Hey All,
Just something that I was ponder about for the past few days and I just started to write all the thoughts that came into my head. When I try to write things for God when I want to, it doesn't work! I just end up getting very frustrated! I am seeing more and more that God is the one who wills in me according to His good purpose! I feel like I have so much to write! BUT it is God who ultimately directs me to which of those things actually get written!
Another thing I have been learning is that I write for God and Him alone! I used to think "why do I need to spend so much time writing all of this stuff? There are so many other people out there who are gifted by God"
I realized that I have been given a talent and I must use it faithfully. I also realized that though there are many other gifted people God called me specifically to this task and so I am held accountable him wether He uses what I write to help 0, 1 or 1 000 000 people!
This is very freeing! His burden is truly easy and light!
Anyways hope this edifies and encourages you all!
Knowing God: The Living Word
Autobiographies
In many ways, the Bible can be seen as God’s autobiography. It tells us of His character; it reveals His purpose, desires and thoughts; it tells us of His relationship with His creation throughout time.
However, just like how an autobiography can tell you much about a person, their life experiences, their deepest and most intimate thoughts and feelings, it does nothing for you in terms of actually getting to know the person. Yes, it can give the reader accurate ideas and impressions of what that person may be like in real life, but no matter how many things we learn and know about a person, meeting them is never the way we thought it would be in our mind; it is always unexpected and surprising.
This is also true of God’s Word. It gives us, the readers, many truthful ideas and impressions of who He is and what He is like. However, meeting Him is something completely different, even more so than meeting a person, as this is meeting with the living God. People are finite creatures, and knowing a human being is confined to finite limitations. You can only know so much about one person, and your relationship is dependent on how much time you are physically able to spend them, how well you are able communicate yourself through words (also limited), and lastly limited to how long we live earth. Earthly relationships fade; there is an end to all of them (Isaiah 40:6-8).
This, conversely, is not true with God. His omnipresence voids any physical limitation. His omniscience allows Him to know us completely, and, as God is Spirit, he can fellowship ever so intimately with the deepest part of us, our spirit - “deep calls out to deep”. He is from everlasting to everlasting: there is no end to the breadth, and no limitations to the depth of knowing Him (only as far as you choose to go with Him)! With him, there are an infinite number dimensions of who He is. He is so big that one could spend an forever meditating, delighting and glorying in one dimension of Him and completely miss the others!
Again, reading an autobiography is not the same as meeting a person. But what if that particular person was with you and able to talk to you about what they wrote in their autobiography, answering any questions or clarifying any confusion you may have? What if you weren’t limited to just that autobiography, but they would be with you every waking hour of your life? You would get the know the person quite quickly! Oh, not only is God omnipresent, omniscient, everlasting and infinite in dimension - His Spirit is inside of every single believer, speaking to them and guiding them closer to Him (John 6:45, 16:13)
In reading the Bible, it is important to understand that though there is value to reading the words in and of themselves, what we truly need when we read Scripture is the Holy Spirit making it real and alive to us! Without Him, the Word is dead and without meaning, that’s why many secular scholars can read through the whole Bible - even studying the original languages - but still have an unbelieving heart! What is most important when reading the Bible is to meet with God; we should not read the Bible apart from Him, but with Him!
Don’t get me wrong! Reading the Bible, of course, is good and necessary! But sometimes, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are very spiritual because we have read a lot of the Bible and know many interesting facts about the bible, or that we can pull up verses whenever we want from memory - when in reality, reading one small passage and having God show you something about Himself is of more worth and value than reading the Bible cover to cover 20 times and knowing all the context and history behind the writings!
So many times, we get caught up in reading the Bible in and of itself that we ignore or don’t hear the voice of the Holy Spirit trying to speak to us. We mistake what we do or read for quality time with Him (imagine mistaking reading an autobiography as quality time with that person)! We walk around very puffed up with a lot of knowledge but lack true love that can only be given to us when we are with Him (1 Cor. 8:1).
