Happy February everyone! This week for GAP training, we've been assigned chapters to read from Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Sure enough, the Lord used this book to teach me a lesson this week on the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Let me explain.
The Ann Arbor chapter of UCO is completing it's fourth week of the Life in the Spirit Fridays (LSF). LSF is a series of introduction to Christianity talks were we discuss who God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and sin are as well as their roles in our everyday lives. LSF culminates with a time of prayer on the fifth night where we'll pray with our discussion groups for dedication, renewal, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. I've never felt the Lord's presence more powerfully than at LSF. Crammed into 716 Catherine Street with about 70 other people, there is no space for faking enthusiasm or blending in.
When we split into discussion groups, I help lead the discussion group with students from Asian Outreach (AO). The AO discussion group is unlike any of the other discussion groups in that most of our students are grappling with Christian ideas for the first time. During discussion time our students don't ask us "how do I use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to grow in discipleship?" but "who is God, and how do I know he's real?"
Before participating in the AO discussion group, I don't think anyone asked me point blank "who is God, and how do I know he's real?" Christian teachings underlies so much of American culture, that even Americans who don't identify as Christians know who God is even if they choose not to know him personally. But Asian young adults who grew up amongst the vestiges of China's Cultural Revolution lack the cultural assumption of religion as a foundation of a countries moral values.
So how does this all tie into Knowing God? I can share with my discussion group who God is just by knowing about God. I can share with them the story of Genesis, and suggest books for further reading. But in order to convince my discussion group that God is real, and not just the hero of an interesting story, I have to know God personally.To know God I must spend time with him in prayer and worship. To know God I must respond to his teachings by modifying my behaviors that contradict his teachings. To know God I must be will to share step out in faith and share the gospel with the men and women God has placed in my life. For:
"What makes life worth while is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance, and this the Christian has, in a way no other man has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be that to know God?" (Packer 30).
Ironic isn't it? You set aside a year of your life to serve others, and God uses your service as an opportunity to serve you.
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