Proximidade
Deus é próximo dos que o buscam. Ele não é um Deus distante, mas presente, íntimo e acessível a todo o que o invoca com sinceridade de coração.
Buscar a presença de Deus
A Bíblia nos exorta a buscar a face do Senhor continuamente. Quem se aproxima dele encontra plenitude de alegria e delícias perpétuas.
seek ye the Lord, and be ye con-firmed; seek ye ever[more] his face.
Seek ye the Lord and his strength; seek ye ever[more] his face.
Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found; call ye him to help, while he is nigh.
I asked of the Lord one thing; I shall seek this thing; that I dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I see the will of the Lord; and that I visit his temple.
For why one day in thine halls is better; than a thousand elsewhere. I choose to be abject, either an outcast, in the house of my God; more than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.
Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt [full-]fill me with gladness with thy cheer; delight-ings be in thy right half unto the end.
Deus está perto
O Senhor está perto dos que o invocam, dos quebrantados de coração e dos que clamam por socorro. Sua presença nos sustenta.
Just [or rightwise] men cried, and the Lord heard them; and delivered them from all their tribulations.
The Lord is nigh [to] them that be of troubled heart; and he shall save meek men in spirit.
Be your patience [or your temperance] known to all men; the Lord is nigh.
But now in Christ Jesus ye that were sometime far, be made nigh in the blood of Christ.
And thy mercy shall follow me; in all the days of my life. And that I dwell in the house of the Lord; into the length of days.
A presença que nunca abandona
Deus promete nunca nos deixar. Ele permanece fiel, está conosco em todo tempo e envia o Espírito para habitar em nossos corações.
I shall not leave you fatherless, I shall come to you.
Our Lord God be with us, as he was with our fathers, and forsake not us, neither cast us away;
But in thy mercies full many, thou madest not them to be into wasting, neither thou forsookest them; for thou art God of merciful doings, and meek.
And God himself of peace give to you everlasting peace in all place. The Lord be with you all.
Brethren, henceforward joy ye, be ye perfect, excite ye [or and teach ye]; understand ye the same thing; have ye peace, and God of peace and of love shall be with you.
In this thing we know, that we dwell in him, and he in us; for of his Spirit he gave to us.
No man saw ever [or ever saw] God, but the one begotten Son, that is in the bosom of the Father, he hath told out.
Therefore Moses was there with the Lord by forty days and forty nights, and he ate not bread, and drank not water; and he wrote in [the] tables the ten words of the bond of peace.
and heal ye the sick men that be in that city. And say ye to them, The kingdom of God shall [come] nigh to you.
Forsooth Azariah, the son of Oded, when the spirit of the Lord was come into him,
he went out into the meeting of Asa; and said to him, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, hear ye me; the Lord is with you, for ye were with him; if ye seek him, ye shall find him; soothly if ye forsake him, he shall forsake you.
Forsooth many days shall pass in Israel without very God, and without priest, and without teacher, and without law.
And when they turn again in their anguish, and cry to the Lord God of Israel, and seek him, they shall find him.
In that time [there] shall not be peace to go out and to go in, but dreads on all sides on all the dwellers of the land.
For folk shall fight against folk, and a city against a city, for the Lord shall disturb [or trouble] them in all anguish;
but be ye comforted, and your hands be not slacked; for meed shall be to your work.
And when Asa had heard this thing, that is, the words and [the] prophecy of Azariah, the son of Oded, the prophet, he was comforted, and he did away all the idols from all the land of Judah and of Benjamin, and from the cities which he had taken of the hill of Ephraim. And he hallowed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the house of the Lord.
And he gathered together all Judah and Benjamin, and with them the comelings of Ephraim, and of Manasseh, and of Simeon; for many of Israel, seeing that his Lord God was with him, fled over to him.
And when they had come into Jerusalem, in the third month, in the fifteen year of the realm of Asa,
they offered to the Lord in that day, both of the spoils and of the prey, which they had brought, seven hundred oxen, and seven thousand wethers.
And Asa entered by custom to make strong the bond of peace, that they should seek the Lord God of their fathers in all their heart, and in all their soul.
And the king said, If any man seeketh not the Lord God of Israel, die he, from the least unto the most, from man unto woman.
And all that were in Judah swore with cursing to the Lord, that is, oblig-ing themselves to cursing and pain of death, if they did against the oath, with [a] great voice, in hearty song, and in sound of trump, and in sound of clarions;
for they swore in all their heart, and in all their will they sought him, and found him; and the Lord gave to them rest by compass.
But also he put down Maachah, the grandmother of Asa the king, that is, his own grandmother, from the strait empire, for she had made in a wood a simulacrum, or a likeness, of a man’s rod; and he all-brake that simulacrum, and pounded it into gobbets, and burnt it in the strand [or stream] of Kidron.
But yet [the] high places were left in Israel; nevertheless the heart of Asa was rightful in all his days.
And he brought into the house of the Lord those things that his father [had] avowed, silver and gold, and diverse appurtenance of vessels;
and battle was not unto the five and thirtieth year of the realm of Asa.