ISAIAH 29:13

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught."

TO PONDER

I don't know who first came up with, or articulated the idea that, 'it is impossible to know what you do not know'. I have always found that to be a silly statement because of one simple fact; I know I cannot speak French. Now I suspect that's not quite the intent behind this quote, but it does raise an interesting point in light of today's reading.

If you have only ever worshipped God in one church, the same way for all of your life, how do you know you are not missing out on some other equally wonderful and faithful expression of worship that might be practiced in a different church?

For example, our family once new a lady at another Lutheran church, who would often sit in church with a sketch book and sometimes, not always, but sometimes she would see quite vividly a picture or image during a part of the service and feel compelled to sketch it down and would often then go hame and do wonderful paintings based on these sketches. Sometimes She would just feel like the Holy Spirit was asking her to create the paining with no given reason, but sometimes, as she painted, God also helped her discern someone in the congregation who he wanted to receive the painting. This woman did not disrupt the service, and yet her response to God in worship was not through song like everyone else, but through faithfully responding to the images that God gave her throughout the service.

God is the only one who knows what you don't know, and when it comes to him and his love for you, he wants to show you more. So don't be too bound up in human traditions, let God lead you forward into what you don't yet know.

PRAYER:Lord God, You are right, I only know what I have been taught about you. I pray right now that your Holy Spirit would lead me into a deeper knowledge of who you are through the self revelation of your Word and by your presence alive in me by the power of the Holy Spirit. Help me not to be stuck in my limited thinking, but help me to move into a deeper understanding of your life, alive in me. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.