See the series here
1. Why should you know Jesus Christ, The Lord God?
An obvious twist to this question unveils its answer:
Do you deeply know/understand Who He ‘IS’??
If the answer to that question is, YeS, the question above evaporates, disappears, or becomes completely irrelevant!
Imagine the joy we humans get from meeting a top tier celebrity, irrespective of the field he or she may represent. I personally experienced this joy on several occasions in my careers in international economic development. Now imagine getting to know such a person on a close-up, personal basis! Yet, as that person continues to excel, just wait and observe for a while, and you will quickly ‘discover/see’ plenty of evidence that he or she is simply …another flawed, frail, fear-laden human being trying to ‘get by’, just like you and me. I do not intend to degenerate celebrities, and believe, for their significant accomplishments, they should be celebrated. Nevertheless, I am underwhelmed at the meager accomplishments that seem to attract perceptively undue worship folks have for many!
So now let’s imagine this celebrative scenario:
You have some clue about Who Jesus, The Lord God, is, based on a few Bible stories you heard way back when. But you never took time to ponder or study them, and have since discarded them as insignificant. BUT THEN, you suddenly are presented with a prime opportunity to see Him at work, in action, in a context that is convenient for you! So you decide to check Him out. And what you witness sparks your interest to know a bit more about Him, from a very safe distance.
As you do, subtly, your curiosity deepens, then your interest to know more takes root in your soul and spirit. Not long afterward, some uniquely ‘beneficial fruits’ begin to manifest in various areas of your life, like no time before, and you perceive the ‘dots’ connecting these fruits to getting to know Him. As you begin to share this experience, your ‘dot connecting’ is affirmed by several others who had similar types of experiences. Finally, you now yearn to deepen your knowledge of Him, not simply for fruits beneficial, but because you are gradually discovering HE IS exactly Who He declares Himself to be, The Lord God, Creator of the heavens and Earth, Who has (mind-blowingly) always existed, He Who command all angels and devils, The only ALL POWERFUL being to Whom nothing at all is impossible!!!
Voila, within this awesome scenario, how would you answer the first question above??
Knowing Him as The Lord God, Creator, unlocks your deeper, eternal sense of purpose for your life. He ‘knew you’ before ‘you’. That simply means He knew everything about you before your conception in your Mom’s womb. He guided the specific sperm cell that fertilized the egg that would produce ‘you’ as you were born, and are today! Moreover, He knows not only your beginning, but also your end. It is He Who created, orchestrates and animates the vast universe to achieve His unknowable purposes. This includes the beauty, as well as the messiness of life on Earth.
His keen love and desire for RIGHTEOUSNESS is eternal. That unequivocally positions only Him to serve as The Ultimate Judge Potentate, to Whom Father God, The Holy Spirit, has delegated judgment of ALL people and things, including you. Yet, because of His endless love for us, He essentially is a reluctant judge, preferring to extend long-term Grace even in the face of our increasing sinfulness. While He does orchestrate corrective opportunities along the way, His desire is to postpone His most harsh judgments for as long as possible, desirous for us to repent, to change our life’s wrongful directions and objectives.
While we mortals are taught to ‘nip problems in the bud’ because we can’t see ‘their ends’, He sees every end, and still is willing to extend Grace, so standing before His judgment bench in the end, we will not have any excuses, and then must accept His judgments for our un-repented sinfulness as JUST and FAIR.
The Lord has iteratively promised that, for a thousand years, all peoples on Earth shall know Him to be exactly Who He declares Himself to be, The Creator and Sustainer of Life, The Son of Father God ALMIGHTY, Who is Spirit. Hey, talk about worshiping celebrities in this life, try to imagine the extent to which folks at that time will worship Him, just because they will actually SEE Him for Who He is. That won’t take a bit of faith, since in this world, ‘seeing is believing’. Ergo, their faithlessness won’t impress Him one bit! Rather, because He currently remains physically invisible to us, He desires us to embrace Him based on His well-preserved Word, The Bible. Try to imagine the efforts required to ‘seed’ human history with ‘His-story’ (get it?), and then preserve what He desired us to know down through the ages. Then study this Book, like none other ever, to perceive the incredible persistency in its core messages. It truly IS ‘The Mind of Christ’ at work through people who penned His inspired Word.
Bottom line: At ‘the end of your life’s line’, the core reasons to get to know Jesus Christ as The Lord God and your personal Savior, is because He is THE Judge you, then an immortal being (just as He planned and promises), will face one day on the matter of His creational purpose for your life on Earth. That ultimate purpose, my Friend, is ...TO KNOW HIM …PERSONALLY.
Do you …yet?
Stay tuned for Part 3
