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06 April, 2014

The Heart of True Understanding

Excerpt from HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD
Timeless Daily Readiness on the Nature of God
 The  Heart of True Understanding  By Sinclair Fergusson, in A Heart For God

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (Proverbs 9:10

What is the most important thing in the world to every Christian? It is to grow in the knowledge of God.

The Knowledge of God is the heart of Salvation and of all true spiritual experience. Knowing Him is what we were created for. It will occupy us throughout all eternity. In the Scriptures, it is almost equivalent to Salvation. Jesus said that eternal life, or Salvation means knowledge of God: “and this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) To be a Christian is not a mindless experience, but involves knowledge and understanding. It means a personal relationship and personal acquaintance with the Lord.

Behind what Jesus says in John’s gospel lies the promise that God gave centuries before in the prophecy of the new covenant: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord” (Jeremiah 24:7) The fulfillment of that prophecy would mean, Jeremiah added, “No longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother saying, “know  the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (31-34.) Isaiah  similarly tells us that this knowledge of God is what would mark the reign of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ: “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9)  What a vision! Yet it summarizes what Scriptures tells us Christ came to do: to bring us the knowledge of God.

Such knowledge of God is really the heart of all true understanding of the Christian life. A man or woman may be a Christian and remain ignorant of many things. But we cannot be Christians and remain ignorant of God. In the Final analysis, says the wise man in Proverbs, “knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (9-10)


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