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Post edited 8:09 pm – April 4, 2010 by SaraMcD

Hi friends,

I currently did the lesson on God's presence in hell.  It never ceases to "awe" me and also make me feel safe.

Brandy said, "if someone was to give me a million dollar check, it is a million dollars whether I cash it or not. The difference is when i cash it I see the benefits of having all that money in my account. Where if I just keep that check in my purse, its still a million dollars but it doesn't do me any good. That is how I put into a word picture our salvation. Christ's work is finished, all we need to do is accept it. Now if we chose not to accept it, it does not lessen His work it just does not benefit us!!! @ all, So then I begin to ponder, why are we sent to hell? It can't be because we are sinners, if that were the case then even Christians would go to hell, right???? I see that it is when we don't accept Christ as our Savior and He cover our sins that it is the very holiness, perfectness, justness of God that puts us in hell.

Georgia said, "It makes me think about in the Old Testament, before the sacrifice of Christ, if someone touched something unclean, then they became unclean.  But when Jesus touched the unclean woman, she became well!  God's holiness consumes all uncleanness!!

Sara quoted Wayne Grudem: In summary, God is present in every part of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places. There is nowhere in the entire universe, on land or sea, in heaven or hell, where one can flee from God's presence (Ps139:7-10) Furthermore, when the Bible speaks of God's presence, it usually means his presence to bless, and it is only normal for our own speech patterns to conform to this biblical usage."

From one of my journals: 

 First something from Psalm 139 TMB. 

"It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.  Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.  I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day. Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them! . from Psalms 139: (MSG)

Jaque,

Darkness isn’t dark to Me because I don’t just "dwell" in light; I am Light; I am consuming fire which creates Light.  I am God "Within but not enclosed, without but not excluded, above but not raised up, below but not depressed.  I am wholly above presiding, wholly beneath sustaining, and wholly within filling." Hildebert of Lavardin

Lord, how can I reach for you?  How can I comprehend your being everywhere at all times?  I am desperately dependant on you for every answer, breath, thought and unction.  All I want is to recognize you.  All I want is to SEE You everywhere and to feel You within me.  I want to know you in the Light. So how can you be in hell?  Does your presence make hell what it is?

Jaque, dark souls’ make hell what it is; they go of their own choosing; I don't need to send them there.  Remember that fire has an entirely different affect on dark souls than it does on souls transformed by its light.  If the noonday sun shines on rotting flesh the stench is worse because of the heat; right?  Hyacinth under the noonday sun is like heaven, but rotting flesh like hell.  How I am (everywhere present) depends upon that which I am shining." Do you see it? "

Be assured Jaque, there is not one molecule of space from which I am absent.  My attributes of omnipresence and omniscience cause your faith to begin. Jaque, I am not imagined presence. I am.  I am here right now and with your focus on Me you mature to a place of not guessing but  knowing with My own knowledge (the knowledge I have of Myself).  Here I am, right now, filling you with Myself, and here I am right now equally present with all time and space. 

Thanks for listening.  This forum can be timeless to us can't it?  We can visit and revisit as God teaches us about His character.

Love you all,

Jaque