HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW GOD?
       Kathy Bernard - Publisher

1 Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. 
Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known"

We often give testimony on behalf of the people we know.  We might say “I have known this or that person for a number of years”.   Or maybe answer if asked, “I don’t know him or her all that well”.  A brother, sister or a spouse we could laughingly say we can read  “like a book”.  And so, we categorize what we know about those who cross our paths and those who are vital to us.  A friend, an employee, a distant relative, a spouse, etc. will take on different levels of intimacy, depending on the circumstances.

If asked how well we know God, consider how wonderful it would be if we could say we know Him as family.  Most of us are not sure how we would answer if asked about our working relationship with God.  He is, to most of us, that high power in the Heavens; the One Who sends punishment and damnation to all who break His laws.  And yet we worship Him and give Him honor and glory.  To those who are in His favor we recognize He is the giver of miracles and all kinds of wonderful blessings.  But fear sometimes motivates us rather than an unconditional love, and we don’t bother to intimately know Him. It makes us wonder whether our relationship to God fits in with His equation of what He wants.  Some might think we can never have a clear perception of Who He is because we cannot measure that kinship according to a human yardstick.  Patients, for instance, never feel the need to know personal details of their doctors except for their credentials.  They do not know the specifics of that person’s life.  If asked, they would have to say they only know what the doctor chose to tell.  This parallels the incompleteness many Christians, however faithful, feel today about their connection to God.

Because of the humanity of Christ who came to earth, we Catholic Christians can readily identify with Him.  We have first hand written accounts of His life, His teachings, and His miracles handed down to all humanity from the pages of the four gospels.  Before rejoining the Heavenly Father He left us a legacy of salvation and eternal life if we trust and believe in Him.  By comparison some might believe God is a taskmaster who scrutinizes us with a hard eye and we are inclined to metaphorically hang our heads and wait for Him to punish us. But God is accessible to believing Christians.   He gave us the bridge to Himself through Jesus Christ.   He does not want us to be afraid to figuratively approach His majestic altar and literally share ourselves with Him.  God is aware we are all sinners even as we pray and give Him honor.  He knows we are not what He wishes us to be but He still loves and wants to participate in every facet of our lives no matter how many sins stain our souls. Knowing we are all sinful by nature He sent His only Son Jesus to make us worthy by dying on a cross for our sins. Even though we fall short of what He desires He still loves and longs to share with us. We were created by Him and for Him. Nothing on earth can compare to this unsurpassed, unconditional love. 

We all need love.  It is something every human being seeks.  We each have a deep-seated hunger to know we are important to someone, that someone sincerely cares, loves and accepts us.  Some people may search all our lives and never find it.  They try to compensate with earthly substitutes, stumbling over the very thing they need and that is God’s love.  But in order to have a meaningful, genuine relationship with God, Jesus Christ must introduce us to Him. Only He can make it possible. When this realization becomes a reality, we understand this is what God intended all along; for us to receive Him as our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ who calls those who believe in Him “brothers and sisters”.  Jesus makes us deserving of the love that God extends to all who accepts the Son by faith.  Because God’s love is all encompassing, there is no further need of endless make-believe that takes our attention away from Him. We who have been adopted by God know He is unfailingly our everything; our all even when we do not deserve, recognize or respond to it.

St. Luke tells us in the 17^th Chapter of Acts verse 23 that God is the “Unknown God” if we do not read His word.  We say we know God because we have read all about Him in the Bible but in 1 Cor:21  it states,  “ The world through its wisdom did not come to know God”   Although we read the Bible and understand the power of God through things He has done for us and by observing His handiwork, it is not enough unless we carry those actions through and share our lives with Him personally so we can experience His love fully and completely. God wants to have an authentic and total relationship with all of us. The  “Father to child” connection is often missing in our Christian lives and our pre-conceived notion of God inhibits our spiritual growth to the highest and most satisfying level. Unless we know God in a personal way, there is a deficit in our Christian lives. When we follow through with willingness to know Him, He reveals Himself to us.  He sends His Holy Spirit to make clear that He is present and whatever He wants us to know becomes written on our hearts.  All Christians are invited by Jesus Christ to know God intimately, personally and deeply. In Romans 1:19 it reads  “That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what was been made, so that they are without excuse”.

Moses was one of many who experienced first hand the power and majesty of God and because of faith had a working relationship with Him.  This is offered to us right now if we believe in God and have faith in His Son Who tells us "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”  John 14:6.   “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1 Timothy 2:5-6.  It is God who said, `Light shall shine out of darkness', is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ 2 Cor 4:6   Those of us who genuinely want to fully know him are never disappointed. The Bible tells us to  "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  James 4:8

We live in a material universe made by a God Who is immaterial.  God does not look at earthly things with the same perception as we for He is infinite, without beginning or end and we are finite with definable limits.  He is able to see the whole and we cannot.  He knows each of us by name, and He even knows the number of hairs on each of our heads.  He wants us to live with Him in eternity forever, but in the meantime He wants to be active in our present lives.  He lovingly waits for us for He wants us to enjoy His glory and perfection.  This is why He sent His Son to bridge the gap between Himself and us.  In the midst of all that we have today, modern medicine, technology, and the great inroads we have made in science, He knows we still have hungry hearts eager to be filled. He tells us “you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" Romans 8:15. ”  And because you are sons and daughters, He(God) has sent forth the Spirit of His Son Jesus into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Galatians 4:6. 

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