The More I Know

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="002a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Home Page"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Page"><U>BOOKS   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U>ARTICLES</U></A></div> <bR> <div>  <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tapes"><U>TAPES</U></A>   </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spiritual Warfare/Occult "><U>SPIRITUAL WARFARE, OCCULT   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sexual Abuse Issues"><U>SEXUAL ABUSE ISSUES</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exposing the Darkness Seminar"><U>***EXPOSING THE DARKNESS SEMINAR***</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com"><U> <img src="HTMLobj-718/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="50">  </U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#888888" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <B>The More I Know….</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>One of the favorite pastimes of Bible School was for us to gather and beat the tar out of each other with the Bible. It was great sport, stimulating, elating, and affirming - of our own particular doctrines, of course, which we were NOW emboldened to preach even more, since our heretic brothers failed to see the light.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I think it was a good thing in many ways. We were cutting our teeth on the Truth. Maybe we had zeal without knowledge (or just enough to be dangerous!), but we were hungry to know. We were filled with adolescent passion and righteous fervor. Later, hopefully, we learned that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Some did not, and went on to find whole congregations to brutalize and batter with their “truth”. (One of my favorite quotes is, “God said FEED my sheep, not BEAT my sheep!”) Unfortunately, a handful of our class went so far in the OTHER direction that they became new age believers that believed in everything, therefore nothing.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>It has been a long and wonderful journey discovering God, His Word, and truth. I have prayed hard and beseeched God to keep me from error, from diluting the truth, from losing the passion for truth. I have beseeched Him equally to keep me from becoming a spiritual monster/tyrant that would use scriptures as a bludgeoning weapon, an arrogant “defender of the faith” who knows all and feels the Heretic Cry every time someone's views were not my own.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I've come to know that the more I know, the less I seem to know. And the more SOME things are….unmovable. We used to laugh at our Vietnamese brother in High School Bible Study that would proclaim, “If I know enough to say dat what I know is not enough to say dat I know enough, den what I know is enough. And derefore it is enough.”</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Well, now I know he was right.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Humility is the hallmark of those who seek God's truth. It's admitting we never know it all - and when we begin to think we do, we know NOTHING of the vast nature of God's Word and God's truth.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Doesn't it ever fill you with awe and wonder that the Great God of the Universe, creator of a trillion-gazillion quasars, galaxies and stars, can even begin to distill His truth into one book? It must be like trying to explain quantum physics to an infant. What we have in that book is perfect. What we have in it is all we can handle. What we have in that book is a fragment of all that can be understood of Him humanly, and yet the depth of that Book is unsearchable, eternal, and would take a billion lifetimes to even begin to mine its treasure.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>And we think we know it all. At least, a lot of it. Don't we?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The sheer wonder of God's Word is that a single petal of truth ascends into a garden of truth bigger than the universe.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>That's why it's not just a book, like the Koran, or the Vedas, or the Book of Mormon or any other religious volume. It is GOD BREATHED. If it were not, how do you explain how one can read one single verse hundreds of times, and then suddenly your eyes are opened and you are breathlessly astonished at a truth you never saw before? Or, like a beautiful diamond, every time you read a verse over the years, a new facet of that gem glimmers that you have never seen before?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>When that happens, I understand why the Bible speaks of “trembling at His Word.” (Isaiah 66:5)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>How arrogant of me to think I have a handle on the truth of His Word. What I do know is so little, really - and it makes me hunger for more. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I think we waste so much time on little theological differences. You say potato, I say poTAH to. Unfortunately, in times far past, dissenters were executed over such differences. Unfortunately, in recent times, churches have spiritually butchered each other over issues as small as how to be baptized.  Unfortunately, current heresy-hunters, Bible Answer Men and defenders of truth continue the bloody crusade.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In the meantime, millions die without Jesus.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I don't want to waste one second in that mess.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I actually LOVE denominations. The way we are, if we were all in one building, we'd KILL each other.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I've studied the issues of many issues for decades. Half the time, I come up saying, “Gee, I don't know for sure.”</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>But based on my limited knowledge, let me share some of them to illustrate.</B></div> <div> <B>Is Jesus coming back before, in the middle of, or after the Tribulation?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I haven't a clue. The issue didn't even become controversy until about 100 years ago. I can “prove” all three views Biblically. I WANT to believe He will rapture us before. But I am struck by the woman who asked Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom if Jesus was coming back before the Tribulation. She replied, “Honey, only an American would ask that kind of question.” The point: millions of believers worldwide are being jailed, tortured, martyred. WHEN the rapture happens is irrelevant to them; they are already in horrible “tribulation.” What matters to them is enduring to the end. For myself, I pray for the best - but am prepared for the worst. And if you disagree, you are still my brother.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Full immersion or sprinkle baptism?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Well, for years, I thought full immersion was the only one God recognized. And I still prefer it myself. But one day, I thought about it, and I realized the early persecuted believers met in the catacombs because if they met in public they would be executed. How do you think they baptized new believers? I could be wrong, (I've been wrong many times) but I kind of doubt they had a baptismal tank down there. So maybe that's where sprinkling started. Either way, I just can't wage a holy war over how much water you get. And if you disagree, you are still my brother.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Can a Christian have a demon?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Why would you want one?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Is speaking in tongues the evidence of being Spirit filled?</B></div> <div> <B> </B></div> <div> <B>Actually, I think LOVE is. And one pastor said TROUBLE is! And many don't believe in tongues at all. I know what I believe. And if you disagree...you are still my brother!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>How many angels can fit on a head of a pin?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>All of them, probably.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>One of the down sides of being an ace debater in High School is I can win. A LOT. I've had to lay down many a theological debate because, God reminded me, He called me to be a servant, not a politician. There are some issues I feel stronger about than others....like whether you can lose your salvation. (No, I'm not telling you where I stand!)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Too much butchering over that issue. I can “prove” either side. Why waste time arguing about something that the church hasn't resolved for 2,000 years? And there so many lost and hurting needing Jesus...</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>There are some things I know beyond question. There is a real heaven, and a real hell. Jesus is EVERYTHING He said He is. He died for my sins, and rose again the third day. He is coming back.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>And, the scriptures are the inerrant Word of God. Don't EVEN try to change my mind about that. After decades if reading and studying that precious Book, it is more real, more alive and more powerful to me than it ever was. It is God's love letter to me, and my owner's manual, my medicine chest and my strongest sword.</B></div> <div> <B>These, and a few other things, I know to be true, unchangeable and eternal.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Yet, the more I know, the less I know about so much else!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>And when my Sunday School kids ask, if I don't have the answer, I say, “I don't have a clue.” And watch their astonished faces. ((YOU try telling kids what Ezekiel's “wheel within a wheel” is! ) Hey, I won't fake it just to make myself look wise and smart. And neither should you. Only God is all-knowing. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I don't have to know even a fraction of it all. Paul's words, “Knowledge puffs up; love builds up” (I Corinthians 8:1) speaks deeply to me. If I am a spiritual, Biblical know-it-all, then my desire to be right eventually overwhelms my desire to love and to build people up. Worse, the quest for knowledge becomes notches in a gun belt instead of a glorious treasure hunt.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>No, I know far less in many ways than I thought I did in my younger years. But the HUNGER stays. It's an incredible adventure - to know HIM - to study HIM - to look deeply into the vastness of His Word. I approach with the innocent wonder of a child discovering the world for the first time.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>It is enough to know that my Father knows everything I will ever need to know.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Gregory Reid</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id94.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Life Is In The Moments"><U><B>NEXT ARTICLE</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U><B>BACK TO ARTICLE PAGE</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>