Curious little children often find themselves peaking from behind a doorway where daddy is working on a project. With a toddler's cough, a sweet smile, or a gentle whisper, they come nearer to the chair where their father sits. Unsure whether their presence is accepted, they try to reach out and touch his knee. Sweeping around to scoop the child in his arms, a most patient father takes no caution in assuring this loved one that no matter the time, no matter the day or night, they are welcome to enter in and share in his company. And so the child, finding comfort in this embrace, asks the most innocent question of curiosity. "What are you working on, daddy?"

When the Lord opens up His Word to students like you and I, there is astonishing truth found in each page that surpasses the most accurate textbook, the most intricate algebra, or the most creative epic. At the moment we place our faith in the finished work of Christ Jesus, our decisions and thoughts begin to mature. Knowing from the beginning that we are loved, our own innocent questions arise. What does Scripture teach me about me? How should I handle this situation in my life? What did Paul do? What did David do? What did Jesus do?

Others ask a completely different set of questions. What does this word mean? Why did this get written? What audience is this written to? Where and how do these letters fit into that story? When did this happen in relation to that?

Whether we approach the Word of God for practical or academic purposes, truth is found in both. What we miss, however, is the question that seems to evade even the most faithful student. While searching to understand the audience, the application, the characters, the meaning, and the connected dots, the Divine Author stands ignored.

To whom do we give glory? As our fingers pass from page to page of His Word, it's easy to get lost in the details or the grand purpose. Much of the risk involved with attempting to "know God" is a human dilemma of feeling both unworthy and incapable of describing Him. Fortunately for all of us, He has gone the distance to describe Himself and we have only to give Him our attention.

Together, we're going to hike up a mountainside of God's glory and look out over the vastness of who He is. While it is true that we are some of the main characters, this climb is not about us. This is about our Father telling us who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing.

A tremendous amount of attention will be placed on God's descriptive features and the words that we often take for granted. We all use words to communicate as they are essential to our language. It would be horribly unfortunate, however, if we found ourselves using words without any knowledge of their meaning. More troubling would be if we began talking about God apart from the depths of Scripture.

"Job hath spoken without knowledge and his words [were] without wisdom." Job 34:35

"Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge." Job 35:16

Lodged on many bookshelves are titles that often give an illusion that one will "find God" or "experience God" through very human descriptions. Several years ago, during the height of movie mania, I encountered a book with the title, Finding God in the Lord of the Rings. Finding Him in what? Do we find our Creator in the fictional tales of wizards and elves? Many of you probably joined with me to applaud the success of LOTR during the Academy Awards, but the justification for many Christians was a notion that they could "find God" in something man-made.

This, my friends, comes from the reality that we all speak and we all communicate with words. We tell stories and we adore epics. Each thing that we write and each thing that we say is made up of many words. During this very human process, we often attempt to describe God without trusting the autobiography that He finished writing 2,000 years ago.

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light." Genesis 1:2-3

In the beginning, God moved over the surface of the deep. Depth existed before it had a face to move across. With just four words, God commanded light to come out of darkness and the deep lost its ability to hide. We often glide across the Scriptures knowing that there is "depth" below each page and each word, but we hesitate to recognize that the Word itself is our light to understand the deep.

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;" Ephesians 3:17-18

"But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." I Corinthians 2:10

We search the depths of God by looking at the words He has given us to study and trust. The Scriptures are full of words that we have heard all of our lives as well as words that we've never quite been able to define. Throughout its history, the modern English tongue has proved an ever-evolving collection of words that we've taken from other languages to give them our own sound, our own meaning, and usually our own spelling. Latin gave us very early words like cyse, catte, weall, and straet, which are respectively now known as cheese, cat, wall, and street. Some are easy to recognize and others are difficult to catch without assistance. At the same time, meanings themselves have changed in unexpected ways.

"He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." Deuteronomy 32:10

To be the apple of one's eye isn't quite as commonly used today, but it certainly stood out several years ago when referring to someone who might be considered the most special. We would be correct to say that the phrase hasn't changed since it was first translated, but few of us have ever noticed or considered that "apple" was the Old English word for the "pupil of the eye." If you try saying "apple" and then "pupil," you might quickly see the resemblance and consider the way in which both spelling and understanding has changed.¹ We tend to cherish and protect the most central part of our eyes because it is the pupil that is essential for sight. When a newly English-speaking individual shows up to hear us refer to the "apple of our eye," it would be easy to see their expression of confusion trying to imagine a fruit that has lodged itself in just one eye.

For this reason, you'll find yourself reading a bit of etymology throughout the course of our study together. Etymology is, in its most basic form, the "history of words." When Paul describes God as the only "Potentate" in I Timothy 6, how many of us know exactly what he means? With it being such an uncommon word in modern usage, we're left with just two choices. The first option is that we simply move forward in our reading and never know. The second finds us pulling out the nearby dictionary or study tool so that we're prepared to give an answer if and when someone else asks the same question.

"Let your speech [be] always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." Colossians 4:6

We all have a common speech depending on our language and questions are bound to come our direction from the smallest child to the eldest grandfather. Knowing how we are to answer is not an easy process and we won't always know what to say, but understanding the speech that we use as our source of communication is crucial.

That being said, a few of us have gathered to embark on the steep incline that awaits our entry. If you'd like to see what's at the top, it would be a privilege for me to share that journey with you. The guidepost has told us where we're going, but there will be much to enjoy along the way. Join with me as we go to behold the King Eternal upon whom all honor and glory remains forever and ever.