Even worse, some people fall into trap of making the written text of Scripture so important that they become blinded to Jesus Himself!
Imagine, the Pharisees spent their whole lives doing this; they memorized the first five books of the Bible but they were the ones who missed Jesus when He actually came! They killed the Living Word (John 1:16) but had memorized the written word! Jesus said of the Pharisees and Sadducees: "Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mark 12:24)
Living and Active
In the same way, we can miss the the whole point of why God wrote the Bible, seeing it as something powerless and boring! This is just not true: we worship a God that is ALIVE! He is LIVING, MOVING AND ACTIVE! In fact the Word itself is living:
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
When God created the earth He did so by simply speaking; everything He spoke was immediately brought into existence! There was such an immense power in what He said in order to create something from nothing!
When the Word (Jesus) was living on earth, everything He said was living, active and true! When He commanded Lazarus to “Come out [of the grave]!” Lazarus came out of the grave! The first recorded Words, “Let there be light” were still living and active, not only was light still existing, the true Light, Jesus, was shining in the darkness. The Words spoken at the very beginning of creation were still ringing, are still ringing, powerful and true thousands of years later - even in the form of Christ when he walked on earth - and now in the form of the Spirit shining into our hearts. Hallelujah!
Our words, on the other hand, cannot do that; they have no power. When we speak, “Let there be candy falling from the sky” … it doesn't happen. When we say something is true, even if we bet our lives on it, it may not necessarily true. And in any case, any truth that we speak will only be truth that has already been recorded or has been prophesied; any truth we speak is already established, we can never speak new truth!
But when God spoke in the beginning, something happened, something changed! In the same way, when God speaks to us through His Word, something happens and changes in our hearts!
The Word, living and active, is something that changes us. We cannot meet with a Holy, all powerful God and not be changed. It is impossible to see the glorious beauty of the Almighty and still find the fading beauty of the world attracting. It is like looking directly at the sun for thirty seconds and then walking into a building with good indoor lighting: you are either blinded by the light and see spots all over, or everything seems dim in comparison! How much more when we look the glory of the Son of God who lives in unapproachable light? Who is infinitely brighter than the sun? Whose glory and splendour is the light of Heaven itself?
To bring this all together, let us keep in mind that when we do personal devotions, we must actively ask and seek and knock to meet with God to hear His Word; we must allow His Word to change us - making God an ever greater reality in our lives - and to wash us. Imagine, wouldn’t it be funny if someone sat and read an autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. while he is sitting beside them? Would it not be crazy if Martin Luther King Jr. tried to talk to the person, but the person told him to be quiet because they are reading an autobiography about him?
Though this seems preposterous, many Christians do that with Christ.
Many people have a materialistic idea of what heaven is, and though there are rewards in heaven, the greatest reward is God Himself. Just like the parable of the merchant who sold everything he owned for a pearl of great value, so we should be those who sell all we have to own the pearl of great value (Christ). The relationship you have with Him when you die on the earth is the relationship you are taking with you when you enter into eternity (this is a scary thought!)
Truer than this is Christ Himself, the wealthiest merchant, who left His glory seat in heaven, emptied his treasuries and even sold himself as a slave to humanity - the great cost of redeeming a precious and peculiar people to Himself.
Let us strive to know this God not as words on a page, but as a Living God.
P.s. in writing this, I feel so unworthy that such a depraved and darkened person can even speak about the mystery that is God. I cannot say I understand, or even comprehend, or even begin grasp these things - it is a true miracle that I can even record such a slight impression of God's glory. It is not only a true miracle but also a great mercy that God can use mere man, so ignorant and opposed to him, in such ways. Paul cries, "Who is sufficient for these things?" but it is also Paul who triumphantly writes, "Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers..." (2 Cor 2:16, 3:4-5) Praise be to God, who allows lowly men to to declare such things, things that even angels ponder at, to all creation.
