We Need To Know God. Period.

“I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. [Malachi 3.6]

What is God saying about Himself here?

He is saying that the reason He has not utterly wiped out His people is because He is good... Look at this scripture found in today's reading and elsewhere about God:

Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. [Joel 2.12]

A huge problem today is that God's people do not know God. Religion has formulated and promulgated some strange ideas about God that simply are not scriptural and, therefore, not true. Any doubt about Who God is renders the would-be believer powerless.

Wrong ideas about God have grown to epidemic proportions - and I am speaking of the Church! Who knows what the world thinks about God - especially if they are looking to God's people to show them what God is like!

Jesus said this in conversation with Philip:

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do. “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. [John 14.8-13]

You see, the problem of not knowing God was just as prevalent in the time of Jesus. However, Jesus was very clear about God's will about His desire to be known by His followers.

If we don't think God is Healer, then we will not recognize Him when He heals. If we don't think God is good, then we won't recognize Him when we see and experience good.

Conversely, if we do not know God is Healer, then we will be hopelessly abandoned to a belief that He hurts us. If we do not know God is good, we will be left to question Him when we experience evil.

The problem here is that these false ideas about God ARE NOT COMING FROM THE WOLRD BUT FROM THE CHURCH! Yes, the Church, by and large - like the religious leadership in Jesus' time, is promoting bad information about God and His character.

And why aren't the bad information spreaders destroyed? Because God "is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love!"

We need to know God (not religion). We need to know God's character (not church doctrine or theology). We so need to know God that our lives reflect Him, as did Jesus, to a confused, lost, and hurting world.

Want a clue how to accomplish this? Go back to a statement found before the opening scripture above:

Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols. May the LORD cut off from the nation of Israel every last man who has done this and yet brings an offering to the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. [Malachi 2.11-12]

There will be no correct estimation and understanding of God as long as idols are given any foothold in our lives. Like Judah's men who married idol-worshiping wives, our lives will be powerless before God if we allow any form or fashion of idolatry to have anything to do with us! There is only one solution: divorce the idols in our lives! Get rid of any source of idolatry in our lives! Remove anything to do with idolatry from our lives! (get the picture?)

We need to know God - the God of the Bible, not the God of religion!

Father, forgive us for not knowing You. Forgive us for allowing idolatry to dilute and render our faith in You powerless. Forgive us for our insatiable quest for knowledge that has elevated itself above the knowledge of You in our lives and in the world.