“Knowing God….” (August 2022 Update)
Our own spiritual lives will never be higher than our view of God. That’s why it is so important to be theologically correct, especially about the nature of God! Our view of God provides the framework for our life and also for the way we conduct our ministry. So, we need to be sure that we have a biblical view of God. However, it is impossible to know everything about God because He is incomprehensible. But what God has revealed about Himself, we can know and study and trust for our lives. That’s why studying the Word of God is so essential to having a right view of God. It affects everything in our lives.
But we also need to remember that theology is not an end in itself – our goal is not simply to know about God – but to know God!
Let’s look at a couple of passages about the importance of knowing God.
First, Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me ….” The most important thing for us is to know God. Hosea 6:3 also encourages us to know God. It says, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord ….” In Luke 10:27, Jesus also told us that the greatest commandment was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind ….” But we cannot fully love what we do not know. So, knowing God is essential even for fulfilling the great commandment.
Charles Spurgeon once said: “”Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, Nothing [will] so magnify the whole soul of man, As a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.” If you want to grow spiritually, you need to spend your life getting to know God better and better. Nothing will help you to grow in godliness more than getting to know God better.
There are two primary ways we can know God in the scriptures: through studying the attributes of God and through studying the acts of God. To begin with, we can know God by studying the attributes of God. The attributes tell us about God’s essential essence – they tell us WHO God is. The attributes of God are unchanging. God is the same, yesterday, today and forever – in His attributes. This means that God’s attributes will always be the same – God is faithful – He will never increase in His faithfulness or stop being faithful. That is true of all His attributes. That’s why we have been studying some of His attributes in our last few updates.
But we can also know God by studying His actions. We can look at what He has done in creation or in redeeming Israel or at other acts of God. They do show us how God acts in human history, but they also tell us something about the character of God.
But our goal should not simply be knowledge. In 1 Corinthians 8:1, Paul reminds us, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” We do not want to fall into the trap of thinking that our goal is simply to learn about God and His attributes. Our understanding of God should help us to grow to be more like Him. It should not be merely educational – it should transform our lives. Daniel 11:32 says, “the people who know their God will be strong and take action.” In other words, knowing God is not an intellectual exercise – it should make an impact on our lives!
In his book, Knowing God, J. I. Packer suggests 4 results of knowing God that are found in Daniel 11:32.
First, people who know their God have Great Energy for God. The context in Daniel 11 is a situation in which a contemptible person is setting up an abomination against those who would be loyal to God. The people of God do not sit back and do nothing, but, because they know their God, they are ready to take action. We see this in the book of Daniel. In chapter 1, the four young men refuse to eat the food of the King to demonstrate their trust in God. Then when the king issues a decree that no one may pray to any god except him, Daniel not only continues to pray three times a day, but it does so in front of an open window so that everyone can see what he’s doing. The people who know their God will have a great energy for serving God.
Second, people who know their God have Great Thoughts about God. There is probably no book in the Bible where the sovereignty of God is so clearly presented as in the Book of Daniel. In the presence of King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel says that his God knows and foreknows all things, and that God will bring about His will in human history. These are the thoughts that filled the mind of Daniel, and they are reflected in his words and his prayers throughout the Book of Daniel. Is this how we think about God? Do we see Him in control and do our actions and prayers show that our thoughts are consumed by this sovereign God? People who know their God will have great thoughts about their God!
Third, people who know their God have Great Boldness for God. Daniel and his friends were men who were not afraid to stand for God even if it meant that they might lose their lives. They did not sit back and keep quiet – they were aware that their actions would result in their death, unless God intervened. They spoke boldly even in the face of great danger. Why? Because they knew their God.
Finally, people who know their God have Great Peace in God. They trusted God and rested in Him no matter what would happen to them. Why? Because they knew their God. In fact, in Daniel 3:17, when the three men are told that they will be thrown into the fiery furnace if they do not bow down and worship the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, they reply, “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.” They were confident in the power of their God to deliver them. But in verse 18, they make an even more powerful statement: “But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” They were at peace, and they trusted God no matter what – because they knew their God.
This is why it is so important that we understand the God who is. If we know our God, then we will be able to “be strong and take action” no matter what we face. We are living in difficult times today. Much is happening that is nearly impossible to figure out. But, if we know our God, we will be strong and bold and willing to do whatever He calls us to do. But your own spiritual life will never rise higher than your view of God. Make sure your view of God is a biblical one that exalts Him as the sovereign Lord of the universe.
Teaching – Back Online! …
Our class this summer (Research and Critical Thinking) is going well. We have 32 students and that means a lot of papers to grade! We are teaching the students how to write and communicate clearly. So, I am enjoying being able to read their thought and help them communicate them more clearly.
Fall classes are going to be held in spite of the on-going war in Ukraine. Because of the war, most of our classes will be taught online. This means a lot more work for professors. Teaching online involves much more work than teaching in class. But both seminaries (Kyiv and L’viv) both believe that it is essential to continue training men and women for ministry. As I shared last month, one of our administrators reasoned, “Knowledge is power, And Biblical knowledge is the most powerful knowledge.”
This fall, I will be teaching three classes like I do every year. That means I will be teaching my normal full schedule. However, Kyiv Theological Seminary has made the change from teaching in Russian to teaching exclusively in Ukrainian. This means that I have to convert my lectures and assignments into Ukrainian. This generally costs me about $900 per class for all the translation work. As soon as I finish my summer class, I need to get to work preparing for the other classes. Because our own finances are tight, we would appreciate any help with these translation costs for the three fall classes.
