Saturday, November 24, 2012

Omni-God



Isaiah 46:8-10 “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.”

We are in week three of our Friday evening small group home Bible study on the topic of “knowing God”, our all-powerful, all-knowing and everywhere present Lord, all the time. What peace, confidence and courage in our heavenly Father brings. In Daniel 4:34-35,  Nebuchadnezzar blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” We are accountable to our Maker? There is a purpose for everything that our sovereign God does, even if we don’t know it or its beyond our limited comprehension. There is a Divine plan and purpose at work in this world and in our lives. God knows what He is doing. Yet people do question God, don’t they? So often people judge God (His person, His ability, His activity of lack of action) based on how they would handle things if they were running the world. Does mankind created in God’s image, create in their mind a god in theirs?

Isaiah 29:16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”?

In an effort to help people know God, to understand the attributed qualities that make Him God, theologians have used various words to describe His attributes; among them are the terms omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. Omni (meaning “all”) is combined with the three different words, (1) “science” (meaning knowledge) – God is all-knowing. There is nothing that God does not know. (2) “potence” (meaning “powerful”). No one and nothing is more powerful than God. His power is inherent, part of His being as God. (3) “presence” (meaning “present here and now”). There is no place where God is not present. Absolutely nothing is beyond God’s reach. TO be clear, this is not saying that God is “in everything; that is “pantheism”, a false belief, which is contrary to the Word of God in its totality and context.

Psalm 139:7-8 explains: 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.” Verses 15-16 continue, “You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Our all-powerful Creator God is all-seeing and all-knowing because He is ever-present as Spirit. Do we live this truth out in our daily lives? We are incomplete. It is God who completes us and our times are in his hands.

Psalm 139:23-24 comes to this concluding prayer:Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

These omni-attributes of God mean that the child of God is never alone and never without help. Knowing who Almighty God is, and that He covers our every need with His presence from conception to and through physical death, ought to bring us such great comfort, confidence and joy. Let’s shape our lives around this Omni-God.

In Christ, Brian

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