To see his acts does not cause you to enter into the promise hidden in God from (or because of) the foundation of the world.
To know his ways, or to be his friend is a wandering that will still leave you short from entering into the gates of this city, a kingdom freely given.
It is to know his person, He speaks to us by Son/son and the entering into the reality of who you have always known by God to be; it is the finding of the soul you've always had, a Rest in a land that is your own; a pillar that goes no more out.
I like the OP Scott. Yet who is a friend if not someone a person knows?
Jn 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
That is not to say that he does not also call His friends 'sons' - for who came forth except by Him.
Jer 3:19 “Then I said,
‘How I would set you among My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!'
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.'
The Lord once told me "
AS INSTRUCTIONS ARE GIVEN TO A SERVANT, AND WISDOM AND PARABLES TO A SON, AND AS JOKES ARE GIVEN TO A FRIEND, SO I LOVE YOU IS SAID TO A BRIDE.
So it is a relationship we have with Him of a servant, a son, a friend, and more!!
Also, I found it interesting that He put son after servant and before friend. Yet it is important to understand. A servant may not stay in the house but a son can. A friend is someone you would expect to come and go, and that is explained
Jn 10:9 I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
So I was not initially sure why son before friend, but as I talked to Him it made sense. You might have son that you love and he might even do what you ask, because you are his father, yet a friend is something more. A friend is someone you can relax with, talk with, discuss things with, and joke with. So while we need to be the son who listens to the Lord, learns from the Lord, and does what is asked; there is still something more and a son can also be friend who has such an interest in his Father that he likes to rest and relax with Him, like to discuss things with Him, and who like to joke with Him.
James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.
So the reckoning of righteousness came before he was called the friend of God.
I am not sure that is reflected in the OP but I still like the OP. The relationship we are supposed to have with God certainly is.
