{"id":259,"date":"2019-08-18T10:10:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T10:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/warapungamonday.wordpress.com\/?p=259"},"modified":"2019-08-18T10:10:10","modified_gmt":"2019-08-18T10:10:10","slug":"presence-strengthens-absence-sharpens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/?p=259","title":{"rendered":"Presence strengthens; absence sharpens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where can I go from your Spirit?<\/span>
\nWhere can I flee\u00a0from your presence?
\n<\/span><\/span>Psalm 139.7<\/p>\n

Good Monday Morning to week 34 of 2019<\/p>\n

Absence = “Ruach of God”
\nThe wind to the fire; it puts out the little and kindles the great!<\/p>\n

Presence = “Ruach of God”\u00a0 is the mighty wind, the breath of God, the Spirit of God, the Burning Bush of Moses, the pillar of fire leading the Israelites, the eternal flame lit in the tabernacle, the incense, and the individual tongues of flame at Pentecost.<\/p>\n

Every time you take a matchbox into your hand to take out a match, you hold it in your hand\u00a0before you open it. What do you see? You see three sides of the box. Of course, you know it has six sides, even though you only see three.<\/p>\n

Presence strengthens!
\nAbsence sharpens!<\/p>\n

Where shall I go from your spirit? – Where shall I go where your spirit is not; that is, where you are not; where is there no God?<\/p>\n

Where shall I flee from thy presence?
\nWhere shall I flee from your face?<\/p>\n

A fearful thought, for those who fear or hate God.
\nA deep comforting word, for those that love God.<\/p>\n

What do you see? Some examples in the Old Testament:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go back” seven times.<\/p>\n

Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days you would not believe if you were told.<\/p>\n

Son of man, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and give attention to all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here in order to show it to you!<\/p>\n

What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, “I see a rod of an almond tree.”<\/p>\n

What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”<\/p>\n

Jesus: What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed, shaken by the wind?<\/p>\n

Then again Jesus laid His hands on his eyes, and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.<\/p>\n

If we go back to the metaphor of the matchbox and apply it to Psalm 139.7;
\nGod’s presence is always real, the other three sides of the matchbox may be felt like absence, yet we know very well, the matchbox is complete and the other three sides are there and continue to make the whole box complete.<\/p>\n

The Psalmist knew these thoughts only too well:
\nPsalm 139. 8 and following:<\/p>\n

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
\n<\/span>If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
\n<\/span>If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
\n<\/span>If I settle on the far side of the sea,
\n<\/span>Even there your hand will guide me,
\n<\/span>your right hand will hold me fast.<\/p>\n

<\/span>If I say, \u201cSurely the darkness will hide me
\n<\/span>and the light become night around me,\u201d
\n<\/span>even the darkness will not be dark to you;
\n<\/span>the night will shine like the day,
\n<\/span>For darkness is as light to you.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Wishing you a good start to this new week.<\/p>\n

Philemon\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee\u00a0from your presence? Psalm 139.7 Good Monday Morning to week 34 of 2019 Absence = “Ruach of God” The wind to the fire; it puts out the little and kindles the great! Presence = “Ruach of God”\u00a0 is the mighty wind, the breath of God, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Presence strengthens; absence sharpens”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}