KNOWING!!!--The Difference betwen "Saber" and "Conocer."

Hi Everyone,

Those of you with little or no Spanish background are probably wondering WHAT in the world the strange title of this post is about. And I will explain. I am seeking different ways to explain what GOD has done in my life. I have another analogy that may make more sense.

In English the action verb "to know" has only one word that is used to communicate it.

In Spanish, however, there are two different verbs that carry the meaning of the verb "to know" and both have entirely different meanings from each other.

The first verb "saber" has to do with knowing. Saber has to do with "knowing" in the sense of FACTS AND INFORMATION THAT ONE KNOWS. It also carries the idea of learned information--something that you can teach and pass on to others because you learned it. It has to do with knowing how to do something as well (like I know how to swim, ride bike etc.)

The second verb "conocer" has to do with being deeply acquainted with and knowing (being familiar with) places that you have been--you have been there and experienced it. It has to do with knowing people. When the Spanish Bible talks about Adam KNOWING his wife Eve, and therefore she conceives,it does NOT use the verb "saber." It uses the verb "conocer." The verb "conocer" carries with it a sense of intimacy, of relationship, of being intricately familiar with a person or place.

Two very different concepts of "knowing" are demonstrated through these two small but important verbs.

What I am about to write is NOT MEANT to cause doubt to anyone else, but please read it. When I mentioned things getting from the "head to the heart" in my previous posts, THIS is what I was getting after. Like the Spanish Word "saber," we can KNOW all kinds of facts about God. We can know intellectually the right Sunday School answers and even spew them out accordingly as needed. (I am certain of that-I did it my whole life!) I am just being honest here. But there is a difference between knowing facts about God and knowing all the right answers and truly knowing HIM----having that PERSONAL INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP OF INTRICATE FAMILIARITY WITH HIM. I understand that some people may not like hearing this, and that's ok. We are all in process--either being brought one step closer to God and to that moment where we have that relationship with Him, or being drawn one step farther away.

To say this as clear as possible once again I will say this. God, by His mercy and grace, has brought me to the point in my life where I don't just know facts about Him anymore, and I am not just giving the right Sunday School answers because they are the right thing to say. God turned my heart towards Him. I didn't have to do anything, or clean up my life to be brought to Him. He took me AS I WAS!!! AND BECAUSE HE BROUGHT ME TO THE PLACE where I finally understood that Jesus Christ died for MY sins in MY place and that there was nothing I could do to "make myself right" before God, I was brought into the absolute truth of being able to not "just simply know a bunch of facts about God." God enabled me to be able to transfer all of my dependence to Him and trust in Him alone for what I could not attain by my own efforts, which was eternal salvation. (It was totally God's work in my life--I don't get the glory and I don't want any of it!)

And BECAUSE OF THIS I AM ABLE TO, AS THEY SAY IN SPANISH, "conocer" GOD--THAT IS HAVE A PERSONAL,INTIMATE,FAMILIAR relationship with God. He now calls me His friend.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!!