- Just having a mental knowledge about God does not mean that we have come to know God. To know God is a matter of experience; it is something that can only be gained by undergoing various life experiences with God. It is something that takes not a few days or years, but our entire life.
- Actually if we are totally ignorant of something, we tend to be humble and are more eager to earnestly seek and search for the truth. The danger is when we know a little about something and our knowledge is not complete, but yet we think that we know it all — this can become the greatest hindrance to prevent us from seeking, searching and pressing on to full knowledge.
- Hence right at the beginning of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul set out to show the Corinthians that what they need is not more knowledge, but more spiritual experience. They do not need to acquire more mental knowledge, but they do need to experience more. And what is the greatest hindrance to their gaining more experience, but that this attitude that they already know it?
- The best way to read the Bible is to read the Bible, the whole Bible from cover to cover, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Read it word by word, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book.
- Do not read just a page here and there. Do not read just a verse here and there. But read the whole Bible. Read the words of comforts as well as the pronouncements of curse and prophecies of coming judgments. Read the words of grace and the words of righteousness. Read and allow the words to speak to our heart.
- It is dangerous to start with a pre-conceived idea, and then go to the Bible, pick up a verse here, another verse there, and put them together to justify the idea. This is how someone may end up with a heresy! One can justify just about any doctrine and teaching if one were to do that. No! We must drop our concepts and let the Word speak to us. We must not use the Bible to justify our ideas and conducts, but instead we must read it with the willingness to be taught. Let its thoughts illuminate our thoughts and our conducts, let its concepts correct our concepts; let it bring us face to face with God Himself.
