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Do you know Him?
We need to know Him! Why? because we need to know about Him and His ways and we also need to know Him for ourselves. If we don't know Him we are in trouble. If we don't know him we are on a mission to self destruct. Hosea 4v6 states 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me'.
What does Jeremiah have to say about knowing God? 'Thus says the Lord "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might not let the rich man glory in his riches but let him who glorifies glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgement and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the Lord. (Jeremiah 9v23-24)
Are you hearing this? Compared with knowledge of the Almighty and His ways all other knowledge doesn't impress him one iota! If we know about Yahweh and about His ways we will know how to be obedient to him and please Him. Things that we find impressive from our limited human understanding including humanistic wisdom, might or riches doesn't even register on His scale of what He thinks we should glorify ourselves in!
J.I Packer wrote a classic entitled 'Knowing God' which I heartily recommend. This is my second point and is probably more important than the first. We need to know about Him but if we don't actually know Him we won't be doing ourselves a favour by any reckoning? It's possible to quote scripture, go to church, become a Theological professor and know all about God but if you don't know Him then you're wasting precious time!
Paul knew Him. In his second epistle to Timothy Chapter 1 verse 12 Paul testified that 'For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day.'
John also has something to say about knowing God! 'Beloved let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love' (1John 4v7-8)
John also said 'But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.' (John 1v12) Also 'Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him' (1 John 3v1)
There are two camps. Be not deceived... There may be a few grey areas in our understanding but their are no grey areas with our Lord and Saviour whose knowledge and wisdom is unsearchable and He is faithful, without injustice and upright in all His ways! In camp 1 there are those who don't know Yahweh, they don't know Him. If they had some true inclination of what He is really like they would want to know Him! In Camp 2 there are those who have confessed their sins, believed in and received Jesus into their lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. To those in camp 2 they become His adopted children and He also desires for them 'to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.' (Ephesians 3v19) It doesn't stop there though! Those in camp 2 need to study, meditate and ask Him to reveal more of Himself to them and they also need to preach to camp 1 and also practise what they preach to camp 1 also. Jesus loves those in camp 2 just as much as those in camp 1 but it is impossible for those in camp 1 to please Him because... 'without faith it is impossible to please Him' (Hebrew 11v6) ..Jesus wishes those in camp 2 to become children of God rather than children of wrath (see Ephesians 2) and if He wants that to happen so do I and so should all those in camp 2!
For those in camp 2 (and I am questioning my self concerning issuing the challenge to put this into practise) when was the last time you sang the song and did this?
He said freely, freely you have believed
Freely, freely give
Go in my My name and because you believed
Others will know that I live
For those who are in camp 1 but want to know Him keep asking, seeking and knocking.
Why? 'Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.' (Matthew 7v7)
'And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.' (Jeremiah 29v13)
Amen |
