Getting to know God! ...

Thursday, June 12, 2014. How do you know something about God? How do you know who God is, what he wants, what he thinks … is it possible? We have a modern discussion today about God being unaccessible. We have a strong stream of thought which thinks that you cannot know about God. Secularism teaches that only the secular things are real, the rest is illusion …

He is God coming to us …

There are other modern streams. Some live in a world full of spiritual things - but not the spirit which the bible describes, but spirits of all different kinds. There are different religions, different beliefs and experiences with the world beyond. It is there!

But the bible teaches that God IS accessible. He shows himself in Jesus - after he showed himself through the words of the prophets and through many mighty events. In and with Jesus we have direct access to God, and we can get to know who God is. Let us read in the Gospel of John, chapter 10:

22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me,1 is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. 40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.

Do you see it? …

Where are you in this discussion, which Jesus had with his adversaries? Are you “one of his sheep”, who recognize him? Or are you one of those who are against him and are upset about his claims? Or you might not be clear, not decided yet. Have a look at his claims - when you first read them, you might come to the point where you think: well, these are quite strong claims! Who is Jesus?

I came to this point in my past, it is now many years ago. I realized how crazy it sounds what Jesus says. But I also realized that his words have something, which is much deeper and clearar than anything else I know. He knows what he is doing, and initially it is beyond our normal daily experiences to realize that God is alife, that he loves every single person on the planet, and that he wants to be with us in all what we do!

The Gospels are a big invitation: the invitation to come to the Lord. They are the invitation: believe in me, in Jesus! They are a beautiful invitation, since they present us the life of Jesus, and it is a great life - short and full of conflict, but also full of love, of truth and of an unparalleled depth and density. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts