What Makes Us
Distinct?[1]
Omnipresence of God states that He is everywhere fully and
completely at every moment of every day. You cannot escape the omnipresence of
God. Is it possible to nuance the fact that God is everywhere and the problem
that He is often not at church?
As church leaders, have we lost sight of the only thing that
truly separates us from other churches and the only thing worth shouting about
is God showing up in power and doing what we cannot do in ourselves? Our well-orchestrated
church service designed to hit our “target audience” is not attractional enough
to a hurting world searching for real answers to real dilemmas of life. Do not
misunderstand my thoughts. We should have a sharp presentation of who and what
we are as a church within the context of our community. But all of the
business-sense and marketing strategy will not make up for the loss of
manifested presence of God.
Moses captures the essence of this concern; “Is it not your going with us, so that we are
distinct, I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth?
[Exodus 33:16]. Moses understood that
his only identity and the people’s only scintilla of significance was the
distinction of God’s manifest presence in their midst.
Omnipresence does not mean everywhere the same does it? Dr.
Wayne Grudem, one of my theology professors states; “God does not have size or
spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with His whole being,
yet God acts differently in different places.”[2]
With that said what is it that we are asking when we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”
[Matthew 6:10]. We are not praying for
some “hope-so-maybe-so” prayer are we? Rather, are we not asking God to come
and do in this immediate time and space what He is continuously doing in heaven
and will some day do in totality on the earth? Stated another way, we are
asking God for his manifest presence meaning God is at work right here, right
now!
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