Our overarching theme is know God by knowing and submitting to His Word. DIUR.
We all have a few people around us we think we know pretty well. How about you? How did you get to the point where you think you know those people well? I think there are only two ways: paying attention to their communications to you, and observing their behaviors, historically and with you, over a long period of time. For example, I know my wife well, and I trust her implicitly, because over a period of almost forty years I have been given no reason whatsoever to mistrust her. I always think of her when I hear Neil Young sing the line "I never believed in much, but I believed in you." This is a fascinating subject to me, but I don't want to ramble on about knowing people.
How about knowing God? A more challenging subject, as first you must be alive to Him. According to the Bible, everyone who comes into relationship to God comes from a state of spiritual deadness into spiritual life. To say you know God, it must have happened that at some moment of time in your life, you were "born again" into the kingdom of God (John 3). Subsequently, coming to know God better is much like knowing any other person better. Communication and observation.
There is one God. Does everyone know Him? No. Will everyone ever know Him? No. Are some people who claim to know God fooling themselves? Yes. Are there Christian teachers, who claim to know God, but are deceived or deceivers? Yes. Ironically, one mark of a false teacher is that they often claim that God speaks to them a lot. Truth is, God can speak to anyone He wants, obviously, but in the ages-long history of salvation, direct revelation from God is rare and unusual. God's normal, every day method of revealing Himself is by illuminating our minds as we hear or read His Word. It should be obvious that if someone claims "God told me this," or 'God told me to do whatever," and that message is clearly contrary to what God is known to have revealed (the Bible), then that person is deceived or a deceiver.
So, how do we know God better?
(1) by observing His work in history (Paul wrote that such is one reason God has kept for us the history of His dealings with Israel; cf. I Cor. 10). This is concrete.
(2) By paying attention to His revelation to us in the Scriptures. Also concrete.
(3) By daily relationship to Him, which is real but subjective. I'd suggest these daily experiences must be weighed against means (1) and (2).
You regular readers are aware that we are distracted lately by the false teachings of the movement called "progressive Christianity." The movement is corrupted by a twisted concept of the love of God. Progressive adherents want to believe God is so overwhelmingly soft, soothing and fuzzy that there is no room in His character for holiness or wrath. I can imagine the scene long ago when a minion first suggested this ploy/false teaching to Satan. They may have held hands and danced in a circle, shouting "I love it! I love it! I love it!" Admittedly it is an effective and powerful lie and has fooled lots of people. But to you who have read the Bible at all, it must be recognized as damning and obviously false. Lets remember. When Moses had a glimpse of God, what was his experience (Ex. 33)? How about Isaiah, whose experience was only a vision (Is. 6)? The Jesus Culture band got it right in one of their recent releases, "One Word." Have you heard it? The word is HOLY.
Know God. Read His Word. He'll open up your heart and mind. He will reveal His love to you, but He is much, much, much more.
-David
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