The "we know"s of John

 

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 John3-5; Psalm 37


TO CHEW ON: "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true..." 1 John 5:20

As we read 1 John 5, the phrase "we know" keeps popping up. What are the things John told his readers way back in the first century, and tells us now, that "we know"?

1. "We know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments" (1 John 5:2).

[Know here and in its last appearance (in 1 John 5:20) is ginosko which means to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of, perceive, feel, understand.]

2. "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life..." (1 John 5:13).

[Know here is oida from horao which means to see with the eyes, see with the mind, perceive, know, become acquainted with by experience, to see, look, take heed, be aware.]

3. "... we know that He hears us, whatever we ask..." (1 John 5:15)

4. "...we know we have the petitions we have asked of Him" (1 John 5;15).

5. "We know that whoever is born of God does not sin" (1 John 5'18).

6. "We know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19).

7. "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding..." (1 John 5:20a).

8. "...that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true..." (1 John 5:20b).

As I read this list of certainties posed by John, I am again impressed with how the Christian life is a push-and-pull of faith and experience. Notice how our lists of knows (the know of experience) is bracketed by two knows (learning to know, getting a knowledge or perception of).

I ask myself, which of these knows can I declare with confidence? Which do I need to grow in? Most of all, am I progressively advancing in knowing Him (1 John 5:20b)? I do that by buttressing my faith through experience in all the ways John lists.

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to have the confident knowledge of You that John expresses. Above all, help me to know You.


PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 37

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What is "the voice of the LORD" to you?

 "The erection of the Tabernacle and the Sacred vessels"

as in Exodus 40:17-19; from the 1728 Figures de la Bible*

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Exodus 35-40; Psalm 29

TO CHEW ON: "The voice of the LORD is powerful;
The voice of the LORD is full of majesty." Psalm 29:4

The phrase "The voice of the LORD" repeats seven times in this psalm. In this way David draws our attention to God's (Yahweh's) presence, especially in nature where God's voice is over the waters (recalling the scene of creation), breaks and splinters cedars, divides the flames, shakes the wilderness, and causes the deer to give birth. It truly is a powerful, majestic voice.

The Bible speaks of God's voice in other settings as well. God's voice:

• Filled Adam and Eve with terror after they had sinned - Genesis 3:8.

• Gave Moses instructions for the building of the tabernacle, including who he was to enlist to make these things (Exodus 25-31). Though these Exodus passages don’t describe the sound of God’s voice, the content of His instructions is full of technical detail, precise measurement, the knowledge of how to make things, and how to make them beautiful. (with our reading today describing how all these instructions were carried out.) 

• Spoke "still" and "small" to weary Elijah - 1 Kings 19:12.

• Came to the aid of His people - Isaiah 66:6.

• Gave Ezekiel glimmerings of His glory and majesty - Ezekiel 43:2.

• Vanquished a powerful king - Daniel 4:31.

• Witnessed that Jesus was God the Son - Matthew 17:5; 2 Peter 1:17.

The "voice of God," as David uses it here, is actually a literary device called synecdoche: "A figure of speech in which a part of something indicates the whole" - Poetry Dictionary p. 312. It is similar to metonymy which uses an object associated with something to indicate the whole (e.g. we talk of "crown" when we mean "royalty.").

And so, it is not really God's voice per se that we're talking about but God Himself as we envision and experience Him in various ways.

I ask myself, if I wrote a psalm or poem using synecdoche, what part of God would I choose? His voice, or maybe His hands, or heart, or thoughts, or feet?

If I used His voice, what kind of 'voice of the Lord' poem or paragraph would I write? What about you? In other words, how do we view and how have we experienced God?

Has our view of Him been affected by how our society sees and portrays Him--distant and disinterested? Limited by the evil around us? A prudish potentate who doesn't want us to have any fun? A soft grandfatherly figure who, in the end, will welcome us all into heaven because we've done the best we could?

Or does our view of Him reflect how the Bible portrays Him? Are we open to see and know Him in new biblically based ways?

PRAYER: Dear God, I think my concept of who You are has been affected by my culture and its portrayal of You.  Help me to experience You as the holy, righteous, powerful, majestic, creative, glorious etc. etc. deity of the Bible. Amen.  

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 29

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

* Photo attribution: By illustrators of the 1728 Figures de la Bible, Gerard Hoet (1648–1733) and others, published by P. de Hondt in The Hague in 1728 - http://www.wcg.org/images/b2/_0303160501_038.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9416912

Scars

Image: Pixabay

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 41, 42


TO CHEW ON: "Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: 'For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.'" Genesis 41:51 


Overnight Joseph's fortunes turned around completely. He went from wearing prison rags to fine linen and pure gold. He went from being a prisoner to a powerful vizier, and from responsibility for a few in prison to administering the entire land. He went from having the reputation of a would-be rapist and liar to someone who was wise and trustworthy. In the days, weeks, and years that followed, He went from being alone to having a family.

But the thirteen or so unpleasant years in Egypt left their scars. They are seen in the names he gives his sons. He calls the first Manasseh which literally means "Making Forgetful." It signifies how he can now put behind him not only his time in Pharaoh's prison but his painful family memories: "For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house" - Genesis 41:51.

He names his second son Ephraim which means "Fruitfulness": "For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction" - Genesis 41:52.

It all looks so good for you, Joseph. But beware. For inevitably God will cycle around what you haven't yet dealt with. Is there still infection festering under those scars? How will you react when God ushers those brothers back into your life? Will you be bitter and vengeful, or forgiving?

