Knowing God - Excerpt

Faith In A God We Don’t Know

There is a belief I have seen among many believers in the church that worries me.  What I have noticed are a people who are willing to know of God, but unwilling to know Him.  They take what they read in their Bible and what they hear taught by others to create their own understanding of who they think Jesus is.  They build a view of Jesus in their minds; based off the knowledge they have accumulated and the understanding that they have, and make decisions using that.  They are willing to listen to people tell them how much their God loves them, but not willing to experience it themselves.  They see how God likes to bless His children, but see only the outward expressions of it.  They look for the scripture and the action that leads to the response they want.  If they want to be blessed, they pray like Jabez.  If they want security, they pray Psalm 91.  They have been told how to handle their situations by others, and as they continue to act in the methods they’ve been taught, they create a system for how God works and what it takes for His rewards.

Inevitable, their god will fail them.  Calamity comes along and they can’t understand how their loving god would let that happen to them.  For example, they can’t understand why they can’t find a job, because their view of God is someone who will take care of all their physical needs first.  They put everything into their family, believing that a loving God wouldn’t let something happen, so when it does they fall apart.  They make financial decisions based off a belief that God prospers His own, and find themselves overwhelmed in debt.  When their model of God fails, they don’t know what to believe.

Too many of us have created an idol of our own God.  An idol of our beliefs is as real as an idol of gold.  It is easier to create a god that covers our comfort and fits into what we want to believe, than to come to know a God that may not believe as we do.  Paul described people who do this as “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (2 Timothy 3:1).  At a men’s conference I attended, I remember one of the speakers saying: “One day I realized that God and I were incompatible, and one of us had to change.”  Whether it be a golden Buddha, or a mental Jesus; when we put our faith in what we understand, we set our path to failure.  Faith must be in a person, and not a belief.

We Can Know God

What should be one of the most important truths of Christianity is that we can know God.  Let me be clear here.  I don’t mean the “spiritual knowing God” that we sometimes assign, where we know of Him, have fleeting impressions of direction, and have an occasional verse come to mind when we need it.  That is not knowing God.  I mean knowing Him like we do family.  The kind of knowing where we see them often, talk on the phone, send funny messages during the day, rely upon them for advice, and spend our time with them.  We too often think of God as that big entity way up there in the sky that we can never understand.  This view is not scriptural.

I am the good shepherd, and I know my own and My own know me. — (John 10:14)

Jesus taught that His sheep would know Him.  Surely, we can be as good as sheep.  How did the sheep know their shepherd?  They knew him by how he looked, his voice, his smell, and even the way he walked.  Jesus came to earth to show us the way back to the Father.  We can know Him, not just in knowledge, but in person.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. — (Revelation 3:20)

The way has been set and our Lord is waiting for us.  God provided everything we need, which leads us back to a core truth. 

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. — (James 4:8)

We are as close to God as we want to be.

We have little to do with being saved, but everything to do with how close we come to God.  Salvation has opened the way, but we must walk into it.  In the end, we initiate the closeness in the relationship.  It’s up to us to really dig into God.  We must desire the relationship more than anything else.  We pursue Him as we would a lover.  If we draw near, God is faithful to come close as well.  He stands at the door and knocks, but we must let Him in.  God will rarely force Himself upon us. 


https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-We-Forgot-Knowing-Word/dp/1973650444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550891063&sr=8-1&keywords=Jesus+we+forgot

The Jesus We Forgot

And my book is out.



You can find it here on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1973650444

I've been working on this for a long time.  When I started I had no plans on even writing a book.  These were things God was speaking to me.  I found if I didn't spend time thinking about them or writing them down, I would forget the things He taught me.  So I wrote them down.

And wrote more.

I noticed them grouping together into different subjects.

The subjects tied together in an outline.

Then one day, the Lord gave me the title.  That's when I realized this was a book and not just a journal of biblical insights.

Fast-forward a couple more years of late-night writing and editing, and here we are.

The best way I can think to describe the book is to use what's on the back cover.

The Worry-Free Life

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Phillipians 4:6-7

Ran across this verse in my Bible reading a week or so back.  As often happens, I seemed to get stuck here.  I found myself reading these verses I knew so well, trying to move on, but unable to shake that feeling that I'm overlooking something.  Perhaps I hadn't given credit where it's due.  When you have that sort of feeling, don't give up.  Stick with it.  Around the 2nd or 3rd day of mulling over these verses, it finally worked its way out.

