PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: John 8:12-20
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” (John 8:19)
The religious leaders thought they knew God, and Jesus was not like him.
According to Jesus, their understanding of God was ignorant (‘not knowing’).
This raises for me the question, do I know God, and is my knowing healthy?
I need to be honest that I do not know God well, despite theological training.
Not ‘know’ in the bible sense of deep, personal relationship and experience.
I have a whole lot of ideas about God, but it is hard to mesh them altogether.
This is why I find Jesus so compelling, and so helpful to me.
I believe in a Jesus-like God, that God is like Jesus was.
To see how Jesus lives and loves gives us the best revelation of God.
Not just information, but experience; I am drawn in by Jesus’s wisdom and grace.
In Jesus I see a God that loves me, that stoops down to me, that wants to help me.
In Jesus I see a God that suffers and dies to restore me – not one that judges me.
If you want to know what God is like, spend as much time as possible getting to know Jesus.
Moses and Paul point us to Jesus, Jesus points us to God: focus on Jesus!
PRAYER
Lord, in you I see a God that both humbles and helps me in the most loving gracious way possible. In you I see in God a ‘Father’ that I am thankful to call ‘abba’, daddy!
It is incredible how opposed to circular logic the pharisees were, considering how much of the philosophy behind any religion is circular.
Lord, thank you for your absolute truth, and the way that you do not fit into finite understanding!
“15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.” As a human I easily profile and make judgements and it is according to human standards and often I may try and apply biblical standards. But really, it is up to Jesus to judge and he judges by ultimate standards and has true access to all sides of the story. Help me Lord to be gracious and patient, especially with those who are in my opinion walking the wrong way.
Life is not possible without light. Things do not grow in darkness. As plants need light to grow I need to Light of Christ to grow. Jesus is the Light of the world and without that Light I would be ‘living’ in darkness – dead to the world in this life and the next. Spirit of the living God continue to work in my heart as I continue my journey of learning walking in His Light doing His will, growing in Him, my Saviour.
4. Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear;
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
5. Teach me to love thee as thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame–
The baptism of the heaven-descended dove;
My heart an altar, and thy love the flame.