Describe Him: Omni
Ok, time to try to finish up this series that I only began years
ago. To read up on it, you can start with the post on Advocate or the pull up the whole A-N Describe Him Archive.
Describe Him, the Omni.
Ok, I confess: Isaac has sold me on superhero action movies. I love superhero movies: Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, Spider Man, Ant Man. They each have unique powers that overcome common human limitations and consequently, allow them to perform incredible feats and rescue the good guys from the bad guys… Or maybe get the bad guys and be the good guys.
Whatever the case, they usually become the heroes.
Sometimes, however, things turn sour. (Like what happened in New York* or Sokovia*: Instead of rescuing according to plan, lives are lost and more destruction happens.)
*{references to events in the movies}
And then they are not the heroes.
In fact, in Civil War, they are very much seen as the Bad Guys.
Wait. What went wrong? I thought they were superheroes. Are they supposed to fix everything?
It is then that we discover that even superheroes have limitations. Even superheroes are not invincible. Even superheores make mistakes and blow it Big. Time.
Anyway…enough about the Avengers...
God is not a superhero. Instead, if you’ll allow me some flexibility in my terms, we could say He is “Omni”: Omni-present, Omniscient, Omnipotent.
As Omni-Present, God is in all places and is always in all
places. David put this statement into a more poetic form when he wrote
Psalm 139: In all of the physical extremes of the earth—the sky, the depths of
hell, the farthest parts of the sea—we cannot escape God’s presence, for He
fills all the earth.
Because God is All-Present, He is near. He is with us. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5.) Remember that the next time your soul cries out in anguish because you feel so alone on life’s path: God is Omnipresent.
God is also Omniscient, or All-Knowing. Psalm 139 again details some aspects of what it means that God knows all things: He sees our most mundane actions—sitting, standing, and lying down. He knows our thoughts, and even the words that come out of our mouth…before we say them. The prophet Isaiah underscores God’s omniscience when he asks “Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” (Isaiah 40:14) The answer to Isaiah’s questions is, of course, no one. No one ever counselled, educated, showed, or informed God about anything.
Because He is Omniscient.
Life often presents questions mankind cannot answer; our hearts nag us with constant “whys?” about life. But because God knows all things, we can rest in this marvelous truth and know that God knows the answer. Can we trust our unanswered questions with the Omniscient One holds the answer key to all of life’s questions?
He is Omnipotent – All Powerful. Where superheroes do eventually lack strength and are often overcome by an enemy bigger and stronger than they, God is never lacking in power. Omnipotent means that when He spoke, the world came into existence (Psalm 33:9.) It was the Omnipotent God who declared to Abraham “I am God Almighty” (Genesis 17:1) and shortly later asked Abraham “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14) Omnipotent means that He raised Christ from the dead and has given us ressurrection life. (2 Corinthians 13:4.)
As Omnipotent, God has all power to do as He pleases. Yet we can be certain that all His deeds are good and true and right, ever consistent with the rest of His character.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, I confess: Isaac has sold me on superhero action movies. I love superhero movies: Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, Spider Man, Ant Man. They each have unique powers that overcome common human limitations and consequently, allow them to perform incredible feats and rescue the good guys from the bad guys… Or maybe get the bad guys and be the good guys.
Whatever the case, they usually become the heroes.
Sometimes, however, things turn sour. (Like what happened in New York* or Sokovia*: Instead of rescuing according to plan, lives are lost and more destruction happens.)
*{references to events in the movies}
And then they are not the heroes.
In fact, in Civil War, they are very much seen as the Bad Guys.
Wait. What went wrong? I thought they were superheroes. Are they supposed to fix everything?
It is then that we discover that even superheroes have limitations. Even superheroes are not invincible. Even superheores make mistakes and blow it Big. Time.
Anyway…enough about the Avengers...
God is not a superhero. Instead, if you’ll allow me some flexibility in my terms, we could say He is “Omni”: Omni-present, Omniscient, Omnipotent.
God as “Omni” means He is “All.”
Because God is All-Present, He is near. He is with us. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5.) Remember that the next time your soul cries out in anguish because you feel so alone on life’s path: God is Omnipresent.
God is also Omniscient, or All-Knowing. Psalm 139 again details some aspects of what it means that God knows all things: He sees our most mundane actions—sitting, standing, and lying down. He knows our thoughts, and even the words that come out of our mouth…before we say them. The prophet Isaiah underscores God’s omniscience when he asks “Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” (Isaiah 40:14) The answer to Isaiah’s questions is, of course, no one. No one ever counselled, educated, showed, or informed God about anything.
Because He is Omniscient.
Life often presents questions mankind cannot answer; our hearts nag us with constant “whys?” about life. But because God knows all things, we can rest in this marvelous truth and know that God knows the answer. Can we trust our unanswered questions with the Omniscient One holds the answer key to all of life’s questions?
He is Omnipotent – All Powerful. Where superheroes do eventually lack strength and are often overcome by an enemy bigger and stronger than they, God is never lacking in power. Omnipotent means that when He spoke, the world came into existence (Psalm 33:9.) It was the Omnipotent God who declared to Abraham “I am God Almighty” (Genesis 17:1) and shortly later asked Abraham “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14) Omnipotent means that He raised Christ from the dead and has given us ressurrection life. (2 Corinthians 13:4.)
As Omnipotent, God has all power to do as He pleases. Yet we can be certain that all His deeds are good and true and right, ever consistent with the rest of His character.
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