God is not distant from anyone.  This is a simple fact.  Hopefully you have read and meditated on the Bible verses in yesterday’s post.  If you have not, go back and read it through.  Today we will look at a few more verses that will bring comfort and hope to those believing the lie that is ‘God is far from us’.

I have grown up with the belief that if I am good, God will be near me, and when I sin, God will be far away from me.  It comes from a false understanding of Habakkuk 1:13 that God is too holy to be near sin, (Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You cannot look on wickedness with favor.)   The idea that God cannot stand ‘sin’ and is repelled by it, has fed a lie that I am separated from God.  This has completely messed up my trust in God especially in the area of coming to him in times of trouble.

While believing this lie, I lived out a religious expression of what that lie looked like.  It is called PBA – ‘Performance Based Acceptance’.  If I was going to ‘be close to God, it was up to me.  Likewise, if I screwed up, it was all on me and there was no hope at all that he would hear me when I call, until I ‘get cleaned up first’.  Guilt and Shame just kept building up.

As I came to discover my identity in Christ, it led me down a path of discovering who Jesus is, who God the Father is, and who the Holy Spirit is.  This revelation has allowed me to explore the Scriptures and see what they ‘actually’ say about this ‘separation’ lie.  The love of God is transforming my mind to see who He really is.  The idea that God can’t stand sin flies in the face of the fact that Jesus ‘became sin’ and loved us.  It didn’t repel him, it attracted him to us.  He saw the damage sin was doing to us and so He came to make an ‘end of sin’.

Along with yesterday’s verses, here are a few more verses that have impacted my mind, pause at the bolded words and think them through carefully, study them in other translations:

• But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Eph 2:13 (NASB)
• For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10 (NASB)
• For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. Colossians 1:27 NLT
• For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, “For we also are His children.” Acts 17:28
• …..and in him all things hold together.” Col 1:15-17

This idea that we are separated from God is a ‘Religious’ lie and has never been a part of the ‘Gospel of GOOD NEWS’.  You can now take deep breath, sigh and say…’wow, I KNEW that was true, I just didn’t know how to put it into words.  Our ‘Western’ idea of God has made Him out to be a small ‘controllable’ deity that can be manipulated by our works and prayer.

Do you believe the Bible?  Do you trust the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of the Bible?   If so, enjoy the journey he has put before you!!  There is SO much more to learn.  Tomorrow will be exciting as well, be sure to check it out.

“God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet, He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He seems absent than when He is present.”  –Thomas Merton

I encourage you to go through the ‘video of the day’, ‘Questions of the day’, and even the ‘Prayer of the day’, each have a purpose in communicating the points I have come to see.

Mike Zenker

QUESTIONS FOR THE DAY

1. What does “While we were sinners” mean to you?
2. What does it mean ‘for you gentiles’???
3. What does ‘IN HIM’ mean….for you the believer and for the unbeliever??
4. Is God Bigger than you thought?  Are you ready to discover He is even BIGGER??
5. If ‘all things’ are held together by Christ, name ONE thing that is NOT held together by him?
6. What does THAT truth mean to your heart?  (#5)

VERSE FOR THE DAY

ROMANS 5:19 – For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many [will be] made righteous. (NASB)

VIDEO FOR THE DAY

Bruce Wauchope – God: Who and Why Pt 1:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL1RAMSGse0

PRAYER

Papa God, come near to me in my thinking.  Make true in my mind what is already true in my spirit.  Show me that I am one with you and there is no chance I will ever be separated from you.