Thoughts on Jesus

When I was 20 years old, I attended a young adult Sunday School class for the first time, also the first time I had attended Sunday School since I was 12. The teacher decided to test us for service, and the first test was to see if we could sing. Each person in the small class sang a song. The only song I could think of was Jesus Loves Me, so that is what I sang. And Jesus does love us!

At the gym the other day, a young man I have talked with many times worked up the courage to ask me a question. He wanted to know about faith, sharing with me that he attended a church on occasion and prayed most days. But he still wasn’t sure if he had faith. I told him, “If you are in your car going 80, it spins out of control on ice, and you see a bridge abutment heading your way and know you are about to die, what would your last word be, ‘Jesus’ or ‘@#&*%$#’?” I think you know something about yourself by that last word.

But Jesus is more than a children’s song or the one we believe can help us in seasons and moments of trouble.

In the first chapter of Revelation, John has an encounter with Jesus, the same Jesus he followed around the Sea of Galilee and eventually to Golgotha.

“His head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid . . .”

“Do not be afraid,” the same words Jesus said to Peter and John as he walked on the water toward them in the storm. Do not be afraid! In a world that panders to fear, these words are a treasure of a promise.

I think sometimes people think that if they make Jesus small and more like them, then somehow He becomes more approachable, more palatable and friendlier somehow. But when we do this, He also becomes less than He really is, and in this, also less influential and much easier to ignore. People can do all kinds of things with Jesus, even turning His name into a curse word. But Jesus cannot be ignored.

Jesus loves us, is our savior but is also Lord and God before whose feet we must fall. When I do this, my problems, anxiety and fears get smaller and smaller, my temptations fade, my sins are washed away and my future is reshaped by the power of an amazing Christ.

The one whose face is like the sun shining in its strength is the one who loves us, is the one who we can call on in the moment of desperation, is the one we kneel before and then stand up after fearless.

Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so!

Category: Weekly Thoughts