Growing in Relationship
Christian Comment edited by D. Gander
How can we talk about God with those who don't know Him, and perhaps don't even admit He exists? Scientists would need very "solid" evidence to convince them God is real. A skeptical professor of philosophy I met was at least prepared to consider miraculous events as practical "proof". The Bible's miracles of parting the Red Sea, healings, feeding 5000 people starting with a few fish and bread loaves, raising from the dead, and so on, might be dismissed by "natural" explanations; but the professor would admit these miraculous events (if personally experienced and believed) could remove any reasonable doubt about God.
Then he asked me an interesting question. What would it take to convince me God does not exist? Proving a negative is always difficult, but there's another reason I can't conceive of coming to the belief that there is no God. It's as if I met that professor and talked with him, and then walked away and tried to imagine he wasn't there. Having met him, and having known him a little, I could not then deny he was real. I didn't know him well. But I could not with integrity deny he was there, or deny we met and talked together.
Similarly, I cannot now imagine that God doesn't exist. I may not know Him well, and my heartfelt descriptions of Him as Lord and Saviour might mean little to those who have no personal experience of "meeting". They are perhaps put off by the rhetoric of television preachers and loudly religious politicians. Maybe they know me or another Christian well enough to see our obvious faults, and think "this Christian is no better than the average Joe"... which may be quite true, in itself. But my experience of God in Christ has indeed made me better than I once was. And not just me. Everyone who confesses Jesus Christ and shows the fruit of the Word and Spirit of God in their life, however imperfect they still are, shows some personal improvement and are happy to offer their encounter and daily walk with God as the main reason for their growth and change of heart.
And I would carry the illustration further. What if that professor had saved my life, and we became good friends, gradually developing mutual friends? Far from walking out and trying to imagine that person didn't exist, I would instead be looking for times and ways of fellowship.
If this Person is our living, loving God who has designed man to live and grow within His guidelines; if He has given us the desire and ability to know Him as God; and if He has provided through Christ the means of throwing off the wounds of this world: then our love in God and our hunger for His ways may greatly intensify.
Having met this Person whom we eventually come to know as friend, brother, healer, saviour, teacher, and father all in one, we enjoy hearing and speaking about Him with "mutual friends" who have met Him and have come to know Him. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, part of the family of God with thousands of years of faithful ancestors. And this is a family of adoption more than blood lines. So we seek to share the "good news" of this largely unknown or forgotten Father with all people, of whatever nationality, cultural background, or personal experience. They may be distant from Him, inwardly wounded, or just seeking this Person without knowing where to look.
Meeting God is inevitable for everyone, in this life or the next. Beyond the personal love involved in this essential relationship, it is greatly to our own benefit and to the well-being of the community that we know Him, and His friends, sooner rather than later. And more deeply, day by day.
How can we talk about God with those who don't know Him, and perhaps don't even admit He exists? Scientists would need very "solid" evidence to convince them God is real. A skeptical professor of philosophy I met was at least prepared to consider miraculous events as practical "proof". The Bible's miracles of parting the Red Sea, healings, feeding 5000 people starting with a few fish and bread loaves, raising from the dead, and so on, might be dismissed by "natural" explanations; but the professor would admit these miraculous events (if personally experienced and believed) could remove any reasonable doubt about God.
Then he asked me an interesting question. What would it take to convince me God does not exist? Proving a negative is always difficult, but there's another reason I can't conceive of coming to the belief that there is no God. It's as if I met that professor and talked with him, and then walked away and tried to imagine he wasn't there. Having met him, and having known him a little, I could not then deny he was real. I didn't know him well. But I could not with integrity deny he was there, or deny we met and talked together.
Similarly, I cannot now imagine that God doesn't exist. I may not know Him well, and my heartfelt descriptions of Him as Lord and Saviour might mean little to those who have no personal experience of "meeting". They are perhaps put off by the rhetoric of television preachers and loudly religious politicians. Maybe they know me or another Christian well enough to see our obvious faults, and think "this Christian is no better than the average Joe"... which may be quite true, in itself. But my experience of God in Christ has indeed made me better than I once was. And not just me. Everyone who confesses Jesus Christ and shows the fruit of the Word and Spirit of God in their life, however imperfect they still are, shows some personal improvement and are happy to offer their encounter and daily walk with God as the main reason for their growth and change of heart.
And I would carry the illustration further. What if that professor had saved my life, and we became good friends, gradually developing mutual friends? Far from walking out and trying to imagine that person didn't exist, I would instead be looking for times and ways of fellowship.
If this Person is our living, loving God who has designed man to live and grow within His guidelines; if He has given us the desire and ability to know Him as God; and if He has provided through Christ the means of throwing off the wounds of this world: then our love in God and our hunger for His ways may greatly intensify.
Having met this Person whom we eventually come to know as friend, brother, healer, saviour, teacher, and father all in one, we enjoy hearing and speaking about Him with "mutual friends" who have met Him and have come to know Him. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, part of the family of God with thousands of years of faithful ancestors. And this is a family of adoption more than blood lines. So we seek to share the "good news" of this largely unknown or forgotten Father with all people, of whatever nationality, cultural background, or personal experience. They may be distant from Him, inwardly wounded, or just seeking this Person without knowing where to look.
Meeting God is inevitable for everyone, in this life or the next. Beyond the personal love involved in this essential relationship, it is greatly to our own benefit and to the well-being of the community that we know Him, and His friends, sooner rather than later. And more deeply, day by day.