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Guest Blogger: Dwight Trotter

Today’s Reading: Prov. 23, I Timothy, 5-6, II Timothy 1

II Timothy 1:12
“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”

Hearing Paul encourage his son in the faith, Timothy, this way reminds me of the writings of a famous child psychologist of a generation ago. He had all the right tools, all the tricks and knowledge. He wrote books, and millions of parents followed his advice on how to raise their children. Only one little issue: he had no children of his own. Ever. And after the damage was done to millions of children raised under his indirect tutelage, he admitted that “perhaps” he was mistaken in his approach and methodology. He was a smart guy. He knew a LOT about children; their responses to stimuli, their mental and physical development, how they should be taught. But he apparently didn’t know many children. (I think one of the wisest things I ever heard a psychologist say was that “people are predictable in numbers, individuals are not.”) Paul – this Pharisee of the Pharisees, this to-the-death-Jew-first and anything else second (pre-Christ) – knew a LOT about God. He had by this time probably forgotten more about God and the law than many of us will ever know. He had studied at the feet of Gamaliel, one of only two premier teachers of the law in Paul’s day. To put it into perspective, let’s say he was, for his day, the equivalent of the summa cum laude graduate of Harvard Law, edited the Harvard Law Review, and was somebody in legal, scholarly, and priestly circles. That is, until he chucked it all in favor of a relationship. In fact, he said he considered it all “dung” in comparison to his relationship with Christ. But he doesn’t encourage Timothy to know a lot about God. He encourages his beloved son in the gospel to know God. Huge difference. You see, we can study the Word (and the world around us) and know a myriad of facts about God. When I was born again as a small boy, I studied the Word to know about God. Not a bad pursuit, but off the mark; when I was filled with the Holy Spirit as a young man, I began to study the Word to know God. Now it became personal. Now it was not knowledge, but relationship, that I sought! I believe it was much the same with Paul. After his Damascus road experience, he wanted to know the One about Whom he knew so much, but had never experienced until now! A personal encounter with our personal Savior will leave you with a desire to know Him! Along the way, we no doubt come to know a lot about Him, but this is incidental to our relationship. Our focus becomes the relationship, not a gathering and retaining of facts. To put it another way, when He becomes a He, instead of an it, we have taken a huge step toward knowing Him. We gather facts about its. I can know all there is to know about silica, but I can never know silica, because silica is an it. But that’s exactly the way some people approach God! Yes, He is all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient), and everywhere at once (omnipresent), but those are facts! The important point is that while being all those things, He is a being! So the important thing, the Most Important Thing In The Whole Freakin’ Universe (MITITWFU) is that He is not a thing or an it, He is a being! He is not an “object of worship”; He is the Father Who is worthy to receive our Worship! He is the Son, by Whom and for Whose good pleasure were all things created (including me and you!) He is the Holy Spirit, Who has come to guide us into all truth and to be our Comforter! An “it” can’t love you like that. But a being can, and does! Ain’t God good? When you study, do so because you want to know His heart – to know Him more. You’ll pick up the stuff about Him along the way.