Monday, March 09, 2009

I'm so thankful for His grace

I was just sitting here thinking about the many, many conversations I've had with people over the years that have revolved around God and our relationship with Him. I was thinking about all the ways in which I've been taught by others and the ways in which I've taught. I was thinking of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James and all the other writers in the Bible. All the words that have been shared by them and me and others.

I was thinking about how I've got a lot of doctrine about God. So much of it is really great! I'm very thankful that I have a doctrinal understanding of God and His grace, and that I'm still learning and growing. I was thinking about this, and I was overwhelmed for a few seconds with the wonderful sensation that even with all that I know about God, and even with the way that I've come to know Him personally and relationally, I DON'T HAVE HIM PEGGED, not even for a minute! I don't have Him figured out at all! And that's a good thing.

The truth is that we've been made new creations, and we have a brand new identity in Him, and we are one Spirit with Him. We have a communicative relationship with Him, in which He speaks to us, and us to Him, and He interacts with us, and we can know Him intimately... and it's ALL good!

But yet with all that I know, and with all that you know, and with all that all of humanity knows about God, and with the ways in which people know God intimately... and with all our doctrinal understanding, no matter how true or accurate it is... there is soooo much about God that we either think we know that isn't really so, or that we just plain don't know at all, and we hypothesize and we extrapolate and we articulate and we dialog and we share and we proclaim and we lecture and we listen and we infer and we establish doctrines and so on and so on - you get the point. And all the while, even in the midst of all our God-knowledge and all our God-ignorance, He loves us unconditionally and is full of grace toward us, every single second of our lives!

By all means let's keep up the dialog! Let's keep on sharing and learning and extrapolating and all that good stuff! We can most certainly be bold with what we believe, even with the understanding that we really hardly know a thing about God! He's revealed Himself to us in many ways, and I believe He wants us to communicate all of that with one another. I think what I'm saying is simply that I'm humbled that this wonderful God, who has a billion true and false things said about Him every single day, even from the likes of you and me, continues to love and adore us, and keep us in His limitless grace!

This also gives me humility in sharing truth with others. Holy cow... anything that I know that is true isn't a result of my wonderful thinking powers! He's GRACIOUSLY revealed it to me, and I want to be very gracious and loving in my sharing with others. I want to speak with clarity and boldness, and with great patience, kindness and love... and always with my heart and mind open to what God has to say to me through others, even if that means it penetrates and cracks open my own preconceived ways of seeing and understanding things.

8 comments:

  1. Joel,
    Beautiful post! Thank you for this excellent reminder to live in a spirit of humility, always knowing that whatever I know about Papa Jesus Holy Spirit, has been GIVEN to me as a delightful Gift through Him alone. I so desire to always keep this in mind, in my living, words, and actions.

    Love what you said here, my friend:
    "And all the while, even in the midst of all our God-knowledge and all our God-ignorance, He loves us unconditionally and is full of grace toward us, every single second of our lives!"

    Amen!

    Blessings,
    ~Amy :)

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  2. Reminds me of a movie that I like, called 'Conversations With God'. The one line that most sticks out in my memory is spoken when the main character is asked if God could say one thing directly to us today, what would it be? He quickly responds, "You've got Me ALL wrong."

    I love that line! I'm finding that it's been SO true in my own life!

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  3. "I so desire to always keep this in mind, in my living, words, and actions."

    Well said, Amy! My sentiments exactly. :)

    FS,

    In all of my "unlearning" and "relearning" in the past 10 to 15 years, I've definitely found that to be true! Even when I shed some of the junk and learn some really great new things, that are (hopefully) based in the truth, I find that I still really know very little. It's wonderful that He reveals Himself to us in the ways that He does, but even in a million lifetimes we would never have Him figured out!

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  4. I want to speak with clarity and boldness, and with great patience, kindness and love.

    You already do that, Joel! Just continue doing what you are doing...

    And yes, like you said, we don't have to have everything figured out, but whatever He has revealed to us by His grace, I am grateful for that. It reminds me of a statement Jamie made in her recent post:

    I don't have to have all the right answers; I am IN TRUTH.

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  5. Bino, yep those are very good words... we are in truth, so we don't have to have everything figured out. This also speaks to me in regards to the last part of my blog post. I need to keep in mind that my brothers and sisters in Christ who don't always see things the same way as I do are under the same truth - Jesus Christ Himself - and it's not up to me to set them right. :) Keeping up the dialog is a great thing, and we can allow each other to be free when we see things the same way or not.

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  6. Dangit Bino that's what I was gonna say...

    Joel, Like Bino said, "You already do that, Joel! Just continue doing what you are doing"...
    Best
    Leonard

    ps. carefull what you wish for.

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  7. Aha... yep Leonard, good advice!

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