I don't know how many times I have heard someone say, "That's not the kind of God I believe in!" And yet they would both claim to believe in the same God, but both have a different understanding. So what is up with that? Is God schizophrenic? Is one or both of them wrong? An emphatic no to the first question, and not necessarily to the second question.
The only way that we can have any knowledge about who God is, and what His nature is, is only when He reveals Himself. Now, someone could say that they believe there is a God, and they can attribute certain acts to Him. How often have you heard someone say that something was an "act of God"? Many can say they believe that God created the universe, but there is certainly something different than believing there is a God, and knowing that God in whom you believe. And the only way it is possible to know that God in whom you believe is that He reveals Himself.
Having said that, I also believe that our understanding of God changes based on our interaction and experiences with Him. He does not just reveal All that He is all at once, He builds upon our understanding of Him by our experiences with Him. (while on this human journey so to speak) God does not change! Our understanding changes as our relationship with Him changes.
Simply put, God first revealed His existence to me when I was about 18 years old. I just went from being a non believer to a believer in a very short time. The bible describes this as a new birth, or being "born again". Now, it is more understandable when you consider that a woman does not conceive one day and give birth to that baby the next day, there is a gestation period. But when the labor pains begin, the baby is ready to deliver.
Thus, I can relate to several different events that transpired prior to the actual time in which I would declare I was a Christian. The gestation period if you will.
However, I will say that I do not believe the same things about God now as I did back then. I did not know much about God back then. I was a new believer back then. God did not reveal all of Himself all at once.
A new born baby does not have any ability to survive in this strange, and hostile new world. We can not feed ourselves, we never had to before, all of our nourishment supplied by the umbilicle cord has been cut off. We have to rely on others to take care of all of our needs. We have to grow, and be taught, and experience this new life step by step, year by year.
Soon we learn to feed ourselves, and to take care of our own needs to a certain extent. Eventually we learn enough to teach others, but that does not prevent us from continuing to learn more new things, and some of the new things replace the ideas we used to have; ideas that we were so sure were correct. (Do you remember believing in the Easter Bunny?)
It has been some 35 years since that day, (the specific day I do not remember) and a lot has changed since then. A lot of experiences with God over the years have happened that has molded and shaped my understanding to formulate what I believe now. This blog will reflect those experiences to reveal to the reader.... the God of MY understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment