by Trent - Originally posted (September 04, 2005)
"When Phillips Brooks first spoke to Helen Keller of Christ, she at once exclaimed, " Oh, I never knew His name before, but I always knew Him." She was acquainted with Him as the Christ of experience, the Universal Christ who lighteneth every man coming into the world; but she did not know Him as the Christ of history, the Christ who lived a human life in Palestine long years ago. Alas! There are many who know Him as the Christ of history who do not know Him as the Christ of experience. They know His name, but they do not know Him. They are familiar with the facts of His earthly life, they accept His system of teaching, they follow Him as an impersonal and abstract ideal, but they have not experienced the dynamic power of His living personality. They know Him as the Christ who came, but they do not know Him as the Christ who is here. The complete knowledge of Christ is possessed by those alone to whom the Christ of history has become the Christ of experience" By: James M. Campbell - From: Paul the Mystic: A Study in Apostolic Experience. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1908.
If I had a small god, then I would say to you that one person could go to jail without a bible, and another could go home and read the bible on a regular basis and without exception the one that went home would grow more.
I don't want that god. I want a God that is not so easily limited. I don't want a god that was impotent until man invented the printing press. I don't want a god that is dependent on a King named James, in order to reveal Truth.
I want Helen Keller's God.
I want the God that bombards our cosmos with His Word and can only be avoided by the real blind people - those who prefer the darkness.
How many people have worked in vineyard their whole life and could not see Jesus right in front of them? For it is written "I am the vine," not "I am like the vine."
Every vine that has ever grown in the world, has preached Jesus to them that have ears.
They took away what should have been my eyes
(But I remembered Milton's Paradise).They took away what should have been my ears,
(Beethoven came and wiped away my tears).They took away what should have been my tongue,
(But I had talked with God when I was young).He would not let them take away my soul -
Possessing that, I still possess the whole.-Helen Keller
John 15
15:1
"I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener.
15:2
Every branch which is part of me but fails to bear fruit, he cuts off; and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit.
15:3
Right now, because of the word which I have spoken to you, you are pruned.
15:4
Stay united with me, as I will with you -- for just as the branch can't put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can't bear fruit apart from me.
15:5
"I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can't do a thing.
15:6
Unless a person remains united with me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, where they are burned up.
15:7
"If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you.
15:8
This is how my Father is glorified -- in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim(disciples).
Then, when you are attacked from every side, will you rise up and rebuke the demons in My Name and in faith. More demons will come against you, but I will come upon you and increase your strength seven-fold. Not one will prevail against you. (Demons are No Match For Jesus - Letters from God and His Christ - Volume 1)