knowledge of God

[All4Christ]

have you ever realized how far we are from knowing everything about God? I'm trying to find out more about what God wants for me, whether Orthodoxy or Protestantism, etc. is the right thing...and as soon as I think I understand everything...I'm put into my place and shown that I truly understand only an inkling of God...heh...I often get totally frustrated because, I truly am ignorant in many areas....why? because I don't have people around me to support me to find the real truth? well, that might be part of it....but of course we can't blame everything on others....please, tell me, if we try to know God more, and try to find out what he wants for us, will he hold it against us that we don't know everything that we should have known? After all, some of us start our journeys later than others...

[InnerPhyre]

have you ever realized how far we are from knowing everything about God? I'm trying to find out more about what God wants for me, whether Orthodoxy or Protestantism, etc. is the right thing...and as soon as I think I understand everything...I'm put into my place and shown that I truly understand only an inkling of God...heh...I often get totally frustrated because, I truly am ignorant in many areas....why? because I don't have people around me to support me to find the real truth? well, that might be part of it....but of course we can't blame everything on others....please, tell me, if we try to know God more, and try to find out what he wants for us, will he hold it against us that we don't know everything that we should have known? After all, some of us start our journeys later than others...
I hope you don't mind a Catholic butting in :) I use this image of a nebula taken by the Hubble Telescope to illustrate my point. The little tiny stars there that you see in the picture....the smallest little specks.....are all larger than our sun. Now think how small earth looks. Now think how small you and I look. That massive nebula with all those stars is still such a small fragment of space that I can't type out a fraction small enough to describe it. My point is, that we cannot completely comprehend God. He's just too big. What God cares about is that you are seeking Him with a sincere heart. He will honor that, and lead you down the path He has set for you. God bless you as you walk it.

[MariaRegina]

have you ever realized how far we are from knowing everything about God? I'm trying to find out more about what God wants for me, whether Orthodoxy or Protestantism, etc. is the right thing...and as soon as I think I understand everything...I'm put into my place and shown that I truly understand only an inkling of God...heh...I often get totally frustrated because, I truly am ignorant in many areas....why? because I don't have people around me to support me to find the real truth? well, that might be part of it....but of course we can't blame everything on others....please, tell me, if we try to know God more, and try to find out what he wants for us, will he hold it against us that we don't know everything that we should have known? After all, some of us start our journeys later than others...

Dear All4Christ:

The more we learn about God and His Ways -- the more we realize we don't know Him. We are creatures, He is the Creator. Without Him we are nothing. Look at the Stars and how big this universe is and that even within the atom - God exists there. He is everywhere while we are confined to one speck of a place.

St. Chrysostom said in his Pascha Sermon that all are invited to the Feast of the Lamb - the Pascha Celebration whether they come at the beginning or the last minute. God is so generous.

Welcome to TAW, by the way. Feel free to ask questions.

Lovingly in Christ our God,
Elizabeth

Orthodox Christianity - proclaiming the truth since 33 A.D.

[Reader Nilus]

PRAYER OF THE OPTINIA ELDERS

O Lord, grant that I may meet all that this coming day brings to me with spiritual tranquility. Grant that I may fully surrender myself to Thy holy Will.
At every hour of this day, direct and support me in all things Whatsoever news may reach me in the course of the day, teach me to accept it with a calm soul and the firm conviction that all is subject to Thy holy Will.
Direct my thoughts and feelings in all my words and actions. In all unexpected occurrences, do let me forget that all is sent down from Thee.
Grant that I may deal straightforwardly and wisely with every member of my family, neither embarrassing nor saddening anyone.
O Lord, grant me the strength to endure the fatigue of the coming day and all the events that take place during it. Direct my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to be patient, to forgive, and to love. Amen.

The Prayer of the Optinia Elders will help you on your journey. As you seek the Kingdom live what you know that Kingdom is, and the rest will come all in God's own time. We are where God wants us to be, and He is in everyone we meet, so the grass is not greener on the otherside of the fence.
Jeff the Finn

[Oblio]

Good advice above, especially the Paschal sermon of St. John. c.f. the parable of the workers (Mt 20:1-16)

Paradoxically, God is both father away and alien to us than anything we can imagine, yet at the same time He is closer to us than our best friend, even ourself.

[Oblio]

Abp. +KALLISTOS discusses this a bit in The Orthodox Church (http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0804/_PB.HTM#25O) speaking of St. Gregory Palamas and the resolution of the Hesycast controversy.


From this Gregory turned to the main problem: how to combine the two affirmations, that man knows God and that God is by nature unknowable. Gregory answered: we know the energies of God, but not His essence. This distinction between God.s essence (ousia) and His energies goes back to the Cappadocian Fathers. .We know our God from His energies,. wrote Saint Basil, .but we do not claim that we can draw near to His essence. For His energies come down to us, but His essence remains unapproachable. (Letter 234, 1). Gregory accepted this distinction. He affirmed, as emphatically as any exponent of negative theology, that God is in essence absolutely unknowable. .God is not a nature,. he wrote, .for He is above all nature; He is not a being, for He is above all beings.. No single thing of all that is created has or ever will have even the slightest communion with the supreme nature, or nearness to it. (P.G. cl, 1176C). But however remote from us in His essence, yet in His energies God has revealed Himself to men. These energies are not something that exists apart from God, not a gift which God confers upon men: they are God Himself in His action and revelation to the world. God exists complete and entire in each of His divine energies. The world, as Gerard Manley Hopkins said, is charged with the grandeur of God; all creation is a gigantic Burning Bush, permeated but not consumed by the ineffable and wondrous fire of God.s energies. (Compare Maximus, Ambigua, P.G. xci, 1148D).

It is through these energies that God enters into a direct and immediate relationship with mankind. In relation to man, the divine energy is in fact nothing else than the grace of God; grace is not just a .gift. of God, not just an object which God bestows on men, but a direct manifestation of the living God Himself, a personal confrontation between creature and Creator.

[ShiFuBill]

I'm going through many of the same questions right now. I realize that there is only one way to God, but is the model of the car we drive down that way important as well? Someone can clear this quote up bc I know I'll get it wrong but one Saint, I think St. John of Damascus, was struggling with a question of the nature of God. God told him to leave these things to Him and be concerned with his own soul. Whenever I get bogged down in the tecnicalities of Orthodoxy, I just ask God to guide me where He wants me to be, and all else will fall into place. Hope that helps.

[Matthias]

Bill, I wish you all the best in finding God where you end up finding the most comfort, whether that be in the Orthodox Church, or another denomination. :)