This past Sunday my wife, Joan, and I were standing in Plum Creek Church singing Kristian Stanfill's song, One Thing Remains. It is an awesome song! I especially love the chorus which speaks of God's love for us, "Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me...". Tears of joy and thankfulness were running down my face as we sang the song. Now this emotional response was triggered because the song resonated with both my knowledge and experience. Sometimes songs resonate with my longings for God and aspirations to be the man He wants me to be for His glory and for my fellow brothers and sisters who trod this globe with me.
As I was thinking about this song, the passage from John 5:39-40 was brought to mind where Jesus says in answer to His critics among His own people, "You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." The Scriptures give us the knowledge/witness of Jesus but in order to really have life we need to come to Him. Jesus draws a distinction between the Scriptures and Himself. But it is not an either/or distinction but rather a both/and distinction. In other words, we need both. The knowledge (Scriptures and Creation (see Romans 1)) and experience (shared life together with (see John 17)) of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So how do we get both knowledge and experience of God? That will be the subject of my next post or two.
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