SCRIPTURE: Matthew 11
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
(Read my reflection from 2008)
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. [Matthew 11:27]
Do we really know Who God is?
Do we really know Who Jesus is?
There is so much more to God and Jesus than we could ever fathom.
Every religion in the world has a view of God and Jesus, but all of them are flawed.
I would even go so far as to say that Christianity has a flawed view of God.
Christianity does not reveal God, Jesus does; He is the standard by which we discover God.
Churches are flawed servants, sometimes sincere and sometimes not.
There will always be things among christians that do not fit with Who God is.
People should not elevate their church or pastor’s teaching to the level of absolute truth.
Only Jesus reveals God with absolute accuracy.
We need to continuously review our beliefs about God through the lens of Jesus.
Not only is Jesus like God, God is like Jesus.
But knowing about God and Jesus us not enough.
There is more to knowing someone than having accurate information about them.
To know someone is to have an intimate relationship with them.
Jesus knew God, and God knew Jesus in a close, personal way.
And this is the way Jesus reveals God to us, in a close personal way.
He is not a distant, abstract being, He is our Father in heaven.
This is the key to life, to the real and everlasting kind of life.
If we know God and Jesus in a close, personal way, then we will experience life to the full.
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [John 17:3]
Only Jesus knows God in this close, personal way.
Only Jesus reveals God in this close, personal way.
The better we know Jesus, the better we know God.
PRAYER:
Lord, I want to know You, and God, in this close personal way. Open my heart to this life-filling and life-changing knowledge of You.
A worldly song came into my mind as I read today’s passage -‘To know him is to love him . . . ‘
Three other words also popped up – knowing = loving = doing. To know Christ is more than factual. Even satan knows all about Him. But to know also means to love. The Bible says ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love is the summary of the Word. The gospel in one word is LOVE – love God; love man. When this happens there is a true relationship – a revealing of one to another.
All this culminates in doing. John did. I must. I am His and He is mine and His banner over me is love. Therefore as John came to Jesus for reassurance I too must come to Him and He will supply all my needs as I live and work and do all in His presence. What a Saviour!
I must follow His call – His voice and live as His child today.
Thank You Father.
We are children of the King,
And His praises we will sing,
As we journey to our home above—
His banner over us is love!
Refrain
Marching! Marching!
With happy hearts we onward move;
No foe we fear, with our Captain near—
His banner over us is love!
He, the glorious Son of God,
Hath the way before us trod;
Over every foe we’ll conqu’ror prove—
His banner over us is love!
Refrain
Fearless in our Leader’s might,
Strong to do and dare the right;
We will journey to our home above—
His banner over us is love!