Know Be Do is the “WWJD” of the generation
In the tradition of “What Would Jesus Do?” Know Be Do is more than a book. It’s a movement. It transforms the Christian walk from an uphill battle into a guided tour with God. Most Christians lead a life of frustration, futility, and failure. They feel they never live up to God’s standards and live out His commands. They define Christianity by what they do and don’t do. They’re living the Christian life upside down, and they don’t even realize it. Know Be Do turns the Christian life right side up. With powerful stories and winsome wit that make it an engaging read, Know Be Do shows you how to intimately, biblically know God, how to accept and employ your position in Christ (be), and how to act on His authority and appropriate His power (do). It connects the dots of the Christian life in a way that makes sense out of a maze of disconnected Christian concepts and equips you for a lifelong and ever-fascinating journey of walking the Christian life right side up.
Chapter-by-Chapter Synopses
BOOK ONE
Chapter 1: My Journey
“Hi, my name is Larry, and I am a recovering legalist.” I began my Christian life focused on the external—do. I was focused on the measuring stick, however, instead of the Measurer. I was making my walk with God one big “to do” and “to don’t do” list, instantly turning what should have now been right side up, upside down again. I soon realized, however, that there was more to it, and I discovered the internal—be. But I hadn’t arrived yet. Eventually, I journeyed on from Christian childhood—do—through spiritual adolescence—be—and on to a level of maturity that focused on the eternal—know. Knowing God. Life blossomed as I found that when walking with God, the journey is the destination.
Chapter 2: Know
God wanted man to know Him so much that He wrote an autobiography—the Bible. He created a universe, and He even became a man Himself—the Divine Communication—Jesus Christ. It’s all so that we can know Him with what the Bible calls ginosko knowing. Knowing Him personally. Relationally. Intimately. It’s our highest calling. After all, how can we worship, love, witness unto, or otherwise grow in a relationship with someone we don’t know? If we want to be more, do more, love more, hope more, worship God more, then we must know Him more. Everything else is the fruit, not the root.
Chapter 3: Be
Knowing Who He is informs who we are. That’s why it’s so important to focus on first things first—knowing God. He sees us through what I call “Jesus goggles,” and until we learn Who He is and how He sees us, we’re prone to see ourselves distorted, like a carnival mirror. We think we are who others say we are or who Satan says we are. It’s no wonder we’re powerless. Once we discover how valuable He is and that His worth is our worth, we understand who we are in Christ—and that means we can do anything God can do through us. It all starts with know and then be.
Chapter 4: Do
Doing strives to win favor with God by what we give. Knowing God rests on the awareness that God gave everything for us. Many Christians get these reversed, thinking that keeping God’s commands is the way to Him. Knowing God supersedes everything, because it becomes the supreme cause. But it takes all three: Know Be Do. Do without be or know is hypocrisy. This is the Pharisee syndrome, legalism as its worst. Be without do or know is complacency. If you sit back resting on your co‐heir status without letting new life flow in or service flow out, you will stagnate. You will sit, soak, and sour. Know without be or do is blasphemy. But when know, be, and do line up—that’s integrity! This chapter uses a number of simple diagrams and charts to connect the dots of know, be, and do—and bring the Christian’s spirituality into alignment.
BOOK TWO
Chapter 5: God—Illumination
This chapter introduces Book Two, which includes an in-depth look at seven categories of God’s attributes, viewed through the Know Be Do lens. Believers need to recognize that when it comes to the Christian life, it’s not what you know, it’s Who you know. God. Knowing God illuminates who we are, which in turn inspires what we do.
Chapter 6: God’s Kindness
Many Christians, and most unbelievers, often view God as a divine power Who takes pleasure in zapping us whenever we mess up. God’s grace, mercy, and compassion seem theoretical and sporadic. It’s no wonder unbelievers see us the same way, as judgmental and unkind. For starters, we need to truly understand the depth of God’s kindness. Then we can begin being a reflection of that, and becoming a better advertisement for Christianity.
Chapter 7: God’s Power
The purpose of this series of chapters is to examine the communicable attributes of God, the qualities that have at least a partial counterpart in mankind. We’ll never be as powerful as God. But the more intimately we know Him and understand His power and what He is capable of, the more we will be a reflection of His image, and do what He does. When we feel powerless, it’s because we’re focused on doing first, not knowing and being. We must ginosko know Him and His power and reprogram our being. Then we can do anything He can do—and He can do anything.
Chapter 8: God’s Intelligence
Power without wisdom is dangerous. But combine the two and you get some amazing results. Jesus is always the smartest guy in the room. So the more we get to know Him, the more we will outshine the worldly wise and strong. How do you grow in wisdom? Hang out with the Wise, not the foolish. Get to know His purpose, His power, His love, His being. Know Him, and you’ll know wisdom even when nothing else makes sense.
Chapter 9: God’s Connectivity
One of the most terrifying thoughts I can imagine is, What if God had not been so connective? What if He had created us, then walked away. What if He had never written the Bible? What if He had no desire to have a relationship with us? What if the Holy Trinity couldn’t agree on what to do about man’s sin? What if God was out of fellowship with Himself and with us? What if there was no community nor unity? Thankfully, God Himself sets the example for community and unity. As we get to know Him as relational and connective, we, too, will become connected to Him and others and live out the Christian life, doing to “one another” as He enables us to do through Himself.
