!

Charles Spurgeon - A present God! I cannot suggest a theme to make you more courageous. You will find it exceedingly helpful and comforting to discover God in the unimportant things. If we had a God for only great things and not also for little things, we would be miserable. Blessed be our heavenly Father. He that wings an angel, guides a sparrow. He that rolls a world along, molds a tear and marks its track when it trickles from your eye…The Puritans believed in an ever-present God. Oh to be able to feel God everywhere, in the little as well as the great, in our rising up and our sitting down, in our going out and our coming in. I cannot imagine a life more blessed or a spirit more related to the spirit of the glorified than the mind and heart of the person who lives in God, who knows and feels that God is ever-present. If you are in personal danger, or in the midst of a storm, or facing illness, and if you hear a voice saying,“Surely the Lord is in this place” (Ge28:16) you will be perfectly at rest."

Myrna Alexander – God fills space with his whole being…God is not contained in space (like our spirit is by our body while we live on earth, like an embryo is in the womb). It is just the opposite; it is “space” that is INSIDE GOD!

Wayne Grudem – Most of the time when the Bible talks about God’s presence, it is referring to God’s presence to bless.

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Other God-Seekers say:

1. I especially loved this one (knowable God!) because it is easy to forget that God is everywhere, that He wants to be with us.

2. These last few months as my mom has been settling in to her new apartment at the retirement center, I reflected on my prayer as we began this process. I had asked HIM to tenderly carry Mother through this process and allow her to feel HIS arms around her and that our actions would honor Mom and bring glory to HIM.  How sweet HE is.  He not only tenderly carried Mom through this transition but HE had plenty of room to carry me as well…I feel and know the loving arms of a heavenly Father that has fanned a flame in me to know HIM more.

3. I’m wading through uncertain waters, but God is with me every step.  I see his handprints daily!

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This week as I add God’s omnipresence to the list I am personally awed as I stop to look around me and grasp the beauty, the wonder, the strength of HIS PRESENCE. HE IS HERE. HE WILL NOT LEAVE ME!  “In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere!”

I am also reminded of the many times in the past when His presence has been evident. He was PRESENT when “traveler Tom” sailed off the bridge in his malfunctioning semi-truck. God HIMSELF protected Tom’s body from the destructive impact on the road far below! He was PRESENT one cold December day as my dad struggled to breathe in his final weeks. HE tenderly rubbed my dad’s heaving back. I got to be HIS hands! What about your memories?

WITHOUT A DOUBT MY BIGGEST TAKEAWAY this week was HIS REMINDER that I incorrectly think of HIS qualities as ON and OFF like a light switch. Thinking upon His endless presence reminded me that His nearness is not only non-stop but so are all His other glorious, awesome traits. Regardless of what I am thinking, feeling or seeing HE IS GOD IN ALL HIS “GODNESS” AND NEVER STOPS FOR A SECOND!

As I finish this week’s communiqué I’m on an airplane. Most of you know that now I have been able to travel often with Tom during this empty-nest season and have my own “toys” to help me be available to those I love. On most of my flying days I think of a paper airplane once given to me by a friend to bring on a trip. She made it for me because I expressed nervousness. The beauty of that notebook paper airplane was not in the simple, sleek fold lines, but in the verse written on it, “Underneath are the everlasting arms!” BIDDEN OR UNBIDDEN GOD IS PRESENT!

EVER PRESENT FATHER GOD,
I thank you that you hold ME close, that you never let ME go.
Thank you that your PRESENCE fills every space. There is no place too dark that you’re not there!
There is no joy that you miss out physically sharing with ME!
Help me to be more courageous, less fearful, more satisfied, less agitated, more trusting, less worried, more at rest in YOU.
YOU AMAZE ME!
In your NAME I pray, Amen.

HIS EVERYWHERE, EVERY MOMENT,
Sue

PONDERINGS ALONE OR WITH OTHERS
1.   What does disobedience do to my enjoyment of your presence?
2.   What does your omnipresence mean when I feel alone? Or when I think of others who appear lonely? (I picture so many sad faces in the news…)
3.   How can embracing your omnipresence affect worry in my life?
4.   What does your omnipresence mean to people who have never heard your great name spoken?
5.   In my thinking do I confine you to the human, physical realm only?
6.   Do I live like your presence is OFF and ON?