So Elohim created humanity in His image; in the image of Elohim He created it: Male and female He created them.
Genesis 1: 27, Concordant Old Testament
I have met many a believer who somehow had never come to know the God they claimed to follow. They know of Him, but do not know Him. Christianity is filled with the stories and scriptures detailing the Lord we serve. Dare I say that God does not want to be known simply as a story. I believe that He desires a personal connection with His children. There, I said it, His children. We are created in the image of our Father. That is, in Gods own image we were created {Genesis 1:27}. How can we have a more personal connection to God than that? But does it end there? Is it simply His likeness which we share? I don't believe that was His intent. A good friend of mine told me some time ago, building off the teachings of the apostle Paul, that when we look in the mirror we see only Jesus {Galatians 2:20}. Now, Jesus Himself has revealed to us that when we see Him as well. Jesus has proclaimed, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" {John 14:9}. So, can we assume that when we look into that mirror we are seeing the Father as well? I would agree with that. Knowing that we are created with the Father in us, we can already see that we have a personal connection with Him and His Son. It was revealed to Paul that Jesus lived in him. Knowing the stories of the man Saul, we can honestly say that Paul was unaware of his connection to the Lord for much of his life. Indeed, this is the way my own relationship with the Lord developed. For much of my life God was a scripture, a story taken from scripture. He was someone I read about yet never knew on a personal level. My own view of the Lord overlapped my feelings for my earthly father, who left the family when I was young. So, growing up, my view of God was a disciplinarian who would eventually leave me. This, of course, was a mistaken viewpoint, but it was the viewpoint of God I was fed. The story goes, if you tell a lie often enough, eventually it becomes the truth. Nowhere is this more on display than in the Christian religion. Religion is just that, a set of beliefs. How many times have you been taught that God is distant from you? Does that jive with the revelation given to Paul?
Besides, He makes out of every nation of mankind, to be dwelling on all the surface of the earth, specifying the seasons and the bounds of their dwelling, for them to be seeking God, if, consequently, they may surely grope for Him and may be finding Him, though to be sure, not far from each one of us is He inherent, for in Him we are living and moving and are, as some poets of yours have also declared, 'for of that race also are we.'
Acts 17: 26-28, Concordant New Testament
When Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus in Athens, he spoke to its citizens of the God he served. That God had created each and every nation of the earth {Acts 17:26-28}. Without a doubt, these people of Athens had heard the stories of the Lord. Yet to many of them they were simply that, stories. What Paul spoke to them was the truth of the One true living God. This is the desire of the Lord, that His children would know Him {John 17:21}. There are times where I wish I had understood my relationship with the Lord better as I was growing up. Yet, there have also been men of the cloth who spent years speaking scripture and still not knowing the truth of His revelation. Perhaps Paul himself lamented not knowing the truth of Christ sooner at some point. I am actually writing this with a future post in mind. Since I grew up hearing scripture and stories of the Lord, did that mean that was all He is? No. It took His revelation in me to discover my intimate relationship in Him. Now the set up question. What of those who have never even heard of the Lord? Heard of His love, forgiveness and grace. Are they damned simply because they have never known the name Jesus? Remember, scripture tells us that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved {Romans 10:13}. I now know the truth of my Father in me.
For His achievement are we, being created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God makes ready beforehand, that we should be walking in them.
Ephesians 2: 10, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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