THAT'S A TRICK TITLE BECAUSE NO ONE BUT GOD CAN FATHOM OR COMPREHEND GOD FULLY OR EVER WILL.
Suffering Job was asked: Canst thou by searching find out God (Job 11:7). Is your God too small? It is impossible to figure God out or to peg Him or confine Him to your specs. People tend to label Him with human descriptions just like Luther told Erasmus: Your thoughts of God are too human. God is no Republican, not a member of the Evangelical Right, not a Baptist, not a politician, in fact, we can never label God or fit Him into our group. God is no respecter of persons and doesn't take sides in our sports games.
Our goal in life is to know Him and to make Him known, which is the essence of our faith. The person who can really boast is the one who knows the Lord, not the rich, wise, nor mighty one (God is no bully!). People think of God the way they are and that is why Voltaire said that man created God in his image! Thales, the first of the Greek philosophers was challenged to describe God. After three days he admitted he couldn't. What the skeptic will tell you is that if you can describe God to him maybe he'll believe. We must come to God in faith and be willing to go where the evidence leads and God convicts us with no conditions. The point the skeptic will not understand nor accept is that if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus because He's the very icon and express image of God.
It takes a leap of faith (into the light, not the darkness) but this is the only way to know God and the person must realize it will cost him everything he's got (the ownership of his life and surrender to God's will); however, not believing will cost more (suffering the wrath of God forever). People who want to know God say they are searching for God but they are searching for the benefits and not the Benefactor. The only real way to know God is by accepting Him on His terms and by experiencing Him in a daily walk. We actually begin our search to know God at salvation; it doesn't end there.
People like to put God in a box, like thinking of Him merely Santa, as the man upstairs, the Spirit in the sky, Father Time, the Celestial Policeman or Killjoy, and even when we see Him as our Heavenly Father we are still putting Him in a box if this is the limit of our knowledge and we only see Him in that capacity, not as our Judge, Ruler, Advocate, or Provider. Actually, Father is the covenant name for God for Christians and unbelievers have no prerogative to call Him that. We all long for something and are on a quest for something to satisfy the inner emptiness and vacuum in our soul but just knowing God exists doesn't satisfy, we must have an existential encounter with Him and knowing Him in a relationship--that's why He's called a personal God because He gets personal and is a person we can relate to.
We must learn to think big and outside the box, if we are to know God. It's not how big our faith is but how big our God--that's why we must strive to know Him for who He is and not have any presuppositions. Knowing God boggles the mind and blows us away as well as challenges and enlarges the intellect. God-talk or theological discussion and conversation was the hobby of every seventeenth-century gentleman. We find out soon enough that God is no vapor, essence, principle, force, nor influence but a person like us and that is why we are in the image of God and of all creatures alone have the capacity to relate to and communicate with God. God became a man in order that we may have something to relate to and see God with skin on and Jesus is merely perfect God and perfect man in one person. Even the believer realizes he can never define nor confine God but understands the basic principle: the finite cannot contain (grasp) the infinite.
The Christian is not excused from knowing about God though this is a prerequisite for knowing Him, he learns to turn knowledge about God into the knowledge of God. Even the gospels don't attempt to describe Jesus but to make Him known. The Christian realizes in His walk that it's the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, the purest ethics, the highest science, the most fulfilling and abundant life. The believer realizes that he's not presenting a creed but a person and that is the point when one knows Him; it's not a to-do list nor a rulebook, but a gateway to the Way (the Higher life in Christ whereas one has found ultimate fulfillment and a richer life than ever dreamed or imagined). His goal, according to Richard of Chichester, is to know Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and this is done by following Him more nearly (for the essence of the Christian ethic is to follow Christ, i.e., become a disciple)! Everything we need to know of God is revealed in Jesus as God's icon! We must realize the wisdom of Plato: If I want to know how to live in reality, I must know what God is really like. I say amen to Plato on this!
The keynote of God is love which defines Him. "God is love." Those who love and know love know God for God is love. But if we say we know God and do not obey Him we lie. The test of our faith and knowledge of God is our obedience (we obey the law of love), not our portfolio or real estate! We cannot know God by our wisdom and we cannot find nor know Him apart from grace. The world by wisdom cannot know God! He must be revealed to us and we must be illuminated and have our spiritual eyes, as well as the eyes of our hearts, opened. The closer we grow to God the more He infects our minds and fills our thoughts--we find our destiny, purpose, and meaning in Him. But what keeps us humble is that we didn't find God--He found us first and we would never have searched for Him had He not first found us! He hides and will only be found by diligent searching with one's whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, but he will indeed authenticate Himself to anyone who does search earnestly.
