Know and be known

This morning, a few of us went to Andre's farm to help him put down mulch for apple trees.  It was an early morning.  I'm not a morning person at all, so I probably wasn't very pleasant to be around.  I did enjoy it.  It is amazing that The Lord through nature has provided so many functions for everything.  His fingerprints are everywhere.  He holds everything together!

Class today seemed long, because I was basically battling to stay focused, since I had so little sleep.  What stuck out today were a few things.  For one, Islam is failing.  The numbers may be deciving, but within Islam, it is so divided.  So many people are searching for hope.  They are searching for a God as Father.  They are searching for assurance of salvation.  They are serching for the one true God.  This is encouraging.

We learned much more from Gilchrist, about the Trinity and the Muslim view of God.  God, according to them, cannot be know.  One cannot have a personal relationship with him.  Yet we serve a God who dwells within us.  He wants to be know, and wants to truly know us.  Just think about Matt. 7:21-23.  Jesus said depart from me...I never knew you.  He wasn't impressed with what the people did, even if it was for Him. 

We went to pearl street to worship and witness.  It was great singing praises to God in the middle of a dark place.  That really checks your heart.  It draws a crowd, and it is great to just proclaim through song, yes, we follow Jesus.  Some Christians joined us, which was really cool.  I talked to a couple who seemed interested in our singing, why we were here, and what I was doing.  I was very open with them, but they weren't interested in anything else.

 There was also a drunk guy, who put his arm around me.   He was really wasted.  I could barely understand him, but he kept saying "I don't know how I got here."  He was talking about his situation, not pearl street.  He kept slurring, while talking about the Bible, and I kept listening.  He then asked for cigarettes.  It's pretty hard to talk to drunk people.  Anyway, I know how he got there...He stopped abiding, and he stopped repenting, somewhere along the way.  That isn't beyond any of us.  God wants to know us.  Oh that we would long to know Him.