"Knowing God"
May you have the power to understand
how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God's love is.
Ephesians 3:17-18
A well-known speaker began his sold out seminar by holding up a $100 bill. In the room filled with over 300 people, he asked, “Who would like this $100?” Hands shot up all over the room. He said, “I am going to give this $100 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He crumpled the dollar bill up. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air. “Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” And he placed it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with the heel of his shoe. He picked it up, now the bill was not only crumpled, it was dirty and its edges were torn.
The speaker held it up once again and asked, “Now who wants it?” All hands went into the air. The speaker smiled as he said, “You all have learned a very valuable lesson today. No matter what I did to the money, you wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $100. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, ground into the dirt, and torn by the decisions we make and circumstances that come our way. We end up feeling worthless and unloved. But no matter what happened in your past or what will happen in your future, you'll never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or torn - you are priceless and loved."
________________________________________________________________
There is absolutely nothing you can do to make God love you more
and there isn't anything you could do to make Him love you less.
________________________________________________________________
Within every person is a ‘love tank'. At birth, these tanks are empty. This emptiness drives us on a spiritual quest for unconditional love. On this journey, some look for love in all the wrong places and experience broken trust. The Achilles’ heel of the human heart is trust. When we trust the wrong person it can almost destroy us. Then we may vow we’ll never trust again. Yet, the human heart longs to trust and to be trusted. To be loved and accepted.
Some of us have experienced abandonment or neglect which created barriers in our ability to trust. Some of us were abused by those who claimed to love us. Because of this, we may have a perception of God being one more who says he loves us, but has the potential of becoming another source of pain. This results in a fear based view of God being unapproachable... distant... judgmental... someone to be afraid of and avoid. The truth is this: You can be the best person the world has known. Yet, those you love might never give the acceptance and love your heart longs for... but God will. He is trustworthy and the source of the unconditional love you've been looking for. God's love isn't a romantic love, but a love that is "you" centered. God loves you not in spite of who you are, but because of who you are. The Bible records in Psalm 139 how well God knows you, “You know me inside and out, You know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before You.”
1. You reference the Bible. Is it a credible source?
God is on a mission to reach every person with His unfailing love. To help accomplish this goal the Bible was written. Even though the Bible is the best selling book of all time, its authenticity has been challenged throughout the centuries in spite of the fact it’s 2,000 prophecies were fulfilled exactly as predicted. This is an awesome ratio for correct prophetic fulfillment. Only divine intervention, using ordinary men as the writing vessels, could produce the flawless complete revelation of God’s truth without any contradictions or prophetic failures.
Josh McDowell, an author and former skeptic, offers this compelling explanation of the Bible's credibility: “The Bible meets the minimum requirements for being a book coming from God, it also contains powerful evidence of having a divine origin. This can be illustrated by the magnificent unity of the Scriptures. When the implications are considered, the unity of the Bible gives us a reason for believing it to be a supernatural book. Consider this: If you selected ten people living at the same time in history, living in the same basic geographical area, with the same basic educational background, speaking the same language, and you asked them to write independently on their conception of God, the result would be anything but a united testimony. It would not help if you asked them to write about man, woman or human suffering, for it is the nature of human beings to differ on controversial subjects. However, the biblical writers not only agree on these subjects but on dozens more. They have a complete unity and harmony.”
The Bible can be compared to a love letter filled with examples of God's sincere acceptance, genuine caring, and heartfelt love for the people listed there and for those in the future who would come to know Him. This makes the Bible the most important book in learning the truth about God and his love for you. Here are a few Bible verses about God:
• God is Love: "Love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)
• God is Creator: "God created human beings in his own image." (Genesis 1:27) "God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we see and the things we can't." (Colossians 1:16)
• God is Truthful: "Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is true." (Rom. 3:4)
• God is Gracious: "A merciful and gracious God, slow to get angry, full of unfailing love and truth." (Psa. 86:15)
• God is Forgiving: “If you, God, kept records on wrong-doings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit.” (Psalm 130:3-4)
• God is Passionate: "God is passionate about his relationship with you." (Exo. 34:14)
________________________________________________________________
There is absolutely nothing you can do to make God love you more
and there isn't anything you could do to make Him love you less.
________________________________________________________________
Within every person is a ‘love tank'. At birth, these tanks are empty. This emptiness drives us on a spiritual quest for unconditional love. On this journey, some look for love in all the wrong places and experience broken trust. The Achilles’ heel of the human heart is trust. When we trust the wrong person it can almost destroy us. Then we may vow we’ll never trust again. Yet, the human heart longs to trust and to be trusted. To be loved and accepted.
Some of us have experienced abandonment or neglect which created barriers in our ability to trust. Some of us were abused by those who claimed to love us. Because of this, we may have a perception of God being one more who says he loves us, but has the potential of becoming another source of pain. This results in a fear based view of God being unapproachable... distant... judgmental... someone to be afraid of and avoid. The truth is this: You can be the best person the world has known. Yet, those you love might never give the acceptance and love your heart longs for... but God will. He is trustworthy and the source of the unconditional love you've been looking for. God's love isn't a romantic love, but a love that is "you" centered. God loves you not in spite of who you are, but because of who you are. The Bible records in Psalm 139 how well God knows you, “You know me inside and out, You know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before You.”
