IT’S WHO YOU KNOW

“But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace.”  (Ephesians 2:4-7 NIV)

When it comes to spiritual knowledge, it's not what you know but Who you know.  I experienced the value of knowledge that is up close and personal during the 1996 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees.  The cleanup pitcher for the Yankees, John Wetteland, is a close friend and gave my son and me tickets to attend a game in Atlanta.  Because we knew John, his name was the key to untold opportunity wherever we went.  It unlocked a hotel room in a city that was overbooked.  It gained us entrance to the Yankee locker room.  It even provided seats on the team bus right next to Reggie Jackson!  My son, Nathan, and I kept pinching ourselves to make sure the whole experience wasn't a dream.  But it was -- a dream come true.

What personally knowing John Wetteland did for us in Atlanta, intimately knowing Christ does for a Christian in this life -- it opens the entrance to eternity; it reserves a seat in Heaven; and it unlocks the treasure house of God's wisdom. 

-- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in “Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians” 

#6488

FIRSTHAND INFORMATION

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”  (1 John 1:1 NIV)

Are you basing your knowledge of Jesus on hearsay evidence? Is it based on what you’ve heard a pastor say, or your parents or friends say… or maybe someone in the media or in a book?

Many are willing to say that Jesus was a good man, even a great man, or even a prophet from God. But they stop short of truly being convinced that He is virgin-born, the unique, only begotten Son of God -- God Himself in a man’s body. They stop short of saying He is God’s Lamb, sacrificed for the sin of the world… that He is the risen Lord, the reigning King. Yet God said in Mark 9:7, “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!”

Stop getting information about Jesus secondhand. Get it firsthand by reading God’s Word. Get to know Him for yourself. 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”

DOING WHAT JESUS SAYS

It is easier to be smart than to be good. You don’t need to know more from the Bible; you just need to do what you already know. We don’t become doers on our own, of course. As we read the Scripture, we ask the Spirit to help us understand what to do in response, and the intersection of what the Scriptures teach and how our lives unfold will give us a never-ceasing stream to actually do what Jesus says. And when we forget, another chance will come along.

I was picking up a prescription one Saturday afternoon before a church service, and because I was in a hurry, I had called the night before to make sure it would be there. But when I got there, the man behind the counter told me it wouldn’t be ready until the next week. Apparently there was a mix-up between the medical people, the insurance people, and the pharmaceutical people.

“But I’ve got to have it,” I replied. I was scheduled to leave the United States the next day. “Well, it’s not ready,” the clerk said. “But the automated system told me last night it would be ready today,” I retorted. “There is a flaw in the automated system then,” he told me.

All of a sudden I felt unbelievable anger well inside me. A flaw in the system? I wanted to say, There’s a flaw in you! I didn’t say that, because people from my church might have been around. (That is an occupational hazard of being a pastor.) But with every gesture and tone that I could, I expressed contempt and irritation with the man behind the counter. I didn’t simply feel anger, I wanted to feel it. I indulged it. I wanted to make him feel small. I was amazed at my own ugliness.

When I returned to the church, I opened a Bible in my office and read a single phrase -- “love one another” -- and had to call a friend to tell him there was an inner jerk inside me that’s scary.

Then, after I got back from my trip, I went to the pharmacy to tell the man behind the counter I was sorry for being so irritated and how much I appreciated his help. And I was back in the flow.  

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want To Be” 

#5630

THE DEVOUT STUDENT

“There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another -- showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”  (2 Timothy 3:15-17 The Message)

The devout student is the best of all students.  There are too many who are devout, but not students. They will not accept the discipline of study and of learning, and they even look with suspicion upon the further knowledge which study brings to [others]. There are equally too many who are students, but not devout.  They are interested too much in intellectual knowledge, and too little in the life of prayer and in the life of service of their fellow [human beings].  [One] would do well to aim at being not only a student, and not only devout, but at being a devout student. 

-- William Barclay (1907-1978) in “The Revelation of John” (Vol. II)

#5337

HELPING TRANSFORM LIVES

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is -- His good, pleasing and perfect will.”  (Romans 12:2 NIV)

Having our small group members become 'students of the Bible' is a noble goal, however we can focus so much on Bible knowledge that our small group becomes scholastic and academic rather than life changing.  We become transmitters of information rather than helping transform lives.  Knowledge is important, but knowledge without obedience does not deepen our relationship with Christ.

-- Dan Lentz, Director of the Small Group Network 

#5179

THE GREATEST TRUTH

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  (John 17:3 NKJV)

Knowledge is the truth or facts that a person gains through experience or thought. The greatest truth that a person can possess is truth about God. God doesn’t want us to know merely about Him in our heads. He wants us to know Him personally in our hearts. 

-- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in “Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians”

#4911

WISDOM AND GOOD JUDGMENT

“Wisdom and good judgment live together, for wisdom knows where to discover knowledge and understanding.”  (Proverbs 8:12 TLB)

Have you ever heard the expression, “He [or she] doesn’t have the sense God gave a goose?” It’s talking about someone who doesn’t use any common sense. God expects us to call on Him in times of need, but He also expects us to use wisdom to avoid trouble. If your boat is about to run into the rocks, call on God, but row away from the rocks. It’s the wise thing to do. 

-- Adapted from “God’s Little Book of Proverbs: Timeless Wisdom for Daily Living”


#4405

DON’T KEEP IT FOR OURSELVES

God never gives us anything to keep for ourselves. Whether it is money, insight, or truth, it has to be shared. Jesus said in His great command in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” To those who witnessed His Ascension He declared in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Jesus very clearly let His disciples know that the truth He taught them during the past three years was not to be kept in a personal reservoir of knowledge. They were to give away everything they had received.

-- Charles Stanley in “How to Listen to God”

#4322

THE TRUTH THAT SETS YOU FREE

When I was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison I would traverse the famed Bascom Hill on my way to classes. One day I walked past the Law School and noticed something that surprised me. There, engraved in stone on the corner of the building, were these words, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. -- John 8:32". I thought how nice it was for them to include a verse from Scripture. My conclusion was that if I go to that school I will gain this truth that will set me free.

Being a new Christian at the time, my curiosity got to me. I wondered in what context this verse was said, and by whom. I looked it up and found that Jesus was the one speaking and it was to a group of believers. John 8:31 and 32 (RSV) says, "Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in Him, 'If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free'."

Dr. Os Guinness, in a video called "What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?", stated that "Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Brown were all [originally] explicitly rooted in the Christian faith, and many of them with very open desires to spread and share the Christian faith, and their mottos show it. The most common motto in all the American universities is, 'The truth shall set you free,' but many people forget that that came from Jesus."

True freedom comes from knowing Jesus Christ and continuing in His Word.

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson


#4208

OUR OMNISCIENT GOD

When the Bible teaches that God is omniscient -- that He has complete knowledge -- it is not saying that God is bright.  It is not saying that He is sharp.  It is not even saying that He is a genius.  These are the finite expressions of a people severely limited by space and time.

What the Bible is really getting at is that God knows everything.  No question can confound Him.  No dilemma can confuse Him.  No event can surprise Him.  He has eternal, intrinsic, comprehensive, and absolutely perfect knowledge.

Nothing is news to God.

-- Bill Hybels in “The God You're Looking For” 

#4193

NO WONDER

We understand how storms are created. We map solar systems and transplant hearts. We measure the depths of the oceans and send signals to distant planets. We… have studied the system and are learning how it works.

And, for some, the loss of mystery has led to the loss of majesty. The more we know, the less we believe. Strange, don’t you think? Knowledge of the workings shouldn’t negate wonder. Knowledge should stir wonder. Who has more reason to worship than the astronomer who has seen the stars? Than the surgeon who has held a heart? Than the oceanographer who has pondered the depths? The more we know, the more we should be amazed.

Ironically, the more we know, the less we worship. We are more impressed with our discovery of the light switch than with the One who invented electricity… Rather than worship the Creator, we worship the creation (see Romans 1:25).

No wonder there is no wonder. We’ve figured it all out.

-- Max Lucado in “In the Grip of Grace”

#4159

Editor's Note: Through my website -- DAVID T WILKINSON PHOTOGRAPHY -- I have tried to express some of this wonder that Max Lucado is talking about. Visit www.davidt-wilkinson.pixels.com.

DON’T JUST READ IT… DO SOMETHING

A businessman known for his ruthlessness, arrogance, and religiosity once told Mark Twain he intended to visit the Holy Land before he died, in order to climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud.  “I have a better idea,” Twain said. “You could stay here in Boston and keep them.”

We would rather cogitate on what we do not know than actually do the things we know we ought to do.

Organizations often suffer from inertia.  A company may know they need to improve quality control, so they discuss it, listen to presentations about it, read books, look at state-of-the-art systems -- but never actually get around to doing it. Their problem is one of knowing too much, but doing too little.

Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” (James 1:22 NRSV)

-- John Ortberg in The Me I Want To Be

#3918

THE REAL WORK OF OUR FAITH

Many Christians know a lot more about their faith than they live... What you know doesn't matter until it is what you show. We are challenged in our spiritual journeys to translate information to personal transformation. This is the real work of the faith requiring our personal wills, empowerment by the Holy Spirit, and the encouragement of fellow believers.

