4.08.2008

and discover the knowledge of God

[Continued from yesterday.]

1Cor11:27 warns us that those who take Communion in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. So perhaps I was wrong to allow my son to be at the Lord's Table before he was fully ready. At the same time, in Matt18:3, Lord tells us we can't enter the kingdom unless we're like little ones.

Sometimes I think that seminary and the study of theology and simply growing older takes away one of the great beauties of faith: a sense of wonder. Those first few weeks and months after one bends the knee to Messiah Christ are wondrous and filled with joy and gratitude and this fire. One hears new worship songs and closes ones eyes as they tear up at lyrics that now mean something wonderful. And all that happens during this grin-making phase of discovery.

Twenty-plus years of being a believer, and sometimes when I'm at the Lord's Table, it's as if I see the Lord for the first time, and I don't remember Christian jargon or understand the differences between sanctification, justification, and glorification, and I haven't argued one theological position over another, and instead I take that bread and drink that cup, and it's new and beautiful and something I will never fully and completely understand.

And I want that for my children. And I think the Lord does, too. And where modern Christians argue over levels of understanding and see faith as this on/off switch where there is a right way to start and have faith and a wrong way to be a believer, I think the Lord wants us to stumble into our faith and take His hand and let Him lead us to levels of understanding by spending time with Him and asking Him questions and sometimes making mistakes and watching Him smile at us when we do.

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