Kingdom Life

After breakfast with a good friend and brother this morning, before setting aside a time to read the Bible, I was reminded to remind myself that although my physical body may be satisfied with food and drink my soul deeply hungers and thirsts for God. I need his word to truly live.

What does this mean? Certainly, it doesn’t mean that if I don’t read the Bible, my body will actually die. So I don’t “need” his word in that sense. Here’s what I think it does mean: the only way God has revealed himself to us is through a unique book that he has approved and inspired for us to know him - the Bible. If this is the primary means God has allowed us to know him, then it is the only way for us to truly know who he is. If my goal is to know God, then I need to be in his word daily.

It would be absurd for me to claim that someone is my best friend if I’ve only known him for 2 years and the only contact we have with each other is through 1 or 2 text messages a month. If I want to claim someone is my best friend, it needs to be proven; I need to have deep, rich history with this person and we should be talking consistently, knowing what is happening in each others lives. I should be able to describe this person in good detail to others who don’t know them. And so if my goal is to know God, then I absolutely need to be in his word, because that is where I get to know him; that’s where relationship develops and deepens.

If I think I can have a vibrant, true relationship with God, I am fooling myself by thinking it can be done any other way. There are supplements to this relationship: prayer, service, good works, fellowship, worship, etc; but his word on a daily basis is a need for me. My soul depends on this nourishment.

This is also true because those God saves, he gives them new hearts and new desires. If the core of my heart has been changed and replaced, it functions in a new way. If a born-again heart is from God, then God himself is the source of all the joy and pleasure and nourishment for this new heart. Without “the bread from heaven,” Jesus Christ himself (John 6:32-33; 51), my new heart from God depends on him as it’s only source of nourishment, and this can only be found by being with him personally - which comes prominently and primarily through his word. His word is the main vehicle; like a car. Everything else, prayer, fellowship, worship, etc; these things are accessories like wheels, steering wheels, windshields, windows, etc.

To deny this, I think, is pride. It is not humble to say that we can know God apart from what he has personally approved and inspired about himself. It’s prideful to say that all we need to know God is prayer, or conscience, or love, or intuition, or goodness, or peace. This is the central barrier between God and man, his sin and his pride. And in the end, pride will be done away with.

These verses stands out to me today as I read the opening chapters of Isaiah:
        
        The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
        and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
        and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
        For the LORD of hosts has a day
        against all that is proud and lofty,
        against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;
(Isaiah 2:11-12 ESV)

Humility is required to know God, because pride is a barrier, it cannot mix with knowledge of God. And the Lord has promised that there is a day when all that is prideful will be judged and shamed; including people whose hearts toward God are pridefully against him.

I read another portion of Scripture where the apostle Paul writes a letter to Titus. In it, he encourages Titus to be humble, but also to be a good leader who teaches and rebukes and has authority. But this section of Scripture encourages Titus to teach his congregation humility, and the reason he gives for this behavior is because we all once were prideful and disobedient to God, slaves to passion and pleasure, envious, and hateful. It’s a reminder that we have newly mended hearts, not new merit badges.

It’s possible for regenerated people, God’s people, Christians and the Church to depart and swerve from humility and thankfulness and back into pride. But this must be corrected because it’s a sign that we have lost sight of God’s glory and have regained some old eyesight where our own selves are bigger than God.

I’ll end this journal with a good chunk of Scripture. Sometimes it’s very good and healthy and necessary to read the Bible without chapters and verses and headings.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
        Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
(a chunk of Scripture from Paul’s letter to Titus)