Pastor Joynt's Devotionals

Faithful, Faith KNows, Day 25

1 CORINTHIANS 13:12-13 | For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

One distinctive aspect of Christian knowledge is its relational character. God is not an object to be explored and tested and set aside, but a unique and wonderful person to be encountered. All personal relationships are mysterious. You and I often don’t understand the microcosm, or the little world inside our own souls, with our myriad thoughts, experiences, memories, questions, and desires. This is even more true of our grasp of other people—even our intimates. But the mystery goes up dramatically when we are coming to know the Creator, in whom we live and move and have our being!

Knowledge of God is never mastered, like elementary mathematics. There is always more to know and discover. That growing knowledge always reveals more mystery and evokes more awe. Hence, our knowledge of God is a matter of humility—”we see through a glass darkly” says the greatest theologian in the history of the church! But someday, we will see “face to face.”

Knowledge of God is a humbling business!

What aspects of God’s power or character amaze and humble you?

Faithful, Faith Knows, Day 24

MATTHEW 18:2-4 | He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Yesterday, I asked whether every Christian had to be an intellectual. The answer, thankfully, is no! But intellectuals do play a key role within the church, helping us make sense of our faith in the midst of change and challenge. After all, we will encounter other philosophies of life in educational settings like the university, and in relationship with other people at work and in our daily lives. If we want our faith not to be a private and isolated affair, we must relate it to other kinds of conviction, especially today to scientific modes of thought and to theories of politics and justice. We can do so with confidence because of the depth and power and variety of our traditions—we have more intellectual resources than any other body of thought.

Yet one of the greatest Christian thinkers of the 20th Century, theologian Karl Barth, was asked about his voluminous work and how it supported his faith and said, “Jesus loves me this I know—for the Bible tells me so.” Some of the deepest and most effective Christians have simple faith convictions, lived out with deep passion.

Are you confident about Christian truth claims?

What simple truths of the faith guide your life practices?

Meditate on Jesus’ words in our scripture today.