Ten Minute Mystic: Part 4: Growing in Possessions through Practicing the Presence (3)

Practicing the Presence is rooted in two fundamental convictions found in Scripture.  These convictions can be found in both Old and New Testaments. 

First, the New Testament: 22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;  as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’  29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31 ESV). 

In this sermon, Paul critiques the way people in the pagan culture of Athens viewed God.  Scholar D. A. Carson notes that Paul finds several ways in which the pagan view of the gods differed from the Christian view of God.^[i]  In this sermon, Paul identifies those misperceptions and corrects them.  Here are a few:

1. Contrary to the ancient pagan assumption that gods rule only over a particular domain (e.g., Neptune and the sea), Paul states that the true God is “Lord of heaven and earth” and “does not live in temples made by man.” (17:24).
2. Contrary to the polytheistic notion of gods who are limited and who have needs, Paul states that the true God “is [not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (17:25).  God is self?existent and is utterly independent from us.
3. Paul does want to leave the impression that he is preaching a deistic message.  Thus he states that  God “is not far from each one of us (17:27).” God is not only transcendent, he is imminent.  Paul acknowledges that even some “modern” thinkers have rightly reached this conclusion (17:28).

 

Notice especially two of the wrong assumptions about God which Paul pointed out in this sermon: God is domestic and God is deistic.  There was a notion in ancient pagan religions that God is domestic—that is, God dwells in one particular geographical region or one particular nation or in one particular temple.  If you wanted to converse with or be in relationship with a particular God you had to be in that God’s part of the globe, or in his nation, or at his “house” or temple. 

In addition, there was a common assumption that God was deistic—that is, God made us and the world, he set things in motion, and now he sits back and watches things from a distance.  He is not near and not involved in the affairs of humans.

But Paul reveals that the Christian God is not domestic.  He does not dwell in a particular geographical region or one particular nation or one particular temple.  He is the “Lord of heaven and earth.”  His domain is all of the cosmos.  He dwells everywhere.  He can be found on any part of the globe, in any nation, and at any house.

And, Paul reveals that the Christian God is not deistic.    He is not far from each one of us.  Ours is not a distant God but a near God.  He is a God intimately involved in human affairs and deeply interested in intimacy with us.

These two qualities are also highlighted in the Old Testament in Psalm 139.  It is common to see this psalm as one which focuses on God’s omniscience (139:1-6) – God knows all things; God’s omnipresence (139:7-12)—God exists in all places; and God’s omnipotence (139:13-18)—God can do all things. ^[ii]  But the psalm can also be viewed as a stirring poetic protest against any notion that God is domestic or that God is deistic. 

In 139:1-6, 13-18 we hear that God is not deistic but that God is near and intimately involved in human life.

1O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.  3You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 13For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.  17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.  I awake, and I am still with you. 

God is not deistic.  He knows what David is thinking.  He knows what David will say before David says it.  God is behind him and before him.  God was there in the womb, knitting David together.  God literally wrote the book on David.  He is the author of David’s story.  This is a God who is near and deeply involved in David’s life.  He is not deistic.

And in 139:7-12 we hear that God is not domestic but that he lives and dwells everywhere a person might imagine going.

7Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.  11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

God dwells everywhere!  He can be encountered in the high heavens and in the low grave.  He can be interacted with at the furthest edge of the sea.  Even in the darkest places, God dwells.

In other words God is not domestic but is everywhere.  And God is not deistic but is engaged. 

God is everywhere.  He may be found wherever we find ourselves. 

And God is engaged.  He is not aloof nor unfriendly.  He is engaged in human life and longs for interaction and relationship with us.  God is everywhere and God is engaged.

 

As both Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach show, the discipline of Practicing the Presence of God is an attempt to fully embrace the fact that God is everywhere and that God is engaged.  We do not have to be in a certain place, like a chapel or in a church building to interact with God.  And we do not have to worry that God only wants interaction at certain times or with certain people.  God is everywhere and everywhere seeks to engage us.  Practicing the Presence of God is an attempt to stay consciously aware of God as much as possible throughout the day and to interact with God throughout the day.

Richard Foster calls this practice “unceasing prayer” and writes that it is “the best, the finest, the fullest way of living.”[iii]  What makes this such a fulfilling exercise?  Mark Buchanan writes that two things happen through this practice: “When we practice the presence of God, we train ourselves to desire His presence—to resist our temptation to flee Him.  We also train ourselves to experience His presence—to resist our temptation to think that he flees us.  In other words, the practice of the presence of God helps us to live between the temptations of Jonah bound for Tarshish and John bound in prison.  Jonah is the prophet who wants to abandon God.  John is the prophet who feels abandoned by God.  When we practice the presence of God, we refused to live in either sense of abandonment.”[iv]

Today, forget God the least you can.

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[i] D. A. Carson, “Athens Revisited,” in Telling the Truth, edited by D. A. Carson (Zondervan, 2000), 386-389.

^[ii] Willmington, H. L. (1999). The Outline Bible (Ps 139:1–18). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

[iii] Richard Foster, Prayer (Harper San Francisco, 1992), 119.

[iv] Mark Buchanan, Your God is Too Safe (Multnomah, 2001), 141.

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