October 11, 2011
Credentials
Recently at an event I introduced two men to one another. To help them
connect I mentioned one’s career credentials, his expertise in fishing and
then, knowing that both were men of faith, I tossed in the fact that he too was
a Christian. There was an uncomfortable pause and then the other man picked up
the conversation ball saying, “Someday I’d
like to get back into fly fishing.” As I stepped back from their
conversation I felt almost apologetic to the Lord that He had been overshadowed
by fly fishing. I suppose that because this was a business meeting my reference
to faith could have felt awkward and out of place. However I wonder if our
failing to take advantage of such opportunities might well border on denying
Christ. “If anyone
is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he
comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels”. (Like 9:26 NIV)
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Gail;
-----“Well done, faithful servant!” I am sure Jesus felt that if He didn’t actually say it. If He is the way, the truth, and the life, then doesn’t that make not-Him the wandering, the lie, and the death? And isn’t there only a “with Him” and a “without Him” which holds true to the basic principle that says something either is or it isn’t, it cannot be both is and isn’t at the same time in the same sense? So, if both gents knew the Lord, would this not be the most basic credential they had in common?
-----That’s the rub. It would be if they knew the Lord. But it wouldn’t necessarily be if they only knew of the Lord. The difference can be so subtle that it might deceive one’s own self. Knowing something is the incorporation of its nature into the processes making your ways, understanding, and ponderings. It is more than just experiencing it; it is using it in your experiences. Thus you know many of its facts and details by experience and will know many more by that same way. But knowing of something is acquiring its facts and details by observation and reasoning. It can pick and choose when to make use of the knowledge and when to dismiss it. Knowing of something handles it like a mere mental object, a concept useful for effecting what you think, but not one for actually effecting what you are. This will make some say, “...but, Lord, Lord...” on that Day.
-----Meanwhile, we can not tell whether or not these gents knew the Lord or only knew of Him. In the first place, if the difference is so subtle that it is magically deceptive to one’s own self, then how much less is that difference discernable to others? In the second place, what we, your readers, have to consider is only a glimpse of one situation in their lives (you‘ve observed more.) Yet, a person’s life is his handling of a billion situations. No one situation sums up his entire life except that one to happen in front of the Great Judge on that Judgment Day. Though the essence of our lives are the consistent odor of all our situation handling mixed together and preceding us daily into the nostrils of The Judge, neither we ourselves nor anyone else can yet experience the full bouquet of that odor. We get to know each other and ourselves only one situation at a time.
-----Jesus Christ is first merciful. He has to be, because we are inconsistent enough that we quarantine some areas of our lives, of our minds, of our feelings against actually knowing Him and allow them only a mere knowledge of Him, while other areas we entirely open to His actual knowledge. It is a sad state of existence, but for now it is as real as it gets. Jesus said that for us to be forgiven we must also forgive. The sense of forgiveness spreads to accepting the possibility that these two Christians merely met each other while in quarantined frames of mind. The gracious acceptance of such a possibility comes from Jesus’ mercifulness mixing into our nature. OK. That is knowing Him, not just knowing of Him.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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