Concerning God's residence with us, I believe it is important to add to the substance of what I originally wrote. That content was thorough enough for my point, but I feel there is a need to address something more, something higher, something offering understanding and praise to our wonderful Creator, who is truly the ONLY God. And among all the myths, ideologies and philosophies, he is the only God who offers passion and direct access. How can passion be demonstrated without giving and receiving same? God wanted a family in the same sense and application that any of us want and NEED a family. He wanted loving relationships. These require contact, and this is the reason God stepped off the pedestal.
Within the spirit of God was the blueprint for mankind. He wasn’t just planning on a society that thrived, but a love-oriented structure that He could visit and then live in, abiding among his creation. Being worshiped from afar isn’t all its cracked up to be. It’s lonely. It’s isolated. Literal altars are for giving of respect and honor, and they collect a lot of dust. We can be awed by the God on the mountain, but we can’t visit him if fireballs are being hurled everywhere. This wasn't possible with the Mt Sinai visitation, but it did have its own purpose. God did not want to scare anyone, but fear of him was the only possible result from his heart-stopping, visible manifestation of indiscernible noises, quaking, and fire.
Moses had already been drawn to God and was not afraid, but he had respect and awe. He couldn’t appreciate the depth of God’s love, for his experience with Elohim was an outer one. Having been molded by outward experiences for his calling, he was only able to get a glimpse of the heart of the Creator, for the emphasis in that showing was law. And it is interesting to note that only Moses and the high priest could appear before the presence of God. And the high priest could only do it CONDITIONALLY. No one else could approach.
Here are some thoughts on created gods, including the mythical ones of the Greeks and Romans. All were deluded depictions brought to life by the carnal, religious man. We have read of them in literature, or seen stories on the big screen. Arrogant immortals they were, toying with humans like pawns on a chessboard, with little regard for their lives, themselves being bored from having nothing new to do and all eternity to do it in. These deities looked down on mankind from their high places in the literal sky. There were insurmountable distances between gods and men, and they had no love to offer. History shows pagan statues and shrines, all of which were empty, for NONE contained God.
Neither can any religion today produce God. None of them! There are only empty promises, for God doesn’t reside in religion. But delusion does. When the REAL God vacated the temple upon the death and resurrection of Jesus, He relocated through the Holy Spirit to US!
Yet, ironically, the majority of Christians don’t really believe that, for they are still waiting to see him Also, both Christianity & Islam have tainted views of God, who is all too often displayed as hateful. He requires death, and/or eternal suffering. The lacking, obviously, is real LOVE--the unconditional kind. Jesus is the only God who can touch that arena. Oh, bible believers speak of it, but most don’t live it. They cannot, any more than a Muslim terrorist can demonstrate it. Why? Because there has been no inward change. The power to change us lies only in God’s hands.
Romans 8:20 states that God lowered creation and subjected it to darkness and trouble to bring it around and save it. How did he really save it? By diving head-first into it (Jesus, the head)--into the soul where the black heart of a beast nature continued to dominate. The power of change is from within. Through the Holy Spirit, God planted seeds of Himself in a spiritually lifeless garden, enabling a new creation to spring forth. This new creation is motivated by a higher criteria, a consciousness inspired by God and not religion or dead-letter law alone. All law and order must be balanced with goodness, mercy, forgiveness, love, and peace. No condemnation, no shame. These realities offer a breath-taking hope where there was none.
Immanuel: God with us. WITH us. (Matt 1:23, Isa 7:14) In our space and sharing our soul. No reverence is lost, for God is still God. All of the glory and honor due him abounds. He is the author of all of our lives, and he is the finisher of our stories through his grace and the faith that he gives us. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is sovereign and has total control of all the goings-on, because he resides in an electric, divinely-charged spiritual network that we are all connected to, for the soul is a corporate entity.
The sentimental and comforting tales of “going to heaven”* are for those who can’t believe yet, for we have to be enlightened to all of this truth. This truth is different and it is better, for WE don’t have to go anywhere. Heaven (the abode of God) has come to us.
*concerning the afterlife: "Going to heaven....."
