Jesus Got God Right

We can know God.

Millions of people have actually met God.

They have encountered God in experience.

Consider this from Bill Wilson, founder of AA. In a moment of desperation, he cried out to God to show himself:

Suddenly the room was filled with a bright white light. I felt an ecstasy beyond words. All about me and through me was a wonderful presence. I thought, so this is the God preachers talk about.

Here God answered a prayer both obviously and immediately.

I’ve had this happen to me a couple of times.

Every encounter with God gives us information about God. Every mystical event, every NDE, tells us something about God’s nature.

So, I began to wonder:

What kind of God would we come up with if we looked only at information from experiences?

I began work on my book, Discovering God. (Not yet published.)

I would set the Bible aside, set aside my own theology, and be entirely open to the God we meet in experience.

My book examines over 100 profound stories of personal encounters with God.

And what kind of God did I discover? A God of infinite love—the God we know in Christ. I even ended up at the Cross and the Resurrection.

I did not discover the rough and vindictive God of Revelation and some Old Testament passages.

That God does not exist.

In experience, we meet the God revealed in The Sermon on the Mount.

Experience tells us Jesus got God exactly right.

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Sunday, May 5, is Special Giving Day at St. Matthew. I invite your gift.