Knowing God: Part II

God is the "the Truth." The Bible is the "truth about the Truth." Theology is the "truth about the truth about the Truth." Fundamentalism is the "truth about the truth about the truth about the Truth." Christian people live in these many truths about the Truth, and, because of them, have not "the Truth." Hungry, beaten and doped, we had forgotten theology and the Bible. We had forgotten the "truths about the Truth", therefore we lived in "the Truth." It is written, "The Son of man will come in the hour when you do not think and on a day you do not know." We could not think any more. In our darkest hours of torture the Son of man came to us, making the prison walls shine like diamonds and filling the cells with light. Somewhere far away, were the torturers below us in the sphere of the body. But the spirit rejoiced in the Lord. We would not have given up this joy for that of kingly palaces. (Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand, pages 72 and 73 - © 1969)

Don't ditch theology - it's important. But consider John chapters 14-15, and the book of 1 John.

I recently finished listening to the book Crazy Love (which, incidentally, I highly recommend; more on that another time.) The author, Francis Chan, recommended that you read 1 Corinthians 13, and instead of skimming it over, stick your name in the blanks.

[name] is patient, [name] is kind...  by the time I got to the end, like Chan said, I was lying.

Knowing God is about abiding in Him. It's about obeying Him out of an incredibly deep love for Him - because God first loved us. It's showing God's love to others - and having a burning passion to know God more, and an endless desire that others would know God. It's not a stuffy, dry, purely academic subject. Again, though, I'm not saying to ditch theology. That's really important - otherwise you could very well be a heretic, a blasphemer, and an idolater.

Be balanced. Beg the Lord to make the following verse true in your life, as I'm crying out for Him to make it true in mine. 

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:11)

Knowing God: Part I

I introduced this mini-series last week by linking to the Our Daily Bread devotional for August 1st. I was taken aback when I read Dave Branon's concluding words: "Get to know God. Be His biographer. It will teach you more about Him than you ever thought possible." The problem lies here: if you equate "get to know God" with "be His biographer".

First of all, though, let me say that I'm not bashing ODB or Dave Branon in this post. I do think that he would agree with what is written here. I'm writing to give the broader context for his words.

Today, the word "know" is thrown around flippantly; sometimes, even to mean "I've heard about/am familiar with him." Sadly, even the word "believe" is used this way!

Q: Do you know/believe in Jesus?
A: Sure, definitely (ever since I was born).

Q: Do you know/believe in Jesus?
A: Yes (and Mohammad and Buddha, too)!

We must not stop here - we will end up in hell!

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." - James 2:19 (KJV)

This lower-case "know" is a mere knowledge about God, or a general belief that he exists. God calls us not to just know about him, but to know him in an intimate way.

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." - Psalm 34:8 (KJV)

Many biographies have been written - about good men and bad men. Autobiographies have also been published, but only a fool would encourage his readers to "taste and see that I am good." Knowing God must go beyond being His biographer.

An Orthodox priest, a friend of mine, telephone me and told me that a Russian officer had come to him to confess. My friend did not know Russian. Knowing however that I speak Russian, he had given me my address. The next day this man came to me. he loved God, he longed after God, but he had never seen a Bible. He never attended religious services (churches in Russia are very scarce). He had no religious education. He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him.

I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy proclaiming, "What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ!" It was the first time that I saw someone so rapturously joyful in Christ. (Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand, page 18 - © 1969)

An officer in the Russian army, dancing around the room because now he truly knows Christ! Knowing God cannot be limited to a purely academic exercise. Yet, we do need to know about Him; this Biblical knowledge leads us to having a personal relationship with the Lord. It leads us to the cross of Christ, to salvation and regeneration, to glorifying and delighting in Him here on this earth, and living throughout all eternity in His presence.

In the end, a balance is needed - both having a Biblical theology, and knowing God. In the coming posts, we'll look at both of these aspects in greater detail.

Knowing God

This afternoon, I read the daily devotional from Our Daily Bread - not something I make a habit of, but once in a while it makes for a refreshing change of routine. Today’s devotional - entitled “Biography of God” - is about knowing God by examining three areas: what God says about Himself, what the God-inspired writers in Scripture say about God, and the countless and glorious things God has done in infinity past, is doing at the very moment you read the words, and will continue to do throughout all eternity.

Reading Dave Branon’s short devotional led me to think about what exactly it means to know God. The answer to this is critical to our relationship with Him, and the way we live in this world. Thus, may this post serve as a very brief introduction to a series of posts that I will be writing in the coming weeks about this subject.