Talking About A Great Book: Explaining the Unexplainable
If you've done much talking or teaching or preaching then you know about being misunderstood. I hate it! Well, Josh said.... No I didn't! Josh believes... No I don't! That's why, more times than not, when I give a talk I try to shoot down misconceptions that might pop up. I'll say, "Now, I don't believe ..." or "I'm not saying...". I was even accused of being a socialist once. I was talking about community. I am not a socialist. See what I mean? You get the picture.
Well, that's exactly what Tozer does at the beginning of his book on God. In essence He says, "God is indescribable and unknowable and we can't define Him in outline form. Now, let me describe God in chapter 3." I mean how in the world do you describe God? That's not something you can do in a 25 chapter book or a couple month series or even a lifetime. It's like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. It ain't happening baby! He knows that. So before he starts describing God he clears the air by saying he can't do it. And neither can we. And it isn't Tozer's inadequacy. It's God's size and being. Heck, even when the apostle Paul, the greatest Christian mind to date, was nearing the end of his theological magnum opus he threw up his hands and said, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" Or as one of my mentors has said, "You can't unscrute the unscrutable."
But it's awful awesome to try isn't it? We are on a journey in this life to know God more and have a real living breathing relationship with Him. Not a definition of Him. Not some of His characteristics. See I'm doing what I described earlier aren't I? We can't know what He looks like. (He isn't a blond headed blue eyed Jesus with a blue beauty pagent thing or some 80 year old grandpa with a long beard waiting to hit you). But we are striving to know Him. Really experience who He is in our lives. To think His thoughts. Feel what He feels. Love like He loves. Hate sin like He hates it. Be holy as He is holy. To drop a little more apostle Paul on you, we want to "know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." As Christians we have the Spirit of God in our lives shaping us and little by little revealing more and more of who He is and making us more and more like Him. My little pet theory is that heaven will be an eternal journey of learning more and more and experiencing more and more of who God is. It will never end. Man that makes me shake my head. Just like this book. Just like God. So, I'll spend my life saying, "Huh? What's that mean?" and spend eternity saying, "Ahhhh, so that's it!" Pretty cool.
Well, that's exactly what Tozer does at the beginning of his book on God. In essence He says, "God is indescribable and unknowable and we can't define Him in outline form. Now, let me describe God in chapter 3." I mean how in the world do you describe God? That's not something you can do in a 25 chapter book or a couple month series or even a lifetime. It's like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. It ain't happening baby! He knows that. So before he starts describing God he clears the air by saying he can't do it. And neither can we. And it isn't Tozer's inadequacy. It's God's size and being. Heck, even when the apostle Paul, the greatest Christian mind to date, was nearing the end of his theological magnum opus he threw up his hands and said, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" Or as one of my mentors has said, "You can't unscrute the unscrutable."
But it's awful awesome to try isn't it? We are on a journey in this life to know God more and have a real living breathing relationship with Him. Not a definition of Him. Not some of His characteristics. See I'm doing what I described earlier aren't I? We can't know what He looks like. (He isn't a blond headed blue eyed Jesus with a blue beauty pagent thing or some 80 year old grandpa with a long beard waiting to hit you). But we are striving to know Him. Really experience who He is in our lives. To think His thoughts. Feel what He feels. Love like He loves. Hate sin like He hates it. Be holy as He is holy. To drop a little more apostle Paul on you, we want to "know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." As Christians we have the Spirit of God in our lives shaping us and little by little revealing more and more of who He is and making us more and more like Him. My little pet theory is that heaven will be an eternal journey of learning more and more and experiencing more and more of who God is. It will never end. Man that makes me shake my head. Just like this book. Just like God. So, I'll spend my life saying, "Huh? What's that mean?" and spend eternity saying, "Ahhhh, so that's it!" Pretty cool.
posted by Josh Perry at
7:50 PM
3 Comments:
I think I am going to try to nail jello to the wall now.
I have encountered several concepts in my studies of science that have been hard to understand. Some look absolutely impossible to understand, but someone understands them. With God we encounter a being that is flat impossible to understand fully by anyone. And I, for one, am glad that is so. Who could worship a god that was fully understandable? In the last chapter we were instructed to keep a high view of God. How could we do that if we could not even be in awe of Him intellectually? However, too often I try to simplify Him in order to explain Him to others or to attempt to understand Him myself. There may be times to make analogies in order to help us understand a doctrine or to better understand God, but we must always remember that analogies do fall short of the complete truth. My job in these discussions is not to make God completely understandable or to even manage Him by explaining His ways into a box (e.g. God always does this, but never does that), but my job is to worship, to love, and to obey Him above all others. I do not have to completely understand Him in order to do that.
Even though we cannot know everything about God, God wants us to get to know Him. How can this be done? God has revealed to us the things that we must know in order to have a real relationship with Him. Deuteronomy 29:29 is a great verse that speaks to this truth, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” There are things that we will never know about God, and that is good because He is God. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). But, there are things that He has revealed to us so that we can worship Him, love Him, and obey Him. God shows us so much and even gives us much evidence for His existence, but ultimately it is by faith that we get to know Him. May we strive to learn more and more of the things God reveals to us, and to trust Him in the things He keeps secret.
I agree, early on in my Christian walk I remember trying to figure out exactly "WHO" God was...i was left constantly wondering, and wondering, and still wondering some more. I finally had to realize ya know what this whole God thing isn't going to make sense...but you know what does make sense, that someone would love us enough to put us here..to bring us to this place, to allow us to meet others that are like us and others that are not, that allow us to see the beauty of the world around us, eventually i began to see God in everything, every little aspect of my life..and of course i was never going to put a face on God but eventually i could see God's beauty in everything. The beauty of a Christlike love, the beauty of marriage all of these things in life finally showed me all of these wonders that God had set before us and then I realized God is a wonderous artist, a loving artist, with such amazing wisdom and infinite knowledge, and oh how i long to be like Him and oh how i love Him, and want to love Him more and more each day...thanks Josh for reminding me of this
Mark
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