God's Present is God's Presence

God created us to be together with Him. He wants us with Him.

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.

 Even one of His names, Immanuel, says He is with us.
 
Matthew 1:23 Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a Son and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated God with us.

But being in relationship with God, well we messed that all up. God was not satisfied to just leave the situation the way it was and already had a plan in place so that our relationship with Him could be restored. Jesus is God’s answer to that problem. Jesus made a way possible for us to be with God because They (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) knew we could never do it on our own. Without God, there is nothing that we can do on our own. We cannot even exist without God.
 
There is so much of life that is taken for granted – our eyesight, hearing, taste, and touch. How many times do we think and are grateful for breathing? I can’t say I ever really even thought about breathing. Breathe in, breathe out, repeat. It’s simple. That is until it’s not - until the day I was rushed in extreme pain to the ER struggling to breathe and barely able to talk. I woke up that morning feeling fine but by that afternoon, while in the ER, I wondered if I would be going back to my apartment, ever! A blood clot had traveled to my right lung and, I was told later, part of my lung had died. It is called a pulmonary embolism, or PE and it can be fatal. I did not know that at the time but seeing how fast the ER team brought me back to a room and how quickly that room filled up with people, it didn’t take me long to realize it was good that I decided to go get help. God was there and I am so glad He was. He got me through. I couldn’t pray out loud. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t praying.

Psalm 23:4a Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me
 
Living without God is like a lasagna without noodles, a sunset without a sun, or hitting a home run and having nowhere to run. It makes no sense. It just can't be. Plodding through life trying to get ourselves to be good enough to go to heaven isn’t any better. But, dying to ourselves, letting go of what we want or think should happen, or what should be, and giving it all to God so we can really focus on Him, learning to desire what He desires and live for Him; now that, my friend, is truly living.  

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
 
Imagine being on the cross with Jesus. I mean really, truly imagine being there. We deserve it. He didn’t and still doesn’t.  But imagine we’re up there, and everything that has happened to Jesus has happened to us. Can you see it? We are hurting so much from the torture, we wonder how we can still be alive. Everything hurts. Excruciatingly hurts. Jesus turns His head and looks us in the eye and as He does, we meld into Him and He takes over for us and together we die and together we are dead. I mean really, truly dead. That addiction we just couldn’t stop, well there is no draw, no pull to that any longer because…we’re dead. The battle with offense, unforgiveness, pride, selfishness. That’s all gone because… we’re dead. We are the can’t-do-nothing-ever-again kind of dead and the impossible-to-save-ourselves-cause-it’s-already-a-done-deal-and-all-over dead. D. E. A. D. 
They come and take Jesus’s body down and bury it. Since we melded with him, we were buried too – together with him.

As we lie there stuck in our grave, not knowing how much time has passed, suddenly there’s a glimmer of light to the side. We can’t really see it, we can’t turn our head,because we’re dead. Seeing that light sparks a tiny pinprick of hope in our chest. Maybe, we don’t have to stay here in the dark, alone and dead forever. Maybe, just maybe. Should we hope? It seems so futile because we deserved to die.

The glimmer of light suddenly flashes blindingly bright – too bright to look at. At the edges of the light we see we are in a cave, and a way out has been opened up. Jesus is there with us. We were not alone. He was lying down by us just as dead as we are, but now He is getting up! He’s no longer dead! We know He’s not staying here. He’s going to leave and go on living. We want to scream, “Please Jesus, please don’t leave us here!” But we can’t…we’re dead. We can’t even cry though we want to with all our being. There is nothing we can do…nothing…but hope in Jesus. Then Jesus starts to stand so He can leave and our hope fades knowing that by ourselves we deserve to stay dead…forever…without Jesus. Without God. Without Love. Tell me, why was that not more important when we were alive?
 
As Jesus rises, He turns, looks down, and sees us. He already knew we were there. He didn’t forget. He takes us by our hand and pulls us up. As we rise with Him, we come alive, truly alive, wonderfully alive, fully alive. We are filled with Love and Joy and Peace. Not our own but His Peace, His Joy and Him because He is Love! We meld back into Him as He walks out of the grave and forever, we abide IN Him because OF Him and FOR Him only. Because He lives and is victorious, so are we!

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
 
God gave Himself as an offering to Himself to pay for our sins, (all of them, even the ones we don't talk about) because He knew we never could. We didn't have it in us. He is our present.  He made the way so we can be in His presence for all eternity.  Thank You God! Holy is Your name!

Psalm 139:7-10 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
 
It’s all about Him!