Knowing Who We Know

This week has been awesome, because we’ve spent 8 hours a day soaking in the Word.  We just finished going through a weeklong course on God’s vision for his people, and my brain literally feels like it’s overflowing.  I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have people speaking Truth into my life like this!  I’ve been learning that so much of what I thought I knew was completely upside down.  It’s like my brain is being shaken up and things are finally settling back into place. 

One thing we’ve been looking at this week is the difference between religion and having a relationship with God.  When you look closely at scripture it’s easy to see that God hates religion.  He hates it when people sit idly in church with insincere worship on their lips.  He isn’t looking for more people to fill the pews.  He’s looking for people who want God to fill them with himself.  He wants us to know him, not to have a bunch of doctrines memorized so we can spout them off if anyone asks what we believe. 

I think it’s interesting that whenever Jesus was criticizing anyone, it was usually the religious leaders; the people who thought they were doing all the right things.  He called them whitewashed tombs, because they may have looked good on the outside, but the inside was dead and rotting.  They worked so hard to build up a religious façade, and they missed God’s vision entirely.  Isaiah 29:13 says, "The Lord says, 'These people come hear to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.'"

One verse that has stuck with me this week is Deuteronomy 30:19-20, which says, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.  For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your Fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 

It’s so clear that God wants to give us life.  He wants us to choose him.  He says he wants us to hear his voice. In order to hear someone’s voice you have to be listening and attentive.  You have to be in some kind of relationship.  Otherwise it’s just noise. 

I think it’s pretty easy to determine whether or not you have a relationship with God.  As with any relationship, if you are close to someone, they will have some sort of impact on your life.  If Patrick and had made no difference in my life after 5 years of marriage, it would be obvious that we didn’t have much of a relationship.  The same is true with God.  If you really know him, he will change you from the inside out.  He has so much in store for those who choose him!

Second Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  No one wants to sing praises to someone they don’t know.  In fact, I would say sincere worship of a distant and impersonal god is impossible.  But since we can know God, true worship is possible, and is really the only response we can give!  We belong to God, and he loves us dearly.  He wants us to seek his face and listen to his voice so we can walk ever closer with him.  What an incredible Truth this is!