The Architect's Plan
"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10
As we saw last time, the first supplement to faith is "virtue" which we learned means to stand for what is right. Faith demands that we stand, but where we stand is determined largely by what we understand. We may have the best intentions and be completely sincere in our actions, and still be dead wrong. Does anyone care to testify?
Our stand will only be correct when it is based on true knowledge, and God says that begins with knowing He is God and that He will be exalted. That ought to give us a clue to the origin of the problem of pride.
Consider the first two words in the verse above: "Be still...." If we have truly been redeemed, our lives are likely a testimony to the kind of immature activity and excitement that often accompany conversion. We rush off in a thousand directions in zeal that is often misguided.
The modern church (if it teaches individual activity at all) tends to encourage an artificial version rather than one based upon knowledge. While there are certainly exceptions, the general pattern we see in scripture is that God takes a certain amount of time preparing individuals for the work He calls them to do.
This is true as we come to Christ and it remains true as He calls us to each new work. Living out our faith must be rooted in knowing God. To know Him, we must be still.
The idea here is to quit striving under our own assumptions about what is the most logical or reasonable way to proceed. The church desperately needs to learn this lesson. In our time, we have attempted to transform the body of Christ into a smoothly functioning corporate machine modeled after the world's methods rather than God's plan. The results have been disastrous.
Being and doing must begin with knowing God. To walk otherwise, is to walk after the flesh. Such a life may have the appearance of faith, but it is hollow and will ultimately implode. God help us to avoid that trap!
In our busy world, how much time do we spend in stillness? Is it likely that we will know God if we do not cease from our own agendas to pay attention to His? These are questions I ask out of personal conviction. Based on what I see in the lives of many Christians, this kind of stillness is not a priority. They may take time out for R & R, but this is much more. It is for the purpose of knowing God.
It is stillness that opens the door for us to see that Jehovah is God. All of our striving (the opposite of stillness) shifts the focus of our lives, and that eventually gives birth to pride. We may not admit it, but we begin to think and act like we are God. When we do, God becomes our golden parachute. If all else fails, we pass the problem on to God as though He is only around to bail us out when we mess up. If we will be still and know Him first, we will avoid many of the problems we tend to generate for ourselves.
Over and over God told Israel that what He did was so that they would know that He was God. Their deliverance from Egypt, and all that followed were to demonstrate His supreme reign. But those things were not enough.
Have you ever considered that the wilderness wanderings and the captivity were God ordained stillness? Hear the Lord in Deut. 29:5-6 "And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. "You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the LORD your God."
God sanctified a time where he relieved them of meeting life's necessities so they could know Him. Sadly, they quickly forgot those lessons once the entered the Promised Land. We joyfully sing, "To Canaan's land, I'm on my way...." But, do we understand what we are singing? The Hebrew word "Canaan" is the name of Noah's grandson who was cursed because of his father's sin. His name means, "humiliated."
We are on the way to the land of the "humiliated" or humbled, if you will. It is not a land that will be inhabited by the proud and arrogant who insist on making God in their image, but for those who know Him and exalt Him as Lord now.
Are we content just to know about Him, or do we really want to know Him? The answer to that question will make all the difference in our walk. When knowing Him becomes a priority for us, we will "take time to be holy."
The Carpenter's Corner
"Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, 'You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. I know Him; because I am from Him, and He sent Me.'" John 7:28-29
In this passage, Jesus is responding to the crowd's amazement that the Pharisee's were saying nothing about His defense of healing a man on the Sabbath. They think that perhaps the Pharisee's know this is the Christ, but they reason that know one knows where the Christ is from and they know Jesus is from Nazareth..
The text above says, He "cried out." The Hebrew here means to shriek or scream. This is no soft spoken response. You can't really scream rapidly. It takes a lot of breath and energy. This is a loud, slow, deliberate response to their amazement. Go back to the text, and read it that way.
Now that everyone in the room is giving you strange looks, consider what Jesus said to them. He tells them that they know who He is and where He is from, but they don't know the One who sent Him.
God, speaking through the prophet Hosea tells the children of Israel, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Hosea 4:6
The consequences of rejecting the knowledge of God are many but the one noted here should get our attention, "I will also forget thy children." Rejecting the knowledge of God has consequences that extend beyond our own lives. Notice that God does not say they are unaware of the knowledge of Him; they have rejected that knowledge to their own shame and to their own destruction.
It is this message that Christ is proclaiming to the people. Just like their fathers before them, they have become oblivious to the law of God, and God will not take note of them.
Adam and Eve fell because they exchanged the knowledge of God for the knowledge of good and evil. Now Israel is punished for rejecting that knowledge. God's desire was for that first couple to know Him. Knowing Him meant they did not need to know about good and evil. They made a fatal choice. Each time we choose to place our knowledge about God above or desire to know Him, we repeat their error.
Those who know Christ know the Father who sent Him. The difference between knowing Him and knowing about Him, is the distance between the head and the heart. Bible study is important, but it is futile if it does not lead us into a deeper relationship with the Author.
The Foreman's Forum
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints; and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake." Phil. 1:3-6
Paul's writings are full of teaching about knowledge, but this one sums is up for me as well as any. He underscores that effective or fruitful Christian living comes through knowing every good thing which abides in us in Christ. In Christ, we are the repository of God's gifts, plans, purposes, abilities, etc. Our challenge is to grow in the knowledge of that which abides within. That is an awesome thought!
If I had just told you that I put $10 million in your house that was yours to use as you please, what would you be doing right now? Get the picture? God, in His perfect wisdom, has placed within us who believe everything that is needed for us to be useful to Him: for our benefit and His glory. How diligent are we in searching our "house" to uncover what He has put there?
Let's quickly step through Paul's writings to pull together some of the things he says about your knowledge. Your assignment is to identify the scriptures where these are found!
 | Zeal for God must be motivated by knowledge of His righteousness instead of our own. |
| The depths of His knowledge are unsearchable. |
| Knowledge is nothing without love. |
| Improper handling of knowledge can injure others. |
| Real knowledge has its roots in repentance. |
| It is God's desire for all men to be saved, and come to a knowledge of the truth. |
| True knowledge is the model to which our new life in Christ is being conformed. |
| Obedient living causes knowledge to grow. |
| Knowledge will come to an end. |
Obviously, we could do a rich topical study on this subject. But, that is outside the scope of our present venture. What I hope we see is that knowledge is not only a result of faith, its increase is essential for faith to grow.
Paul does offer a warning about knowledge. It comes in a familiar but unusual setting: "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him." 1 Corinthians 8:1-3
That's a nice way of saying, "You don't know as much as you think you do!" Knowledge is not enough. Paul was well aware that he, of all Jews, had a right to boast or think something of himself. He followed the knowledge he had. To his horror, he fought the God he longed to serve. In humility, he dedicated himself to boasting in nothing but Christ alone.
The Carpenter's Toolbox
We have been looking at the supplements to faith that Peter encourages us to be diligent to add to our walk (2 Peter 1:5-8).
Let me repeat: I believe that these are presented in a logical order that charts the path of Christian growth. What I see is a growth cycle that we pass through time and again, growing stronger in faith and more mature in love each time.
Faith and love are the great bookends of the Christian walk. Faith comes to us from God and love is its work in us through each of these important steps.
Knowledge is particularly intriguing to me. At creation, Adam and Eve had, in the company of the Creator, all knowledge. Not realizing what they had, they rejected Him and settled for merely the knowledge of good and evil. It is that knowledge that is at the core of most of the problems we face in our world. The call of the cross, is a call back into fellowship with Him who is Knowledge.
The knowledge of this world is a puzzle to those who view the world from God's perspective. It is easy for us to catch the flawed reasoning of those who draw ridiculous conclusions because they reject the knowledge of God.
Perhaps some of you watched recently as a woman appearing on the "Antiques Roadshow" attributed her survival of cancer to her dedication to collecting antiques. That is absolutely absurd, but the "mind over matter" crowd eat it up. That one could attribute healing to a hobby while ridiculing those who believe that our Creator heals is a real mystery to us - until we understand that they do not enjoy our vantage point.
