Reply To: Knowing God, Chapters 3 & 4

[Lynne Mazza-Hilway]

I appreciate being given an extra week to catch up, not only that I was away and didn’t realize we were continuing to read 2 chapters each week, but reading through and seriously considering all the comments also needs some extra time.
Again parallels in so many areas of my walk, God is amazing how He connects things if we keep atune. We’re exploring our histories in our Bible study, which seems challenging for some, but as Packer states, ” one does not know a living thing till one knows it’s past history.” Of course he’s also applying that to our need to know God/Jesus/the Trinity’s history. “Humans keep secrets, don’t show everything in their hearts” and sadly sometimes people even find it challenging to open up fully to God. “What matters supremely is not the fact that I know God but that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. The width of our knowledge of Him is no gauge of the depth; we can have all the right notions in our heads without tasting in our hearts.” Our part is showing up, drawing close to Him to surrender our attention and interest. He enlists us as colleagues, we’re on His staff. He opens up to us and deals with us.
Which kinda leads to the challenges/questions raised in chapter 4 about whether it’s ok to view images or movies that portray Christ. I totally understand where the danger lies in taking anything to an extreme, substituting reading scripture and communicating with God for His personal revelation to you of His Word and character. But I don’t shorten His hand or power to help me transcend even another’s interpretation of Him in writing. If we get stuck in worshipping the Jesus portrayed in The Chosen, I think that would be a good barometer of where we are in our walk.