NOT JUST SUNDAYS< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

Judges 2:6-23

It is impossible to know God and not know and live in obedience to His word. A claim of knowing God does not necessarily mean knowing God. Knowing God that is having a personal relationship with God goes beyond the knowledge gain through a preacher. Preaching to people is not an indication of reaching the people. A believer can be preached to and not be reached. To know God personally involves after having been preached to, one has to be spending time seeking Him on a personal ground. Not knowing God and not knowing Him enough is equal to not knowing Him. Opening your Bible one or two times during the Sunday service and not getting back to it until the following week is not the way to seek and know Him. God is not far from us if we will reach out to Him through His Word. Knowing the word of God is to actually know God Himself. Imagine having someone help pick up your child at school without any written word from you. We all know that the child would not be let go. However, with a presentation of your written word, your child will no doubt be released because the school has received your word. God has given Himself to us through His written word that is alive in the pages of the Bible. Your written word is you so likewise; the written Word of God is God. Look at what happened to the children of Israel after Joshua had died: ÒNow Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.Ó (Judges 2:8-10) How can we know the Lord if we do not spend time in His word that has been written? The Bible mentions that the later generation of children of Israel did not know God or the work of His hand. They failed to seek and know the word that would have given them life so life began to offer them what does not glorify God. As a result, ÒÉthe children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals.Ó (Judges 2:11) They did not just serve the Baals; they were lost in evil deeds because they had neglected the word of God. You cannot seek God in His word and not have encounter with Him. Also, it is the amount of time that you give in the word of God that will determine how much you desire God to carry you in your daily walks. For the feeding of your soul, it will never be enough to just get fed from going to church on Sundays and not showing up until the next Sunday. Whatever it is that is taking you away from spending time on the word of God, ask God to deliver you from it for His glory and He will do it. He is a faithful God if you will be faithful with what you want from Him. When you know Him, you will obey Him.