What Is Your God Quotient? Series

In the early 1900s, intelligence testing resulted in what we now refer to as the IQ scale. Some of you have probably worried about how high or low your IQ really is, but more important than your IQ is whether or not you are using the gray matter you have. I’m not aware of any good way to measure people’s understanding of God. If we did, we might call it the God Quotient. Where do you think you rank on the scale? Barna and other researchers would say that too many people are on the lower end of the scale.

It is not a new problem. Already back in 750 B.C, when the Old Testament prophet Hosea was preaching, he had some hard words for his listeners in Hosea 4. In fact, using courtroom language, he said that God was bringing an indictment against them. He said “There is no knowledge of God in the land.” He said that because these people had rejected knowledge, He was going to reject them. “They do not know the Lord,” he said.

To make the point clear, God asked Hosea to name his third child Lo-Ammi, which means “not my people” because they no longer knew who God was. And, of course, the people said it wasn’t their fault because their priests hadn’t told them about God. The other problem was that what little they knew, they had forgotten. (4:6)

Now just in case you were not here on Mother’s Day when we began our study of Hosea, let me just summarize by saying that Hosea was a prophet of God who experienced a rocky marriage. Well, actually, it was more than rocky. His wife became a prostitute and he divorced her. But later, he had a chance to buy her back and he did because of his love for her. And that story in the first three chapters became a parable of God’s relationship with his people. They had flirted with other gods, breaking their covenant vows. But God still loved them and wanted to redeem them. And God loves you, too, and he wants you to know who He is. Here are three things about knowing God.

Knowing God is possible. So how do you improve your GQ--God quotient? How can we know God? Here are several ways:

1. Through creation. Ps. 100 says, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Scientists are coming to recognize that the earth we live on was designed for one purpose – to sustain human life, and that is quite different from the other planets. If we ponder the way our world is made, we simply cannot conclude that it just the result of random developments. We can begin to know God through creation.

2. Through history. The Bible makes clear that history is not just one long list of meaningless events. OT people knew from their history that God was working in their world. Read Ex. 6:6-8. History is not just anybody’s story; it is His story.

3. Through instruction. The 10 Commandments given through Moses are God’s words of instruction so people have principles to live by. Those are not the only instructions God has given. Look at Deut 24:19-22. And when God sent Jesus, he brought instruction that superseded some of the Old Testament laws. For example, Mt. 5:43,44.