Greetings again my Brethren. As we behold God’s glory we are changed not into all of God’s glory, but into only that part of God’s glory we can behold. And we behold Him, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14) we can come into an intimate and personal relationship with Him. God is not only full of grace, but He also is full of truth something most men are very uncomfortable with. We like the grace part, who does not want more grace, but to have the grace part we must embrace the truth part. I would say we probably would have to embrace the truth part before we have the ability in God to embrace the grace part. Grace without truth most often will lead us out of God. If we study (not read) the Bible closely we will discover (we do not find things in God we discover them like a treasure in a field) God desires such a relationship with us. Now I find this amazing to know God, the Master of time, the all and in all, wants to have a relationship with us and in His word He tells us of this love and desire for us. In Genesis God calls to man, “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art
thou?” (Genesis 3:8-9) I wonder if God has stopped calling unto man? And that answer would be no, deep calleth unto deep. God is still calling as He did to Adam, it is not is God calling, but are we hearing? Here in Genesis Adam heard God’s call and was confronted with the truth not God’s grace. Again we cannot have God’s grace until we first meet God’s truth. In Jeremiah we find God remembers past relationships, “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.” (Jeremiah 2:2) God remembers what we have done and how we have loved Him and yes even how we have not loved Him what we have not done for Him. God knows all things. God even knows what we shall do for Him in the future and how we shall love Him and in spite of all of our coming short of His glory and yes sin He still loves us. Even when God is provoked by our indifference towards Him, “The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. 3I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. 4I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; 5And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; 6And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.” (Zephaniah 1:1-6) When we read the names above we often think God is talking to those people, well that is not the way the Holy Spirit works. God never does things singly. Yes, He is talking to those people in their time, but at the same time God (through the power of the Holy Spirit) is talking to us. Remember the Holy Spirit is to lead and guide us to all truth. And when we get off track and go our way from the eternal way God has for us to go please know our relationship with Him is greatly in question. In spite of God’s love for His creation He could still say, “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD” speaks volumes to how God feels about our indifference towards Him. Ah, but in Hosea we find the heart of God for man and how much God wants to be wanted, “For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 15I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.” (Hosea 5:15) Six times in Zephaniah 1:1-6) God says “I will” do something, but in Hosea 5:15, four times in one verse God said “I will” do something. God wants to be invoked (because He loves us) in our lives even if it means He has to destroy some things we are built on that are not of Him. And last again in Hosea (and I really like this one) we find God yearns for man, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. 5I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 6His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. 7They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.” (Hosea 14:4-7) Again God says “I will heal their backsliding,” “I will love them freely,” and “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.” What a beautiful picture of God’s love for us, what a beautiful picture of God’s desire to have an intimate relationship with man to come to know God personally, not mere knowledge or information about God, but a personal knowledge of God.
Well this brings us to the close on this teaching on the knowledge of God, what a depth of understanding we covered I thank God for the opportunity to be able to open up the Scriptures and break off some of His broken bread for us to eat of. All of this teaching can be found on our website at “Monthly Newsletters.” Next month as the LORD leads I will be starting an in depth series on the Call of God, “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 8Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.’ (Psalms 42:7-8) Can you hear Him call?
