I have the privilege to work with some fantastic preschool teachers and aides. They love kids and do a good job teaching them, much better than I would do. There is very little for me to do except stay out of the way of their well-run school program. However, sometimes things happen to mess up our carefully made plans and you just have to go with it. Last month our school had a visit from the fire marshal. Apparently the building that was put up in the late 50's was never inspected for educational purposes. Now, we are working to resolve all matters with the State Fire Marshal, but it's been hysterical in the mean time...mostly because I don't have to do it. The main problem we are facing is that there is no fire alarm system in the building. We have smoke detectors, but not a building wide fire alarm system that an educational building in Louisiana is required to have. To compensate for this while we install one, someone has to do a visual check of each room in the building (I stopped counting at 18) and then call it in to the office that there is no fire...every thirty minutes. I know it's mean, but I actually snickered out loud when the fire marshall was sitting in my office telling me this. For the most part I'm a "by the book" person, so I typed up a form and organized our aides into a temporary fire watch team (I almost got little fake badges). It took about two weeks for the aides to get it straight, because they still had classroom duties to attend to. They eventually had to work out a rotating schedule because they could only be in one place at a time. The aides were limited by space and time. God, however, is not.
Last week we looked at God's omnipotence and how His power gives us hope. God's omnipresence gives feet to God's omnipotence. A simple definition of omnipresence is the ability to be everywhere at the same time. Now to you and I this is at best mind boggling, and at worst an impossibility. But the Bible offers some proof that God is not limited to one place at a time like we are. Let's look first at Psalm 139:7-16,Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
The psalmist starts off asking, "Where is God not?" Where can you go to get away from God? Verse 8 contrasts the heavens (sky, expanse of celestial bodies) with the lowest depth. Verse 9-10 says that no distance east or west is too great. More than that, verse 11-12 state that we cannot even hope to hide from God in the darkest night. Finally, 13-16 tells us that God isn't limited by anything. He is able to step into the womb of a mother and form her unborn child and plan his life before the child takes his first breath. As I tried to explain last week, God's capabilities are linked to His character. God's love filtered through His omnipresence found in Psalm 139 can be seen in Romans 8:38-39.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now granted, this verse is specifically referring to the depth and strength of God's love. But God's omnipresence is inherent in these verses. If God is not able to be everywhere at once then these verses are worthless and God's love is not always with us. Psalm 139 does show that God is not hindered in His movements, but it doesn't necessarily show that He can be all places simultaneously. For that, let's look at Jeremiah 23:23-24
"Am I only a God nearby,"
declares the LORD,
"and not a God far away?
Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?"
declares the LORD.
"Do not I fill heaven and earth?"
declares the LORD.
In the previous verses God is speaking strongly against prophets who are preaching their own message in God's name. He states clearly that His wrath is coming to these people. What is important though, are the words "fill" and "and". The earth and the heavens both are filled, at the same time, by God. For those who stand against God this is and should be a terrifying thing. But for those who follow Him it is a promise of never being alone. Isaiah 43:1-2 shows us this promise.
But now, this is what the LORD says —
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
God's omnipresence promises that His omnipotence will always be available. We don't have to worry if He will hear us when we pray. Deuteronomy 4:7 reads,
What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
Jesus himself promised that as Christians we will have the Holy Spirit that will not only live within us, but also teach us the truths of God. Look at John 14:16-18, 26.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
But the Counselor , the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
One of the best sermons found in the Bible, not by given by Jesus, is Paul's sermon in Athens. Paul discovered an idol dedicated to the Unknown God and told the Athenians that He would make the Unknown God known to them. Let's pick up his sermon in Acts 17:24-28
24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 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. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
Verses 27-28 shows that even for non-believers, God is close by. Since He gives all men life (v25), our lives are connected to Him (v28). Not that everyone is saved, but that God is intimately connected to this world He has created. Even those who turn their back on God are connected to Him because they are His creation. He is never far away.
As I close, I want to visit the old familiar story of Jonah. Jonah 1:1-3 starts off like this,
The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
Jonah's not that different from most of us. When God asks us to do something difficult or outside our comfort zone, we run away. We may rationalize it. We may ignore it. Sometimes we do something similar and declare it satisfactory. However you label it; we run. The problem is,
Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?"
declares the LORD.
Ultimately, through a storm God sent, Jonah realizes that he can't run away from God and He suffers the consequences of disobedience. Jonah 1:11-12, 15, 17
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"
"Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."
Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights
Let's play the "What If?" game. What if God was not loving? What if forgiveness was not a part of His character? What if God was not slow to anger and poured His wrath out at a moments notice? With His omnipresence there would be no hiding. We would have no hope. But God is loving. He forgives sins that we never would. He gives us time to learn from our mistakes. And since He is omnipresent, when we are done running He is there waiting for us. Jonah chapter 2:"In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
I said, 'I have been banished from your sight;
yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God."
"When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD,
and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the LORD."
And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Are you trying to run from God? I pray that you stop. Have you found yourself at the end of your rope with nowhere else to go? Call to the Lord; He can hear you. Or maybe you have nothing to do with God ad are clinging to worthless idols? If you are then you are indeed forfeiting the grace you could have through Jesus Christ, God's Son. Wherever you are God is there. Whatever you find yourself in, God is within ear shot of your prayer. Whatever you've sold yourself into, God can bring salvation.
All you have to do is call out.
All Scripture taken from the New International Version
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