Knowing God through His Word

I was reading an article in US News yesterday that was discussing religious illiteracy in America - particularly in the under 30 population. For a magazine that tends to be "left-leaning," I was impressed with the tone of the article. The author went on to recommend that 2 classes be taught in public schools - one broad course that surveyed the world's religions, and one more specific course on the Bible. His rationale was that religion is such a key factor in how this world works, that an understanding of it is an important characteristic of a well-trained citizen. The author goes on to describe a lack of biblical understanding in America - which (as we all know) owes much of its heritage to Christian principles.

The most interesting point of this article correlated the rise of evangelicalism in America with a lessening knowledge of the Bible. He contrasted the Puritan's emphasis on "head & heart" which focused learning God's word and applying it with the modern evangelical concern with emotions. Below is an exerpt from that article.

"Another change was in the churches themselves, when they started focusing on loving Jesus rather than on listening to him. The Bible slowly became a kind of ornament and a source of authority rather than a book you actually read. Sermons became more about ordinary life and less about biblical narratives, while Sunday schools focused more on morality than on learning about your own particular denomination."

How can we love Jesus without knowing His word? John 14:21 says "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." How do we have His commands? We read His word. More and more, I am convinced that regardless of what I "feel," the more of the word I ingest, the more my feelings match. So, if we're really concerned with "feeling" love toward Jesus, the best thing we can do is to learn His word. This notion is supported by Romans 12:2 -- " Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." How do we renew our mind? Perhaps it's as simple as changing what we focus on. We start reading more of the Bible and trying to think about what we read. We know that the word of God is alive and powerful - for years I've wanted change in my relationship with God, I've waited for a lightening bolt to make my feelings what I thought they should be, tried to just change my behavior -- all while my Bible collected dust and was opened occasionally. The real mystery to me is that if I know the word is alive and can create great changes in me and in others, why is it so hard to put forth the effort to read it? My feelings fight me in my efforts to read God's word, but when I read His word, those feelings change and begin to honor God a little more. Is this the case for anyone else?

I am so thankful that Sunshine is concerned with the whole word of God - that our classes, and preaching is grounded not only in one or two verses - but it harmonizes the entire scripture. What a blessing!!