Knowing God

Scripture

My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

~Philippians 3:10, CSB

Quote

God is so great it will take all eternity to know Him.

~Jonathan Cahn

At age 73 I love to read. I had rather read than watch TV. When I was in school, college and seminary it was the opposite. I loved TV and hated to read. I don’t have a huge library: maybe 300 books and that is a guess. I have read most of them once except for the newer commentaries but I can’t remember one tenth of what is in them. I certainly do not have full knowledge of my tiny libarary. It would probably take the rest of my life just to master this small library and that would be spending 8-10 hours of day studying. I am intimidated by the knowledge that is in print; it is awesome. I learn new things everyday and yet the more I know, the more I realize “I don’t know much.” My ignorance is infinite. There is a limit to what I know but no limit to what I do not know. I cannot explain it; my desire to learn and to know is much greater now than it was when I had to capacity to remember what I read. Think of what I would know if I had a mind like Jasons. I called him a few weeks ago and asks, what did I last preach on at DBC and it told me in a flash. I didn’t remember, June didn’t remember but he recalled it in a heartbeat. I have to make notes and then make notes to find the notes. I can go back and read a blog that I wrote a year ago and it is like reading another author because I don’t remember writing the blog.

Of course I am running out of time on the school thing. I am taking an online course from Hillsdale right now and I have my sights on another but why didn’t I do this 30 years ago? Now I don’t have time to learn all that I want to know. Cahn says, “God gives us eternity so that we have time to know Him.” Of course there is no TIME in eternity which is an oversight on Cahn’s behalf but I think I know what he means. God is so great, He is so awesome, we can’t possible get to know all there is to know about Him in a life time, or one thousand life times. We know a few simple things: We do know that He is God and He created us–we did not create Him. We know, as Paul said in Romans 5,  how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. We even know that all things work together for good to them who are called according to His purpose. Of course the word translated know in the OT {Adam knew Eve} refers to intimate knowledge. To know not simply by fact but to know through experience. I can say this for sure: God is good. He is gracious, merciful and kind. I live because He is merciful and I like Paul, want to know Him more intimately.

Extra

We finally got enough rain to make a little mud. I don’t think we have gotten an inch but we have had several light showers. I praise the LORD for the showers and the cloud cover. It wouldn’t bother me a bit for it to remain cloudy all week.

Our neighbor, Polly James, was promoted Saturday evening. Edith Long, Polly’s sister is also have a difficult time with a knee. Peggy Lindsey is fair. Physically, she is better but her spirit is very low. Virginia Penny fell the other day and she is at Decatur Morgan Hospital and not doing well at all. She is on the verge of being 99 years old. Gregg and Traci should get to come home today if the second harvest goes well. Lord willing, I will be in Athens tomorrow for my cousins COLS. There is no telling who all I am forgetting. My prayer list is a mile long. PTL Chloe Bug tests were successful and she is on the way home. She will get to eat and I know she is thrilled about that: I am sure her dad will let her pick the restaurant. Joyce Chaney was actually having a pretty good day on Saturday but she continues to lose weight.

I am not at all sorry to see July go and I hope today is an indication of what August will be like. Enjoy your day and have a great week.

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