Of course, we are prone to lose that vantage point in living out our own lives if we are not careful. When we take our focus off the true knowledge of Christ, we find ourselves struggling to understand the events that threaten to overwhelm us. In desperation, we again fix our eyes on Jesus and He lifts us from the stormy sea and calms the water. Our failure helps to teach us to fix our eyes on Him. All that we need, He is.
Of all the faith supplements listed here, scripture seems to major on knowledge. Notice that Peter ends this section of writing by declaring that the increase of these additions to faith will produce the fruit of true knowledge of Christ. Similarly, his letter ends with the admonition to "grow in grace and knowledge."
That is the ultimate aim of the Christian walk: to know Christ fully. In 1 Cor. 13 Paul speaks of the fullness of that knowledge when, in the fullness of time, he sees the glorious reality of knowing fully, just as he is known fully by God.
John expands on this revelation when he writes, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." 1 John 3:1-3
Knowledge will be a thing of the past because we will attain to the full knowledge of Christ and that is knowledge that transcends mere information: it is Life, eternal.
The Chronicles of Christian Skywatcher
Christian Skywatcher has it all figured out. Well, at least he knows what he thinks. He can't really go to scripture and make a case for what he believes: except perhaps to provide some so-called "proof text."
He may have the latest teaching tape on "The Last Days" from this week's favorite TV preacher, but he can't make a defense for what he believes. If you question him, he hands you a book or tape and says, "Check this out for yourself."
He avoids dialogue like a plague and if he should find himself in confronted with truth he can't escape, he becomes defensive. At best, he pleads his case on the basis of feeling or experience. For him, true knowledge is what he knows. If you don't agree with him, he considers you ignorant. He isn't interested in sitting down with God's word and "rightly dividing" it as Paul urges Timothy. He finds accepted procedures of biblical interpretation to be a burden.
The knowledge Skywatcher possesses never challenges his faith. Instead, it becomes his comfort zone. It never requires more of him than he can handle in his own strength. It never takes him anywhere except into territory he has carefully charted.
In short, his knowledge is this world's knowledge. It may take on the appearance of being spiritual, but when you get beyond it's four-color cover, it is chaff. The next gust of pseudo-spiritual wind will blow it away and the latest Christian fad will replace it in an attempt to satisfy the deep hunger that remains.
Skywatcher grows weaker as time passes. The real tragedy is that his lack of diligence may ultimately bring him to the place where he abandons any effort to know the truth.
The church may share the blame for his condition. It may have told him what to believe, but it never discipled him. Few will really nurture him so that he becomes skilled in handling God's word. Simply showing him the pantry is not enough! Teaching is an incredible responsibility with great accountability.
In matters of faith, those who teach the best lead their students in "hands-on" ways. Let us pray that God will call us to diligence in this important task.
The Apprentice's Journal
I am so grateful that I was raised in a Christian home and in a church that was diligent to see that God's word was taught. I learned a lot, but I still wish I had cooperated more with that effort! In spite of that early learning, it would be much later in life before I began to make the transition from learning about God, to knowing Him.
How can one who seeks to be obedient to God tell the difference? I can only speak from my own education at the feet of the Holy Spirit, that what I have written above is true. When we place our confidence in what we have learned about God, pride becomes a real problem. It may be subtle but it is deadly to spiritual growth.
I saw it in an elder of the church when I was a young man when he said, "I've believed what I have believed for 45 years and I haven't changed a thing."
The implications of such a statement caught my attention even then. Here was a leader of the church making a confession that left only two possible conclusions. Either he understood all truth perfectly, or he had not grown spiritually in 45 years. Sadly, I think I know which was true.
He knew the Bible and could quote it chapter and verse. He knew what it said, but for all his knowing he did not have a clue that he might have less than a perfect understanding of the Word. For him, God was defined by what he decided that scripture said and that understanding was closed to further teaching. My prayer is that later in life he began to understand the difference between knowing about God and having a relationship with Him.
Although I could recognize the problem in my youth, later in life I found myself struggling with the same tendency. God help us to know the difference between Truth, and our perception of it. It would be sad for any life to miss that, for that is what the cross of Christ is all about: our reconciliation with the Father. He still calls to us today saying,