What physical act do you feel called to perform when you stand in the presence of God on Holy Ground?

[RandyPNW]

Depends on what the Holy Spirit inspires me to do at any given moment. Sometimes fall on my face prostate, or kneel, or sit, or laying down in bed, or standing - perhaps with hands at my side, or open palms, or raised high above my head in worship.

Or just walking around having a conversation with Him.

It is all worship.

In all situations mindful that He is *always* approachable, and I am encouraged to present myself to Him with boldness (despite my weaknesses). Because His throne is one of Grace and His Spirit is within me - thanks to my precious and *only* personal Savior, High Priest, Advocate, Source of Truth, Great Physician and Healer (especially of the heart), Encourager, Challenger, Comforter, Intercessor, Teacher, Shephard, Discipliner - and most joyous and unworthily of all - His Friend.

And likewise, everyone is free to approach Him however His Spirit inspires them. He alone discerns the difference between the genuine and the fraud - as only He can see our hearts.

God bless us all who believe and obey Jesus!

biblegateway.com

What you said!

 

[ARBITER01]

What physical act do you feel called to perform when you stand in the presence of God on Holy Ground?

Moses removed his sandals. Every man used to take their hat off. When receiving communion Catholics used to kneel. What do you do?

It depends.

There have been times when The Lord Jesus was very near that I felt needed to stay quiet and bow before Him. There are times when He converses with me and it is similar to like a Father-son conversation.

There was a time when The Father spoke and it sort of pulled out of time for a brief moment.

It just depends. GOD tends to do things differently each time you encounter Him.

 

[th1bill]

Bow and worship!

 

[fhansen]

What physical act do you feel called to perform when you stand in the presence of God on Holy Ground?

Moses removed his sandals. Every man used to take their hat off. When receiving communion Catholics used to kneel. What do you do?

That's more akin to a hypothetical question. To be truly aware of the presence of God, I doubt anyone would be able to stand.

 

[Jipsah]

What physical act do you feel called to perform when you stand in the presence of God on Holy Ground?

Moses removed his sandals. Every man used to take their hat off. When receiving communion Catholics used to kneel. What do you do?

Prostration

 

[ViaCrucis]

That's more akin to a hypothetical question. To be truly aware of the presence of God, I doubt anyone would be able to stand.

The closest anyone has come to an experience of the Divine Glory is probably Moses, whom God revealed His "backside" to. It's the most Moses could handle, because, "No one can see Me and live".

This side of the Beatific Vision we do not truly know the Divine Glory, and were we to experience it, it would destroy us, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. It's why being in Christ matters, for we behold the Invisible God clothed in His Incarnate Son, and by this alone we know the Father as Abba, as our Father.

And this, these things alone, are enough that we should fall down, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come, the earth is full of His glory.

But how much more, once we attain that Beatific Vision, and what we behold by faith now we, then, behold with sight. "No ear has heard, no eye has seen". Holy Holy Holy indeed.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[The Liturgist]

The closest anyone has come to an experience of the Divine Glory is probably Moses, whom God revealed His "backside" to. It's the most Moses could handle, because, "No one can see Me and live".

This side of the Beatific Vision we do not truly know the Divine Glory, and were we to experience it, it would destroy us, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. It's why being in Christ matters, for we behold the Invisible God clothed in His Incarnate Son, and by this alone we know the Father as Abba, as our Father.

And this, these things alone, are enough that we should fall down, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come, the earth is full of His glory.

But how much more, once we attain that Beatific Vision, and what we behold by faith now we, then, behold with sight. "No ear has heard, no eye has seen". Holy Holy Holy indeed.

-CryptoLutheran

There is an alternate interpretation which should be considered, and which I think you might well want to consider based on your knowledge of and respect for the Greek Fathers which radiates from your posts and has caused you to be much admired by the Orthodox members of the forum, and has done so much to unite the Traditional Christians.

Firstly, since Jesus Christ is fully God and exists eternally, and since God interacted with Moses anthropically, we can identify his interactions on Mount Sinai as a Christophany.

And we know Jesus Christ, being fully God, is capable of radiating divine light. The most of a beatific vision anyone ever experienced on this Earth was likely the Holy Apostles St. Peter, St. James and St. John the Beloved Disciple on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration, and I feel very strongly this feast should be celebrated at the original date of August the 6th, and not on the last Sunday before Lent, because celebrating it at that time (which is the practice in some liturgical churches including the Episcopal Church) helps to combat the reduced attendance in American churches in the summer months, along with the intolerable practice of not having a choir in the summer (Orthodox churches and Traditional Latin Mass parishes have a choir year round, and if we can do it, so can liturgical Protestants).

