Hello, I would like to ask you guys to post some questions about the basic things that I, as a follower of Jesus Christ should know. I want to see how much I know about him.
Thanks in advance.
I agree with JLB. It's not about head knowledge but what is in our heart.
My former employment was working as an electrical designer for an industrial packaging equipment company. I had no formal schooling or higher education degrees beyond a diploma from a technical institute where I spent 2-years briefly getting introduced to board level electronics, hard-wired electrical design and troubleshooting, conduit layout and design, instrumentation, sensors and actuators, pneumatics, hydraulics, Programmable Logic Controller programming, NEC code study, and technical writing.
I started out in electrical assembly where I mounted switches, sensors, and actuators, sized and ran conduit, wired the machines, powered them up, and debugged the programs that came from engineering. After a couple years, I moved to field service where I installed the machines, provided operator and maintenance training, and helped resolve issues. A couple years later I moved to technical advisor where I provided phone consultation and troubleshooting for customers and service technicians. After a couple years I moved to aftermarket electrical design where I was responsible for design and program changes for modifications and rebuilds of existing customers' equipment. Fifteen years later I moved to aftermarket project designing where I developed and wrote proposals for customers' modification and rebuild requests. During many of those years I also served on our product safety committee where we determined what safety features were designed into our equipment. To do my job competently, I had to know about every aspect of our equipment including the mechanical design and timing, electrical design, timing, and programming, pneumatic design, and so forth. The point of this is that I became very familiar with our products.
I remember a time when we hired an Electrical Engineer. He got his degree from a relatively well-known college in this area. He was incredibly sharp when it came to electrical theory and design and I was able to learn a lot from him but unfortunately he really struggled when it came to putting his book knowledge into practice. He had no practical experience and really had a difficult time with it. Eventually, it became necessary to let him go.
Having book knowledge is only a small part of the equation and this applies to God as well. What does Scripture have to say about this?
A few years ago as I was listening to the Bible audibly, I noticed a particular theme repeatedly jumping out at me. It affected me so much I was compelled to search the Scriptures for references and found over 130 references to God declaring who He was and something over 200 references to God saying something like, "So you will know Me" in one way or another. God doesn't want us to just know about Him. He wants us to know Him....really know Him.
Therefore the Lord said:
“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;"
Isaiah 29:13 NKJV
"You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’”
Matthew 15:7-9 NKJV