Dear Kate,

In my last letter, if you remember, I tried to explain to you God’s disposition towards us, based on John’s description of Jesus Christ’s attitude toward the people around Him.  Remember that John was a disciple of Christ’s, and he wrote these things based on his eyewitness testimony.  He said in verse 14, “…and we have seen his glory…”  John and the rest of the disciples actually witnessed Christ’s behavior towards the people around him, heard the words He spoke to them, and had the proof that Jesus Christ was full of grace, or good will, toward them.  So we have to establish, right out of the gate, that Christ bears us no anger or revenge, then or now, but is in fact full of a boundless good will and favor to us.  He wants us close to Him, with Him—all the time and always.

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Dear Kate,

There have been times in my life when I was tempted to believe that God is kind of a bully, leaning over the battlements of Heaven with a celestial baseball bat in His hands, just waiting for me to step out of line, so He could do what He really wanted to do and get back at me for messing up.  But it just takes a long look at the person of Jesus Christ to realize that you’ve had it all wrong.  One of the first verses you come to in John 1 is this one:  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (vs. 14).  Think about it.  The “Word” (that’s Jesus Christ) became flesh—He took a human body—just so He could “dwell among us”—live with us, walk with us, talk with us, work with us.  Why on earth would He do that?  What could possibly motivate Him to do this?  The verse tells us:  He is “full of grace and truth.”

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Dear Kate,

There’s a very interesting verse, as you know, in Acts 17:28.  It says “in Him [God] we live, and move, and have our being.”  Think about that for a minute.  That verse means that God is our world—he’s our environment, he’s our habitat.  We live well in Greenville because we understand Greenville.  We know its roads and where its businesses and restaurants are located.  But think about how lost and confused a person would be who didn’t know Greenville.  That person would wander around, probably feeling very afraid or angry, because he or she couldn’t find anything—because he or she doesn’t know Greenville.  Now, in the same way, Kate, a person who doesn’t know God is going to wander around through life, lost and confused, feeling fearful or angry, depressed or despairing, because that person doesn’t understand his or her world—his environment.  If we experience any of these emotional issues, it’s a pretty good indication, most of the time, that we do not know God well enough.  2 Peter 1:2 says that “grace and peace” are “multiplied to you in the knowledge of God.”  Do we lack peace?  Do we want peace?  It is found in the knowledge of God—knowing Him. God is our environment, Kate!  We live and move and have our being in Him!  So if we want to survive and flourish in this environment, we have to know it—we have to understand it!

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These are letters to Kate, my pre-teen daughter.  I have been writing to her about my own journey through the gospel of John, and sharing with her the things I have learned about God.   She loves to read, and I love to write, and so I knew it would be the beginning of a beautiful partnership.  I begin this blog by sharing them with you now.

I am not a theologian (in the academic sense of the word), and I have had no formal Bible training.  But I do know that God has used events in my life, as well as my own weaknesses, to drive me to Himself.  And He has taught me a few simple things that I wish to pass on to others, and this blog seemed like one way to do it.  One of the things He’s taught me is that His Word, the Bible, is completely sufficient for every problem any person will ever face (hence, the title of this blog).  Another thing is that knowing Him and glorifying Him is the highest end and joy of every human being, the “prize” toward which we should all “press on” (Philippians 3:14).  And that is the point of this blog, of life, of everything.

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