Newsletter 6/26/2025

“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (John 4:29)

If everyone you knew, knew everything there is to know about you, how many of them would still love you? If you knew everything there is to know, about everyone you know, how many of them would you still love? 

Let those two questions sit in your mind and tug and pull on you for a day. When I wrote them I tried to use the simplest of language. But they are deeply profound questions. Not because I thought of them, but because of the implications of them. The one good thing is that no human will ever know all there is to know about you. Even if you told someone all you know about yourself, you’d surely and unintentionally leave something out. And there is no human on earth about whom you know everything. So I guess we’re all safe right? 

Well, yes and no. We are definitely safe from our darkest and most hidden sins being exposed before the world…unless of course you do something so heinous that the world takes notice. We are safe in the sense that some of the worst things we’ve ever done are either only known to us or to a select few. But we are not safe in the truest sense because while no person can possibly know your full self fully, God does in fact see and know us fully. There is nothing in our lives that is so concealed that it cannot be viewed at any time by an all-seeing God. We can mask true selves from people, but not the Lord. Our secrets are on total display in the courts of the kingdom. Does that make you feel good? Probably not. 

But, if there is one individual in the universe that you can truly be safe with it is God. He knows everything, and I mean everything about you. He knows your joys, your hopes, your fears, your ambitions, your weaknesses, your strengths, your good, your bad, your past, your present, your future, and yet He still loves and cares about you just the same. There is not a single sin that can cause God to cease from loving you. Yet, it must be said that it is sin that breaks the relationship between us and God. Not because He will turn from us, but because we turn from Him in favor of that sin. Adam and Eve ran from God because they did not want to be known in their sinful condition. The woman at the well shrank from Jesus because He was probing too deeply into the reservoir of her tainted life.  We too run from God and try to slink out from His endlessly compassionate but fiery gaze. Why? Because we fear being known and then subsequently, rejected. This is how some of the most important and closest people in our lives have treated us. They found out something about us and despised us for it. They gave us silence or a cold shoulder. We were known, but not loved. 

Jesus is different. He knows you fully, but cares for you fully. He understands all of you, but has chosen to redeem and to recreate you. He is pursuing closeness, not distance. With Him, we are free to be our whole selves. Now let me be clear. The self must be surrendered and crucified. But every sinner is loved before they turn away from self and sin, not just after. 

I came across a song recently that I wanted to learn to play on the guitar. It is entitled, “Known” by Tauren Wells. Reflect on the chorus for a moment…..

“I'm fully known and loved by You

You won't let go no matter what I do

And it's not one or the other

It's hard truth and ridiculous grace

To be known fully known and loved by You”

I always struggle with the “no matter what I do” part. And eventually, if I let go of God and resist Him, He has no choice but to let me go my own way. But it is absolutely Biblical that no matter what a person does, they are known and loved. It is interesting that Jesus will challenge a certain group of people at the end of time and tell them, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). It is not because Jesus does not actually know who they are and what they’ve done, it is because they themselves never let allowed Him into their hearts. He did not KNOW them intimately. 

So open your heart and your life totally to God. Do not hide anything from Him. Overcome the fear of being rejected by Him. Be transparent, spiritually naked but not ashamed. God knows everything you’ve ever done, and He loves you still. He knows everything you will become in Christ, because you are fully known by Him. 

Pastor Dean