A Church in Peril
The Closeness of God’s Presence is more than Hyper-bole!
God does exist more than just spiritually. Disbelief comes when unquestionable disasters occur without a conclusive reason. Because of the many disappointments we may encounter, the trust that God’s Presence is absolutely real goes beyond a tried and true existence. The old theory that God allows us to suffer is a punishment that he uses to reform our evil ways. This is not a theory in rhetoric that makes us believe God is always ready to strike down any goodness we think we have. We need to go back to when the angels were the only creation of God’s kingdom that were subservient to the Trinity and their presence was to worship God and prepare to be the messengers for humanity.
Hard to believe that an angel would want to confront God, and insist through his free will to become like God, or better. However this is what became the birth of sin since it was against the divine essence of God. Through the entrance of sin into God’s creation and the very entity that places humanity in a precarious manner will prove why his Presence within man has become the very need for more than just a spiritual existence but a Father type of love that would require his closeness personally.
To emphasize the promise Christ spoke of in his Priestly Prayer before his Passion, implied the promise of a physical connection of God to human beings. “So that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” (Jn 17: 22b - 23).
Believing in the premise that God is more than a spiritual entity that hovers close by is not sufficient for us to hold onto. It takes a real presence of faith in a manner that opens up a whole new concept of our trust in belief. Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Without faith it is impossible to please him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek him. (Heb 11: 1, 6).
How is God revealed to the finite mind? Through the Omnipresence of God; “The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky proclaims its builder’s craft.” (Ps 19: 2).
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. (1 Cor 4: 8 - 10).
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own. For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6: 19 - 20).
Ralph B. Hathaway