How Sweet It Is!

     I started a new book this week by one of my favorite authorities on Jonathan Edwards.  It's A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden, and it is very short in comparison to his much larger work on Edwards, which I had to read for a seminary course.  Spiritually, I can identify with Edwards in regards to his struggle with assurance of salvation.  The presence of sin in one's life can cause one to doubt that a real change has taken place in his or her life.  One should never compare his or her experience with another's, but Edwards' sins really seem trifling compared to my own.  I guess anyone comparing themselves to another can say the same.
     I've written about it a few times before, but Edwards' sermon abbreviated A Divine And Supernatural Light really speaks to me.  In it, he uses the example of honey to distinguish the difference between knowing about God and really knowing God.  I love honey.  I like to use it in so many ways.  But I like good honey.  I can tell the difference between the kind you get in the little bear bottle, a packet at Chick-Fil-A, and good, locally harvested honey.  Guess which one I like.  If you understood my distinctions between the types of honey, you'd assume I know something about honey.  I know that Walmart gets theirs mostly from Argentina, that the most common pollen for commercial honey comes from clover, and that homegrown honey has insect parts in it that has to be refined out before it can be used in recipes.  What good does all this knowledge about honey do for me?  If I've never tasted it, then I really don't know honey.  Until I've tasted its goodness, I can't appreciate its lingering sweetness and ability to adhere to the foods that I want influenced by it.
     In our study on God's Word, we can learn a lot about the God who wrote it.  However, unless we really know the God behind His word, we don't really know God.  God has allowed us to really know Him because he has stooped to our level in the person of Jesus Christ.  By putting on flesh and blood, He has given us someone who has been through humanity, so we can relate to Him and really know Him.
     This Wednesday we'll be learning about the external evidences for the truth of the Bible.  Without the God who gives it authority however, it's just another thing we can know about God.  But, if we are in a relationship with the God of the Bible, it tells us so much more than an ordinary volume of words can tell us.  The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ reveals it to us and lets us not just know about God, but really know Him in the sweetness of His Son, Jesus Christ.