Do I Know You?

​At camp I stood up in front of about 130 campers. I asked if there were any Kyla’s at camp that week. (Her name has been changed.) Four girls stood up. I pointed at one of them and asked her if she would come to the front. She said, “Yes.”

I stood beside Kyla and asked her if she had a puppy named Sam, and a horse named Rex, and I asked her if she had just moved into a different house, but in the same yard. I told all the kids that Kyla’s favorite color was blue and that she loved to draw and ride her horse. Then I asked the kids if I knew Kyla. Everyone said “Yes.”

Then I looked at Kyla and I said, “Do I know you and do you know me?”

“No.” she said. I thanked her for coming up on stage and she went back to her seat.

Then I asked if there were any Meagan’s there and would they stand up. I pointed to one of them and had her come up. I asked her if her grandfather’s name was David, and if her brother’s name was Scott, and if she had three sisters. I told her what grade she was in and what her favorite TV show was. I asked the group of kids if I knew Meagan and the reaction was mixed. They didn’t know what the right answer was.

I turned to Meagan and said “Do I know you and do you know me?”

She said, “Yes.”

I told the kids that I knew about Kyla, but I didn’t know her.  Then I told them that I knew Meagan quite well. I had known her since she was a baby and she came to my house after school a few days a week.
I told the kids that you can know about someone by hearing about them from a friend or by reading about them, but to really get to know someone and have a relationship with them you have to experience them. And that is what it is like with God, we can know about Him from others or from reading the Bible, but to really know Him you need to spend time with Him, talk with Him and experience Him.
I loved speaking at camp. My favorite part was when the kids came up to me outside and just wanted to talk, ask me questions, and share their lives with me.

God wants the same things.  

Ephesians 3:19-20 (AMP) and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us,
 
Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

God wants to be so close to us that we experience Him working in us and through us all of the time.

Proverbs 3:6 (NKJV) In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct[a] your paths.

If you wonder what that might look like, I’m not as fluent in my relationship with God as some people I know, but if you read my blogs you will read about more of my experience with Him. I hope you enjoy them and feel free to send me your comments. They don’t have to be published.

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Experiencing God
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