Indagatio Veri

There are so many verses in scripture that talk about 'knowing' God; but in our western culture there is a common misconception about what these versus connotate.  Generally, when we hear or read the word 'know', we consider it to be an intellectual knowledge; and belief we consider to be an intellectual assent to a truth statement. Yet this is not what the scriptures allude to.  In many passages we bring in our 'western' understanding of the word 'know', but really knowing God means an intimate experience with Him.  It is the same kind of knowing as a husband and wife 'know' each other, a sexual knowing.  To know God so intimately that sex is the closest metaphor we can give to describe it. The actual definition is : ginṓskō – properly, to know, especially through personal experience (first-hand acquaintance). 1097 /ginṓskō ("experientially know") is used for example in Lk 1:34, "And Mary [a virgin] said to the angel, 'How w...

            We need the presence of God!! Sadly so much of the church does not dwell with the Lord, and many believers cannot recognize His presence. That is why Jesus came and died, so we could be with God! Since the time of Adam to the time of Moses the presence of God was absent from mankind.  From the time of Moses to the time of Pentecost, the presence of God was limited to the Holy of Holies in the temple.  Jesus then gave us access through faith to the father, tearing the curtain that separated us from the presence of God.  Now we can be in relationship with Him and experience his presence.  We are the temple that God now dwells, the Holy Spirit is inside of us!  No one since the time of Adam and Eve has anyone been so close to the father!             Experiencing the presence of God is at the center of what it means to be a Christian.  The mark of a believer is that we have been reconcile...

Luke 15:11-32 Now there has been many sermons and lessons on this passage. It is used for evangelism to help show how God will receive those who have squandered their lives and fallen into sin, it is also used to speak to Christians who are struggling with sin. But there is something else that I think is important for everyone to recognize and learn from. When the son returns he is feeling miserable, inadequate, and unworthy.  He plans to go back to his father and say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Treat me as one of your hired servants."  But when he stands before his father to say the same thing, his father interrupts him before he can finish.  His father is so glad he has come back he doesn't even focus on where he was or how he feels.  The father is not glad that his son feels horrible, he does not feel honored that his son wants to be his servant, he is just overjoyed at his ret...

                 “The God-relationship is the mark whereby love towards men is recognized as genuine love. As soon as a love-relationship does not lead me to God, and as soon as I in a love-relationship do not lead another person to God, this love, even if it were the most blissful and joyous attachment, even if it were the highest good in the lover's earthly life, nevertheless is not true love. The world can never get through its head that God in this way not only becomes the third party in every relationship of love but essentially becomes the only loved object, so that it is not the husband who is the wife's beloved, but it is ... God, and it is the wife who is helped by the husband to love God, and conversely, and so on. The purely human conception of love can never go further than mutuality: that the lover is the beloved and the beloved is the lover. Christianity teaches that such a love has not yet found i...

    Today I had the opportunity to play violin at First Lutheran in Fargo with a small chamber orchestra.  At the beginning of the service I was confronted with a very interesting phenomenon.  The pastor greeted the congregation and then told them to greet each other with the JOY that has been given us.  People turned in their pews, shook hands, and mumbled a soft 'goodmorning', or 'peace be with you'.  This is very similar to what happens in many services but it leads me to ask one question.....where is the JOY???        Jesus died for us! He saved us! We live in freedom for the Kingdom of God!  When we come together to worship Him we ought to be ecstatic. "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be ...

        In the following passage, Bonhoeffer writes about the Christian community in relation to the world?  How should we view the world, and how should we interact within it?  For we are no longer of this world, we live in it but are not of it.  The kingdom we are apart of is from another place.        "The Christians live in the world.  they make use of the world, for they are creatures of flesh and blood, and it was for the sake of their flesh that Christ came into the world.  They indulge in worldly activities.  they get married, but their marriage will look quite different form marriage as the world understands it.  Christan marriage will be undertaken 'in the lord' (1 Cor. 7:39).  It will be sanctified in the service of the Body of Christ and in the discipline of prayer and self-control (1 Cor. 7:5). It will be a parable of the self-sacrificing love of Christ for his Church....

         I have just started reading this book, and already I can tell it will be very challenging and convicting.  Here is a few paragraphs about grace, and the differentiation between what Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace and costly grace.  Generally we utilize the grace of God to justify our lifestyle... but this is not the gospel message.  Rather grace allows for us to follow after Christ, denying ourselves and following him which will include suffering and persecution.  It is costly because as a christian our whole life is given for the purpose of His kingdom.  But it is grace because we are allowed to follow Jesus Christ.         "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without Church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace...