Tag: HOW TO KNOW GOD

Getting to Know God: The Encounter with I AM

Read: Exodus 3:1-15

After a long hard day of caring for the sheep, he is tired and hungry. In lightened happy version, Moses sees a fire in the distance. A guy sits at a campfire roasting hot dogs and making smores. The stranger invites Moses to share in the feast. They ended a great evening of companionship singing Kumbaya. Moses walks away, thinking of the nice little visit he had with the nice man.

However, the biblical version of this event is not a friendly campfire. In Exodus 3, the fire of the holiness of the God of the Universe is burning and it is hot! Getting to know God can be uncomfortable.

God’s timing is unique. He reveals Himself to an old shepherd who has seen better days. While in his prime, Moses’ future held great promise. Raised in Pharoah’s Court, Moses was privileged, bright, articulate and brash. Impulsive Moses took on the cloak of a revolutionary. By murdering an Egyptian, he rebelled against the oppression of his people, the Israelites. However, none of his people joined the cause. Moses flees for his life. By Exodus 3 he is broken. Why would God want to know him?

If asked the identity of Moses, the Israelites during this time would probably all ask, “Moses??? Moses who?” But God thoroughly knew who Moses had become, the man who matured during all those years while tending stupid sheep. Moses’ pride evaporated a long time ago. When people arrive at the end of themselves, this is when God can finally work. This is the time to get to know God.

Nothing gets past God. His timing is always right. This is not a comfortable, feel-good God. You can understand the terror of Moses when he hears: “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” Who is this God?

Moses not only wonders, “Who am I?” he asks God, “Who are You?” God answers, “I AM.” Those two words describe the God of eternity. “When used as a stand-alone description, I AM is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence. God’s existence is not contingent upon anyone else. His plans are not contingent upon any circumstances. He promises that He will be what He will be; that is, He will be the eternally constant God. He stands, ever-present and unchangeable, completely sufficient in Himself to do what He wills to do and to accomplish what He wills to accomplish. (Gotquestions.org)

Is this the God you know and acknowledge every day of your life? Do you wake up with joy knowing that God is eternally present in your day? When you are exhausted, do you choose to still obey and serve the completely sufficient God? God doesn’t care about all your inabilities; God just requires that you offer yourself unreservedly to Him. God wants you to know Him.

Maybe you will not be leading millions of people out of captivity, but regardless of the challenge you can courageously get to know Christ. After all, I Am is the eternally constant God. His plans are much bigger than a comfortable little campfire. Before this God we take off our shoes, lay prone, and offer up our hands in obedience. What a God to know!

God chooses the most unlikely people to get to know Him and to serve in incredible ways. Unlikely? Yes! But not unwilling. Read about: Mary Slessor, a millworker. Christiana Tsai, who said, “My bed is not a prison, but a training school; the Holy Spirit is my mentor, and my visitors are my homework.” Hudson Taylor, the father of modern missions. Get to know the I AM!

GOD IS NO “BAD ACTOR”

I don’t know why Mr. R. instigated his reign of terror. He had great power to do good and evil in my life. He was a “bad actor”.

I was systematically emotionally kicked in the teeth by Mr. R., my junior high math teacher. Every time we had class, he loudly humiliated me. He delighted in the numerous occasions I gave the wrong answer. I recently saw a classmate I had not talked with for decades. Unexpectedly, the guy brought up Mr. R. and asked, “Why do you think he did that? It was awful!”

DEFINITION OF “BAD ACTOR”

I don’t know why Mr. R. instigated his reign of terror. He had great power to do good and evil in my life, yet he made every class an incredibly painful experience. Mr. R. never looked out for my well-being. Mr. R. was a “bad actor”: “an individual who engages in harmful activities, often with malicious intent.”

GOD’S CHARACTER

Exodus 34:1-14 begins with God again writing out His law for His people. However, this time, God adds some additional lessons about His character. This differentiates Him from the Egyptian idols: “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth (faithfulness); keeping mercy and lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”  God is no bad actor.

THEY STILL DON’T KNOW WHO GOD IS

At this point, most Israelites still do not understand Who Jehovah God is. Just a few months previously, the Israelites were miraculously expelled from the culture which worshipped about 1,500 deities. The Egyptian false deities were bad actors straight from hell. Relationships with these idols were strictly transactional; not relational. Those who revered them were illiterate in Truth. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. (Isaiah 45:20)

THE INVITATION TO KNOW HIM

In contrast, Jehovah God invites His people to know Him. Not just know about Him, but to experience His heart. He wants to prepare His people for the dangerous journey they are going to undertake both to Canaan and throughout Canaan. God wants them to deeply know Him.

