(Further reflections on “Knowing God”—Sunday 2-Jan-2022)
To know and to be known is God’s ‘recipe’ for a flourishing loving relationship. People can go to church all their life, but if they do not know the Lord and be known by Him and His people, they are merely existing and not living in Christ. They can’t seem to tell others about God’s love as they find it hard to love others (and even themselves). They may say all the right (religious) things, but if they do not have personal experiences with the Lord and communal fellowship with His Body—the church, they do not quite know the Lord and are not known by other members in the Body.
God had made Himself known to us through His revelatory word—Scriptures. He then made Himself known to the whole world when the Word—Jesus, became flesh. Those who read and believed the Scriptures, waited and recognized His birth, had seen Him in person. They have heard His word, touched Him, testified about Him, and proclaimed His messages (cf. 1 John 1:1-10). They were fully having an immersive experience with Jesus. They saw every aspect of His life. The revelatory knowledge of God’s word was no longer intangible, but became tangible and alive. This happened because they had the relationship with Jesus and fellowship with Him and other fellow believers.
Now you may say, “It’s not fair. People who lived in Jesus time had an advantage and was easy for them to believe Him, because they saw all of Jesus’ miracles and witnessed His power.” If you take time to think of it, you will realize how (even more) blessed we are. And Jesus made this point, after His resurrection to Thomas and those who were around, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29).” Picture this, people at that time read the Old Testament, saw God’s word fulfilled through the birth of Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His promise of coming back, and yet there we many who did not believe; many who doubted and stopped half way; many who gave up their faith because of persecution; many who went back to Judaism; and many who would rather have a safe ‘religion’ that allowed them to have business as usual. They don’t want their life to be upside down because of following Jesus. They lost their zeal because they no longer saw Jesus in person as before.
Now you see, at any given generation, people are given an equal opportunity to know God and to be known by Him. The former happens when people truly encounter and experience Him through reading/hearing His word, listening/talking/praying to Him, fellowshipping with Him and His people, testifying what He did, and proclaiming His word (telling others about Him). The latter (to be known by God) happens when people believe in Jesus, live in Him, fellowship with Him and other fellow members of His Body—the church.
Fellowship is tough because people need to open up. People need to “walk in the light” before God and others. Practically, they need to be honest about their shortcomings or areas of darkness or sins with the Lord and others whom they trust. They need to be radical with their sins and have a sincere repentance. They need to confess their sins to the Lord and to one another (those whom they trust, pastors/elders or spiritually matured Christians in the church they are committed and belong to). And when people are not willing to do this, they are existing in the church, but not actually living in Christ’s body. So without experiencing God and fellowship with Him and His (local) church, people will find it hard to know God and to be known by Him—a sad reality of which, I pray and hope that none of us are in.
May 2022 be the year that you truly get closer to Jesus and know Him intimately as well as to get out of your ‘comfy/lazy/auto-pilot’ zone or ‘lie-that-say-I-was-born-this-way’ thinking and begin to make time and space for fellowship with other fellow members of the church on Sunday and during week.
Love and blessings,
—
Pastor Lap
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