For this is what God often does — re-introduces the old unfinished business to test our growth, show us our own real selves and where we're spiritually immature, and point out to us where we still have some growing to do.


PRAYER: Dear God, I too have scars left from experiences in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Help me to deal with old issues so there is no residue of bitterness or unforgiveness in my life. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 13

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Exposing darkness

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ephesians 5:5-21

TO CHEW ON: "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." Ephesians 5:11

Mike Leehan in his book Ascent from Darkness, does exactly that (exposes the "works of darkness"). Mad at God after his divorce, he decided to give himself to the dark side. For the next about 20 years he lived as a servant and worshiper of Satan. In his book he tells about that life:

• He describes how he repeatedly cut himself as part of his ritual and fasted to gain spiritual power.

• He discloses his mission: to sow confusion and mayhem within churches. Some of the things he did were carry copies of the Satanic Bible so he could plant them on church premises, seduce women, attend small group Bible studies to introduce unbelief and doctrinal error.

• He tells of numerous incidents when he had spiritual insight into people, sensing their spiritual protection or vulnerability.

• He describes how he felt and acted around Christians. For example, he found it impossible to sit in a worship service and often blacked out when in conversation as he channeled spirits.

• He shows us the terrifying side of spirit possession—the spooky nights filled with demonic phenomena and his ever-present depression and obsession with death. He was preparing to compose a suicide note to one of his kids the day he called out to God at a men's retreat and was miraculously delivered.

Why read such a book? Perhaps it's not for everyone, but it certainly opened my eyes.

• It showed me the fearful price that Satan exacts in loyalty, obedience and servitude.

• It showed how Satan's promises are lies.

• It illustrated, by contrast, the light, life, freedom, and joy we have in Christ—things it's easy for us to take for granted, until we've experienced (vicariously, through reading about it was experience enough for me) what life on the dark side is like.

• It provided an insight into what may be behind many of our society's bizarre and self-destructive behaviours (like rampant suicide, the prevalence of cutting, the spirit of lust that has taken down not only lay-Christians but many pastors too) and gave clues as to how to minister to demonically oppressed people.

• Mike's spiritual zeal for and commitment to the dark side put me to shame as I compared it to my zeal and commitment to Jesus.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the freedom, peace, joy, cleanness and wholesomeness  available to me because of Jesus. Help me to live with a greater awareness of darkness, and to guard myself against it. Amen.

MORE: Why share such a story?

Here, in Mike's own words, is why he told his story:

"I have learned the only thing that evil can take over is darkness. Darkness invades our lives when we shut out the light of God's love. But where there is light, there cannot be darkness. Light pierces darkness and illuminates the truth.

We must realize that we are in a world that is spiritually intertwined. There is more to our existence than the obvious. We must open our eyes to see the spiritual realm, which is very real and very powerful. And we must learn the weapons of our adversary, not only to avoid becoming ensnared by darkness but to be able to reach into that darkness to rescue others, like me, with the light. We are instruments of change. We are powerful vessels carrying an eternal cargo of either life or death.

The reason for sharing my story in this book is to demonstrate the power of God over Satan and to show how merciful a God we have in heaven. To give Him the glory and praise, and to demonstrate the power of love over fear, to show the love our Father has for us, to let God's light expose the darkness—but mainly to facilitate the hope that by reading this story, people might turn to the King of Kings!" - Mike Leehan, Ascent from Darkness, Kindle Location 3462 (emphasis added).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Coming back to earth

"Transfiguration"
By Carl Heinrich Bloch

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 17:1-13

TO CHEW ON: "Then Peter said, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here...'" Matthew 17:4

I am writing this devotion from a hotel room overlooking the lake at Harrison Hot Springs, B.C. Our church women have just had a mountaintop (actually lakeside) experience of our own with meaningful conversations, laughter, walks, times in the pool, too much fabulous food, sweet worship led by talented musicians, interesting workshops, challenging talks from a woman whose passion for God, His word and her marriage is contagious. And so I'm saying with Peter when he was on the moutain with Jesus: "It is good for us to be here."

But the disciples didn't get to stay on their mountain. All too soon the heavenly vision of Moses, Elijah and Jesus faded and "they saw no one but Jesus only" (a sight that for us would still be visional). Sadly, neither do we get to tabernacle here, in this setting with these friends, focusing on the things of God.

Jesus' words to the disciples as they descended the mountain are curious: "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." I'm understanding this to mean, don't talk about what you've heard and seen until you understand it in its larger context.

Perhaps God would say something similar to us as we "come down" from spiritual highs. For the disciples it was a matter of fitting what they had seen into the big picture of who Jesus was, and what He had come to do, which was still in the future. They would understand this transfiguration mount experience far better after Jesus had risen and ascended to God.

For us it may mean that we shouldn't be too quick to analyze, explain, and pigeon-hole what we have seen and heard during times of spiritual intensity. Rather we need to trust that God has done something which we will understand more fully in the context of more time.

It could also mean that we shouldn't dissipate spiritual energy and enthusiasm by being all talk. One of the things that fiction writers find is that to talk too much about a work-in-progress is to shift the balance of creative energy so that the deep driving need to tell the story is no longer there. I sometimes wonder if, when we talk a lot about a spiritual turning-point, we do something similar — short-circuit living it out because we feel, as we talk about it, that we've already done it.

Let's instead have a Mary-heart that watches and ponders God's initiatives with us. Let's neither build them up nor trivialize them but be open and watchful for what He will do in us and through us us now and in the future as a result of what we have heard and seen.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for special times with You. Help me not to dissipate the energy of these times with only talk, but watch how You will use them in ways I don't yet foresee. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.