Knowing God. ( 4 ) ( 2 Timothy 2 v 15 )

Abba sang a song called ,'Knowing me - Knowing you', God knows all bout  me, and all about you, but you and  I do not know all about God, and we never will.I commend to you a book written by A.W. Tozer ,called ,'The knowledge of the Holy', It is not a big book , but it has much to teach us about our wonderful God,which we would all benefit from.God has revealed to us so much in His word,but by no means  everything as regards Himself.The old saint Richard Rolle said,' God is of infinite greatness, and then he adds,'more than we can think'. There is much we can know about God,which are known as His divine attributes, we should acquaint  ourselves with these truths.Sad to say many don't, I would that every child of God would to get to know God as revealed in His word. It was William Tyndale who translated God's word into English  said,''I will defy the Pope and all his laws, if God spare my life, I will make a boy that driveth the plough ,know more of the scriptures than thou dost''.His translation would enable people to have an understanding of scripture,we are very fortunate to have the scriptures in our language,but the challenge is,that we may understand God's word.In so doing we will get a greater understanding of God,it was the apostle Paul who wrote to the church in Thessalonica, that he did not want them to be ignorant or uninformed as to the second coming of Christ ( 1 Thess 4 v 13.We will continue this next time.

                                               Ignorance about God is not bliss.

Knowing God. ( 3) ( Romans 8 v 12 - 16 )

 'There is a way back to God from the dark paths of sin ,there is a door that is open and you may go in ,Calvary's cross is were you begin ,when you come as a sinner to Jesus'. The moment you go through that door all is changed,you have entered a whole new relationship with God. No longer are you on the  outside, .you are now in the family God ,He has become your loving heavenly Father. In 1 John  3 v1 we read,'  Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God'. Now you know God ,and it is very personal,in fact there is a word for addressing God in the Bible for Father,it is  Abba, Vine  writes the following,' It is a word used by infants which expresses unreasoning trust', another writer says it has the meaning of obedience,we are privileged and blest to be children of God,that means intimacy, that means we are loved beyond words. Yet it brings  with it obedience, in fact when we address God using the term Abba, we are saying I will obey you.We will continue this next time ,but I leave you two verses of a hymn by  Ann Gilbert.

                                             Great God! and wilt Thou condescend

                                             To be my Father and my Friend?

                                             I, a poor child, and Thou so high,

                                             The Lord of earth and air and sky.

                                             Art Thou my Father?Let me be 

                                             A meek  obedient child to Thee,

                                             And try, in word and deed and thought,

                                             To serve and please Thee as I ought.

Knowing God ( 2) ( Ephesians 2 v 1 - 10 )

 Knowing God it is possible , but many things get in the way, now consider that there  is only one God and one Saviour CP Isaiah   45 v 5,22/ 46 v 9/  John 14 v 6 /Acts 4 v 12. If you are going to know God you need to accept these truths ,for the God of the Bible is not just another one of many, likewise the same could be said of Christ.. Next we must accept that we are sinners (Romans 3 v23 ) everyone of us, no matter how young we are, how old we are, we are sinners, which separates us from knowing God as Father, CP Ephesians 2 v 12. We only become His children when we trust Christ as Saviour, who through His death on the cross,enables us to have our sins forgiven. It is generally very hard for most people to accept the extreme gravity of their sinful condition.Consider the meaning of the words that our Saviour spoke,'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'. Matthew 5 v 3. It means that we  acknowledge ones spiritual bankruptcy, until we acknowledge that fact, we will never know God. I will continue this next time,but I will leave you with the words of a hymn  by Augustus M. Toplady.

                                                            Nothing in my hand I bring,

                                                            Simply to Thy cross I cling;

                                                            Naked, come to Thee for dress,

                                                            Helpless , look to Thee for grace;

                                                            Foul ,I to the fountain fly;

                                                            Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

Knowing God. ( 1)( Matthew 18 v 1 - 5 )

