“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:11)
The question you must ask yourself is, were hell and the Lake of Fire created for the pleasure of God? And you may ask this one as well, were those two places created, prepared if you like, before or after Lucifer was created.
We cannot think like God, He lives in an infinite now, all that has been and all that ever will be are before Him continuously, everything that has ever been has always been known by Him. As I am wont to say, He is too big for us to know.
But we are told to seek His face, and so we do, yet I fear far too many only do so in an emotional context, and while our emotions are indeed a blessing, they cannot be our guiding force, so to speak. If you have been reading those letters over the last three years or so you will see nearly every emotion of mankind considered, but you will also find an intellectual addressment of them, the heart must not lead us, for it is deceitful.
“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:25)
The first part of this verse speaks of deductive reasoning skills, of faith proven by observance and action from the Lord, empowered to us by the Holy Spirit, faith in God and His promises must always proceed the action of our faith for His glory, or we are no more than the heathen praying to statues, things made of stone, wood and clay. The Almighty must prove Himself to us first. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jer. 33:3)
So we do, and then we begin to earnestly seek His face.
The questions of nearly every aspect of our lives and how we are to live for His glory can be found in the Scriptures, nothing is left wanting for us in this regard, but the questions of who the Most High is, even though there are many accounts and records of Him in the Holy Scriptures, do not even begin to scratch the surface of who the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are, and the man of God who wants to know what is over the next hill is continuously seeking His face.
And always will be my friends.
“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1st Cor. 2:2)
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12)
“My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:2)
“And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.” (Exo. 33:18)
Men of God want nothing more than more of God.
Like the doctrine of election though, the questions can at times be a great hindrance to the work that has been set before us, a man can get lost in pondering the Most High to the loss of the path set before him. Those questions that vex that man must be contemplated, but not at the loss of the cross he is to carry. As my beautiful wife in her great innocence answered in wisdom tonight to me, “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)
And so I will, I will set those questions in that part of my mind that holds those contemplative thoughts, returning to them when the path is a little easier to walk on, I will not forget them, but wait patiently for the answers.