It really took me by surprise the day I was “punched in the stomach!” What? Who? Where? Actually the blow came from WORDS THAT I READ. Even though I regularly had taught it to our children, I guess I had never personally internalized the phrase: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me!” (Sorry, kids!)
It’s been a few years ago now but I still clearly remember how I felt. I sadly realized, while reading the London Times book section, that Oxford grad Jeanette Winterson had put me and many of you readers into a terribly weak, ignorant category. She wrote that those in the “evangelical faiths” are “often made up of uneducated and working class people…stuck fast in the shallows of language…and misplaced drama.”
She claimed that we were reading “low-grade toddler English” in our Bible translations of today. She went on to say that with “extreme religion on the rise, particularly in the US, the last thing we need is EasyBible.” She continued, “it (our translations versus KJV) allows the reader to choose sentiment over emotion, quick fix over deep thought.” Finally she expressed great dismay over her observations.
Never fear! After re-reading her accusing words a few more times, my stomach started feeling better, as if I’d swallowed a handful of pasty TUMS. Why? Because I stopped, with God’s help, and thought gratefully of my extreme friends who were (and still are) yearning for extreme living, receiving extreme truths from Scripture, following an EXTREME GOD, who in HIS EXTREME-NESS KNOWS EVERYTHING! And, come to think of it, the extreme lives I observe are filled with authentic emotion and deep thought.
Listen to a response from a fellow God-seeker, longing to understand Him in All His God-ness:
It has been very interesting to read and think about God as being so very present. I believe He is Omnipresent but I seem to need him at times so much more concretely then theologically or theoretically. I know it would be heretical to say he doesn’t show up at times. I think of how Mary and Martha felt when Lazarus died. They felt if Jesus would have come earlier he would still be alive. Many in grief have cried out to God, “Where are you?” only to feel the silence. I know we are to trust him and recognize OUR agenda and His are not always aligned but what do you say to a grieving middle-aged widow or a young woman scarred by rape when things feel like God is not there. I am glad faith is the conviction of unseen realities, I just find it frustrating at times in a concrete world.
He is the Potter and I am the clay and I will trust him that even if I make my bed in hell he is there. He understands and will never let me go. Even now I hear Him say “trust me.”
No emotion? Only sentiment? Quick fix? No deep thinking? I think not.
Our GOD invites us to be honest! He asks us in the EXTREMES OF LIFE, TO BOTH THINK DEEPLY AND TRUST HIM BECAUSE HE KNOWS EVERYTHING - EVEN THOUGH WE DON’T UNDERSTAND.
The same summer I read the troubling newspaper article, I was with a mission group serving in the poorest part of Guatemala City, Guatemala, a squatter community called La Limanada. Every night, I learned, gun shots ring through the narrow streets and alleys, non-participants’ doors locked tightly, old and young alike often fearful. The daytime hours are a bit calmer and yet Guatemalans warned anyone who thought of walking over the bumpy, garbage-strewn paths that they were putting their lives in danger even in the lighted hours.
So why did we go? Just for the drama? No, we went because leading the way, was a middle-aged woman, a spunky Guatemalan teacher of EXTREME COURAGE who had committed already 7 years of her life to serving the poor children of that community. Tita and her small band of teachers are honored along those dark streets. When in their presence we walked safely, able to pray for the needy, teach VBS to hundreds of kids, paint pock-marked walls, ward off rats, and share fresh food.
EXTREME? YES! SO EXTREME THAT GOD HAS NOW PROVIDED ANOTHER BUILDING FOR ANOTHER SCHOOL! GOD KNOWS AND CARES ABOUT EACH ONE IN THAT “HIDDEN PLACE.”
Sorry, Ms. Winterson, this is NOT misplaced drama. This is authentic extreme living, extreme courage, extreme praying, extreme circumstances, extreme power and peace offered from THE EXTREME GOD – NEVER OUT OF CONTROL OR CAUGHT OFF GUARD.
THIS EXTREME GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE AND EVERY MOMENT…EVERYWHERE!
I don’t know about you, but this pushes me into conversation with God, the Omniscient One…
Extreme All-knowing GOD of the Universe, I hear you saying:
Trust Me, child.
Though I am incomprehensible, I invite you to know Me intimately in all My wonder.
I long for you to love Me personally as a Loving Father, who knows, sees, and understands everything about you and your world – the whole world.
Trust Me in the extremes, in the dramas, in your everyday.
You don’t have to understand it all…
I know about every detail. Really I do.
~~~
EVERYWHERE, EVERY MOMENT GOD IS ALL-KNOWING, OMNISCIENT!
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EVERYWHERE, EVERY MOMENT GOD IS ALL-KNOWING, OMNISCIENT!
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Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary
OMNISCIENT
1 : having infinite awareness, understanding, and insight
2 : possessed of universal or complete knowledge
Thesaurus.com
OMNISCIENT
Definition: all-knowing
Synonyms: all-seeing almighty , infinite , knowledgeable, pre-eminent , wise
Webster’s Online Dictionary
OMNISCIENT SYNONYM
Deity
Adjective: almighty, holy, hallowed, sacred, divine, heavenly, celestial; sacrosanct; all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise; omniscient.
