Thoughts For Consideration

Greetings again my Brethren.  Let us finish looking at how we may acquire the knowledge of God, knowing we are not talking about a mental or emotional knowledge, but a heart-felt, personal relationship whereby our character is changed to be more like His precious Son Jesus Christ.  During the end of 2009 and the loss of my father early 2010, the Lord really opened my eyes to how much He wants us to look like Him. There are two more areas we must look at to complete our study here.  The next area is; we acquire the knowledge of God through sound teaching.  How can we know God if we are not taught to know His word?  His word is the very nature and heart of God.  This too is why Jesus became the “word.” In John 1:1 we read, “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God.” Then the word became flesh, “And the Word (Jesus) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  (John 1:14) The more we come to know the Scriptures the more we will come to have a personal relationship and know God.  But take heed to your self, it matters who your Bible teacher is.  Since the late 70s there has been an explosion of Bible teachers moving the church away from God’s original idea of sharing the Gospel message through evangelism.  In John we also read the words of Jesus, “And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. 39Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”  (John 5:37-39)  Jesus commands (not a suggestion or good idea) us to “search the scriptures; for in them ye shall have eternal life:” and what is eternal life?  Again in John, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”  (John 17:3) It is a circle of life, the more we know the Scriptures the more we will come to know God.  But I end this thought with this warning to take heed to who you listen to. The broad way to hell is paved with Bible teachers with good intentions, but know not God.

     And the last area we can acquire the knowledge of God is by relationship.  Now this is both relationship with God and man.  Do not think you can have a relationship with God and ignore man. As we come to know and appreciate God’s children we will come to know and appreciate God the more.  Now do not get me wrong here.  All of God’s children are not so lovely and we must be careful to handle them “to be wise as serpents, but gentle doves.”  I will be honest there are some of God’s children I do not want to be around, but that does not mean I do not care about or even love them and I am sure the feeling is mutual. John asked, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?  (1 John 4:20) Well, the answer is obvious we must desire to have our heart soften by God so that we will be able to deal with character flaws and attitudes within us and others, we all have them.  Relationship is at the heart of the flow of God’s life from God to man and man to man.  

     Next month we will start looking at the spiritual nature of God.