Contemplations on the Divine

"Omni"

Omni- word-forming element meaning "all," from Latin omni-, combining form of omnis "all, every, the whole, of every kind," of unknown origin, perhaps literally "abundant," from *op-ni-, from PIE root *op- "to work, produce in abundance" 

When we talk of God the words Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent are the primary adjectives that we use. It is the very nature of God to be considered as all. Yet we fail to make him all in our lives. We focus on our share of happiness, freedom, vulnerabilities and cut him out of our weakest moments. Yet God wishes to be part of both our joy and misery. In truth the nature of God is such that it can never be understood separate from His own revelation. What we are doing here is not an explanation but rather a series of assumptions that allow us to form a familiar picture of God in our minds. 

Omnipotence

In the song "Blessed be Your name" Matt Redman and his wife Beth Moore captures the essence of what worship is supposed to be about. It is more than praise, it is more than thanksgiving. It is acknowledging the sovereignty of God in every situation whether "the sun is shining" or when "the darkness closes in". The song was written in the period following the American terror attacks of 9/11 when the world was literally gripped by fear and darkness. The song was not a conscious effort to reflect the times but is relevant to every human situation. 

That takes us to the story of Job. (I am currently reading "The Passion of Job" by spillmrj where he highlights the lessons and deeper reflections outlined in the story of Job. I don't want to go into the details but I would definitely suggest anyone reading this to go through it.) The song "Blessed Be Your Name" is based on Job's initial response to his suffering. What that response however lacked was surrender.  In Job 2: 10 Job tells his wife, "Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?" He makes basically two mistakes. He assumes that it is our right to receive of accept the gifts of God. Secondly he assumes that God is capable of doing evil. 

God is good, all the time. Often in the world we define people as a mixture of the good and the bad. Humanity, as is seen by most people, is consisting of shades of grey. With God there is n grey area. God is light. There is no ounce of darkness in him. We do not know what it is like, that kind of luminous intensity. We learn that it is enough to kill us. The glory of God is sufficient to kill. In Exodus 33: 20 we read about how Moses was replied to by God when he wished to witness his glory. It may sound superstitious to not touch a mountain or kill anything that touches the mountain just because "God" is coming down on it (Exodus 19: 9-13). But think of God as not God but rather the most powerful energy source in all creation. Think of the kind of radiation residue such an energy source can leave behind. And so is the undiluted glory of God. 

God's power lies not just in His glory but also in His form, in His will and in His word. This Word of God is what Moses received and that which made his face glow (Exodus 34:29-33). Now think of God not as an energy source but rather as an energy wave that has the power of penetration into our minds and hearts. God permeates into our lives through his words and we absorb some of that energy and reflect it in our lives. In doing so we cannot become all-good but as we absorb that energy more and more we become more saturated with the goodness and the inner matter which was laced with darkness becomes laced with light. We are basically a process, an operation 'tending towards' perfection, i. e. God. 

The mathematical operation 'tending towards' something is an idea where a value attained by a variable is never attained but the difference between the quantity to be attained and that existing is so small that it is negligible. However the limit of the variable always remains fixed even though the variable itself may take any values nearing that perfection. God created us in His own image, enabling us to take the value of God, reaching perfection but never attaining it. 

When we are faced with a radiation it is the nature of the radiation whether to be absorbed or not. We, as the absorbent material have no right to accept or reject that radiation. Similarly it is not in our capacity to accept or reject the revelation and glory of God. God does what He does and He can do anything He chooses to do. That is the Omnipotence of God which He exercises either in His Glory, Will or Word. 

Omnipresence

God is cosmic. To understand God we need to understand the universe. The Minkowski space plays an important role in understanding the relativistic Universe that we justify to be the real picture of reality. Reality is however inseparable from divinity. The space time continuum combines the concept of three dimensional space with time leading o a four coordinate system to describe an event. The characteristic of God is that He exists equally and simultaneously at all points of this four dimensional space. 

Some describe this phenomenon as a parabola existing outside the timeline where every point of the timeline is visible from the parabola. The only problem with this explanation is that God not only sees every thing at every point of time but He also intervenes. So it may be better put that God does not just exist simultaneously on all points of the Minkowski space but rather exists in a higher order space from which all points of the Minkowski space are simultaneously accessible. When an ant walks on a plane of paper his freedom is limited to the two dimensional space. He cannot see behind him but we can observe the motion of multiple ants at the same time because we operate in three dimensions and thus have an advantage. Taking into consideration the Omnipresence of God we see that He exists on the highest possible dimensional plane. 

So the same Jesus, once seated as the second person in the trinity can reach out to Saul in the road to Damascus and to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. God is present every where and in every time. 

We cannot escape God. When Jonah 'flees' from the presence of God he is destined to go right back into His presence because God is everywhere. God was there where Jonah received the word of God to preach to Ninevah but God was also there on the ship to Tarshish and He was also there in the belly of the fish. God's presence is not where He chooses to speak to us but everywhere where we choose to acknowledge Him. 

Omniscience

A unique advantage of being present at all times simultaneously is that you know all things. What is all things to us is only a few things to God. But the knowledge of God is not limited to the things that were, are and that is to be. God intercepts our thoughts and instincts. So if I am on a diet and I am craving a chocolate milkshake I can tell myself that it's fine as long as I don't go and get myself that milkshake. But God knows I want one. We, as Christians, are always on this diet. It is not a physical diet plan, but a spiritual diet where God wants us to keep the evil things, sinful things away from us. We all know we want a little bit of sin in our lives, may be not murder, not fornication or adultery but what about a little bit of sloth or gluttony or just some little white lie? It is a constant effort on our part not to indulge in it. But that does not ultimately set us right with God because God knows exactly what is going on in our hearts and minds.  In 1 Samuel 16:7 God tells us Himself that he doesn't care for appearances but on the heart. Yet every time we try to be self righteous we are focusing on our own outward appearance. 

This is why the blood of Christ becomes so important. Even the most righteous person has at some point of time caused an offence to the perfection of God, if not by action then by thought. How can such a person be reconciled with God in intimacy. The intimacy with God is often explained in the Bible through marriage. Genesis 2:24 defines marriage as becoming one flesh. Only through sanctification and purification can the sinful nature of man be united with the sinless nature of God. We often focus on the serpent and the Fall but we fail to realize that if God is omniscient then He already knew about the fall before creating Man. Yet he went ahead because God is not dictated by logic but by love. 

There are times when a writer often writes something knowing that the content is either too controversial or too mundane to ever be published. But he writes in nonetheless because that is the impulse to create. Before even putting the pen to the paper he knows that there i going to be a lot of work involved in this project but he goes ahead with it because it is his own pet project. Humanity is God's pet project and he was ready to bear the death and humiliation on the cross even before life itself was conceived.