Seeing God

There have been several conversations in the past couple of days in which the topic of how do we as men get to know God better has come up.  That is important for us because as we have seen in Deuteronomy 6:5 - 6, we are supposed to talk about what we know with our children, essentially, continually.  In a couple of the conversations the role the Bible plays in getting to know Him was debated.

One of my favorite passages (my kids do not react to that phrase any more - they kind of roll their eyes and say something like, "Dad, you say that about every passage.") is 2 Peter 1:1 - 11.  In verses 3 - 4, we read that through the promises of God, read Word of God here, we become partakers of the divine nature.  How does that work?  Well note the beginning of verse 4 is "For by these..."  By what?  It is stated in verse 3, divine power, glory, and excellence.  The promises of God reveal the nature of God.  How?  When someone tells you they are going to do something for you, how do you react?  If you know them, you know how reliable they are because they have either been faithful to do what they said they would or not.  My dad always told me growing up that a man was only as good as his word.  That is essentially what Peter is telling us here.  We test God by embracing His promises in faith.  When we see Him faithful to those promises, we have learned, or become partakers of that part of His nature.

So essentially when we open the Word, we are coming into the presence of God, because He has chosen to reveal Himself, his nature and character through His Word, His promises.  That amps up the way I interact with the Word.

What do you think about this?  If you are enjoying these please pass them on, and please click the +1 below.

Security?

I have a question.  Been thinking about why men are not moving from milk to meat, and I wonder if, at some level, it has to do with security?

Here is the thinking behind the question.  In Genesis 1:28 we are told that it was man’s job to subdue and rule over the earth.  In Genesis 3:17 – 19, the curse God imposed on man as a result of man’s rebellion against God, we read that the earth essentially will continually fight man in his appointed job.  By the way it is an interesting study to look at the assignments Adam and Eve were given by God and compare and contrast those assignments with the curses that resulted from their disobedience.

It seems that man is now in a situation that he is supposed to be leading, exercising dominion over, but that is continually at odds with and resisting him.  Nothing is working out as it was supposed to.  One result of that, it seems to me, is that men are leading in ways that are broken, and are gaining their significance from the exercise of that broken leadership, rather than from their relationship with God.  Our worth was designed to be measured by our intimate relationship with the creator but has been replaced by the flawed exercise of our leadership over our domain.

As flawed as it may be, we control what we do, at least it seems that way.  But when we are asked to reconnect with the creator we lose that control.  We know how to measure “success” in the domains in which we operate daily.  Asked to enter into a new and unfamiliar domain, such as independently meeting with God through His Word, there is fear of failure, not being in control.  We do not want to expose ourselves to a further failure so we allow others to do the work and tell us what to think or believe.  It is much easier and “safer” than venturing into that territory ourselves.

What do you think?  Am I off base here?

Unknown

Continuing pursuing an answer to the question, “What keeps us from moving from milk to meat?” Maybe the answer is as simple as we do not know how. In Ephesians 4:11 – 13 we are told that the purpose of the gifts given to the Church is the equipping of the saints. In an earlier post we looked at how most of our diet is comprised of predigested Bible, or milk. Rarely do pastors and teachers invest the time to explain to those in their care how they can get into the meat of the Word.

Do not get me wrong, it is not totally their fault. By expectation, tradition, training, and job description, most pastors and teachers are unable to fulfill what is commanded in Ephesians 4. They are expected to visit the sick, not equip others to do so. They are expected to study the scripture and tell us what they found, not equip us to do so. They are expected share profound truths from the pulpit, not equip us to dig them out of the Word ourselves.

One result of this is that most of us involved in the community are consumers of the work that others have done in the Word, milk. We do not know how to do it ourselves because, in reality, no one has showed us how or, in some cases, suggested that we should. Or, if they have told us we should, we have been left to our own devices to figure out how. There are exceptions.

One of the purposes of this blog is to raise both awareness of this and provide some simple direction so that as men we can become meat eaters in the Word of God, and thus become more effective in leading our families. It is really not all that hard. We just need to know how to start. If you are interested in one simple tool that will help you start that process…

WARNING: THERE IS ANOTHER REASON THAT WE STICK WITH MILK. THE ENEMY DOES NOT LIKE IT WHEN WE BEGIN TO EAT MEAT. SO HE WORKS AT STOPPING US. JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT BEFORE YOU…

…click here.