The Knowledge of the Holy - Think Rightly About God

I've been reading The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer since I've been here and this is just my insight on the 1st chapter or more of a summarization. Quotes are around things I copied word for word. I suggest you pick up the book, considered a classic amongst Christian novels.

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

In the deepest of our hearts, how do we conceive God to be like? What we think of God in today’s Christian realm limits who God really is because of our conventional religious rubbish. To truly understand God wholly, we may even have to do an “intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is.”

“A right conception of God is basic … to practical Christian living”

Our perception of God is to worship as foundation is to a temple. Meaning worship without the right conception of God, there is no foundation to our worship, meaning it’s meaningless worship. In another sense, we are worshipping a God that is not truly God, but our false perception of him, and that in itself is idolatry, which in turn is sin!

False perception of God (Foundation) -> Worshipping a false image of God (Idolatry) -> Sin

There is always one burden that man feels that crushes him, which is his obligation to God. “It is a lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably,” in essence it is Matthew 22:37, the Greatest Commandment:

“37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.”

The only thing that can lift this burden from us is the Gospel! But you have to feel that burden, for the Gospel to mean something, that is why the Gospel means next to nothing, but a fairytale story to many Christians! To be able to feel this burden, we must have a high vision of God, which includes his almighty power as the Creator and unending love. “Low views of God destroy the Gospel.”

“Wrong ideas about God are … themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.”

Without a lofty concept of God, the Church along with its worship and moral standards will begin to decline. The Church’s first step to corruption or lukewarm status is surrendering its high opinion of God. To break away from this we must search for the right answer to “What is God like?” and the right answer to this question is in itself a never-ending study!!

As a Christian Church today we must purify and elevate our concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him. In essence, we must take away the box we put God in, or take away the limits that we put on God. Passing the knowledge of God, as a high and lofty concept, is the best thing we can do for the next generation, even better than laying our lives down before them.

In a nutshell here are 3 basic points I came to:
- Worshipping lesser images or wrong ideas of God than what God really is is an act of idolatry.
- We must understand God as he really is instead of just assuming we know him for the Gospel to even mean anything to us.
- Passing the knowledge of God is the greatest thing we can do to the next generation, greater than serving him.

You shall love the Lord your God

I have never prayed as intensely and studied the bible as rigorously as I have the past two days. At IHOP (International House of Prayer) - Kansas City, which I think is the headquarters, there is a 24/7 Prayer Room. It's a place just designated for people to worship and praise the Lord in any way they want. There's a constant praise team on stage singing and praising the Lord day and night. There's a space in the back for people who want to express by dancing. Rooms bordering the main portion of the prayer room for different things.

Every 2 hours is a different session. One session will be intercessory prayer for people across the world, another session will be worship through singing. And all the time there is a group of believers always praising the Lord. An amazing sight really.

Over the past 2 days, I've just come to see how beautiful God really is. He is our maker, our lover, and our bridegroom.

36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. -Matthew 22:36-38

Just read it again. People go lengths and miles and distances to find a purpose to their life, but it's written in the very word we believe in. Our sole purpose as Man, created by God, is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind".

The Lord wants to be with us. 1/3 of the angels fell and betrayed God, yet Jesus did not go after them. But the very moment man sinned:

And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day - Genesis 3:8

God came down to Adam and Eve. HE WALKED in the cool of the day.

He chased after man for he loved us. He sent down prophet after prophet to direct us the right way, but men didn't listen. He eventually sent his own son down and we still did not listen. (Jesus tells us this in a parable. Mark 12:1-12) Yet God still waits for us today. He gave us the chance, and it's there for our taking.

I have learned so much and yet it is only Day 2. If I were to write everything that I wrote it would be too long for any of you to read.

God is starting to work wonders in my inner being. He is changing me on the inside without expecting external results. I just hope I'll be broken to serve by the end of this month and I can bring the fire that I have caught on here in Kansas City back to Los Angeles. I have realized I have been in the darkness for so long, and I don't know how I could have not noticed the love of God. Once you experience it, and then believe it, It is amazing, it really is. I just want to continue to learn and eat till my hunger for him is filled, which I hope will be never; however, the opposition continues to attack me by tiring me, bringing sleep upon me during prayer, and continually making me conscious of my bodily needs as I try to break away from my needy connections to earth.

Leaving Tomorrow!! & 4th of July

O man. I'm nervous. I'm sitting here and I know within 48 hours I'm going to be on a plane and then end up in Kansas City. Anyways, tonight was an amazing night. Headed over to the Malibu area with Madelyn, and we posted up at El Matador Beach. The waves are HUGE, if you ever want humongous waves to body surf or boogie board or even surf on these are real nice. There's a nice cliff off before actually entering the beach, so as night came upon us, we stood on the edge and watched fireworks that exploded over Zuma Beach.

At a distant cliff, another small group were launching private fireworks from their house and it was amazing to watch 3 fireworks shows go off at the same time. The main one at Zuma lasted for a half an hour. Pretty amazing sight for all you romantic folks next time (:

Anyways, I'm going shopping tomorrow for the Luke18Project. Ahhh!! I'm so nervous!!

Please just continue to pray for:
1) Safety as I travel
2) My prep for the trip
3) Just for God to bless me and teach me on this program~

Wall-E & Luke18Project Update

WALL-E

I watched Wall-E couple days ago. I'd have to give it a 5 stars out of 5. For those of you that haven't watched it, it's definitely a good watch. Only Pixar can put out G-Rated movies that are worth watching. It's a love story combined with an innocent, naive robot saving the humans without even knowing it.

For those of you that have watched it, don't you think the fat people and the whole scenario is Pixar's subtle way of saying "This is how America and the rest of the world will be if we don't stop trashing the world." As comical as Axiom may be, it is a sad truth that may occur someday in the near future. When John and the other women, realized there was more to life than just their computer screens, it kind of was a message yelling at me "That's like you John. Get off the computer and live life." And like the rest of the world who are glued to their computer screens. Talk about Pixar trying to change the world. Haha..

Kansas City, MO (Luke18Project update)

6 more days until I leave. Please continue to pray for me as I prepare myself to embark on my journey. I was talking to my past teacher, Phil, and he said this to me (not in exact words):

"John, I see your trip going to Kansas City as you being launched out of a cannon reaching towards God, but as you are soaring through the air, you're arms are flailing and you aren't too sure what's going on or what to do because it will be so much hitting you in such a short time. Just prepare yourself well, and just know that you don't have to be extreme (Luke18Project is known to be super extreme) in your Christian walk to be a Christian"

And in some way, I completely concur with what he has to say. I feel like I'm not prepared enough to be able to absorb the experience I will encounter on my trip. And it may be a bit too much or overwhelming for me as I may not be spiritually mature or prepared for the training.

Prayer Topics:
1) I continually need to pray and read the Bible and also act accordingly before I leave.
2) For my health & safety throughout the trip.
3) To have a transformation of the mind and spirit through this
4) In order to achieve the transformation, to start the program with a heart that is willing to learn and a soul that is hungry for God.

Leave me comments as I continue to update in Kansas City! I'm going to miss all you guys!