Be anxious for nothing.

We read that and think, that's a good idea.  I should stop worrying about things as much.  God will take care of it.  I need to try and trust God more.

At least that's what I told myself other times.  This time I caught that fourth word: nothing.  I glanced at it in the greek just to be sure... sure enough, it means nothing.  So I should not worry about ANYTHING.  Well, that's a different story.   I, of course, have no idea how to pull that off.  Luckily, I can at least read... so let's continue on.

in everything by prayer ... let your requests be made known to God

So in everything I do, I should take it before the Lord in prayer and supplication ( that means talk to Him about it and ask for help ), letting Him know my requests.  I have been concerned lately that God might tire of hearing me just coming to Him to ask for help.  I worry that I treat Him too much like a grocery store.  These verses seem to tell me to bring all my requests to Him.  That the key to becoming free from worry is to bring it before God.  

Now, I'm sure all of you just like me have brought prayers to God, then gone straight back to worrying about whatever our issue is.  This verse tells us that we didn't do that right then.  If we bring our requests to God correctly, we won't be anxious.  How can we know we've done this well?  You guessed right, keep reading the verse.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds.

When you've taken your worries to God, handed them over knowing that your Father cares for you and will help, you will be filled with His peace in that situation.  It's a peace that perhaps doesn't make sense in your circumstance ( beyond comprehension ).  It's a peace that watches over your heart and mind.  

Let's put it all together.  

Want to be free from worry?  Then every time you find yourself anxious or worrying about something, step aside.  Take that worry before the Lord on your knees.  Spend time discussing it with Him, talk through options, and give it up to Him.  Listen for any advice He has.  Then, move on with your life.  Know that God will work it out.  Keep at this until you feel that peace that tells you your God is so much bigger than this.  That peace that lets you walk with a smile through the valley of the shadow of death.

God has promised to give us that peace.  All you need to do is apply this process, and find your life free from worry.

Of course, it won't be easy to overcome a lifetime of habit, but imagine being able to walk your day in peace.  What a wonder that would be.

We stumble in the dark

The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. -1 John‬ ‭2:10-11‬ ‭NASB‬‬

As often happens when I’m studying the Bible, I find things I wasn’t actually looking for.  In this case, I’m slowly working my way through 1 John as I have come to believe I have been looking at so much of this book the wrong way.  That’s for another post though.  I had already gone over this passage a couple times this last week, but this last time around something stuck out. It was that phrase “does not know where he is going” that caught me. I have often walked through life wondering if I'm on the right path, not sure where I'm going.  Having spent a lot of time like that, it caught my attention as I realized this is telling me what can block us from seeing where we are going. Seeing the path is such a critical part to a fruitful (not to mention peaceful) life. It’s those stumbles that often make us grow old too quickly, take us off the path for too long, and even destroy the promises in our lives.

What then is so critical that it could put us in the dark to stumble our way through life?  

Hate.

To be more exact, hatred, contempt, and a lack of love toward our brothers.

Who is our brother according to scripture? Usually this is seen as others in the family of God.  I feel like we’ve lost it, that love for each other.  You can see it in our churches and the silly stuff we do there as we bicker, fight, and gossip.  Even more what I was reminded of is this last year and a half on social media.  I have lost count of how many posts from Christian friends who have said something like “any Christian who thinks .... should be ....”. Feel free to insert whatever topic and judgement you can think of and there's a good chance it was said.  And yes, from both sides of politics.  Every time I saw a post like that it hurt me to just read now.  Now, I wonder if I understand a little better why that is. No wonder we are so lost in our direction as we have forgotten how to love each other. 

Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;"

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭34:6‬ ‭NASB‬‬

We have become so convinced of our moral high ground that we have lost sight of the character of our God.  As we lose sight of His character, forgetting to love above all, we lose our way as well.  Then in the darkness we stumble, trip, get hurt, and wonder why our God would lead us down this path.

This doesn't necessarily mean condemning other Christians is the problem putting us in darkness, but it is a symptom of that darkness.  Therefore, if you find yourself in that situation of feeling this way toward others, you should check back on yourself first.  If you walk in God then love should flow, not hatred.  Judge yourself before you judge another.

Hope for Now

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. - 1 Peter 1:13

Hope.

