Just Give Me Jesus

;CHAPTER ONE: ; ;Jesus Makes God Visible . . . ;To Me ;John 1:1-9 ; ;Years ;ago my mother was invited to a very prestigious dinner party in London, ;England. The glittering affair included members of the royal family as ;well as other aristocrats and leaders from British society. The dinner, ;softened by candlelight, with the tinkle of silver and the sparkle of crystal ;accompanying the sounds of accented conversation, had an ambiance of elegance. ;The occasion might have been intimidating for someone unaccustomed to ;such a setting, but my mother was as at ease as a queen holding court. ;Dressed in a simple black gown with a triple strand of pearls around her ;neck, she looked stylish and sophisticated. Heads turned as people whispered ;their curious inquiries about who she might be. ;But my mother was so interested in the other guests at her table she ;was oblivious to the small stir she had created. Her expression was not ;the duly bored, arrogant look adopted by many of the socially elite. Nor ;were her words stilted and self-conscious. Instead, her eyes danced with ;the joy of life, and her conversation was lively and peppered with questions ;as she sought to draw the others at her table into a discussion. ;As she conversed, Mother discovered that the distinguished-looking older ;gentleman seated beside her was the former head of Scotland Yard, Great ;Britain's equivalent of the FBI. Fascinated, she respectfully began to ;probe him for anecdotes. As he opened up under her genuine interest, he ;revealed that the departments under his authority had included those for ;forgery and counterfeiting. When she surmised that he must have spent a ;lot of time studying counterfeit signatures, he corrected her. "On the ;contrary, Mrs. Graham. I spent all of my time studying the genuine thing. ;That way, when I saw a counterfeit, I could immediately detect it." ;Today, our world is cluttered with lies, deceit, hypocrisy, and fraud ;at almost every level. From government leaders ; ; ; ; to salesclerks ; ; ; ; A ; to airline ticket agents ; ; ; ; to restaurant maitre d's ; ; ; ; A ; to business associates ; ; ; ; to secretaries ; ; ; ; A ; to friends ; ; ; ; to neighbors ; ; ; ; A ; to advertisers, ; ; ; ; ; everyone seems to play loose with the truth. ;This "whatever works is right" attitude has even crept into the Christian ;community. Too often, we focus on methods instead of missions, programs ;instead of prayer, organization instead of inspiration, pragmatism instead ;of power. Many preachers preach to be popular, instead of preaching to ;change lives. Their sermons are 95 percent their own thoughts and 5 percent ;God's truth. And the average church member cannot tell the difference ;because he or she is biblically illiterate! ;Sadly, this also tends to twist our perception of Who Jesus is. While ;some have softened and sentimentalized Him until He is barely recognizable, ;others have distorted and doubted Him until He is undesirable. ;My mother's dinner partner had unwittingly touched on a very important ;principle. If you and I want to be able to detect counterfeit Christs and ;counterfeit truth, we need to immerse ourselves in the real thing. We need ;to saturate ourselves in the truth of the Word of God. This applies to ;our faith in general, as well as to our understanding of Jesus. ;Who is Jesus? He lived two thousand years ago, in an obscure ;town, in an obscure couLotz, Anne Graham is the author of 'Just Give Me Jesus' with ISBN 9780849916465 and ISBN 0849916461.