1. You reference the Bible. Is it a credible source? God is on a mission to reach every person with His unfailing love. To help accomplish this goal the Bible was written. Even though the Bible is the best selling book of all time, its authenticity has been challenged throughout the centuries in spite of the fact it’s 2,000 prophecies were fulfilled exactly as predicted. This is an awesome ratio for correct prophetic fulfillment. Only divine intervention, using ordinary men as the writing vessels, could produce the flawless complete revelation of God’s truth without any contradictions or prophetic failures.
Josh McDowell, an author and former skeptic, offers this compelling explanation of the Bible's credibility: “The Bible meets the minimum requirements for being a book coming from God, it also contains powerful evidence of having a divine origin. This can be illustrated by the magnificent unity of the Scriptures. When the implications are considered, the unity of the Bible gives us a reason for believing it to be a supernatural book. Consider this: If you selected ten people living at the same time in history, living in the same basic geographical area, with the same basic educational background, speaking the same language, and you asked them to write independently on their conception of God, the result would be anything but a united testimony. It would not help if you asked them to write about man, woman or human suffering, for it is the nature of human beings to differ on controversial subjects. However, the biblical writers not only agree on these subjects but on dozens more. They have a complete unity and harmony.”
The Bible can be compared to a love letter filled with examples of God's sincere acceptance, genuine caring, and heartfelt love for the people listed there and for those in the future who would come to know Him. This makes the Bible the most important book in learning the truth about God and his love for you. Here are a few Bible verses about God:
• God is Love: "Love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)
• God is Creator: "God created human beings in his own image." (Genesis 1:27) "God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we see and the things we can't." (Colossians 1:16)
• God is Truthful: "Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is true." (Rom. 3:4)
• God is Gracious: "A merciful and gracious God, slow to get angry, full of unfailing love and truth." (Psa. 86:15)
• God is Forgiving: “If you, God, kept records on wrong-doings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit.” (Psalm 130:3-4)
• God is Passionate: "God is passionate about his relationship with you." (Exo. 34:14)
2. How do I accept God's love? Just as a child would... believe and receive. To help you accomplish this, a fresh perspective of God may be required. This is a two-step process. The first step is to know him better by gathering accurate information about Him. As you become familiar with how God describes himself in the Bible, the flawed image you may have of him, which was created by imperfect relationships and those in the Church who may have misrepresented him, will be replaced with the truth. This process is important because limiting God also limits you.The second step is releasing the flawed image you have of God that is based on a foundation of fear. "Love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows we have not experienced his perfect love." (1 John 4:18) The root of fear is the perception of losing control. This creates a powerless feeling. When we "feel" powerless we believe we are at the mercy of those who have power and authority over us. Many think of God this way.
We can't fully explain or understand God, but we can experience Him. A way to experience God is to look at the life of Jesus. The perfect unity between God and Jesus is recorded in John 10:30 when Jesus said, "The Father and I are one." While Jesus Christ was living on earth he perfectly reflected God just as a mirror without distortion reflects an image in front of it. This is called a virtual image, which means the reflected image is a flawless perspective of the object. Jesus impeccably reflected the character and very likeness of God... gentle, compassionate, forgiving, loved all people, mended broken hearts, and restored crushed lives. Jesus, the Son of God, was Born to Love.
Read the next chapter: Born to Love or choose a title below.
Knowing God Power of Prayer Spiritual Warfare Glossary
Born to Love Renew the Mind Crisis Help What Readers Are Saying
Divine Connection Are You a Misfit? Love in Action __________________________________________________________________________________________
Reasons Skeptics Should Consider Christianity by Josh McDowell & Don Steward; 194 words from page 77.
Scriptures quotations taken from the New Living Translation® (NLT) Bible. Copyright © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
CJB denotes scripture quotations taken from the Complete Jewish Bible® (CJB) Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern and used with the permission of Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, Maryland 21029. This Bible is available through Messianic Jewish Resources at: MessianicJewish.net
We can't fully explain or understand God, but we can experience Him. A way to experience God is to look at the life of Jesus. The perfect unity between God and Jesus is recorded in John 10:30 when Jesus said, "The Father and I are one." While Jesus Christ was living on earth he perfectly reflected God just as a mirror without distortion reflects an image in front of it. This is called a virtual image, which means the reflected image is a flawless perspective of the object. Jesus impeccably reflected the character and very likeness of God... gentle, compassionate, forgiving, loved all people, mended broken hearts, and restored crushed lives. Jesus, the Son of God, was Born to Love.
Read the next chapter: Born to Love or choose a title below.
Knowing God Power of Prayer Spiritual Warfare Glossary
Born to Love Renew the Mind Crisis Help What Readers Are Saying
Divine Connection Are You a Misfit? Love in Action __________________________________________________________________________________________
Reasons Skeptics Should Consider Christianity by Josh McDowell & Don Steward; 194 words from page 77.
Scriptures quotations taken from the New Living Translation® (NLT) Bible. Copyright © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
CJB denotes scripture quotations taken from the Complete Jewish Bible® (CJB) Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern and used with the permission of Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, Maryland 21029. This Bible is available through Messianic Jewish Resources at: MessianicJewish.net