Chapter 10: God’s Eternality
When we hold on to temporal possessions, it just demonstrates that we don’t really know God. God gives great investment advice, and to the extent that we get to know Him and what He values, we will be satisfied and content. When we lose sight of His eternal purposes, we become nearsighted and discontent. Knowing that He created us for His eternal purpose and everlasting pleasure turns life on earth into a little bit of Heaven on earth.
Chapter 11: God’s Service
Service is taking something that costs you and giving it to others. It’s the opposite of Christian consumerism, and it’s exactly what the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ, did for us. When we have the mind of Christ, we move past “you serve me,” even beyond “you serve me, and I’ll serve you,” and into pure “I’ll serve you” territory. Using examples from the Bible and my own life, I paint a picture of what Know Be Do looks like in the life of the Christian servant.
Chapter 12: God’s Purity
“Be holy, because I am holy,” God tells us. But how can we, as sinners, be holy? Answer that and you will begin to understand the concept of Know Be Do. It’s a matter of positional purity vs. performance purity. When we truly grasp that we can be holy because He is holy, then His being gets lived out through our being. No longer must we muster up the willpower to do holy things. We simply let Him live out His holy life through our being in Him. Holiness is not the way to God. God is the way to holiness. It all comes back to knowing His supreme holiness and hatred of sin, being who we are in Him, and then doing what comes naturally—supernaturally—through Him.
Chapter 13: Conclusion of Book Two
Many Christians know a lot about God. Most know plenty about what they are supposed to do as believers. A few understand who they really are in Christ. But rare is the Christian who has learned the secret to connecting the dots between all three: knowing, being, doing. Reflecting on Dale Carnegie’s advice to “Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to” as well as a formative experience in my own life, I sum up the amazing discovery of how to turn the Christian life right side up by knowing, being, and doing.
BOOK THREE
Chapter 14: Us—Inspiration
This brief chapter introduces Book Three, the section of the book that moves from the illumination of Who God is to the inspiration of who we are and what on earth we are doing. In Book Three, I address some of the believer’s most common questions and problems through the lens of Know Be Do.
Chapter 15: Knowing God’s Will
From students deciding on a college to singles selecting a mate to parents making child-rearing choices to workers making career moves, everyone wants to discover what God’s will for their life is. Yet, like many other facets of the Christian life, they have it upside down. The mistake that most people make in discovering God’s will is that they focus on the do part, and ignore the know part. People are obsessed with the do part. Instead they should be engrossed with the know part—knowing God. Then focus on the be part—being who they are in Christ. Once those are in place, do whatever you want. It will be in perfect alignment with God’s will.
Chapter 16: Overcoming Stubborn Sin
Sin is ultimately not a defect in what we do. It’s a deficiency in Who/what we know and in Whom we are. That’s why there will be no sin in Heaven. Because in Heaven we will know Him perfectly. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known” @1 Corinthians 13:12. Overcoming sin is a matter of exchanging Satan’s lies for God’s knowledge. By focusing on His perspective, His presence, and His promises, we’ll experience a little Heaven on earth—freedom and victory over sin.
Chapter 17: Answering Life’s Doubts with Faith
In a world where the fastest growing faith system is atheism, believers are surrounded by unbelief. The world points to human reason and science as the authorities. But these rely on human faculties such as intellect and the five senses. Fully knowing God requires a sixth sense: faith. Faith is the sense that allows us to conceive and more fully perceive God. To know Him. Faith is the sense that allows us to field the distorted questions, the discovery questions, and the difficult questions about God in a way that leads us to know that God is good and God is great—no doubt about it.
Chapter 18: Know Be Do and Your Spiritual Life
Do might be how 21st century American Christianity defines spiritual success, but it’s not necessarily how God defines it. Doing things for God won’t automatically make your spiritual walk more healthy. It could have the reverse effect. That includes all the “spiritual disciplines”: Worship. Fellowship. Witnessing. Serving. Praying. I’m not minimizing the importance of following God’s commands and commissions. But we need to quit practicing churchianity and start following Christianity. We need to focus on first things first: Know. Then be. Then do. It will turn your spiritual life right side up again.
Chapter 19: Know Be Do and Your Earthly Life
When it comes to everyday life, the secret of success is connecting the dots between knowing God and simply doing what we do with our 24 hours each day. And the key to connecting those dots is being. Forget “Just do it” for now. Just be. As a Christian, “just being” means examining your Christian “brand”: Your image. Your identity. And your ideal. The goal is to bring all three in alignment—in every arena of your life. Career. Stewardship. Leisure. Citizenship. Relationships. Discover how God views each area, then align your image, identity, and ideal. Then and only then will you be freed to do life to the fullest, just as God intended.
Chapter 20: Know Be Do Bible Study Method
Once the reader has made it to this point in the book, he’ll begin to see the Know Be Do triad embedded in places he never saw before. All throughout Scripture. In sermons and in books. Even in business and everyday life. This chapter helps the reader discover God’s Word afresh through the lens of Know Be Do. The chapter outlines the benefits of the Know Be Do Bible Study Method and describes in detail how to take any passage and make it come alive anew by running it through the Know Be Do grid. It’s like reading Scripture for the first time with 3D glasses. The insights are life-transforming, and the approach will make for a lifetime of new discoveries.