NOVEMBER 14 "PERSONAL JESUS"

 Depeche Mode even had a hit in the 90's called "Personal Jesus ", the lyrics went something like this...

Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who's there
Pick up the receiver
I'll make you a believer.....
We read the verse today in Ezekiel and we might question it. God is telling Ezekiel to let Pharaoh know that He heard him say, "for you have said the river is mine, I have made it myself" Really? Six Billion people in the earth and God is paying attention to one sentence uttered by one person, in the midst of billions of people and quint trillion conversations. How can this be? Somehow this idea of a Personal God doesn't resonate with us. We can believe in God's existence, some kind of moral being in the Universe, even Creator of all. We can even see his as a judge, judging people, as they die, one by one. However this notion of a God who pays attention to me, as if I were the only one, this is hard to grasp for most people. This is why most people are very comfortable with religion because it espouses a belief in God but doesn't take it as far as a Born Again believer would.  The term "Christian" was originally a mocking term for those that the book of Acts describes as being part of "a sect" (modern day translation "cult" ) that believed Christ dwelt in them, a Personal Jesus, how ludicrous what that? This mindset is still very much prevalent today. People don't mind talking about God in general terms but when you begin to speak about God in a personal way, and reveal that you are a Born Again Christian, you will still be deemed as being a little of the far edge, you will still be deemed as fanatical and perhaps be accused of being in a Cult. We are not comfortable with a Personal God, but yet that's what God has always wanted, even as far back as the book of Ezekiel. God's purpose in all of this is laid out for us, we read, "that Israel may know that I am their God". Tragedy is, they never did know, and when the Personal Jesus came, of which Depeche Mode sings or mocks about, they crucified Him. Here we are in the 21 Century, maybe about four to five thousand years later and we still don't' know "the personal Jesus".  Pharaoh did not believe in a Personal Jesus, I think we can agree on that, but yet we see that in spite of Pharaoh not believing, that God was still listening and paying attention to Pharaoh, as if he were the only one. Not only does God reveal that He is listening to every word, but that Pharaoh will be judged by those words, by those actions, regardless of what Pharaoh and you and I believe. God is not to busy to hear our hateful words, see our sin and observe our uncharitable behavior. There was a story in the Phoenix Arizona paper about a burglar that robbed a house and when the Police showed up they found the house ransacked and noticed that the thief had turned a statue of Jesus to face the wall.  The thief was not comfortable with the idea of a Personal Jesus watching your every move and this is indicative of the society we live in. Why aren't are churches fuller, why aren't more people coming into the Evangelical Christian Church? The answer is because they want a Jesus that is facing the wall, they don't want a "Personal Jesus" give them religion and they will flood your Sanctuary, give them a Personal Jesus and you will actually scare them away!

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