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THE BIBLE SAYS -
1 Samuel 2:2-3 - There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows.
Job 22: 12-13 - Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are the highest stars! Yet you say, “What does God know?”
Psalm 50:11 - I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.
Psalm 73:1, 94: 9-10,147:5 - (The arrogant say) “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” (The godly reply) Does He who implanted the ear not hear? Does He who formed the eye not see? Does He who disciplines nations not punish? Does He who teaches man lack knowledge? Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is Infinite. (Parentheses mine)
Proverbs 3:19,20 - By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.
Isaiah 42:9, 48:5-6 - See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you…Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, “My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them. You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.
Jeremiah 29:11- For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord…
Acts 15:18 - Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
Romans 11:33, 34 - Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?
1 Corinthians 2:11 - For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way not one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
I John 3:20b (MSG) – For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
Revelation 2:2a,19b - I know your deeds, your hard work…your love and faith, your service, and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
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Words of Wisdom
A. W. Tozer – (READ THIS SLOWLY A FEW TIMES AND LET IT SINK IN!!! WOW!) God perfectly knows Himself, and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn. God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind…all relations, all cause, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell…HE IS NEVER SURPRISED, NEVER AMAZED. HE NEVER WONDERS ABOUT ANYTHING!
Steven Curtis Chapman –
God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God…
So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone!
Charles Ryrie – If God knows all, then obviously nothing can come to light subsequent to our salvation which He did not know when He saved us. There were no skeletons in the closet which He did not know about when He offered to give us eternal salvation.
Chris Rice – I hope you don’t mind me asking questions, ‘cause I figure You’re big enough…
John Gill(1697-1771) - The manner in which God knows all things, is incomprehensible by us…for "shall any teach God knowledge?" or "who has taught him?" (Job 21:22; Isa. 40:13, 14) all things were known to God from eternity, when there were none in being to inform him of anything.
Downhere Band –
Because I’ll never hold the picture of the whole horizon in my view.
Because I’ll never rip the night in two.
It makes me wonder, Who am I? Who am I?
Who am I? AND GREAT ARE YOU!
Richard Foster – What I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not have to be bright, or pure, or filled with faith, or anything. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live by it as well. And we pray by it…And in this posture we pour out our heart to the God is greater than our heart and who knows all things (1 John 3:20)
Myra Alexander – God knows every flutter of each fly, bee, or bird at this very moment. Each gentle sway of grass is know by God. Every human step, jerk of the head, and unconscious finger tapping is perceived by God.
A.W. Pink - The infinite knowledge of God should fill us with amazement. How far exalted above the wisest man is the Lord! None of us knows what a day may bring forth, but all futurity is open to His omniscient gaze. The infinite knowledge of God ought to fill us with holy awe. Nothing we do, say, or even think, escapes the cognizance of Him with whom we have to do…The apprehension of God’s infinite knowledge should fill the Christian with adoration. The whole of my life stood open to His view from the beginning. He foresaw my every fall, my every sin, my every backsliding; yet, nevertheless, fixed His heart upon me. Oh, how the realization of this should bow me in wonder and worship before Him!
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As I close this week’s communiqué I’d like to summarize, in very short form, a sermon based on Proverbs 1:20-2:22, simply, yet powerfully shared by Helen Azer, the curate one Sunday morning at our Oxford church, St. Aldates. It was a packed, “electric” sanctuary of EXTREME students, professors, families, men, women, young, old, and yes, Ms. Winterton, also working class people. She prefaced these three charges to us by mentioning how tired she was of the church being labeled as weak and insipid. Sound familiar? Her comments regarding our response to our OMNISCIENT GOD:
1. Live fearlessly!
2. Be fearsome in your life – live so daily full of God that the enemy and those he’s fooled quake and stand back in awe!
3. Fear God only!
Clinging to the FACT of His Extreme All-Knowing Nature,
Sue
P.s.
Besides the urge to simply fall on your face before the EXTREME OMNISCIENT GOD ABOVE ALL… what can you ALONE OR IN COMMUNITY do to respond in practical ways this week? Here are some ideas:
1. List some of the things you are glad that God knows about you that other people may not know. Try to remember that He knows them when you are feeling misunderstood or falsely judged.
2. List some of the things you wish God did not know about. Determine now that by His grace you are going to change them.
3. List some areas of fear in your life that can be bolstered or maybe even erased by embracing His Omniscience.
4. Because God alone is the perfect source of information and knowledge, you need to avail yourself of the wisdom that God has revealed to you in His precious Word, the Bible (Isa. 55:8; 1 Cor. 2:9-11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). How are you doing in this?
5. Courageously ask God (I tremble inside as I type this!) to lead you TODAY in an increasingly extreme walk with HIM, one in which HE is illumined and you are filled to overflowing…Tell someone else how He is leading you once you sense His direction.
