Personal Relationship
with Jesus? Hah!
Before we dig into the meat of this article, let's discuss characteristics of 'personal relationships'?
- When you have a personal relationship with someone, you recognize each
other's voice over the phone before they identify themselves.
- You also recognize their handwriting.
- You share each other's feelings & hopes.
- You spend time playing together.
- You provide mutual emotional support for each other, as needed.
- You tolerate imperfections in each other.
- You communicate w/ gestures in addition to words ("That look")
- You spend time together without much concern over what, if anything, is
getting done.
- You require interaction. It is not a very personal relationship if the
communication back-and-forth between the people isn't personal.
- Mass market communication is not personal. Something written to 'everyone'
is not personal.
Again, before we dig into the title, let's discuss getting to know someone
who is dead. For example, if you want to study a great person from hundreds of
years ago, read their writings and writings about them. George Washington,
Martin Luther, Augustine, Homer, Buddha, Aristotle, Mohammed & Moses among
literally countless others fall into this category. Which means if there aren't
many writings available, you don't have much of a chance to get to know them.
That brings us to the main point of this article: If you want to get to
know someone who is dead, read and read about them. But if you want to
have a "personal relationship" with someone, do all you can to spend time
with them. There is a big difference in how we act toward the person in
question.
The "Hah" in the title addresses the fact that many modern-day Christians
treat Jesus the same way, acting as if reading the Bible is the best and only
access to God! They do this while emphasizing the importance of a "personal
relationship" with Him, they never get personal with Him!
You don't establish a personal relationship with someone who is alive and in
your neighborhood by only reading about them. You must spend time interacting
with them! Yet, many treat Jesus as if He was dead, and not available for
one-on-one communication! Yet, the "Good News" is that He is alive!
How personal is a relationship with no verbal communication? Years ago, when
I went out to sea for 6 months, my wife and I read each other's letters. Over
100 letters in all. They were and still are, very personal letters! When I
returned to her presence, well, let's just say we got more personal than just
reading.
- Moses (murderer),
- Abraham (liar, coward),
- Jacob (deceiver) and
- David (adulterer and murderer)
are all pillars of the Old Testament. They probably never read a single
verse of scripture on their own. Yet, they were considered righteous and today
sit in heaven, because they had a personal (2-way, verbal conversations)
relationship with God!
Read one of David's letters to God, now called "Psalm 139", to see how close
they were!
Also, don't forget that Saul, one of
the most honored and respected Pharisees, had studied scripture his whole life,
and based on what he understood of scripture was prosecuting Christians to their deaths until he
heard Jesus speak to him on the road!
Only then was he able to truly understand Jesus and had his name changed to
Paul! Check it out for yourself in the book of Acts! Are you better than Saul?
Can you really grasp the Living God by reading alone? If so, great, and highly
unusual, too.
Jesus also stressed the critical importance of a 'personal' relationship with
Him, in His analogy rejecting the foolish young women by saying, "Truly I say to
you, I do not know you."
(Matthew 25:12) Unless I understand that line of His in the context of a
personal relationship, it makes no sense to me. Jesus did not say, "I do not
know about you"!
Reading the Bible is critically important, I re-read it the same way I
re-read my wife's love letters. My "personal" relationships with both authors
are much more important.
No Jesus, no love, know hell.
Know Jesus, know love, no hell.
Make a personal decision to get closer to Jesus. I did, back on July 4th,
1978. To improve your personal relationship with Him, do what you would do to
grow any personal relationship! For those that want some more detailed help, and
enjoy reading books, I recommend the book Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. Even more powerful is the workbook "Knowing
and Doing the Will of God" by the same author. Most of all I recommend
asking God to help you to get to know Him. "This is humanly impossible, but with
God, all things are possible."
- The Apostle's Doctrine (March, 2003)
- The Battle Between Good and Evil (January, 2003)
- Heaven's Boot Camp (January, 2003)
- Cancer Cells of the Body (January, 2003)
- Born Again/Saved? (January, 2003)
- Harmony in the Orchestra (October, 2002)
- Carpenter's Tools (October 2002)
- Serve the Bride or Love the Groom (June 2002)
- David Seceded Saul (May 2002)
- Personal Relationship With Jesus? Hah! (April 2002)
- Literal reading of the Bible? (March, 2002)
- The Parable of the Sower (December, 2001)
- But Coach, you don't understand!
- A Light in Darkness is supposed to be surrounded!
- How are piles of manure and ships in harbor related?
- Should we educate using mass production techniques?
- Lenses stained by blood are red!
- Who is responsible for my salvation?
- What does the 3rd commandment really mean?
- If Satan is present in your life, what does that mean?
- Are you focusing on your spiritual growth? Oops!
- Daddy, why does an iron get out wrinkles?
- Why did John baptize people?
- True, but not helpful!
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