“Do you know everybody in this town?” a boy asked me one day
when we were out and about together. I had
exchanged greetings with friends in the diner, talked with people in the stores,
waved at a couple of friends driving by and he figured I surely must be some
kind of celebrity. That’s the way it is when the major part of your life is
lived in the same place in the kind of ministry I have that is involved with
people every day. Yes, it is true that
I have many acquaintances and each one
adds something to life, some unique gift, for which I am thankful. But, then there
are those friends who really know my heart. They are the ones who have ‘gone through the fire’ with me at some
point in time; partnering in ministry, walking through sorrow together, doing
life!
If you want to know Christ – most deeply, most intimately –
prepare to walk with Him through some painful, trying circumstances. If your
relationship with the Lord is kept superficial, if you only engage with Him
when it’s convenient, if you excuse yourself from service, if you won’t deal with
His call to become loving, good, and pure – you just will never know the ‘real Jesus.’ Intimacy means that you let Him lead through
places that break your stubborn will, that pierce your pretensions, that make
you come to know that He, alone, is your life. If you’re intent on staying on
the ‘Hallelujah side,’ always smiling, never willing to walk with Him into the
dark, you will never know the depths of His love, never treasure His grace, and
never know the sweet mercy found in the Cross.
Intimacy with Jesus begins to take shape in our worst
failures! David knew the Lord God and wrote beautiful songs (Psalms) about Him.
But, only later in his life, after he had fallen flat on his face, disgraced
himself and failed God in the most miserable ways, did he discover the grace of
the Lord. Psalm 51 reflects his brokenness, his longing, and his realization of
the steadfast love of the Lord. He came to see that all the Psalm-singing and
sacrifices were no substitute for a heart of worship. "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would
bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
(Psalm 51:16-17, NIV)
Don’t misunderstand my point here. Nobody should go out
and sin in some huge way thinking it leads to God! We don’t have to go looking
for brokenness. If we live authentic, God-seeking lives, it will find us in
this world where ego, self, power, and greed are everywhere.
Perhaps I am overly cynical, and if so, I ask your
forgiveness, but I do not think you will find a lot of an authentic Jesus in
many American churches. You might find a “Moral Jesus” in some that insist on
religious rules. You may find a “Cool Jesus” in others that are intent on
gutting the Gospel of the harder parts and making Him “relevant.” You will find the “Blessings Jesus” in many
churches where worship is more akin to a party than an Encounter with the Divine. To keep the pews full, many gatherings work
to keep things light and happy, intently offering self-help programs to make
you a more ‘successful’ person. Few will invite you to think on the Cross, to follow
Him radically. His sorrow, indeed- the Cross – while talked about, is not loved
all that much.
Read this familiar passage. "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of
Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them
rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness
of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know
Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the
resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:7-11, NIV) Paul compares every accomplishment, honor, and
recognition of life as “rubbish” compared to knowing Jesus. (You get the
impact of his word when you understand that ‘rubbish’ is a weak translation of the
Greek word, skubalon, which literally means, animal excrement!) Yes, Paul
says that knowing Jesus makes everything else in life about as valuable as dog
poop by comparison.
I find Jesus very present when I’m sitting at the bedside of
an old saint who has forgotten who I am but who brightens when I read her a
Psalm, who clasps my hand tightly as I pray, while tears slip down both of our
cheeks. I experience Jesus’ presence when I go and walk among the aged of a
nursing home and sing to people who have come to the margin of life. I have felt Him personally present when
sitting with my late wife in the chemo room of the hospital. Yes, He walks with
those who struggle to trust Him through huge disappointment, with those who know rejection, with those who
serve without fanfare in the most obscure places.
Here is a challenging invitation for this Monday
morning. As we open our hearts and minds
to the Lord, as we pray, let us do so with humble, joyous welcome of the Real Jesus.
"Join with others in following my
example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we
gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with
tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is
destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.
Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we
eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power
that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our
lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (Philippians
3:17-21, NIV)
_________________
There's Something About That Name
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus-
There's just something
about that name.
Master, Savior, Jesus-
Like a fragrance after
the rain.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus-
Let all heaven and
earth proclaim;
Kings and kingdoms may
all pass away,
But there's something
about that name!
Copyright William Gaither
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