That God can be known by the soul...

“… Teach us to know what we cannot know, for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

"The child, the philosopher, and the religionist have all one question: ‘What is God like?' This book is an attempt to answer that question. Yet at the outset I must acknowledge that it cannot be answered except to say that God is not like anything; that is, He is not exactly like anything or anybody.

We learn by using what we already know as a bridge over which we pass to the unknown…

The yearning to know What cannot be known, to comprehend the Incomprehensible, to touch and taste the Unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its Source. How can this be realized?

The answer of the Bible is simply ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ In Christ and by Christ, God effects complete self-disclosure, although He shows Himself not to reason but to faith and love. Faith is an organ of knowledge, and love and organ of experience. God came to us in the incarnation; in atonement He reconciled us to Himself, and by faith and love we enter and lay hold on Him.

‘Verily God is of infinite greatness,’ says Christ’s enraptured troubadour, Richard Rolle; ‘more than we think; , , , unknowable by created things; and can never be comprehended by us as He is in Himself. But even hear and now, whenever the heart begins to burn with a desire for God, she is made able to receive the uncreated light and, inspired and fulfilled by the gifts of the Holy Ghost, she tastes the joys of heaven.

She transcends all visible things and is raised to the sweetness of eternal life. . . . Herein truly is perfect love; when all the intent of the mind, all the secret working of the heart, is lifted up into the love of God.’

That God can be known by the soul in tender personal experience while remaining infinitely aloof from the curious eyes of reason constitutes a paradox best described as

'Darkness to the intellect
But sunshine to the heart.'
- Frederick W. Faber

“Let her suppose that all the whole world and the most refined conceptions of the wisest intellects can tell her nothing and that the goodness and beauty of her Beloved infinitely surpass all their knowledge, being persuaded that all creatures are too rude to inform her and to conduct her to the true knowledge of God. . . .

She ought then to go forward with her love, leaving all her understanding behind. Let her love God as He is in Himself, and not as her imagination says He is and pictures Him.”

- The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer

The degree to which I resonated with those words so deeply made me realized I am being wooed and pursued by My Beloved in a way that I can hardly express nor understand but know to be true with everything in me. There is none like You...

May I love You with an undying love. "We love you, Lord, we worship You... You alone are our God. You alone are good..."

Mother Teresa on Poverty

“Poverty doesn’t only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity…”

“We know what poverty means, first of all, to be hungry for bread, to need clothing, and to not have a home. But there is a far greater kind of poverty. It means being unwanted, unloved, and neglected. It means having no one to call your own.”

- Mother Teresa in No Greater Love

God has used Mother Teresa to speak into my life in so many ways through this book. I think the most profound thing is she doesn't even try to be impressive or flashy or super-spiritual, she is just being real. Jesus was her reality and she knew nothing else. She just loved Christ and out of that flowed her life. Everything she says and writes about has so much punch because she saw the world so differently. She was seeing things as Christ sees them. She saw people for who they really were and treated them as such: children of God. People deserving of dignity and honor because they belong to the Lord.

Mother Teresa on Forgiveness

“When we realize that we are all sinners needing forgiveness, it will be easy for us to forgive others.”

- Mother Teresa in No Greater Love

You are not alone.

Sometimes our deepest need is to hear the voice of the Lord…

The only voice that can quiet my fears.
The only voice that can still my spiraling into doubt.
The only voice that can break through and comfort me at the first sounds of the first few words…

“The lost become chosen
And I fall on my knees...”

"His lifts His voice,
the earth melts..."

Why We Must Think Rightly About God

"O Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise but the God of the prophets and apostles; and better than all, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may I express Thee unblamed?

They that know Thee not may call upon Thee as other than Thou art, and so worship not Thee but a creature of their own fancy; therefore enlighten our minds that we may know Thee as Thou art, so that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religions has ever been greater than its idea of God.

Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”

That was the sentence that nailed me.
That was when I knew my soul was in grave danger.
And I knew exactly why I was in the present crisis. In moments I realized the crisis had nothing to do with anything going on externally, but was really about what I thought about God…

And I was faced with reality.

“We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.

Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man…

The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him—and of her.”

- Excerpts from The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer

This book has been a very timely treasure in my life right now and is helping me on this quest for the truth about God, in both heart and mind. I'm finding I read a few pages at a time, and then may go back. The first few chapters have captured my attention the last couple weeks.

loved.

i am loved and accepted by my Father.my Savior King.i feel like i've just gotten my life back.after a series of events on tuesday, i felt like i could function for the first time in months.the last two days i have felt like myself again.living free.living loved.that you alone are God.that you alone are good.thank you.my Savior King.my loving Father.

amen.

Being Humble and Confident

words of wisdom from Henri Nouwen:

"As we look at the stars and let our minds wander into the many galaxies, we come to feel so small and insignificant that anything we do, say, or think seems completely useless. But if we look into our souls and let our minds wander into the endless galaxies of our interior lives, we become so tall and significant that everything we do, say, or think appears of great importance.

We have to keep looking both ways to remain humble and confident, humorous and serious, playful and responsible. Yes, the human person is very small and very tall. It is the tension between the two that keeps us spiritually awake."