Better Cubes and Gardens

Have you noticed that the more high tech the world becomes the more we long for high touch. God created us for personal contact with Him. In our lives we desire personal contact with others. Do not believe me - try and be alone and quiet for more than 10 minutes! We will even start to talk or reason with ourselves when there is no one else present. We can sit much like I am right now at our desk and be fully engaged in the high tech age of blogs, twitter, facebook, emails and im. In fact I enjoy them all to some extent but if we allow these mediums to replace high touch the interaction and close communion with another person(s) than we will be out of balance. Our equilibrium will be off. High tech lends itself to "informational" knowledge while high touch lends itself to "personal" knowledge. Timothy Keller a present day preacher from NY has captured this concept much better than I can and so I share with you many of his thoughts on the matter.
When you first meet and sit down with someone new to you it is all about informational knowledge. We want to gain information about the person (where are they from, what do they believe, what do they like etc) At some point in the collection of this "informational" data we decide if we want to take the time and get close to this person and make them a friend or possible more. It is at this point that "informational" knowledge turns to "personal" knowledge. We start to share personal disclosure and respond to one another with a level of commitment. We are in high touch mode at this point. We have moved from high tech to high touch. Something to note here, you can have informational knowledge without personal knowledge, but you can not have personal knowledge without informational knowledge. I can learn about a person through reading about them on a blog, facebook, twitter, in emails or even receive second hand information about them through a friend or loved one. This information gained does not mean I personally know them. Now if I have a personal relationship with someone it means that I have already gained the informational knowledge and moved to a deeper level. Lets look at these simple truths in the light of a relationship with God. You can not have a personal relationship with God if you do not know about Him. You can know the Bible and not know God but you can not know God without the Bible. The point of life is to know God. Not to have informational knowledge of God but to have personal knowledge. This is the real problem for people with Christianity. Sure they complain about it being exclusive, too demanding, to confusing, costing too much and they are correct it can be all those things! It is all of those things if we try and understand Christianity or try and live it with information as our sole guide. If Christianity was a philosophy we could spend all day debating and answering questions we all have, if it was a therapy session we could try and solve all the issues and needs of people but Christianity is not a philosophy or a therapy session it is a personal relationship with a Person (Jesus Christ). Yes Jesus Christ and His Word (Bible) holds all we need for life and Godliness. Meaning God has all the answers to our many questions and most of them can be found in His Word (informational knowledge) but if we do not have a personal relationship with Him (Personal knowledge) we do not have access. For far to long we Christians have been apologizing to the world for asking personal questions and for preaching a personal Savior. We must stop and preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified! We must preach personal knowledge!! Too many churches and pastors look to the mystical, to the miracle, to signs and wonders but if we examine the early church we see that when the Person ascended back into Heaven that the early #s for believers dwindled. The Person (high touch) was gone.