To some God and Jesus may appeal in a way other than to us: some may come to faith in God and to love, without a conscious attachment to Jesus... They who seek God with all their hearts must, however, some day on their way meet Jesus. -- Heinrich Weinel and Alban G. Widgery, Jesus in the Nineteenth Century and After, p 405 as quoted on Page 1 of Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman, Copyright 1976, Howard Thurman.
Later that day I was reading the May 2018 copy of Christianity Today my sister sent me so I could read a very interesting article by Kathleen G. Tallman, when I ran across an article in the Testimony section with the quick headline "Jesus Finds 'Napalm Girl'" (These Bombs Led Me to Christ) where Kim Phuc Phan Thi, The “Napalm Girl” from a famous Vietnam War photo tells her story of coming to faith. While I grew up in an "old school" somewhat High Church Episcopalian family I enjoy hearing/reading testimony and started reading. In her testimony she speaks not just of faith in God, but faith in Jesus.
Both of these talk not just about God, our Lord, the Trinity, but specifically about having a relationship with Jesus. Now, I have heard, and believed at some level, in faith in Jesus for years. I even claim to be "born again" and having a deep relationship with, well, "God". In my last post, Walking with Fish, Talking with God, I quite candidly talk of my personal relationship with God. But a relationship with Jesus? That is quite another thing.
So who am I in relationship with? Sure, there is the first intervention of my life in the winter of 1972 when I finally accepted the invitation to Bible Rap, a weekly bible study sponsored by the Methodist Youth Fellowship in Wellsville NY. As a high-school freshman I had spent any number of basketball game nights out of the house, but quite far away from any basketball games. I was drinking that half-pint or pint of peppermint schnapps I was always able to get a friendly college student to buy for me. But that night I was at Bible Rap and all I remember is Larry (our leader), a Bible passage being read, and something to do with a dollar bill that I couldn't grab ahold of. All of a sudden I realized I could let go, there was a spirit around me, and God was there! See, there it is, God was there. There were a number of times (many of us don't stop drinking the first intervention that happens, nor did I. It was nine years later, while chaperoning a Church youth weekend, that I finally let go, let God, and so far have not had a drink since.) Nor is life perfect. We get married, children are born, parents die, families argue, money runs tight, wars start and stop, jobs are lost (and are found)... No question, God IS in my life!
But this weekend I come face-to-face with the question "Do I have a personal relationship with Jesus?", or is this, as Winel and Widgery state, the time to finally meet Jesus, not just God?
