I didn’t really get it
God is love! Yeah, sure. God is sovereign over all of life! Okay, that’s cool and nice to know and all, but those ideas of God didn’t appeal to me more than a commandment free life. In fact, it didn’t appeal at all.
All my life growing up, I have only known God to be an idea, formed out of Christian vocabulary and descriptions I hear at church, and fuzzy memories of “Bible bedtime stories” which started at Genesis 1, and probably ended with Exodus at best, where the Israelites I knew never really got to their Promised Land. That was about all that I knew of the Bible and of God, and that was exactly the problem- that the glory of God in all His loving, gracious, wise and supreme character, was severely undermined by those unclear ideas of Him and Christiany words that I grew up using to death, yet neither knowing at all its true weight, nor God for who He truly is.
Taste and see that the Lord is good! (Psalms 34:8) Tasting and seeing the goodness of God wasn’t something I had experienced in church, or anywhere. Sermons to me felt like they were for intellectual people because they get to nod their heads in agreement, while I couldn’t find any reasons to nod mine. Not only was it hard enough to stay awake during Sunday morning service, but it was also frustrating to keep up with Bible jargons that I could never understand, let alone being fed with.
Reading the Bible
The Gospel is beautiful, something I never thought I would describe “beautiful” as, and the best part about it is that, it is intended for everyone. As Caleb always mentions “you do not need to go to seminary to know how to read and understand the Bible” and I am forever grateful to the folks at Fellowship for helping me to see that on Wednesday nights. There are many things reflective of God’s own glory in the people I’ve met both in Fellowship, and in GBC through their YA retreat, but the one thing I must not fail to mention is the infectiousness of these people leading me to question: “Just who is this God that these people are so seriously seeking after? I want to know that too!” They were to me what Paul described as “stewards of the mysteries of God” where I find myself, week after week, being constantly awakened to the reality and beauty of God.
The real awesome thing for everyone of us is that when we met with God in our daily reading of the Word and through community, and when we encounter His real-ness at some rare (or not) moments, it is evidence that God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).
A little taste of heaven
I’m not saying that I fully understand the Bible now, or that I see and taste God everyday, but being fellowship with one another does feel quite like a little taste of heaven, as we all come from different places and churches, with one God and one purpose in mind, seeking help from one another to understand His Word, and desiring God together.
And I call this a “little taste of Heaven” because Lord willing, it might whet our appetites for the absolute Glory of God that is to come, with his au naturel beauty, in His glorious city, which will be more than mere words can describe!
The Jesus Story Book Bible puts it so beautifully like this: “It was hard to squeeze all John saw into words. And fit it onto a page. And cram it into a book. All the words on all the pages of all the books in all the world would never be enough. “I am the Beginning,” Jesus said, “and the Ending!” One day, John knew, Heaven would come down and mend God’s broken world and make it our true, perfect home once again. And he knew, in some mysterious way that would be hard to explain, that everything was going to be more wonderful for once having been sad.
Written by Christina Chan