Through the Son, We Get to the Father

I read a blog called, Walking in Freedom and the writer is named Amy. I felt inspirted to post this, and comment on it.

Do You Really Know Him?

 

For many years, I never understood the difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Him. If someone would have asked me if I was a Christian years ago, I would have certainly told them, “Yes”. I grew up going to church. What I didn’t realize for so long, is there is a difference between knowing someone and knowing about them. For instance, I know who the president is, but I do not have any kind of relationship with him. Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.

When I lived in the Philadelphia area, I attended a bible college for a year. I distinctly remember a dream that I had when I was going to school there, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. I had a dream that I had a final exam for one of my classes, and the room was very quiet. All of a sudden, a man walked into the room and broke my concentration. I noticed that many of the people in my class were really excited and immediately got up to speak to this man, even though they had not finished their exams. In my dream, I was thinking, “Why is this guy here? He’s totally distracting me, and I need to finish my test!” I sat there trying to finish, as more and more people got up from their seats to speak to this man. I couldn’t figure out who could be so important for everyone to stop taking their finals. After sitting there getting more and more angry, I finally decided to go over and see what was so interesting. Then I realized who He was…

That man was Jesus!

John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent”.

Here I was, in my dream, taking a test on “spiritual” things, and I didn’t even recognize Jesus when He walked in the room! I knew a lot about Him, but I didn’t even recognize Him when I saw Him. I believe that God used that dream to wake me up into realizing that I was doing a lot of good things for Him, but I wasn’t spending any time with Him, which is what He really wants.

At that time of my life, I was so busy doing “good” things. I was involved in my church, went to bible school, involved in church groups, etc. That did NOT make me a Christian, though! What makes someone a Christian is trusting Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior and having a relationship with Him. It was after this dream that I realized I was doing a lot of things that seemed “good”, but I was not spending any quality time in prayer. I was not spending any time getting to know Jesus better. This reminds me of my son, Joshua. He likes when I do things for him, but what he really wants is for me to spend quality time with him. I continually have to “check” myself in this area, because it’s so easy to be busy doing things that seem “good” and forget to spend personal time in prayer with Him, also.

I’m sure almost everyone who reads this knows who Jesus is. Even someone who’s never been to church could probably name where He was born, what His mother’s name was, among many other facts. Maybe you haven’t been to church since you were a child. Maybe you’ve never been to church. Maybe you’ve gone to church every Sunday since you can remember. Perhaps you have a Master’s Degree in Divinity or Theology.

You could be a bible scholar, though, and not even really know Jesus.
You’ve probably done a lot of “good” things in your life. That’s what makes God happy with us, right? Sure, God likes it when we do “good” things, but that doesn’t get us into Heaven. Trusting Him as our Lord and Savior and turning away from our sins are the only things that will make you right with Him. Leaning on, trusting in and relying on Him is what makes us right with Him. We can only know what this new way of living is all about if we read His Word. It cannot be about what we “think” He is like or what He “should” be like. We learn who He is from the bible, not our traditions or intuition.

For years I thought Christianity was stuffy and boring. I thought it was all about being fake and trying to follow impossible rules. Real Christianity is anything but that. If you’ve never read my testimony of when I finally gave my life to Jesus (after years of going to church), you can read it here: My First Love

Do you have a personal relationship with Him?
If you don’t, you need to. He loves you, no matter what you’ve done in your life. He wants to have a relationship with you!

Your eternity depends on it!
Maybe you DO have a relationship with Jesus. I challenge you to examine your life to make sure that you are not mistakenly confusing your “good works” with spending time with Him. They are two very different things.

Romans 10:9-10, 13 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved; for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Thank You, Jesus, that You desire each of us to spend eternity with You. You are not a cold and distant God. You want so much to have a relationship with us, and that shows how much of a personal God You really are. Thank You, Jesus, for extending Yourself and wanting to have such a personal relationship with each of us. I love You!

My thoughts:

First off, don't be distracted by the scripture version. I was for a second, because I am used to the King James version. The Bible is good, in any version, as long as we allow the spirit to teach us.

For a long time I wanted to know why I needed a relationship with Jesus Christ AND Heavenly Father. I was not opposed to it, I just didn't understand why I needed both. I felt confused why using Christ's name was so important. I didn't understand why I needed Christ to get to the Father.

Over time, I learned that the only way to the Father is through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ and His atonement, I am able to progress. When I am looking to progress and I draw near to Jesus Christ, I can then reach the Father. Our Father is perfect and His son is perfect. We are not perfect. Christ's sacrifice, example, and grace allows us to approach Him, even though we are imperfect.

I don't completely understand this concept. It feels right in my heart, but it is very hard to really reach that far down and verbally express it. But I believe it. My faith will ALWAYS make up for what I don't know.

I also realize that I can only partake of the atonement, and experience forgiveness when I have faith in Christ. Then, my faith leads me to a personal relationship with him. I need the comfort of knowing that Christ loves me, and died for me. I can only recieve that comfort through having a personal relationship with Him. I truly love My Savior. I know that he loved me first. I know He died for my progressive, and that I want to become like Him. I know that because of Him, I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father.