The cost of knowing the real Jesus

Thankfully, churches are still plentiful.  If the Lord is drawing you to get to know Him, He will lead you to the best church community for you.

Now maybe you think that you already "check that box," and you attend church faithfully.  And that is a good thing, depending on where you worship.

Though churches are plentiful, the sad truth is that many have gone astray in their teaching and preaching.  You may find watered down messages, those that aim at making you feel good about yourself (an epidemic these days!).  It's not that God wants you to feel bad about yourself, that's not what I'm saying.

It's that God's message to us is about Him, knowing Him, worshiping Him, because that's what actually transforms us.  We forget about ourselves, take our eyes off self, and focus on Him, His grace, His many attributes, His divinity.

Even much of the music you may hear at any given church service is more about you than Him.  How can this be, you may wonder.

This is why it is absolutely crucial that we study Scripture so that we can detect false or misleading teachings.  We get to know about Jesus through studying the full Scripture, both Old and New Testaments.

But even more crucial is how the Lord reveals Himself to us through daily life as we commit to abiding in Him, living for Him (not self), and obeying Him.

I have found that when the Lord allows suffering in my life through trials of rejection, loss, and such, that that is precisely when I feel closest to Him.  How so?  Because our Lord was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.  He was despised and rejected, and so it stands to reason that when we truly follow Him and belong to Him, since it is His Spirit that lives in us, that we, too, will experience the same at times.

We don't go looking for trials!  I am not condoning suffering for the sake of suffering or that we try to manufacture suffering circumstances.  But when the Lord ordains those sorts of circumstances in our lives, we are not to buck up against them, go running with our tail between our legs as if we expect only "good times" when we belong to the Lord.

It takes much faith and resolve to stick with Jesus through the suffering.  And He blesses us with His intimacy and closeness of His Presence to carry us through.

We can know a lot about Jesus through studying His Word and we should.  But there is a vast difference between knowing about Jesus versus knowing Him. 

Think of it like reading someone's autobiography.  You learn about that person, but you don't know him or her personally.

These may be hard words for some and the very reason why many from the pulpit do not preach about it, the suffering part of belonging to Christ.

But how else will we become like Him?  How else will others see Him in us?  People don't want to hear about Jesus so much as they want to know that He exists, whether they realize it or not. And He lives through us the most when we relate to Him in our sufferings. When others see our faith, feel His Presence in us despite our troubles, they will see us living for someone beyond ourselves.

You may be a "good person" but remember our friend Job who was extremely righteous in his ways.  He did not come to truly know God until the Lord brought him through some very severe trials and losses. Job admitted that he knew about God before the trials, but Job actually saw and came to know God through his very painful tribulations.

So there is a price to be paid, friends, to knowing the real Jesus.  If we truly want to know Him, then we must learn to accept whatever trials He allows because we know they are for our good.  This is because anything that causes us to know Him more closely is always for our benefit.  

This is our life. This gives us true meaning, hope, and purpose.  Knowing God.