Sunday, December 2, 2018

QUESTIONS WITHOUT CENSURE

I have lived over three quarters of a century as I write this. All of my life has been spent with an awareness of a supernatural God with whom I was encouraged to have a relationship through faith, and whom I truly believe I have come to know. My knowledge is still minimal, even though I have spent an entire lifetime informing others how to meet God, and trust God and live for God. In a sense God is enigmatic, unknowable. The incarnation of Christ is an exquisite gift. For suddenly in earth time, invisible God made himself known to humanity by becoming what we are, human. Biographies about Jesus were written by persons who lived with him. Yet since deity inspired them to write, their words became his autobiography. As Jesus lived and taught and prayed, he informed contemporaries and me about eternal and celestial certainties.  He made it clear that he is one of a trinity of persons who comprise God. He called God his father, and taught his disciples to enjoy that familiarity too. He told listeners who believed in God, to also believe in him. His biographers told of hearing God’s voice from heaven announcing that Jesus was his beloved son in whom he was very pleased. Jesus told disciples that he himself was God, and that he and the father are one. He said that being able to see him was the same as seeing the Father. When he knew he was about to die, he promised that he would send another comforter, the same as himself, whom he named as the Holy Spirit who now would not only be with his followers as he himself had been, but would dwell inside them. With the indwelling Spirit, living Christlike lives became a valid opportunity. Being holy as God is holy was once a command, and now became a probability. This assurance is gifted to every person who takes Jesus at his word. He came that we might have life that lasts forever.

I only know about God what he himself has divulged, and that's a library of information.  Even so, I said that my knowledge of God is minimal because the more that I learn about God, the more inquiries arise in my mind. Not questions born from skepticism but rather from interest. God encourages my freedom to ask questions by being ever ready to provide responses. His responses come from my reading and re-reading scripture, and reading other respected students and scholars, and dialoguing with other seekers who can embrace questions without censure.  

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