May Read "The Knowledge of the Holy"

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10

This past month I picked up the classic “The Knowledge of the Holy” written by A.W. Tozer. It was a wonderful book which challenged me in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Tozer’s premise is that the modern church has forgotten the awesome wonder of Who God truly is. He writes “The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.”

We so often lower God to being like an old Grandfather sitting in heaven waiting to grant our every request, or an angry God waiting to crush us at any moment. Or even the complete opposite – that God is only a God of love and that He would never judge or punish. Tozer said that without the proper understanding of Who God is, than we cannot properly worship Him. And God must be worshipped with utmost reverence, awe, and wonder. We can fully know God through His revealed Word: The Bible.

God is presented through His beautiful attributes. Though I have normally thought of God’s attributes as those things which make up God – this is not entirely accurate. We must not think of God as being various compartments which compose the greater being. Rather, God is completely all of His characteristics at exactly the same time to exactly the same extent. He is holy, loving, merciful, and good all the while being wrathful, just, and powerful. God never sets aside one attribute to show another. He doesn’t need to, for He is God.

What is so incredibly sweet is that this all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for me on the cross. God made innocent, holy Jesus die for guilty, wicked Josh. And Christ died for you too! What a marvelous thought. I can now have a right relationship with God because of what Christ has completely done for me on the Cross. It has nothing to do with how good I have lived, or how religious I’ve been. It has everything to do with Jesus’ finished work on the cross. This is what moves me to worship the infinite, incomprehensible, holy, loving, and merciful God.

Here is one of my favorite songs about Christ and a beautiful testimony of what God has accomplished in me through Christ’s substitute sacrifice for me.