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Missing God

                  “You are in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29).
                These words are somewhat surprising because Jesus said them to the religious leaders of his day.  This should be a warning to all of us.  It is easy to be mislead and not understand what God is doing around us.  Fortunately, Jesus’ diagnosis of the problem also leads us to at least a couple of the solutions.
                First, he points out that they did not know the scriptures.  This is not abnormal.  In fact, when we become involved with a religious system, or when we find ourselves surrounded by other religious people, it is easy to simply follow along and do whatever is being done.  Many times, I have heard people say, “I do not know why we do that.  It is just what my church does”.  Traditions and forms of worship can be good and beneficial, but they come with the danger of allowing us to just coast along.
                One of the dangers of not knowing the word is that, left to our own devices, most of us will create God in our own image.  In other words, unless I am told differently, I will assume that God thinks what I think, approves of what I approve of and would do things the way I would like them done.  Reading the word counteracts that tendency by forcing us to see life from God’s point of view.  Hopefully, then, we are changed to look more like him.
However, reading is not enough.  Jesus says the other issue they had was that they did not know the power of God.  They knew what God’s word said, but they did not know God himself.
                It is the difference between reading a Revenue Canada booklet verses a love letter.   Both contain facts and truth.  However, one is read for information’s sake and the other is read to get to know someone.  The people of Jesus’ day knew the rules, but they did not understand the God behind those rules.  That lack of understanding caused them to miss what God was doing around them.  In fact, it made them miss the Son of God himself.
                It is easy to get off-course.  However, we will always do better when we make it our goal to know both the word of God and the God of the word.

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