MY FAITH STORY - FROM knowing TO KNOWING!!

I haven’t always loved Jesus.  It’s only as I’ve looked back on my life that I can see the evidence of His drawing me to Himself, even when I was a child.  


There was the Vacation Bible School I attended at a local church when I was about seven.  My parents sent me to give me something to do in the summer. What I remembered was being captivated by a story about Jesus the teacher told using flannel figures on a flannel board (maybe some of you remember those).


Hollywood, believe it or not, produced a story called, Adam and Eve, probably when I was in middle school and I dragged my dad to see it.  I don’t know why the movie intrigued me, I just wanted to see it. 


When The Ten Commandments, with Charleston Heston came out, I talked my cousin, who was babysitting us, into taking my brother and me.  Why?  I don’t know, it just sounded interesting.


I had almost no knowledge about God or Jesus, and yet these three experiences made me feel warm toward God, so that I wanted to know more.  


Sometime in middle school I talked with my dad about going to church.  He and I were most alike in personality, and though he had almost no church experience at all, while my mom did, he was the one I approached to take me on a church quest.  He was surprisingly agreeable.  We attended a few different Protestant denominations and settled on a Methodist church right across a park from us in Union City, NJ. That’s the first church we began to attend as a family.  


From then on, we always regularly attended one church or another, one Protestant denomination or another.  I did lots of things in churches as I grew older.  I sang in choirs, taught children in Sunday school, and Vacation Bible School, and was a Christian camp counselor for a week.  By this time in my life, I knew a lot more ABOUT Jesus, but I did not “know” Jesus in a personal way, though I didn’t know it at the time.  I continued to live my life the way I always had, which was not always very good, all the while doing my Sunday “thing” and serving in my church.


Then I met Jim at the very end of our last year in college.  He had more of a religious background than I did – years of parochial elementary school, high school and then college.  Since we had different backgrounds, and neither of us was particularly wild about going to church at that time in our lives, we stopped going altogether.  We did what we wanted and were satisfied.  About six years passed.


I really can’t pinpoint any one thing that caused me to long for God.  I can only explain it by using the words of the Apostle Paul regarding a woman named Lydia in the book of Acts in the Bible; chapter 16, beginning with verse 11:


Paul and his companions went to the city of Philippi in Macedonia. Because there was no synagogue in the city, they went to the riverside where people had gathered for prayer and they spoke to those who were there.  Lydia, a business woman from Thyatira, was there, and she was a worshiper of God. 


What Paul says next is exactly what happened to me those six years after Jim and I married:

The Lord opened her heart to believe the things spoken of by Paul.

 (Acts 16:14)

Lydia worshiped God, but she didn’t yet know Jesus.  


What was it Lydia believed?  The most important message Paul ever preached – the one he undoubtedly preached to Lydia that day - the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Jesus died for our sin.  Jesus was buried.  Jesus rose again on the third day.

If you had asked me before that time what I knew about Jesus, I would have told you those very things – but back then I only knew them as facts to be recited, not truth to be embraced.  


Once the Lord opened my heart to believe, my heart was changed!  I didn’t just believe with my mind, the Lord filled me with an understanding of Who Jesus is and why He came that was personal, and personally applied – a message for ME!  The result was a commitment of my whole being to that truth.  


The first thing I noticed was that I could not get enough of the Bible.  I didn’t always understand what I was reading at that time, but I wanted more of it.  I wanted to KNOW God more and more.  When I read about Jesus in the Gospels, my love for Him grew.  There were tears of gratitude for His sacrifice for me that I had never shed before.  


There were new priorities – in addition to devouring the Bible, I wanted to be in church to hear more about Jesus, to sing about Him, to know other people who also loved Him.  I prayed more, and over time, I just talked to Him all the time in what has become an intimate, personal relationship with my living Lord.  


When I did the same things I did before – singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, and Vacation Bible School – I had a desire not just to DO something at church – but a desire to SERVE God and His people, to teach His Word so that others could know Jesus too.


I began to notice that I cared a lot more about people than I used to and that my care didn’t just stop with my mind and heart.  I began to think about practical ways to show Jesus’ love to other people – reaching out to an elderly neighbor, visiting nursing homes, going way beyond what was expected in relating to the learning-disabled kids I taught.  And it filled me with a joy I had never experienced before. 


As I’ve got older, I was also far more bothered by my sin.  I’m forgiven, thanks to Jesus’ death in my place.  I still sin though, and sinning grieves me a lot more than it did when I was younger.  I’m still appalled by the things I sometimes think and sometimes the things I do as well, and so I’m that much more grateful to Jesus for loving me and forgiving me, despite my sin.


That is what it’s really like to KNOW and love Jesus – not just know about Him – but KNOW Jesus Himself – as Savior and Redeemer, dearest Friend, Almighty God who is worthy of all worship and praise, coming King with whom I’ll live forever.

I don’t follow Him perfectly, no one does, but I certainly believe the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:6, when he says:

Being confident of this, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

All those years ago now, when Jesus opened my heart to believe all that the Scriptures say about Him – not just with my mind, but with my mind and heart and soul – He began His good work in me, to save me from the penalty of my sin, and to make me more like Himself.  And one day, He will complete His work, and that’s a promise!



