“All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.²⁸ “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:27-30

“We must distinguish two things which might both possibly be called ‘nearness to God’. One is likeness to God. God has impressed some sort of likeness to Himself, I suppose, in all He has made. Space and time, in their own fashion, mirror His greatness; all life, His fecundity; animal life, His activity. Man has a more important likeness than these by being rational. Secondly, there is what we may call nearness of approach. If this is what we mean, the states in which a man is ‘nearest’ to God are those in which he is most surely and swiftly approaching his final union with God. And as soon as we distinguish nearness-by-likeness and nearness-of-approach, we see that they do not necessarily coincide. 

Perhaps an analogy may help. Let us suppose that we are doing a mountain walk to the village which is our home. At mid-day we come to the top of a cliff where we are, in space, very near it because it is just below us. We could drop a stone into it. But as we are no crags-men, we can’t get down. We must go a long way round; five miles, maybe. At many points during that detour we shall, statically, be far further from the village than we were when we sat above the cliff. But only statically. In terms of progress, we shall be far ‘nearer’ our baths and teas. At the cliff’s top we are near the village, but however long we sit there we shall never be any nearer to our bath and our tea. What is near Him by likeness is never, by that fact alone, going to be any nearer. But nearness of approach is, by definition, increasing nearness. Hence, our imitation of God in this life – that is, our willed imitation as distinct from any of the likenesses which He has impressed upon our natures or states – must be an imitation of God incarnate; our model is Jesus.” (Getting Closer to God, The Four Loves, C.S.Lewis – from Preparing For Easter; Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis)

We are inherently near to G-d because we have been made in G-d’s image. As such, we are people of G-d. But to be nearer to G-d in practice requires a life where we approach a likeness of Christ in the workshop, in the classroom, in the streets, and in the family dwelling. We must seek the “Divine life operating under human conditions”, as C.S. Lewis states – which is a daily increasing toward the likeness of Christ.

Pastor Dave

“Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:21 

Remember the days of the encyclopedia? For the uninitiated, this was a large tome of books that addressed all of the people, places and things under the sun, listed in books in alphabetical order. It was the prime research tool for high school students for many years. But no more. With the internet, we have all of the information we might want or need at our fingertips. One of the most interesting sites that I tend to read is  “Wikipedia”—a completely online, free encyclopedia compiled by contributions from its users. It can be a helpful, if not fascinating source of information. But I am also a bit trepidatious in using this site, because it allows anyone and everyone to contribute their “two cents” to an article – and that makes me a little uneasy.

Of course, we know this is how some people read the bible. They see the bible as an outdated source of information that has been proven to be unreliable – besides the fact that the bible is a compilation of many different authors – each with their own “take” on G-d and divine intervention. In his article “Letting Go Of Fear”, C.S. Lewis writes:

“It is a common reproach against Christianity that its dogmas are unchanging, while human knowledge is in continual growth.  Hence, to unbelievers, we seem to be always engaged in the hopeless task of trying to force the new knowledge into molds which it has outgrown.  I think this feeling alienates the outsider much more than any particular discrepancies between this or that doctrine and this or that scientific theory.  For it seems to him clear that if our ancestors had known what we know about the universe, Christianity would never have existed at all.  And, however we patch and mend, no system of thought which claims to be immutable can, in the long run, adjust itself to our growing knowledge. How can an unchanging system survive the continual increase of knowledge? A great Christian statesman, considering the morality of a measure which will affect millions of lives, and which involves economic, geographical and political considerations of the utmost complexity, is in a different position from a boy first learning that one must not cheat or tell lies, or hurt innocent people. But only in so far as that first knowledge of the great moral platitudes survives unimpaired in the statesman will his deliberation be moral at all.” (God in the Dock, Dogma and the Universe, from Preparing For Easter; Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis)

In other words, we are not just reading the mere thoughts of Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke or even John. Rather, the bible gives us the words, the divinely inspired words that have come directly from G-d, put to paper by men “as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The themes of G-d’s character and of G-d’s glorious plan of redemption wind their way through each page. Further additions, revisions, or retractions are unthinkable and unnecessary because G-d’s Word is confidently complete – entirely living and active in the world.

Thank G-d that we have what we need for every challenge and crossroad of life – words that speak to us through G-d’s Word!

What are the dangers of treating G-d’s Word like Wikipedia?

How does your view of the authority of G-d’s Word affect your commitment to live by it?

Pastor Dave