I am not writing from some inside track as if I had a vision or special revelation, I've practiced what I've learned and the more we do that the more we learn and experience with God is the best teacher. We don't want Him to be nearly a theory or idea! We acquaint ourselves with God to have inner peace and prosperity. Spiritual riches are the most fulfilling, not materialistic ones or the love of the things of the world and what it offers. We will find that the more we get to know God and put it into practice that we will grow in our love for God. But we must realize that we can even get A's in theology class and not know our God! It's not a matter of information, for the Bible wasn't written to increase our knowledge but to change lives! The ultimate result and proof of our relationship and salvation and the whole point is conversion or change. We never qualify, earn, nor deserve to know Him and can never be good enough, only bad enough to need Him--the qualification is to realize one is unqualified.
We all want an infectious, contagious faith. Some people try to do things backward--they reform their lives or turn over a new leaf, but the change must come from the inside out for Christ didn't' come to make bad men good (goody-goodies) but to make dead men alive in Christ. Christians are the ones most alive and living not existing because Christ lives in them. Remember this one thing though, we will never fully understand God's nature (i.e., His deity, trinity, sovereignty, glory, and majesty) but will always be humbled throughout all eternity by our increasing knowledge of the Divinity. God's personhood is a mystery in Jesus for no one will ever figure out the kenosis (emptying of Himself in His incarnation ) nor the dual nature in one personhood of Christ.
Every system of thought or philosophy that doesn't start with Christ is bogus! He is our beginning and ending! That's why the Bible begins: "In the beginning God...." This statement is not just an introduction or opening line, but the essential doctrine to all doctrine and worldview--i.e., we start with God and explain the universe, we don't start with the universe and explain away God! In sum, God is the perfect Being that is above and beyond anything imaginable and needs no improvement and cannot become anything less--if you knew all about Him you would beg to have a relationship with Him. Soli Deo Gloria!
Suffering Job was asked: Canst thou by searching find out God (Job 11:7). Is your God too small? It is impossible to figure God out or to peg Him or confine Him to your specs. People tend to label Him with human descriptions just like Luther told Erasmus: Your thoughts of God are too human. God is no Republican, not a member of the Evangelical Right, not a Baptist, not a politician, in fact, we can never label God or fit Him into our group. God is no respecter of persons and doesn't take sides in our sports games.
Our goal in life is to know Him and to make Him known, which is the essence of our faith. The person who can really boast is the one who knows the Lord, not the rich, wise, nor mighty one (God is no bully!). People think of God the way they are and that is why Voltaire said that man created God in his image! Thales, the first of the Greek philosophers was challenged to describe God. After three days he admitted he couldn't. What the skeptic will tell you is that if you can describe God to him maybe he'll believe. We must come to God in faith and be willing to go where the evidence leads and God convicts us with no conditions. The point the skeptic will not understand nor accept is that if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus because He's the very icon and express image of God.
It takes a leap of faith (into the light, not the darkness) but this is the only way to know God and the person must realize it will cost him everything he's got (the ownership of his life and surrender to God's will); however, not believing will cost more (suffering the wrath of God forever). People who want to know God say they are searching for God but they are searching for the benefits and not the Benefactor. The only real way to know God is by accepting Him on His terms and by experiencing Him in a daily walk. We actually begin our search to know God at salvation; it doesn't end there.
People like to put God in a box, like thinking of Him merely Santa, as the man upstairs, the Spirit in the sky, Father Time, the Celestial Policeman or Killjoy, and even when we see Him as our Heavenly Father we are still putting Him in a box if this is the limit of our knowledge and we only see Him in that capacity, not as our Judge, Ruler, Advocate, or Provider. Actually, Father is the covenant name for God for Christians and unbelievers have no prerogative to call Him that. We all long for something and are on a quest for something to satisfy the inner emptiness and vacuum in our soul but just knowing God exists doesn't satisfy, we must have an existential encounter with Him and knowing Him in a relationship--that's why He's called a personal God because He gets personal and is a person we can relate to.