If you are reading this blog, consider that it is no accident, but rather Jesus drawing you to Himself.  Maybe you have always thought you “knew” Jesus, but as you read, you realize that you do not know Him in the way I’ve described.  Do you want to?  Then tell Jesus so.  I can tell you there is NO prayer He longs to answer more than that one!  


Get out a Bible and read the gospel of John.  Write down all the things Jesus says about Himself in it and think about them.  For example: Jesus says “I am the light of the world.”  What does it mean that Jesus is the LIGHT of the world? Light illuminates darkness.  Light helps us see when we can’t find our way.  Light can give warmth.  Do you know Jesus in those ways?


Jesus says, “I am THE way, THE truth and THE life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.”   What do you think that means?  What implication does that have for those who say there are many ways to God?  


Talk to Jesus about what you read in John’s gospel.  Ask Him to help you to understand.  Ask Him to help you believe, to go from just knowing ABOUT Jesus, to really KNOWING Him – with all your heart, soul and mind – that you might live your life for Him.  


Dearest Jesus,


I do not know who will read this blog today.  As they read it, will You warm their hearts to recognize the truth about Jesus and create in them the faith to believe all that the Bible says about Him.  Open their hearts to believe.  


As they read Your Word, the Bible, may they really SEE Jesus in all the ways in which He describes Himself.  May they believe that He died to save them from sin and its penalty, that He has broken the hold sin has over them so that now they can say NO to sin, and live FOR Jesus.  Help them to understand that one day, because YOU live Jesus, they will live also.  


And help them to trust in Your promise that the work You begin in them, this very day, You will carry on to its completion, until You call them home, or You come again.  

Thank You, Jesus.   Amen.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

How much do you know about shepherding?  I’m guessing about as much as I know, which isn’t much.  That’s why I found a book I purchased many years ago so enlightening.  While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks, written by Dr. Timothy Laniak, tells of his experiences living with and interviewing modern Bedoin shepherds. The book is intended for pastors who want to be good shepherds of the flocks under their care.  


In addition to wonderful photographs, I’m intrigued by what goes into shepherding.  Dr. Laniak describes what it takes to care for, protect, and guide sheep. Dr. Laniak discovered that sheep know they belong to a shepherd.  He names them, knows them and counts them every day. He says: 


Naming is a powerful, tangible expression of the shepherd’s intimate bond that begins at birth and grows through an animal’s tenure with a flock.


He gives this description of the shepherd’s knowledge of his sheep from watching one of his Bedoin shepherd friends:


The mothers, which number 51 were kept back from the lambs by Falah and Salim, while Nasir began to call them by name, and as each was allowed to come up, Nasir slipped the noose off the young one’s neck and give it to the mother.  He knew every mother and every lamb.  


An astonishing thing was that he called up each ewe and picked out her lamb in complete darkness. . .All through the process of loosing the lambs, calling up the mothers and handing the baby to suckle, he was calling out name after name amidst the din of mothers’ “baaing” and lambs crying for their food.  


To me it was pandemonium; to Nasir and Falah, everyday procedure. . . he could recognize each mother and each baby by the feel with his eyes shut.  All were black, but by feeling heads and backs he knew by touch which was which.  


Amazing, isn’t it?  What intimacy of knowledge each shepherd had of his sheep.  But there is something even more amazing than a shepherd’s love for his sheep, and that is the love of Jesus for His sheep.


Yesterday, in our 21 days of prayer initiative from our church, we read the tenth chapter of John’s gospel.  In it, Jesus calls Himself the “Good Shepherd”.  He says:


I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. . . He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.  


I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep and am known by My own.  


And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.  I and My Father are one.


I love the picture of the Bedoin shepherds calling their sheep by name, and each one responding by pushing through the crowd of sheep to come forward.  To me, all sheep in a flock look the same, and yet the shepherd has a name for each one.  He knows them so intimately that even in the dark he can identify one and match her with her lamb.  


That is how well Jesus knows us – intimately, by name, in a loving relationship, like a Father with His children – or a shepherd with his sheep.  He calls them “My own” and they know Him so that when He calls, they recognize the sound of His voice and respond.  


Occasionally, a shepherd might find himself defending his sheep from a predator.  Jesus’ sheep are unsnatchable – for both Father and Son, who are ONE – keep them safe and secure.  


Sheep aren’t particularly smart, so the shepherd can’t allow them to wander by themselves.  They’ve been known to walk off cliffs if left to their own devices!  Jesus guides His own, as it says in Psalm 23:2; 3b

To green pastures and beside still waters and leading them in paths of righteousness

There is such comfort, peace and assurance in this description of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  Even in these days of coronavirus insecurity, you can know His peace when you belong to Jesus.


He is the Good Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep.  His life in exchange for yours.  His righteousness in exchange for your sin and its penalty of death.  His life in abundance now, and eternal life with Him forever as a result.  


Who wouldn’t want that?  Want it?  Tell Jesus and watch what He does in your life!  

I’m praying for you.