Ephesians 1 – The fullness of Him Who Fills Everything in Every Way

Philippians 1 – Knowledge and Depth of Insight

Colossians – Now Disclosed to the Saints

1 Thessalonians 1 – You turned to God

2 Thessalonians 1 – Shut Out from the Presence of the Lord

In my last piece on Job (written, not necessarily posted yet), I mentioned how part of his anguish was feeling out of right relationship with God and I imagine that feeling is something like the intent of Paul writing about being shut out from the presence of God. I recently discussed growing up in the church with someone and they referenced a change from head knowledge about God to heart knowledge about God. We can know in our heads what it might be like to lose a sense of relationship to God, but unless we feel it in our hearts, it is hard to imagine the pain.

I cannot know what it is to live as an adult who does not know Christ, but I can see the joy adult converts have at knowing what they did not have. These people hit a place in their lives where they learned about God and then turned to Him for salvation and Lordship. I heard in a movie or read in a book a characterization of people as always looking for something bigger than themselves in order to find a sense of purpose. The source was trying to push religion into a place where none were real and that each was made up by man to fill this void of purpose. I rejected the idea outright as I know God is real and the purpose He gives me is true, but it reminded me that “smart” people are sometimes too smart for there own good and try to push away God and His glorious creation as random “do your own thing” philosophy.

In discussing the need for Christ to die for our redemption, someone strung together the idea that Christ was involved in the creation of everything as well as the final sacrifice. God is evident in every aspect of nature and beyond the examples of the natural world used in the Bible to reveal God to us, He is revealed in everything because He is the creator and sustainer of everything. He fills everything and not just with the natural, but the supernatural. Any physical law we find in nature was set that way by God. If He can create light, He can make it have qualities of mass and with no mass t the same time.

I have set myself a task to study the scriptural references in the Bible that put forth the accuracy of the scriptures. It feels kind of like a parent answering: “Because I said so!” to a child’s question of “Why?”. Can you really trust a book to be true because it says it is true? Of course not, but once you accept the truth of the Bible as God’s Word, then you can see how it instructs us to use this knowledge to learn from what He has provided. The wonderful thing about study of the Bible is not just that it gives us a better relationship with God, but it also gives us knowledge and depth of insight to more effectively and efficiently interact with those around us.

God knows we have heads and that we have hearts. He provided us a Bible that reaches both. It is for us to use to get more into our heads, but also to get more out of our hearts. How much glory can your heart put out?