-- Larry Malone in UMMen Magazine, Spring 1999

#3877

UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWING

"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. "  (I Corinthians 1:21)

There is a great difference between understanding something about someone and truly knowing that person. Understanding comes through gathering information about the individual. Knowing comes from developing a relationship with the person. Through Jesus Christ we can do more than understand some things about God, we can know God through an ongoing, personal relationship with Him.

Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said,… "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:1a,3)

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson

#3724

A HEART RELATIONSHIP

"No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the LORD', for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.  (Jeremiah 31:34)

As we open ourselves to the new heart that God promises, we find that God has created our new hearts to know God… Jeremiah reveals that God not only offers us a new heart, but that heart has a capacity for knowing the God who created and redeemed it. The new heart can know God's compassionate forgiveness no matter what its formal learning, its social status, its previous record of brokenness.

[We are called] to examine our use of this new heart that God has given us. We begin by asking ourselves if we have acquired information about God only through Bible study, theological books, attentiveness to sermons. If head knowledge is the only knowledge of God we have, we may need a new heart -- one that can teach us in relationship about the God who knows our name, who knows the number of hairs on our head.

-- Elizabeth Nordquist in The Upper Room Disciplines

#3708

DIVINE REVELATION

"Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path." (Psalm 119:105 NLT)


You meet a thousand times in life with those who, in dealing with any religious question, make at once their appeal to reason, and insist on… rejecting [what] lies beyond its sphere -- without, however, being able to render any clear account of the nature and proper limits of the knowledge thus derived,… I would invite you, therefore, to inquire seriously whether such persons are not really bowing down before an idol of the mind, which, while itself of very questionable worth, demands as much implicit faith from its worshipers as divine revelation itself.


-- Theodor Christlieb




#3686

OUR GREATEST NEED

If mankind's greatest need had been knowledge,
God would have sent us an educator.
If mankind's greatest need had been physical health,
God would have sent us a doctor.
If mankind's greatest need had been money,
God would have sent us an entrepreneur.
If mankind's greatest need had been excitement,
God would have sent us an entertainer.
But mankind's greatest need was forgiveness,
so God sent us a Savior.

-- Roy Lessin, adapted


#3501

THE WISDOM OF GOD

"Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe… We proclaim Christ crucified,… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:20b-25 NRSV)

Scripture nowhere condemns the acquisition of knowledge. It is the wisdom of this world, not its knowledge, that is foolishness with God...  The history of philosophy is a story of contradictory, discarded hypotheses...  Many of them have failed to avail themselves of that which would unravel every knot and solve every problem, namely, the revelation of God in Christ as given in the Holy Scriptures.

-- Harry A. Ironside


#3482

FOCUSING ON CHRIST

You could almost believe the apostle had today in mind when he wrote to his young friend, "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.  Turn away from Godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing, have wandered from the faith"  (1 Timothy 6:20-21).

With all of this information and all these options at our fingertips, it is more important than ever that we stay focused on the true God and His Son, Jesus, not allowing ourselves to be sidetracked into areas of false teaching that could prove destructive to our faith.

When you stop to think about it, the key to just about everything lies in focus.

The writer to the Hebrews called it "fixing our thoughts" and "fixing our eyes."  "Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess … Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 3:1; 12:2). In other words, rivet your attention on Jesus.  Lock onto God's Son for dear life. Even when distractions around you seem overpowering.  Even when your heart is breaking.

-- Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton in More Jesus, Less Religion


#3271

WATER INTO WINE

Learned [people] and great scholars have devoted great effort and prolonged study to the Holy Scriptures... employing the gifts which God gives to every person who has the use of reason. This knowledge is good... but it does not bring with it any spiritual experience of God, for these graces are granted only to those who have a great love for Him. This fountain of love issues from our Lord alone, and no stranger may approach it. But knowledge of this kind is common to good and bad alike, since it can be acquired without love, ... and men of a worldly life are sometimes more knowledgeable than many true Christians although they do not possess this love. St. Paul describes this kind of knowledge: "If I had full knowledge of all things and knew all secrets, but had no love, I should be nothing." Some people who possess this knowledge become proud and misuse it in order to increase their personal reputation, worldly rank, honors and riches, when they should use it humbly to the praise of God and for the benefit of their fellow Christians in true charity. St. Paul says of this kind of knowledge: "Knowledge by itself stirs the heart with pride, but united to love it turns to edification." By itself this knowledge is like water, tasteless and cold. But if those who have it will offer it humbly to our Lord and ask for His grace, He will turn the water into wine with His blessing.
-- Walter Hilton in The Scale of Perfection

 
#2771