Omnipresent God - Attributes of the Most High

 What does omnipresent mean? God is everywhere. His presence is near and permeating. He is passing through the pores or interstices of a substance; human race. 

Psalm 139:7-10 (NKJV) talks about the all-present God is with us. God's perfect knowledge of us. "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven You are there, If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me."

What does verse 9 mean? "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea..." The spread and speed of light spilling into the morning sky from East to West. Light itself cannot outrun God's presence and knowledge. "Even there Your hand will lead me." His hand is a hand of love and care. His "right hand will hold me" is the hand of skill and strength. 

God's transcendence and His immanence are always true at the same time. The two are in perfect balance of each other above our understanding. He can be near and yet, so far away. Paul reminds us that God is "not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:22-28). Therefore, God is also self-sufficient. He doesn't need us but we need Him. We need HIM to live and breath. It is in Him that we find all that we need. 

Colossians 1:15-20 (NKJV) "[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." Christ is supreme. 

From AD 318-381, the early church was embroiled in a controversy regarding the nature of Christ. A priest in Alexandria named Arius, made the claim that there was a time when the Son was not. He taught that God at some point created the Second Person of the Trinity, thereby denying that God the Son is one in essence with the Father and the Spirit. This view, known as Arianism, was condemned as heresy at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. Despite this, Arius kept teaching and fighting a political battle in the church.

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was a staunch defender of orthodoxy and fought Arius on this essential issue. Colossians 1:17 was a key passage in illustrating the corruption of the Arian position. God the Son was the one who created all things and the one for whom all things were created. Beyond that, He is "before all things." This passage, along with a host of others throughout the biblical text, illustrate that Jesus the Son is eternal, coequal with the Father and the Spirit. 

Arianism was finally put to rest in AD 381 at the First Council of Constantinople. Although we will never understand the mystery of the Trinity completely, we are able to understand it sufficiently thanks to the scriptures we have been given and the illumination of the Spirit. These truths are the necessary bedrock of our faith. 

As a physical body gets its signals from its head, the body of Christ on earth - the church - gets its signals from Jesus, its head (Ephesians 1:22). The church has a hope unlike any other in that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead - the first to be raised from death into a glorified form. This is why we say that we are born again when we are saved. We were brought from our grave, death of sin and risen again into our new born faith. The journey the begins.

1 Kings 8:27, Solomon is dedicating the temple to God and he prays with awe about if God will indeed dwell on the earth. He exclaims that the heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot even contain Him. How much less this temple he built can contain God. Paul goes on to tell us that God doesn't need a man-made temple to dwell (Acts 17:24), and His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way towards Him and find Him - though He is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:27). 

I challenge the Church to boast that they understand and know God - that He is the Lord, showing faithful love, justice and righteousness in our lives, because He delights in these things. He even declares this in Jeremiah 9:24. It isn't about the four walls, ladies and gentlemen, it's about the omnipresence of the Triune God!

Joyful Home Welcomes You! 

 Songs that He led me to while putting this post together: 

Open Spaces - By Housefires -> -> -> -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpdloYnlQJU

Need - By Ryan Ellis -> -> -> -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPVuBjfW-eo

Draw me Close - By Shane and Shane -> -> -> -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkj4ET3XNyE