Throughout my life I have been taught and I have believed that God is omnipresent (always present), omnipotent (all powerful), and omniscient (all knowing).  When we read the Word, Jeremiah 23:24 tells us, "Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not I fill heaven and earth?" Also, Psalm 139: 7-10 tells us, "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, 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." These two verses among many others point to God being everywhere at once and always everywhere. 

However, throughout the years I have been told that God isn't in Hell. Yet this goes against God being omnipresent. I questioned how can God be in Hell, yet isn't Hell the absence of God? Romans 1: 18-19 tells us, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them." Another verse 2 Thessalonians 1:9 states, "They will suffer punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might."  Looking at Revelation 14:10-11, we read, "he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb." These three verses gives us a different picture than God not being in Hell. It actually shows God is in Hell, but not his perfect love and kindness, but rather His wrath and anger. What a scary picture this paints! I think of how I have felt when someone has released their anger on me. I wanted to shy away from the person. I wanted to fix what I had broken. I wanted to apologize and move on. Yet, this is a small fraction of what a terrible ordeal Hell will be for those who turn away from God. God not being in Hell was sad thought for me. Yet an even scarier thought is God's wrath and anger being poured out to those in Hell. This fact in another great reason to share the love of Jesus with everyone. We see in the book of Luke chapter 16 verses 19-31 that the rich man goes to Hell and Lazarus goes to Heaven. This story tells us that it is our job to share the good news because there is no going back once we are dead.  So the next time you feel tempted to walk away from sharing God's promise to someone, remember this is their only chance. Tomorrow is not promised. 

My friend and I were out to dinner the other day. We were studying God's Word and talking about the end times. We started looking into the original meaning of the words and I came across the verse Psalms 25:14, which states, "The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He makes known to them His covenant."  When I started looking at the meanings of the words, known in the original Hebrew is defined as a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, including observations, care, recognition, instructions, designation, and punishment. It also means to be advise, answer, cause to discern, make known and so much more. In this one verse, we, as believers are promised to have God's covenants, His promised revealed to us. Not only revealed to us but make us intimately known of His promises. To get this intimate knowledge the verse tells us we only need to be in a friendship with the Lord.

As a believer for most of my life, churches have never really taught looking into the original languages for the meaning of the words.  A few pastors have talked about the original languages, but that's as far as it goes. The free app e-Sword allows you to go verse by verse, word by word to look up the original words. What an amazing blessing it is to live in a world where we can look up these words to find out their meanings. For example, our word love is only one word. In Greek there are four words to describe the word love. When we read our Bibles today, we may not get the full picture of what was truly being expressed. If one word has such a beautiful meaning in the Psalms verse, think of how many other words have deeper meanings. God opening up His covenants to us is amazing. But when I read that God wants me to fully experience His covenants including advising me and giving me discernment that verse means so much more.

I may not understand why churches and leaders do not encourage us to look deeper into the meanings of the original texts, but I do know that I am going to start digging deeper. I am going to encourage those around me to look deeper into the words. God's Word comes more alive to me as I begin to understand His full love and promises are for me. As I grow in understanding, my relationship with God grows. This relationship allows me to praise Him in the good and bad.