Such Glorious Knowledge

Our Daily Bread Podcast | Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.6 • 955 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

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Summary

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas endured much to dedicate himself to a life of seeking God. His family imprisoned him for a year in an attempt to discourage him from joining the Dominican order, a monastic group dedicated to a life of simplicity, study, and preaching. After a lifetime of studying Scripture and creation, and writing nearly one hundred volumes, Aquinas had such an intense experience of God that he wrote, “I can no longer write, for God has given me such glorious knowledge that all contained in my works are as straw.” He died only three months later.

The apostle Paul also described an experience from God so overwhelming that it was impossible to put into words, when he was “caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (1 Corinthians 12:4). “Because of these surpassingly great revelations,” Paul was given an unidentified “thorn in [his] flesh” (v. 7) to keep him humble and reliant on God. He was told, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9).

The more we understand about God, the more we understand how impossible it is for us to capture who He is in words. Yet in our weakness and in our loss for what to say, Christ’s grace and beauty shines clearly through.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me.
0:07.0	2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9.
0:11.9	Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.
0:15.9	Our reading titled Such Glorious Knowledge was written by Monica LaRose and read by Tony Collier.
0:23.4	2 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1 through 10
0:27.0	I must go on boasting although there is nothing to be gained
0:31.9	I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord
0:35.4	I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to
0:40.1	the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And I know
0:47.5	that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, but God knows, was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible
0:56.0	things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not
1:03.1	boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool
1:09.9	because I would be speaking the truth.
1:12.7	But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say,
1:18.5	or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming
1:24.5	conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan,
1:29.1	to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me,
1:36.0	my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast
1:42.2	all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's
1:45.4	power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults,
1:52.8	in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2:04.8	Such glorious knowledge, written by Monica LaRose.
	...

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