We must learn to think big and outside the box, if we are to know God. It's not how big our faith is but how big our God--that's why we must strive to know Him for who He is and not have any presuppositions. Knowing God boggles the mind and blows us away as well as challenges and enlarges the intellect. God-talk or theological discussion and conversation was the hobby of every seventeenth-century gentleman. We find out soon enough that God is no vapor, essence, principle, force, nor influence but a person like us and that is why we are in the image of God and of all creatures alone have the capacity to relate to and communicate with God. God became a man in order that we may have something to relate to and see God with skin on and Jesus is merely perfect God and perfect man in one person. Even the believer realizes he can never define nor confine God but understands the basic principle: the finite cannot contain (grasp) the infinite.
The Christian is not excused from knowing about God though this is a prerequisite for knowing Him, he learns to turn knowledge about God into the knowledge of God. Even the gospels don't attempt to describe Jesus but to make Him known. The Christian realizes in His walk that it's the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, the purest ethics, the highest science, the most fulfilling and abundant life. The believer realizes that he's not presenting a creed but a person and that is the point when one knows Him; it's not a to-do list nor a rulebook, but a gateway to the Way (the Higher life in Christ whereas one has found ultimate fulfillment and a richer life than ever dreamed or imagined). His goal, according to Richard of Chichester, is to know Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and this is done by following Him more nearly (for the essence of the Christian ethic is to follow Christ, i.e., become a disciple)! Everything we need to know of God is revealed in Jesus as God's icon! We must realize the wisdom of Plato: If I want to know how to live in reality, I must know what God is really like. I say amen to Plato on this!
The keynote of God is love which defines Him. "God is love." Those who love and know love know God for God is love. But if we say we know God and do not obey Him we lie. The test of our faith and knowledge of God is our obedience (we obey the law of love), not our portfolio or real estate! We cannot know God by our wisdom and we cannot find nor know Him apart from grace. The world by wisdom cannot know God! He must be revealed to us and we must be illuminated and have our spiritual eyes, as well as the eyes of our hearts, opened. The closer we grow to God the more He infects our minds and fills our thoughts--we find our destiny, purpose, and meaning in Him. But what keeps us humble is that we didn't find God--He found us first and we would never have searched for Him had He not first found us! He hides and will only be found by diligent searching with one's whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, but he will indeed authenticate Himself to anyone who does search earnestly.
I am not writing from some inside track as if I had a vision or special revelation, I've practiced what I've learned and the more we do that the more we learn and experience with God is the best teacher. We don't want Him to be nearly a theory or idea! We acquaint ourselves with God to have inner peace and prosperity. Spiritual riches are the most fulfilling, not materialistic ones or the love of the things of the world and what it offers. We will find that the more we get to know God and put it into practice that we will grow in our love for God. But we must realize that we can even get A's in theology class and not know our God! It's not a matter of information, for the Bible wasn't written to increase our knowledge but to change lives! The ultimate result and proof of our relationship and salvation and the whole point is conversion or change. We never qualify, earn, nor deserve to know Him and can never be good enough, only bad enough to need Him--the qualification is to realize one is unqualified.
We all want an infectious, contagious faith. Some people try to do things backward--they reform their lives or turn over a new leaf, but the change must come from the inside out for Christ didn't' come to make bad men good (goody-goodies) but to make dead men alive in Christ. Christians are the ones most alive and living not existing because Christ lives in them. Remember this one thing though, we will never fully understand God's nature (i.e., His deity, trinity, sovereignty, glory, and majesty) but will always be humbled throughout all eternity by our increasing knowledge of the Divinity. God's personhood is a mystery in Jesus for no one will ever figure out the kenosis (emptying of Himself in His incarnation ) nor the dual nature in one personhood of Christ.
Every system of thought or philosophy that doesn't start with Christ is bogus! He is our beginning and ending! That's why the Bible begins: "In the beginning God...." This statement is not just an introduction or opening line, but the essential doctrine to all doctrine and worldview--i.e., we start with God and explain the universe, we don't start with the universe and explain away God! In sum, God is the perfect Being that is above and beyond anything imaginable and needs no improvement and cannot become anything less--if you knew all about Him you would beg to have a relationship with Him. Soli Deo Gloria!