A  Trappist monk , that is an of silent order of monks wrote the following,''Twenty- one year I have prayed and meditated  with monks of the abbey, hours and hours of the day and the night.  And yet , was God alive for me?.Was he real and living for me. I hope that I do not  shock and scandalize  anybody, really He was  unknown to me''. It was J I. Packer who wrote a book called ,'Knowing God',  yes the good news is that God can be known.,in the most personal way. It is our dear Saviour who declared ,'I solemnly declare to you, unless you turn and become like the little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.' ( Matthew 18 v 4)Knowing God starts with a childlike trust,and continues that way, when we forsake that way, we end up like the disciples .Our Saviour sought to answer the question raised by his disciples as to who is greatest in the Kingdom heaven.  You see as Martyn  Lloyd- Jones wrote ,'That the kingdom of God is unlike everything that belongs to this present evil age'. Our Saviour was cutting across their whole idea as to greatness ,it is obvious that they failed to understand this, CP Luke 22 v 24, they would eventually.We will continue with this next time,but I will leave with a verse from a Dutch poem.

                                               Make me ,O Lord ,a little child again,

                                               So tender frail and small,

                                               In self possessing nothing,and 

                                               In  Thee possessing all.

                                        

Home. ( Hebrews 11 v 13 - 16 )

 I was in the kitchen and  started to sing a song to myself,the words go like this,'There's a land that is fairer than day and by faith we can see it afar; For the father waits over the way, to prepare us a dwelling place there. In the sweet by and by , we shall meet on that beautiful shore. We shall sing on that beautiful shore, the melodious songs of the blest, and our spirits shall sorrow no more, not a sigh for the blessings of rest'. I am reminded of the words of a popular song at one time, 'Home,home,sweet sweet home,There is no place like home'.  The saints of old admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. One writer puts it like this ,'People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home'.This world is not the Christians true home,no we look for a better country,HEAVEN. The things that are seen are temporal, 2 Corinthians 4 v 18,In 1 John 2 v v 17 we read,'And the world is passing away, and the lust of it'.we have something better to look forward to,our heavenly home, that land that is fairer than day,and as we enter that home we may hear God saying ,'welcome home'.I will just add this ,we owe it all to Christ our wonderful Saviour our hope of glory.

                                                  Without Christ there is no glory.

One light . ( Psalm 119 v 130 )

I heard these words as I watched a Hobbit movie ,'One light in the darkness/ alone in the darkness.'  It was Jesus who said that a Christian is to be a light ( Matthew 5 v 14).and that this light should not be hidden. Spiritually the whole world is in darkness, for it it lies under the control of the evil one 1 John 5 v19.that he has blinded their minds,2 Cor 4 v 4. Not only that, they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.John 3 v19 .there are no innocents, none whatsoever. You can point out the truth of God to so many people,be they ever so nice,they reject it,how often I have answered my door , to be confronted by you know who, and no matter how much one would point out the truth of scripture it was  to no avail. The words of Rudyard Kipling, describes how I feel,'If you can bear the truth you've spoken ,twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools'.The worlds  darkness is manifested in a million ways,by their actions ,by their words,and by their blind obstinacy. In spite of this we must never forget that that once we were in darkness, but  by God's wonderful grace we have been rescued from the dominion  of darkness . One writer puts it like this , 'Rescued from dark dungeons', Colossians 1 v 13,and brought into the kingdom of His beloved Son'.What are we to do?, we are to shine,by our lives , with our deeds and by our speaking Gods word,, even if we are only one light .

The unexpected. ( Matthew 8 v 23 - 27 )

In Matthew 8 v 23 we read ,' Then he ( Jesus) got into the boat, and his disciples followed him', what was to follow was unexpected,let me say this ,if you follow Jesus, you must be prepared for the unexpected They were on the sea of Galilee  and a violent storm came upon them,it was so violent that it appeared to the disciples that they were going to perish,but in the midst of that storm Jesus slept. The disciples woke him with the words ,'Teacher , don't you care if we drown?', the storms cloud had affected  judgement, whatever storm Jesus brings us into ,He has not stopped caring for us.in 1 Peter 5 v 7 we read 'He cares for us', I know of one minister who was very critical of Jesus , saying that he had put in danger, yes he had brought them  into a storm ,but in essence they were in no danger,they would come through the storm, and they would be rescued from the storm. Jesus did not act straight away,He spoke  then He acted.If you are in a storm,don't panic ,listen to what your Lord has to say to you. Then He acted, and stilled the storm,the disciples were astonished,William Hendriksen comments,'That Jesus was greater by far than they had previously imagined,He exercises control not only over audiences, sickness, and demons, but even  over the the winds and the waves'.