WATCH OUT!

The wickedness indwelling the land the Israelites are traveling to is beyond imagination. It is a virulent contagion of sin. So dangerous, that God reminds the Israelites that if the Israelites became like the Canaanites, the same evil would overtake both the Israelites and their generations yet unborn. Watch yourself so that you do not make a covenant (solemn agreement, treaty) with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a [dangerous] trap among you. For you shall not worship any other god; for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His].  

GOD WILL NOT BE CHEATED

God is jealous when a person gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him. The compassionate, gracious, slow to get angry God Who overflows in loving kindness and truth will not be mocked. He will not be cheated by those He redeems. If you are a believer, you belong to Him and Him only. Get to know the One Who loves you.

INVITATION TO KNOW HIM BETTER

God has never been and never will be a bad actor. J.I. Packer wrote: “Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.” A Bad Actor sought to teach me math. He only taught me failure. Choose to learn from the best. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:17)

KNOWLEDGE IS A WONDERFUL THING

What brings more joy, delight and contentment than anything else? Knowledge of God

I don’t know everything. As a substitute teacher, I certainly don’t know all about computers. Recently, I had trouble with my laptop and needed to ask for help. Now the fella was very nice, and very patient with me, but it still was awkward and humbling asking him for help. My helper was a second grader. (You may now laugh) So, I thanked him, and I moved unto the next challenge. Knowledge… what a wonderful thing.

WHAT ARE WE MADE FOR?

To have knowledge of computers can be helpful in pursuing lifetime goals, but there is another kind of knowledge that surpasses all of that, the knowledge of God. J.I. Packer published a book called “Knowing God”.  He wrote, “What were we made for? To know God.  What aim should we set for ourselves in life? To know God.  What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God (John 17:3). What brings more joy, delight and contentment than anything else? Knowledge of God (Jer. 9:23-24)”.

A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE

Knowing God is a life changing experience. It’s greater than knowing facts of the birth of Jesus, where He was born, how He got to the inn, and the manger He slept in. A general set of knowledge pertains to only knowing facts about Him. The best set of knowledge is to know Him as your Savior; to have a personal relationship with Him.

A PERSONAL VS. TRANSACTIONAL RELATIONSHIP

I know my dentist and my wife. The one I trust with my teeth (a transactional relationship), the other I trust with my thoughts, my ideas, my heart (a deeply personal relationship). It says in Philippians 3:10-11: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. Becoming like him in his death and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Knowing Christ is profoundly personal, trusting Him with much more than your teeth!

THE CHOICE

So, which is it, head knowledge or heart knowledge? Do you know God because the two of you have an intimate relationship? Knowledge is a beautiful thing, it can get you out of a jam when you’re stuck on your computer (assuming you know the right 2nd grader) or it can put you in a relationship that will bring you assurance, love, and hope for eternity. Remember, “What were we made for? To know God.  What aim should we set for ourselves in life? To know God.  What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God (John 17:3). What brings more joy, delight and contentment than anything else? Knowledge of God (Jer. 9:23)”. You and I were made to KNOW God.

WHAT WAS GOD THINKING OF?

God’s Chosen People didn’t want to know God. They just wanted a smooth, painless and easy brief excursion.

You think you have it bad? God (on purpose) called Moses to the worst job ever. Moses is 80 years old, feels like a failure and can’t even speak a sentence without stuttering. Rewind it back forty years when Moses was hot to trot. Now, the fire has burned out. If Moses went to a career counselor they would probably suggest he be a greeter at Wal-Mart (not that there is anything wrong with that position).

What was God thinking of?

Not only does Moses feel unequipped, he called to lead a group of people famous for consistently whining, complaining, and rebelling against Moses’ leadership.

What was God thinking of?

It took culling an entire generation before the Israelite people were finally ready to enter the Promised Land. This journey should have taken a few weeks. It took them forty years. This is the slowest exit strategy ever.

What was God thinking of?

He was thinking must more of heart preparation than comfort level. God’s Chosen People didn’t want to know God. They just wanted a smooth, painless and easy brief excursion.

What was God thinking of?

“The healthy Christian is not necessarily the extrovert, ebullient Christian, but the Christian who has a sense of God’s presence stamped deep on his soul, who trembles at God’s word, who lets it dwell in him richly by constant meditation upon it, and who tests and reforms his life daily in response to it.” (J.I. Packer)

God wants His people to KNOW Him.

“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10