We can know God. In fact, we already do (Romans 1:18-20). We can look around creation and perceive his intelligent design behind all that’s made. Miracles abound—whether the cry of a newborn, the mystery of affection between lovers, or the powers of the ocean being held back by a mighty hand so happy humans can delight in the surf.
There’s more to this world than materials—there’s a Maker shaping them all, shaping us all into a complex story called Life. Both nature and our conscience cry out—testifying to God’s existence and urging us to worship and adore him.
God is not interested in hide-and-seek. Instead, he says, “I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain’” (Isaiah 45:19 NIV). He wants us to find him, to know him, and to worship him.
So he spoke. He spoke for a long time through many ways (Hebrews 1:1-2). He revealed himself to men and told them to record his words. And over centuries, his gentle hand wrote his story and preserved it in the Scriptures—until the day he decided to enter the story he had written.
God sent his only son, who entered the world in the person of Jesus. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20 NIV). This means that God the Son was pleased to wrap himself in human flesh, to come dwell among us—but for a specific purpose.
He came to tie heaven and earth back together. Long ago, God had to withdraw his immediate presence, for he is holy and good and could not dwell with we who are evil at heart (Genesis 3). We refuse to believe we are creatures. We ignore all evidence of our Creator. We hate his laws, and cannot perceive his goodness. We would rather not know him. So God initiated.
He sent his Son to make peace, and to make a way for us to know him again. But first, he had to deal with our sin, so that he could dwell with us. So God sent Jesus, his only Son, to come down in real time and history (approx. 33 AD.), to absorb the punishment that we deserve on a cross. He did this so that we could receive the blessing of knowing God personally, having all our sins forgiven—if we will turn from our sins, trust in Jesus, and follow after him.
God has spoken most clearly to us through Jesus. And Jesus commissioned some of his disciples to serve as witnesses to record what he did and taught—we have this record in the New Testament in our Bibles. These men, who we call Apostles, have told us in Scripture that we can know God, and hear his voice, when we read the words of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21).
We can know God through the book of nature, but we will misinterpret what we are seeing until we open the book of Scripture and find where God has introduced himself. And if we are patient readers, we will finally come to read about Jesus, who has made God known to us.
We can hear God when we open up the Bible, but to believe him and to know him is a gift he must give, but also welcomes us to ask for it. For he says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13 NIV).
Ask God to make himself known to you today. Then delight in the adventure of opening up your Bible every day and getting to know your Creator.
by Bibles.net
