Samuel C. Williamson

“It is perfectly consistent with Scripture to ask to see—to hear and know—God. With the psalmist, we can pray, God, you are my God! I eagerly seek you. My soul thirsts for you and my flesh faints for you as in a dry, weary, and parched land. (Ps. 63:1 SWP) Paul spends much of chapter 3 in Ephesians praying that we would experience God. He asks first: that we be “strengthened with power through [God’s] Spirit in [our] inner being” (v. 16); then: that we have the “strength to comprehend” God’s love (v. 18; the Greek word for “comprehend” means “to be seized” as a city is seized by a conquering general, so Paul prays that we be overcome by God’s love); finally: that we know “the width, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ, and that we know something that goes beyond knowledge” (vv. 18–19 SWP). Paul is praying for an inner, God-given certainty of Christ’s love, a knowledge that surpasses knowledge. Paul is praying for an experience—an experience of knowing God (and his love for us) with such certainty that our lives explode in joy. If the psalmists and Paul can ask this of God, then it’s perfectly fine for us to seek it as well. If we only aim for euphoria, we’ll eventually experience emptiness. But if we aim for God, we’ll get everything else we ever wanted thrown in.”
― Samuel C. Williamson, Hearing God in Conversation: How to Recognize His Voice Everywhere

“The moralistic gospel may fill our churches with well-behaved people. But the result will merely be an improved version of the old man—not the new man that the biblical gospel promises. Without grace, we miss out on true life transformation.…Grace accomplishes what moralism promises but can never deliver: a changed heart.—Trevin Wax”
― Samuel C. Williamson, Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids?: How Moralism Suffocates Grace