Something happens overtime. It happens often to Christians after many years of belief. It seems even more prevalent in Christians who have always "gone to church". What is it?
In my experiences I have personally seen and experienced a slow fade. This fade to acquire more and more knowledge about God rather than a knowledge of God. It is a fascination with the knowledge about God versus a knowledge of God.
A famous Christian musician Rich Mullins said it this way, "People don’t read the Bible to know stuff; they read it to know God.”
Jesus said this to the religious elite, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." John 5:39-40
So I began reading John 5 specifically asking, “How does this apply to me?” Go ahead and read John 5 searching for a knowledge of God.
Jesus says to an ill man who is sitting next to a healing pool hoping we will be restored. John 5:6 says, "When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be healed?'" Jesus healed the man.
So, "How does this apply to me?"
Two responses comparing the knowledge about God and knowledge of God.
1.Knowledge about God response: Jesus, God's Son and Son of Man- has authority because of his Father (v30-46), has the ability and power to heal the ill, even when it is against the "Sabbath laws" of the religious elite in Jesus' day.
2. Knowledge of God response: The very core of Jesus' character is a desire to heal (physically, emotionally, and spiritually), so "Do I want to be healed?" "Where do I need Jesus to heal me in my life?"
John 5:25 "Truly, Truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here, when the dead (spiritually) will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." In order to live fully in Jesus' plan for our lives it requires not just an acquiring of knowledge about God, but also a knowledge of God's character an how he wants that character to be part of my life NOW and forever. Hear from Jesus, "...I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd." John 10.
Heavenly Father, through Jesus and the power of your Holy Spirit increase in me a knowledge about you and what you say. Increase in me too a knowledge of you, so that your healing may come to different corners of my life. Help em to develop a healthy balance of knowledge to know who you are and who you want to be through me. In Jesus name, AMEN.
The following devotion from Dr. Dale Meyer's, "Meyer Minute" focuses on the importance of Jesus' work (3/24/2011)...
ReplyDeleteYears ago the late Dr. Oswald Hoffmann was inducted into the National Religious Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame, an honor well-deserved. As I walked with Dr. and Mrs. Hoffmann to the banquet hall, he asked me how the NRB convention was going. “Fine,” I said, but added, “I’ve noticed something here.”
“Oh, what’s that?” he asked.
“
They speak a lot about the Lord’s work but I haven’t heard them talk about the Lord.”
“Is that so?” he said and dropped the topic. So much for my opinion.
Later, the banquet meal over, Dr. Hoffmann stood up to accept his honor and he spoke about Jesus, not a word about the Lord’s work, just about Jesus. He had that vast audience doing aerobics, one minute standing and applauding what he said about Jesus, the next minute they were down, doubled over in laughter at his hearty jokes. His speech provided a glimpse of what St. Paul described, the time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).
So, keep in mind the distinction between the Lord’s work and the Lord. Doing the Lord’s work might help save someone else but doing that work won’t save you. Only Jesus does.