September 2014

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"Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3: 11 - 12


Knowing vs. Believing

 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  John 1: 12-13

             On her memory verse quiz over the above verse this week, a fourth-grader wrote "to those who know His name."  She was puzzled and questioned me when I marked it wrong.  "No, "I gently explained, "A lot of people know His name, but that doesn't mean they believe in His name.  There's a big difference."

            I should know.  For many years, I was one of those people.

            Churched all my life, I can't remember not knowing His name.  As a child, His name was as familiar as my mother's cornbread and beans and apple pie, or the look and smell of my father's white, paint-spattered overalls after work each evening, or the aroma of the garlicky spaghetti sauce he simmered for us on weekends.  Jesus was the man in the framed sepia print I saw in the church vestibule every Sunday.  I had, of course, heard a lot of stories about him, and knew Him to be kind and welcoming, even to little children, which made me happy.  I grew up in the 60s and 70s, so Jesus' long hair and beard made me think of him as a peace-and-love hippie of sorts, which I thought was pretty cool.  It caused no end of confusion for me that the church people I knew frowned on young men having long hair and beards.  Huh?  But what about that picture in the church vestibule?  Anyway, I've always known facts about Jesus, but that didn't mean I was a believer. 

            Doctrine never saves anyone.  Only Jesus can do that.  Because I knew, I mistakenly thought I believed, but it just wasn't so.  What a dangerous misperception!  For many years, thinking I knew, kept me from true belief.

            It took a lot of failures on my part, a lot of hurt and heartache for myself and others, and a lot of wondering why I just couldn't live up to what I said I believed for me to finally become a seeker whose seeking led to true belief.  But oh, the good news is, God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, want to be found.  They want to reveal themselves to us!

            In ancient times, Job had as many misperceptions about God and religion as I did.  Job was a very religious man, but God didn't want religion from Job, He wanted belief.  And so, after all of Job's complaining, God asked Job a few questions.  Following are just a few:

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell me, if you know so much.

Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? 

What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  Job 38: 4 - 7

            God's piercing and poetic questions go on and on, and I urge you to read them in their entirety.  They're extraordinarily beautiful in their revelation of God's character. After hearing what God had to say, Job replied:

I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.  Job 42:5

            Yes!  God is God and I am not.  Job and I both learned that.  God is not like us, and that is a very good thing.  Job and I both crossed over from knowing about God to believing in Him.  Thank you, Lord, for inviting us to see You with our own eyes!

       

Daye Phillippo

September 2014

 

Following is a link to a Third Day song about seeing.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_e3aJLRsdc