When
I walked into church that Sunday evening, I wasn't seekingafter God,
but His Spirit was certainly pursuing me. My only motivation for going
to church that night was to be with my girlfriend. Her father said that
if I didn't go to church, then I couldn't see his daughter. That was an
easy choice. I went to church. I was taken by surprise that evening
when something began to stir in my heart. I became convinced of my
guilt and shame before a holy God, and I was strangely drawn to seek forgiveness through Jesus.
One
of the most remarkable statements in the Bible was made by the Apostle Paul, when he said, "that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to
His death." Paul had already come to know Christ. While on the road to Damascus,
Jesus revealed Himself to Paul. His conversion was extraordinary. No
one could deny that Paul had come to know Jesus. Why, then, did Paul
say that he wanted to know Jesus?
If
I had to choose one attribute of God that produces victory in the lives
of believers, then I would pick the attribute of love. The Bible says
that "God is love." The Apostle Paul encouraged the Christians at Ephesus
to grow in their knowledge of God "so that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established
in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how
wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this
love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:17-19 NIV).
A few years ago, a colleague and I were in Los Angeles, California.
On Saturday evening, we visited an ethnic pastor who was originally
from a Middle Eastern country. After discussing plans to reach that
nation with the gospel of Christ, the pastor said, "I think that we
really need to pray for Sammy. If God is going to use him in our nation, then Satan will surely attackhim." The small group of
believers gathered around me and prayed.
