The God We Can Know
Doug Tegner
The God we can Know. Or, how well do you know God?
When we think of knowing God, we are using a verbal formula. What does that mean??? A special sort of emotion? Shivers down the spine? A dreamy floating, another world type mysterious experience? An intellectual thought and mind game? Does it mean one hears a voice... sees a vision...does into a trance?
TO KNOW someone is more complex than knowing an object. Knowing God can seem more complex than knowing a person. The more complex the object the more complex the knowing of it.
To know a living thing, we typically know its past history. But we really need to know that person's likely responses and reactions under different circumstances.
Contrast: Knowing a horse with knowing a person. I know how it behaves is usually found out in a few days of riding, seeing it handle itself and seeing it in action.
But what is knowable about a horse in a few days or a few good rides, is minor compared to knowing a person.
People cover up. They do not show everybody what is actually in their hearts. You might spend months and even years in regular company with another and still say...I don't really know them.
Or we describe our relationship as knowing them... 'well' 'real well' 'inside out' 'just acquaintances' ...determined by how much they have opened up to us and we to them.
J. I. PACKER THUS, THE QUALITY AND EXTENT OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THEM DEPENDS MORE ON THEM THAN ON US!
Our knowing someone else is more DIRECTLY THE RESULT OF THEIR ALLOWING US TO KNOW THEM THAN OF OUR ATTEMPTING TO GET TO KNOW THEM.
When we meet, our part is to give them our attention and interest. From that point, it is they, not we, who decide whether we are going to know them or not.
Imagine you are going to be introduced to someone whom you feel is 'above you' whether in rank or skill or status. The more we are conscious of our own inferiority, the more we shall feel that our p ...
Doug Tegner
The God we can Know. Or, how well do you know God?
When we think of knowing God, we are using a verbal formula. What does that mean??? A special sort of emotion? Shivers down the spine? A dreamy floating, another world type mysterious experience? An intellectual thought and mind game? Does it mean one hears a voice... sees a vision...does into a trance?
TO KNOW someone is more complex than knowing an object. Knowing God can seem more complex than knowing a person. The more complex the object the more complex the knowing of it.
To know a living thing, we typically know its past history. But we really need to know that person's likely responses and reactions under different circumstances.
Contrast: Knowing a horse with knowing a person. I know how it behaves is usually found out in a few days of riding, seeing it handle itself and seeing it in action.
But what is knowable about a horse in a few days or a few good rides, is minor compared to knowing a person.
People cover up. They do not show everybody what is actually in their hearts. You might spend months and even years in regular company with another and still say...I don't really know them.
Or we describe our relationship as knowing them... 'well' 'real well' 'inside out' 'just acquaintances' ...determined by how much they have opened up to us and we to them.
J. I. PACKER THUS, THE QUALITY AND EXTENT OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THEM DEPENDS MORE ON THEM THAN ON US!
Our knowing someone else is more DIRECTLY THE RESULT OF THEIR ALLOWING US TO KNOW THEM THAN OF OUR ATTEMPTING TO GET TO KNOW THEM.
When we meet, our part is to give them our attention and interest. From that point, it is they, not we, who decide whether we are going to know them or not.
Imagine you are going to be introduced to someone whom you feel is 'above you' whether in rank or skill or status. The more we are conscious of our own inferiority, the more we shall feel that our p ...
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