But liturgy aside, returning to the original question:

- Since we know from the text of St. John that no one had seen the Father at any time, but that He was manifest in Jesus Christ, and from other texts that the Father is invisible, we can assert that even the posterior of God the Father would be beyond the abilities of humans to see, if He had one, which seems improbable as He is not incarnate in our human form but rather transcends this creation, in which the Holy Spirit operates and in which the Son and Word was present in our human form, and has appeared according to various church Fathers both in the Old Testament, and there have been appearances of Him since His ascension, Christophanies, for example, to St. Paul on the Road to Damascus, and to St. Gregory the Illuminator in Armenia at the site of their cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin, Etchmiadzin translated means “God Descended.” This event led to the conversion of the Armenians.

We can likewise attribute the Burning Bush and the Pillar of Fire / Cloud of Smoke that guided the Israelites to the Holy Spirit, but as for the voice heard by Moses when he encountered the Burning Bush, we can’t attribute that. We know from the Gospels of only three occasions when God the Father was heard, but He has only been heard, not seen.

However, the uncreated light at Tabor is believed by the Orthodox to be uncreated, but even this is not regarded as the Divine Essence, which St. Gregory Palamas argued is entirely beyond human comprehension.

The Essence / Energies distinction was most clearly articulated by St. Gregory Palamas, but we find this doctrine emergent in earlier Patristic writings such as those of the Cappadocians. Together with the Incarnation, it allows us to explain all Scriptural theophanies without contradicting the idea of the invisibility of God the Father or the inscrutability of His Divine Essence, which is shared with the uncreated and coequal Son and Holy Spirit, forming the Holy, Undivided and Life-Giving Trinity.

However, that which is beyond our understanding in this life could become comprehensible in the life of the world to come. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

And St. Athanasius famously said “God became man so that man could become god” “Becoming by grace what Christ is by nature.” Theosis promises the opportunity to behold what Roman Catholics call the Beatific Vision, but also much more than that. The Beatific Vision by itself sounds lovely, and is not incorrect, but it is not the limit of what God desires from us, which Christ says is perfection on the level of the Father Himself. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware wrote that the life of the World to Come will consist of a process of infinite perfection as we approach the Father.

 

[fhansen]

I believe, based in part on reports of those receiving “mystical” experiences, of being graced by “glimpses”, that the overwhelming glory of God that would prostate us, simple as this may sound, is His infinite, uncompromising GOODNESS, His ineffably profound LOVE, virtually palpable/tactile and all-pervading-on a scale that we couldn’t know existed, on a scale that totally captivates and enthralls.

We must become pure of heart to see God, as another poster mentioned. We must be pure of heart to be capable of seeing Him, most likely-and in any case that purity, itself, is a gift of grace, as well, that we must grow in. Perhaps the ancients couldn’t yet possess that level of purity-and the contrast between themselves and Him-and His purity- would’ve been too extreme even as the difference will always be extreme in the relative sense. But we’re meant to grow in His image and likeness, so…

And He makes it all possible in any case.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware wrote that the life of the World to Come will consist of a process of infinite perfection as we approach the Father.

I'm focusing on this, because I think it's important.

When I read this I was reminded of when St. Augustine describes God as "Ever-ancient, Ever-new". That "Ever-new" dimension especially. Even in this life we experience the ever-newness of God as we grow in faith, as we experience the newness and refreshment of grace throughout our lives. In the Age to Come I believe it is absolutely correct to say that there is an infinite newness we shall discover, as we grow closer and experience the Beatific Vision. The Beatific Vision is not static, there will be an eternity of infinite newness as we are drawn always toward God in the transcendant beauty of His love. An infinite perfection, as you describe Blessed Kallistos Ware talking about.

I recently listened to an episode of the Just & Sinner podcast from Rev Jordan Cooper (a Lutheran pastor of the AALC) that focused on the Beatific Vision and in which he had an interview with Dr. Sam Parkison who recently wrote a book on the subject. It was a very good listen, and while the time was limited to discuss the subject, it had some really good meaty bits. The Beatific Vision isn't merely the end goal, it means something even right now; and it's not merely an end point, it goes on into eternity and continues to mean something forever. It's not merely beholding God, though gloriously great as that is, it is transformative, "We see but through a glass dimly now, but then face to face, and then I shall know even as I am known" (St. Paul) and "What we shall become we do not know, but we shall be like Him" (St. John).

When that Tabor-light fills all things, and we are brought into that fullness as we approach God, when we are perfectly clothed, and behold all that we cannot possibly comprehend now--how could it not be an infinite newness, an eternity of infinite newness, of infinite joy, of infinite perfection? To experience the Ever-Ancient, Ever-New always, forever, unto the ages of the ages.

-CryptoLutheran