Future plans … We are still trying to determine exactly what God would have me do for the future. For now, it appears that I can keep teaching all the classes that I was teaching before we left Ukraine. And, if the situation changes in Ukraine, I might even be able to come back to teach a class. We will see. So, it seems obvious now that our ministry in Ukraine will be continuing at least for the coming year. Continue praying for me as I teach and as we work on getting classes converted from Russian to Ukrainian this year.
Help for Us …
Housing … We have been staying in the basement of some friends in Fayetteville since we arrived in January. This has been a great blessing for us! But we need to move out by fall so another family can live here. At the beginning of the summer, God opened a door for us to be able to stay in some missionary housing starting August 28th. The ministry is called Hiding Place Hollow. They have built some missionary homes just outside of Rogers where missionaries can stay in a place of their own for up to 6 months. This ministry is wonderful and if you would like to help support this ministry so that they can help other missionary families, click on the link to check out their ministry. We will be able to stay at Hiding Place Hollow until March next year so this will really be a big help for us.
One additional need is for all sorts of items that we had to leave behind in Ukraine. One friend at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship has encouraged us to set up a registry on Amazon. We have already been blessed by friends sending several items to help us gather essential items to start over here. We are trying to put items on whenever we think about what we need. If you are interested in helping, you can go to the Amazon link (https://smile.amazon.com/registries/custom/316YRLWE5HNVF/guest-view ) and simply choose what item you want to help with, and it will be sent to us. This has really helped us to have some essentials for starting over here in the US. There are a number of items, most of them small and inexpensive but all of them would help us to get re-established here in the US. Just click on the link to see some of the items that we need.
We are quickly becoming professional thrift store hunters! We are learning the color systems and we have figured out how to wait for items to drop down to $0.50 to $1.00! Through these thrift stores, we have been able to get all the clothes we have needed for the summer for just a few dollars. This has been a great blessing for us!
While our needs are many, the needs of people in Ukraine are far greater. We are blessed to be able to come “home” to family and friends and we have a great support network here. But that is not the case for our Ukrainian friends. We appreciate (and need) your support, but our friends need help also. If you would like to help any of them, we have posted some updated links to ministries we know about that are helping people in Ukraine. You can find those links at https://teachingresources.org/2022/03/03/help-for-ukraine/.
Family …
This month was Nadia’s 7th birthday! She has grown so much in the past year. We had a great birthday celebration, first with a birthday breakfast (with Haven and Harley) and then a birthday dinner (Sloppy Joes was the birthday girl’s choice).
This summer continues to be packed with activities for the girls. They are taking swimming lessons, swimming at the pool almost daily and participating in a craft camp. They are also sewing, playing outside and playing board games together.
We are also getting ready for homeschool this year. We have filed our intent to homeschool and gathered most of the books that we will need this year. One advantage we will have this year is being able to go to the library to find books. English books were nearly impossible to find in Ukraine.
Of course, we are all missing Ukraine very much. The girls often talk about wanting to return to Ukraine. We are adjusting to life in the states, but it has been emotionally difficult. Thank you for praying for us!
Support and Needs …
Please continue to pray that our regular support levels will continue for another year or two. Right now, it is looks like I will be teaching students in Ukraine online for at least the next two years. We might even include some trips to teach in person if the war situation changes. We will also need additional funds to replace everything that we have lost in the evacuation too. Everything in the states is much, much more expensive.
Katya’s mother is still in Poland awaiting the final processing of her documents. We cannot believe that it has taken so long for her documents to be processed. Katya’s grandmother has been in California since April. Also, we are waiting to hear about Katya’s documents. She needs them so she can get her driver’s license here. Pray that this will happen quickly!
While our heart’s desire is to return to Ukraine, each passing month seems to indicate it might be best for us to consider staying here in the states. This is a very difficult decision for us. We are hoping to find some land so that we can have a place to garden. We think we might have found something, and we are praying that everything will go well so we can start making some plans for being more permanent here. Pray for wisdom for us as well as for finances to get re-settled here.
Pray for Ukraine …
There is so much to be praying for with regard to Ukraine. We do pray for peace but, most of all, we pray for Ukraine to be free from Russian occupation. We also continue to pray that the people of Russia will realize what their nation is doing and will stand up against Putin’s regime.
Most of all we pray for so many of our friends who have been hurt by the war, including the families of some friends that have lost loved ones in the war. We also pray for the ministries of churches in Ukraine as they help meet needs while sharing the gospel. Most of all, we pray that many more will come to know God even in the midst of this terrible war. Thank you for praying with us!
By His Grace,
Jim, Katya, Kristina and Nadia
If you missed previous updates or just want to read some short theological reflections, you can find these at our website at https://teachingresources.org/ .
Also, some have asked about how to support us. You can send checks to Teaching Resources International, PO Box 1025, Cabot, AR 72023 or pay through PayPal on our website. Just put “#1000 Ehrhard” in the memo so our treasurer knows where to allocate the funds. If you want to help with our relocation to the US – just put Relocation in the memo. You can also help us with some small needs by contributing something from our Amazon Registry. We are grateful for all your prayers and help while we try to get re-settled here in the US.
Teaching Resources International 