By Robert Halsey Pine
“Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know Him. I know Him, because I am from Him, and he sent me.’” (John 7:14-39 NRSV).
We can structure and explain our lives any way that we want to, but when we are through trying to figure out our life and the universe it all boils down to one thing. That one thing is our Lord God Almighty. In our free will that God has given us we fail to use our time and energy to get to know Him. We do not know Him, but we have a chance to learn about Him from Jesus Christ who is God with us, Emmanuel.
The life of Jesus is the greatest life ever lived by the greatest person ever to have lived. He is our guide to God. Jesus told the Jews in the temple, “My teaching is not mine but His who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.”
We must invite Christ Jesus into every aspect of our lives. He knows God, our creator, but we do not know Him. Jesus is clear in His message from God, but we have no sense of urgency to know and understand it. We will all meet God on our last day. Do we want to be strangers? He will recognize us because He has been observing each of us since before our birth. Will we recognize Him? We will have missed a lot by not getting to know Him better.
Students have often used Cliff’s Notes over the years to understand assigned reading so they don’t have to read the whole book. I understand that now there is an even shorter short cut to reading called Book-a-minute. There are no true shortcuts to learning God’s word. Getting to know God is a lifetime process. The only real shortcut is to start now because for every minute that we wait, we get a minute behind. Jesus’ good news of a new life is taking subscriptions now. He speaks for God and not for Himself.
Robert Halsey Pine was born at Newark, Ohio in 1943. He is a graduate of Northeastern University and completed the program of Theological Education by Extension: Education for Ministry, School of Theology, the University of the South.