Paul said it most powerfully in Philippians 3:10, expressing one of his life goals … “THAT I MAY KNOW HIM.”

And Paul had already been saved several decades when he penned those challenging words, about “knowing” God!

Paul’s Statement here suggests that really knowing God (personally and experientially and intimately) takes time!

One Greek source defines “ginosko” (the verb Paul used for “knowing” God) like this: “knowledge obtained by proximity and familiarity to the thing known.”

Wow!

But, the big question, HOW can one so know Almighty God? Especially after reading Texts such as 1 Timothy 6:16 … “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.”

So bright … humanly unapproachable!

How?

Via His WORD, THE HOLY BIBLE … yes knowing Him even experientially!

A Chapter, a Paragraph, a Verse, even a Clause or Phrase of Holy Scripture! And yes, sometimes even a Word (just a noun, verb, or any other part of speech)!

But not just reading (casually) that Block of Scripture … rather, thinking upon it, meditating through it, chewing it carefully!

I read this quote earlier today … “Meditation is like a Meal for the Soul!” For the heart, the mind, the spirit!

That’s how one gets to know God!

Listen to Jeremiah agree with Paul on this Idea of knowing God. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: FOR THEY SHALL ALL KNOW ME, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:31-34 in part.

Wow!

Jesus even defined eternal life this way, in terms of knowing God! “And this is life eternal, THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW THEE the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3

Knowing God … so possible that “friendship” with Him is not only a possibility, but maybe an obligation! “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the FRIEND OF GOD.” James 2:23, alluding to Isaiah 41:8.

Jesus again … “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I HAVE CALLED YOU FRIENDS; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” John 15:15, friendship based on sharing “secrets!”

It’s a life-long endeavor, delight … KNOWING GOD AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS!

And should be with us, as with Paul the Apostle, a life-long GOAL!

KNOWING GOD!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Anyone interested?

.

I am currently only writing Lessons on Monday through Friday mornings. That’s partly due to our heavy travel schedule and preaching appointments that dominate Saturdays and Sundays. And rightly so … God called me to declare His Word!

But I would like to remind you of our “Evening Meditations” that are posted on Facebook and YouTube nightly.

Watch one soon.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Did you ever read a Verse of Scripture and suddenly it radiated fresh “light,” like a newly cut and polished diamond?

That just happened to me. Maybe because I only (initially) saw the first Line of today’s Text. Everyone will be familiar …

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live!” (Galatians 2:20a, meaning only the first part of the Verse.

Logically this complex Sentence is an oxymoron, a contradiction. But spiritually it is true beyond comprehension. And experientially … it is super sweet to me this morning!

If I identify with Jesus (Who is the Christ) in His Death … looks like I can also (consequently) identify with Him in His Life!

If I die to what I used to be … though this may be a process, a long and hard-fought battle … I can live as unto Christ every hour of every day!

I say “process” because Paul allows me to … “I die daily” admitted the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:31.

God in His glorious creation gives us a picture of this death/life Principle every year. Seasonally He does … Winter picturing death … which is soon followed by Spring with all its new Life!

And just as there was no Death like Jesus’ Death … ever; so will there be no Life like Jesus’ Life for evermore!

“Life on the highest level, plane!” That’s how one scholarly Greek teacher explained it.

“Life more abundant,” Jesus depicted it!

Just as our Lord right now is enjoying glorified, eternal Life in the Presence of His Father … so can I participate in that Life this very second.

Yes, I am, saying … JESUS LIVES IN US CHRISTIANS! Paul called this Miracle a “Mystery” in Colossians 1:17 … “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory.”

Wow!

His Death (His precious Blood) saved me.

Now His Life sustains me!

As we are more and more “made conformable” unto Jesus Death … I suspect we shall proportionately “know Him” in the Power of His Resurrection! (Philippians 3:10)

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Die to something today … something you choose (just as Jesus chose the Cross) … and see if God does not birth something new (very much alive) in its place!

Like this … “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.”

Oh, the dynamite POWER of the old rugged CROSS of our dear Lord Jesus Christ!

.

Paul the Apostle, in 1 Timothy 1:7 says of our great God …

“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Wow!

At first I puzzled over this question … “Does the Apostle have Jesus in mind here, or God the Father?”

Jesus is King!

And also Eternal!

But NOT invisible, for sure! (He took human flesh upon Himself! The whole Idea behind the Virgin Birth!)

Then I supposed this to be God the Father. “The Only Wise God” indeed. Who also is “invisible” according to Paul, so he says again in Colossians 1:15 for that matter.

By the way, I do realize that God is ONE! Yet too He manifests Himself triunely. As Father, Son and Spirit! (See 2 Corinthians 13:14 for an illustration … “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”)

But the Trinity is indeed “immortal” in every respect! Undying, incapable of death, in fact.

Yet on the Cross, miracle of miracles, God died! Jesus died! 1 Corinthians 15:3 thunders … “Christ died for our sins.”

How can this be?

Only one way! Jesus (God in flesh) died because God the Father “slew” Him. No one else could have!

Isaiah 53:4 says of our Lord … “smitten of God!” A verb translated “slay” 92 times and “kill” 20 more times in the King James Bible.

Isaiah 53:10 adds … “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” Where the verb “bruise” is rendered “smite” 1 time and “destroy” 2 times and “break in pieces” 3 more times!

Immortality slew Immortality!

God “gave” (on Calvary) His Only Begotten Son!

God the Father made His Darling Son a “sin offering” for you and for me! And you do remember that the wages of sin is _______! Yes, death!

I go back to my original descriptor … “MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!”

“WONDER OF WONDERS!”

Yes, even this being so … God the Son did not remain dead!

That would have been an impossibility!

Peter at Pentecost … “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” Acts 2:24

IMMORTALITY CAN’T STAY DEAD!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

All the more so now … “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

.

Things had become so bad in Judah that the Prophet Isaiah went so far as to proclaim: “Truth is fallen in the street.” And that’s exactly the case in many a street in this old world!

I am beginning to wonder if people can even discern “truth” anymore! It’s like the whole world has been blinded to believe a pack of lies! (A situation which can be seen as the Judging Hand of God! 2 Thessalonians 2:11)

Isaiah again … “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

Oh, I forgot to say that behind this culture of “untruth” (lying, deceit) is none other than the Devil! (Jesus in John 8:44 … “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”)

The Universities of the world now even question the existence of truth, absolute truth! No longer firm and stable, their version of “truth” (so-called) is liquid, fluid … moldable into each person’s individual definition. (“Truth for HIM may not be TRUTH for you, etc.)

Yes, truth has fallen indeed! Isaiah was a Prophet, obviously.

Folks, today’s world is about ready to accept the “Man of Sin,” the Anti-Christ … soon as he is revealed. (After the Rapture of the Church, I believe.) And this “son of perdition” will be Untruth personified, a living Lie!

But now … one bright note. The verb translated “is fallen” in our Text (“Truth is fallen in the street”) is “kashal” in Hebrew. And it does NOT mean “to die!” (Real Truth can’t be killed!)

“Kashal” means “to stumble, totter,” and even “to fall.” But I suggest Truth will some day get back up!

That’s because Truth in Perfection (“Jesus Christ our Lord”) is coming again! Who Else ever could really proclaim “I am the Truth” and mean it, live it, prove it?

Truth!

Jesus also taught us that God’s Word is Truth (John 17:17b). And it is settled in Heaven, forever … Psalm 119:89.

I’ll close with one of God’s many honorable Titles, this one lifted from Revelation 6:10 … “O Lord, holy and true.”

Did you get that?

True … eternally true!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.