We all need hope.  It motivates and sustains us.  Often it's the difference between waking up ready to go and never wanting to get out of bed. Half empty or half full?  Hope is important.

That's why when I read this verse, my mind said "Stop!"  Actually, it was when I hit the word "completely".  Not just "be hopeful" or "find hope", but "fix your hope completely".  Sounds like this is the summation of where all our hope should come from.  

Continuing on with the verse...

"On the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ"

And this is where my spirit said "Stop!".  Seriously.  Can't I just read my verse and move on.  

But something bugged me.  Let's set our hope on the grace coming when Christ is revealed.  Well, having heard a bunch of scriptures in my days, this says "Second Coming" to me.  So when Christ returns or I meet Him in Heaven, the grace which is revealed then is what I set my hope upon.  Seems a long time away.  Actually reminds me of that old hymn of going to heaven.

When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.
When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory.

Honestly, I don't like that song.  "Blasphemy" you say.  Perhaps.  But it has a morbid tone to it.  It says to me that when I manage to suffer through this life, staying firm, I'll find a reason to shout at the end.  

It's just that this isn't the gospel I know.  This isn't the eternal life I've received.  ( Go see here for eternal life in my view )

So that verse bugged me, so what do I do, off to biblehub.com.  

I don't know greek, but I can click links.  Obviously word order moved around, but it just seemed odd, so I went farther.

For example, click on the number for "at" above and you get:

Perhaps it's just me, but the word "at" denotes a time in the future typically, but "in" for example is more present tense.  Odd, jump a little farther back and you see "being brought".  Hmm, the verse said "to be brought".  That seems like a different tense.  Click on that horrible "V-PPM/P-AFS" link and you find it's present tense.  But wait, the verse sure sounded future.  Strange, but then again... [shrugs] greek.

If you go switch back to the parallel view you'll find almost all the translations were similar, except for one of my new favorite translations.  Way to go Jubilee Bible.

Therefore, having the loins of your understanding girded with temperance, wait perfectly in the grace that is presented unto you when Jesus, the Christ, is manifested unto you,

Here's the point I've been way too slowly working up to.  This shouldn't be future tense.  We shouldn't set our hope upon grace we'll find in Jesus some day in the future.

Nope.

Our hope is on Jesus now.  As Jesus is revealed to us now, we find the grace He has brought for us.  So we set our hope on Him, just as Hebrews says "fixing our eyes upon Jesus".  

Hope then, is found upon our knees.  As we seek this Jesus who has saved us, waiting in His presence to know Him better, the revelations of His goodness which are given to us overflow in grace over us.  Grace then allows us to live our lives fully. 

Emotions are a symptom

One of my favorite quotes recently is "Emotions are a symptom, not a justification."

I know that's a little vague, so let me just go straight to an example. Tonight we are putting our daughter down for the night and she is learning how to drag things on. What should take 5-10 minutes takes 30.  In the middle of this I find myself so angry that we get stuck in this every night that I just have to sit there and say nothing for a few minutes. Whenever you are so mad you can't function, that's the first indication something is off. So in this case I'm obviously too upset about the situation, and that's when I remember this quote. So why am I really this upset?  If I am honest with myself, it's not because she's dragging things on, but because of my pride.

You see, apparently my pride is telling me my free time is more important than my wife's time or my child's desires. If I really think this, than I have more important things to fix than a bedtime routine.

You see, our emotions are a gauge for what is going on in our hearts, and not a justification to act in whatever way makes us feel good in the situation.  So when you feel emotions taking over logic, whether it's anger, sadness, jealously or something else; treat it as a symptom, not as a justification for your actions.

Hope that all made sense.

Am I convinced?

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39


Over the last year or so, every time I read this verse, I find something odd.  I used to think about all the things that are listed here and how none of them are able to separate me from the Love of God.  I would think through them, how enemies standing before me can't.  How natural disasters can't.  How all the storms of my life can't.


Instead, I find myself stuck on the first 4 words: "For I am convinced".  Paul was saying that he's convinced of these things, yet can I say as much?  I know I can't.  I can see it from my actions, especially my attitudes on things.  Maybe it's not so much that I think something can't separate me from His love, than that He loves me that much.

How I long to say those words.  I am convinced of the love of God.  I have weathered the storms, I have stood my ground, and found the Lord is faithful.