Good morning,
I hope you are having a good week. There is a thought that has continued to come back to me over the summer. The thought is this, ‘God is a Person and our relationship with Him must be personal.’
What does that mean? It tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is not a set of rules to follow or laws to uphold. He is no less than that, but He is so much more than that.
He is a Person that has thoughts, desires, and a will. To only know Him by a set of commands is to miss the trees through the forest. Christ came to earth and lived as a Person, a sinless Person no less, revealing to us what God is like.
If you have not read the Bible, you will not know much about Him. The only ideas that you will have of the Lord Jesus will be by what others have told you. This is second-hand information which may, or may not, be true.
The Bible was written by God. It is His Book written by His Chosen writers through His Spirit. In it we see how the LORD has acted in history; we are told His thoughts and see His desires.
God’s Word is a love letter written to be read by those whom He “… so loved that He gave His Only Son …” In these pages the love of God is placarded on the cross, for all the world to see.
When I was just out of college my mom needed a heart transplant. She had a rare disease that was damaging her heart. Before she had this ‘life threatening’ surgery, she wrote my brother and I a letter.
Her letter told us the key principles and truths that she wanted to leave with us. My mom wrote it with great passion and purpose. She knew that it could very easily be her final words to us.
The Word of God is like this, but with so much more depth and substance. His Book was meant to be read, studied and lived out. Maybe most of all it was written so that we can know His great love for us revealed in Christ Jesus His Son.
If we don’t read Jesus' love Letter written to us, we will not know much about Him. Worst of all we will only know Him by a set of rules … instead of through a relationship with a Person.
Steve
Good morning,
I hope that everyone is having a good week. Recently I have been thinking about the importance of the character of God. I firmly believe the better you know someone, specifically their character, the more likely you are to trust them.
In other words, as you gain more knowledge of the perfect and pure character of the Lord Jesus Christ, He will become more attractive to you. But it goes even deeper than simply knowing about Him—we can actually know Him by experience.
It is one thing to know about someone; however, it is a totally separate thing to know them personally. You can know about a tennis player by reading about them or watching them play tennis on TV. But that is not the same as being a close friend that talks to them daily. The two relationships are totally different.
It is the same with God. You can know about Him through hearing sermons at church. However, if you never read the Bible, or pray, your relationship will be very distant and detached.
I found this out many years ago. One of my children was diagnosed with bone cancer. It devastated me for many days. One day we were down at Riley Hospital when she had her first chemo treatment. That day I realized that I had to know the character of God.
I would not ever go to church again if our God was a cruel tyrant, or a heartless Being. I took a long walk around the hospital campus contemplating why would God allow, or give, my daughter cancer? Why!?
The more I contemplated the Lord Jesus Christ leaving Heaven to become a man … to be rejected by men … beaten, flogged and crucified on a cross … ALL to save me from my sin … it was easy to see that He was not a cruel or heartless Being!
In fact, He was just the opposite. Our Savior is Merciful, Good, Wise, Patient, and Loving. It was the Cross of Christ that made my walk around Riley Hospital that afternoon so beneficial to my soul.
Since then, my prayer life and Bible study habits have changed greatly. I do them not because I am supposed to … I do them because I must meet with MY Father.
I would encourage each of you to ponder the character of God through the lens of a Crucified Savior. It will change how you pray and read the Bible. “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son …”
Steve
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