Knowing God

OK.....I apologise.

Sorry its taken so long for me to even post anything up here. Its not even time for New Years Resolution yet but i'm going to endeavour to make more use of my blog in the coming year.

But rather than dwell on the past, I'm gonna cut my losses and start now.

Over the summer, my aim is to finish reading two books: 1. Knowing God by J Packer; 2. God's Big Picture by V Roberts.

I'm taking advice from someone more godly than me and reading one chapter of Knowing God at time. (Apparently reading two or more consecutively like a book can do your head in. You need to just read one, digest it, ponder it, marvel at it and then tackle the next chapter)

So today I read Chapter 4 - The Only True God

It was a helpful read as it picked up on the second commandement: You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God (Ex 20:4)

It was interesting that Packer picked up on the idea of images and argues that these are dangerous idols which can lead us away from the true and living God. Things like ornaments, jewellry, crosses, picture of Christ at home, at church.

He argues that such things do not attach themself to the truth of God for they:

1. dishonour God, for they obscure his glory

'the heart of the objection to pictures and images is that they inevitably conceal most, if not all, of the truth about the personal nature and character of the divine Being whom they represent'. Packer argues that for example, something like a a crucifix obscures the glory of Christ, for it hides his deity, his victory on the cross, his present kingdom. It shows human weakness, the reality of pain but conceals his divine strength.

2. images mislead us as they convey false ideas about God

The key quote of this chapter is this:

'We cannot know God unless he speaks and tells us about himself (as opposed to humans trying to depict or attempt to represent him using their imagination and creativity). He has spoken to and through his prophets and apostles, and he has spoken in the words and deeds of his own Son. Through this revelation, which is made available to us in Holy Scripture, we may form a true notion of God; without it we neve rcan. Thus it appears that the positive force of the second commandment is that it compels us to take our thoughts of God from his own holy Word, and from no other source whatsoever'.

Two questions have been raised in my mind:

1. If this source is the ONLY source, how does this impact my ministry? Quite often through this year, I've 'winged' my way through a teaching role.....a last minute prep job for bible study, or for a meeting where others were looking and relying on me to teach them the Bible. When I meet up with people, what emphasis do i place on the Word and letting that shape our time, our conversations about how their relationship with God is going. Instead of asking the question 'how's your relationship with God going', i should be asking 'How does God think your relationship with him is going'. Its a subtle difference but it places the emphasis that its only by God's grace that we can even come before him, that we can pray, that we can have reason for hope. We have been rescued from our most uncurable disease - sin. Forget finding a cure for cancer, the cure for the disease that we've all got has been given to us free of charge!

2. what do we do for children's ministry which is so heavily reliant on images and pictures to appeal to the visual side of children? Is it helpful showing posters that illustrate Jesus' death, or his life or his ascencion. On the one hand, i guess children can grasp hold of one aspect of the image as long as this is supplemented with words and different images.........But at what point do we try to avoid teaching a future generation something that they'll ultimately have to 'outgrow'