jesus christ-the key to the knowledge of god

[starbird]

You are standing at the door, fumbling with your keys. It is cold and dark and your eager to get

inside - but the key does not work. it looks right, yet the lock will not budge. you look at your keys

again, are you using the right one? has someone damaged the key?

that is a fair picture of what this worlds religious confusion has done with the knowledge of god.

in affect many have tampered with the key that opens it up to our understanding - jesus christ.

some religions have removed the key , ignoring jesus altogether. others have distorted jesus' role

worshiping him as almighty god. in any case, the knowledge of god is closed to us without an

accurate understanding of this principal figure, jesus christ.

"this means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true god, and the one

you sent forth, jesus christ" {john 17:3}

starbird x x x

[sonofarthur]

starbird,

I agree that knowledge of Jesus is the main key in our understanding of God and of the rest of scripture and ultimately life itself.

I think I disagree with your take on Jesus. That is why I think this topic IS worth exploring.

But something further needs to be said here. When I say "knowledge of Jesus" I am not referring to intellectual acceptance of facts about Him. The knowledge here is "experiential knowledge". We need to know (have a personal, real growing trust-based relationship with) Jesus. I know trinitarians and non-trins that both have this real, dynamic growing relationship with Jesus. I also know trins and non-trins that only have a head-knowledge about Jesus. Quite frankly, I doubt that they are even saved.

Belief in Jesus IS NOT mental ascent to the facts of his existence, person, power, work, or anything else ABOUT Him.

Belief in Jesus IS an absolute, unconditional, transfer of trust to Him for our eternal welfare and direction, both for now and for eternity. This belief (trust) is, of course, informed and guided by our mental acceptance of who He is and what He can and will do. Therefore, many are limited in their ability to grow in Christlikeness when they have an inaccurate understanding of Him.

[bliss]

ditto what sonofarthur said.

In TWI, I learned alot ABOUT Jesus Christ.

But I did not KNOW HIM.

This was the biggest lightbulb moment since leaving...................

[pond]

so how did you get to know him?

[bliss]

How did I get to know him?

By surrendering.

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.........for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light''.........Matthew 11:29-30

I can either take His yoke and allow Him to lead and we pull together, or

I can do it all my way and constantly struggle, tell Him what to do, be in control.........(like in TWI days).

Surrendering puts all your trust, your will, your habits, into His hands.

And there we build intimacy.

It's not even what I can do for Him, its what I allow Him to do through me.

Surrender, is not ''commitment''.

I did a lot of ''commiting'' in TWI, I always seemed to fail. I commited to this , that and everything the Way put in front of me. Not once did it make me know my Lord, only made me resentful.

But, when I learned to surrender to Him, all resentment went away, and I was forever changed.

[JumpinJive]

How does one surrender, bliss? Surrender to what? To Jesus? He's not here and doesn't communicate a lot. To what the bible says about Jesus? Witness the trinity debate on another thread here at the doctrinal forum. To what the churches say Jesus is about? I don't think they agree alot, hence thousands of denominations.

I'm really having trouble getting there. It kind of reminds me of the let-him-into-your-heart version of evangelism. What the heck does it mean?

-JJ