Who was/is that Guy?
Gary spoke this week of knowing Jesus. We have heard this teaching before in different forms and I kinda figured I might be able to sit this one out as I figured that I have a pretty good grasp on who He was/is-WRONG!
This weeks text was Pauls Letter to the Philippians chapter 3: 9-13. In these verses Paul emphasis is on how he(Paul) wants to know Jesus better ; verse 13-" I do not consider that I have captured and made it my own" . Hmm, this was towards the end of Pauls life and he had dedicated that life to serving Jesus yet he STILL needed to know more of Jesus?! Where does that leave us? Surely we too need to know more.
Gary analagized it to a ladder. A ladder that ends at knowing Christ.
The first rung is knowing Jesus as History. We know where and how He was born,where He taught, about the disciples, His miracles and how He dies. This is information we might know about any famous figure( Gary offered Abe Lincoln). If we really ponder, we see that this is not a deep knowledge at all.
The second rung is Christ revealed. This is indeed deeper and means being saved. On the surface this may seem a deep understanding but again its really only another step( vital as it is) and although basic leaves us so much more to know.
The third rung is experiencing Him. Any time that the Hand of God has touched us, either to keep us from physical harm or to help our Spiratual life is a knowledge of Jesus and again a step higher towards total understanding.
Yet we climb higher to the fourth rung. This is the rung of prayer. Through prayer we gain even more understanding.
And....... well, time was up!! Next week Gary has promised us more steps up the ladder so those who couldn`t make it this week get to hear more of this really interesting and important topic!!
Y`all have a great week as we plow through the end of winter. As Spring reserects us from winter so too will we soon be blessed by celebrating the Reserection of Christ at Easter.
No comments:
Post a Comment