Many people claim to know God personally but what
does it mean to know God? We use the word know to express more than just
awareness.
It was in 2008. Muneer lived in a town in Wayanad and he knew the train; he has seen the train passing by from far when he came to Calicut along with someone. He did his higher secondary course and could not continue college studies. After working on several odd jobs, he ended up working in an internet café managing it. He was very creative and knew Adobe Photoshop fairly well. At the internet café in Mananthody, Wayanad he gave printouts to college students, and he designed cover pages for their projects. I got to know this young man when I had to go to this café to check my mail while on travel. I had gone to the town in connection with field research for an MTV production. I was living in Chennai and was also planning a promotional video for an NGO by invitation. In my casual discussion with Muneer, I happened to share about a tribal people short documentary that I had done earlier. Muneer also showed me a short video he had edited for some students of a college there.
I felt Muneer had the basic skills and can help me in my next project’s
post-production. I completed my pre-production, production, and voice-over
recording getting ready for the post-production. Muneer had agreed to come to
Chennai for three days. But he had not traveled beyond Calicut the nearest
railway station, 100 kilometers downhill. He had not gotten on a train or
traveled by train. So Muneer took a school teacher friend along with him to
travel to Chennai. Muneer edited my video in Adobe Premier Pro. I could finish
the production in time. He later corrected the video through Team Viewer after
he returned home. I never knew Team viewer before. Muneer had some awareness
about the train but he had not experienced a train journey yet. Getting
into the train the right way, being seated, and allowing the train to take is
an experience and more than merely knowing about the train. Knowing is experiencing.
Many
who claim to know God had not personally experienced God. They do not talk with
God or walk with God. They would like to do things that they think will appease
God or get favors from God. Since God is our creator we are the potential to
know and experience God. Mere belief in God does not lead us to experience God.
Knowing God has to have a beginning. Jesus came to this world to reveal God so
that we can experience God. To do things together with God, one has to start a
journey of faith and that has a beginning.
God is Light and in Him, there is no darkness. God
is living and in Him there is life. Though Jesus Christ we can have fellowship
with God and walk with Him. Through Christ and his atoning sacrifice, we can
get rid of our sins and experience the ultimate Truth.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us”. 1 John 1: 8-10.
(To get enlightened more, please read the entire
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1 John 1
The Incarnation
of the Word of Life
1 That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and
our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The
life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to
you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We
proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have
fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy
complete.
Light and
Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness
5 This is the message we have heard from him
and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If
we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie
and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and
the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim
we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not
in us.