By David Ryser
“How do you explain knowing a
loving Father God to someone when that person has no concept either of God or
of a loving earthly father?”
This question was posed by my wife
who wanted to witness effectively to a loved one. She desired for him to meet the Father/Daddy
of the Bible and not the fire-breathing tyrant of religion. She had been trying to explain the concept of
a loving Father God to this person. But
he was unable to grasp the ideas of God or of a loving father--much less the
concept of God who is also a loving Father.
Hence, her query. And my initial brilliant response, “That’s a
good question.” (This is the reply I
always give when I don’t know the answer to a question, and I’m stalling for
time to see if one occurs to me.) Since
that answer didn’t seem to satisfy her, I thought about her question for the
next few days.
Jason Henderson, in his wonderful
book The Lie & The Light, colorfully
illustrates this problem. He likens a person
who knows God to someone who has lived all of his life in a world where
everything is red. Because there is such
a variety of red (light red, dark red, cherry-red, tomato-red, blood-red,
scarlet, etc.), there are many words to describe these differences. But all of
them describe some kind of red.
Then one day, a man sees blue.
How exciting! The man is so overwhelmed by seeing blue that
he goes and tells everyone about what he has seen. The problem is that all of the words he uses
to describe the color blue are “red” words.
He has no words to describe blue.
And it complicates matters that his friends have only seen red. How can he describe blue (using “red” words
and speaking to “red” people) in such a way so as to enable his friends and
family to understand exactly what he has seen?
He can’t. Because no amount of explanation or teaching
will enable a “red” person to see blue.
One of my professors at ORU, Dr.
Robert Tuttle, described this problem in somewhat different language. Because he was a minister and a theologian,
people often challenged him to describe God in such a way as to prove His
existence to them. When they would do
this, Dr. Tuttle would agree to do so…as soon as they could describe the taste
of an apple to him. He would say, “I
have never tasted an apple. Please
describe to me the taste of an apple so I will know exactly what it tastes
like.” After several minutes of
endeavoring to do so (through several varieties of explanations and analogies
designed to describe the taste of an apple to one who had never tasted one),
the person inevitably would give up the attempt.
Then Dr. Tuttle would respond, “You
can’t even describe to me the taste of a stinking apple! How do you expect me to describe God to you?”
The only way to know what an apple
tastes like is to bite into it. I must
experience it to know it. The same is
true of God. The Bible says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm
34:8a, among others). Not read and see, or study and see, or listen to
a sermon and see. Taste!
I must experience the taste of an apple to know it. I must experience God to know Him.
There is no substitute for
experiencing God. If we do not
experience God, we cannot know Him.
There is no true knowledge of God apart from experiencing Him.
So now I had the answer to my
wife’s question. The only way her loved
one could come to know a loving Father God, without prior knowledge of either
God or a loving father, would be for this person to experience Him. The problem is that there are no words that
will enable this person to experience God.
We need another strategy for
bringing people to God.
Meeting God is a lot like meeting
anyone else. In order for me to meet
someone, two things are needed. First, I
must have the desire to meet this person.
Otherwise I won’t go to the effort required to meet them. Second, I need someone who knows both me and
this other person to introduce us.
Knowing one or the other of us won’t do any good. The one introducing us must know both of us.
This is how it works with God.
In order for people to meet God,
they must desire to do so. Since this
desire cannot be created by words alone (you cannot describe blue with “red”
words), there must be something besides words that will motivate a person to
want to meet Him. In my experience, the
most powerful motivator to induce people to seek God is the life of a genuine
lover of Jesus. If we are living the
Christian life, so that the Life of Christ on the inside of us is being
manifested on the outside of us, people will see the effects of that life in
us. Some aspect of God’s character and
workings manifested in our lives will attract them to Him. This will provide us with an opportunity to
introduce them to Him.
But you cannot introduce a person
to someone you’ve never met yourself.
This is why people are too often introduced to the god of religion
rather than to the God described in the Bible.
In order to introduce people to the
one, true, and living God, we must know Him.
We must have experienced Him. We
must have tasted and seen that He is good…that He is all He claims to be in His
Word.
Do we have that kind of
relationship with God? Do we know Him
and manifest His life and presence in our own lives? Do we demonstrate the power of God in
healings, miracles, and signs & wonders (Mark 16:17, 18; 1 Corinthians
2:1-5)? Do people want what we
have? Or are they hoping that what we
have isn’t contagious? Do people hunger
to meet our loving Father God because although they have no concept of God or
of a loving Father, they sure would like to meet whoever it is that we know?
We had better get some good answers
to these questions because meeting God is a lot like tasting an apple. A person needs to know someone who has tasted
an apple, liked it, and has one to give them...and encourages them to take a
bite.
Are we that someone?
Responses to this article are
welcomed. You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com
Nice.
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