Blindness vs. Sight in the Spirit
“Be Thou my vision, oh, Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou be my best thought by day or by night; waking…
The Holy Spirit: The Interpreter – VOTD.08.07.18
The searcher of the heart, fully knows our longings and intentions, yet he also understands the desires of God, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us perfect…
Fact vs. Truth – VOTD.03.05.18
We know that “all of us possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he will possess the knowledge of God. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3
Those of us who teach can (and often do) end up limiting our effectiveness by increasing our knowledge of the truths of God without increasing our awareness and experience of God’s presence and glory. As today’s verse says, “Knowledge puffs up”.
That is equally true for those we teach if we are presenting the truths we are teaching as the central focus of the Christian life. And that is where knowledge-based Christianity falls short.
Fact-based knowledge about truth without an equal or greater experience of God (seeing His Glory is how John 1 expresses it) –this fact-based truth will inevitably lead to puffing us up: pride–and that pride paves the way to a fall (Prov 16:18).
It is telling that most Christian congregations in North America revolve around passing on facts, cognitive understanding/truth. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if our churches fill us with facts and don’t coach us into a moment-by-moment experience of God, then they are setting us up for a fall. (more…)