Heart Tracks - The Other Jesus

      I'm weary of the Jesus being put forth by a large segment of the western church these days.......That may sound shocking, even blasphemous, but please, bear with me a bit.  So much of the Jesus being presented is about a gentle rabbi, teacher, who, as Henry Blackaby writes, "Walks along the seashore, loving children, and gently forgiving sinners."  He does love children, and He does forgive sinners, of which I know firsthand.  His love is boundless, and He does have a gentle heart, but I think the Christ we've put forth falls short, greatly short, of the Christ who is.  We tend, as a good friend has put it, to only know Him "after the flesh," that is, only by what our fleshly minds and understanding can comprehend.  This can be seen in the lives of the disciples immediately after His resurrection.  They didn't recognize Him.  He was in His glorified state, and since their knowledge of Him was so limited, He was a stranger to them.  So many of we modern day disciples have the same problem.

     Blackaby writes, "We grossly underestimate the God we serve....The Christ we serve today is the Lord of all creation.  He is vastly more awesome and powerful than the gentle rabbi we often imagine."  Many of us still sing the classic chorus, "Our God Is An Awesome God," yet, do our fellowships, our families, and our lives really reflect that belief.  Is it our reality?  I want to know Jesus not as I wish Him to be, or as popular culture, both in and without the church, might paint Him to be, but as He is, for who He is.  I want to know Him in all His glory and wonder, at least as far as is possible this side of eternity.  I don't want to know after the flesh, but in the Spirit.  Jesus said "He who sees Me, sees the Father also."  That is so true, but our "seeing" doesn't stop with the Jesus revealed during His fleshly incarnation on earth, but goes on through His direct ministry to, in, and through us, day by day.  He is the Lord of all creation, and the Word says that all creation is "held together in Him."  His power is unlimited.  So is His wonder and glory.  When the disciples found themselves in the midst of a storm on the sea, at a word, Jesus brought a dead calm to it.  The disciples could only say, "Who is this man, that even the winds and seas obey Him."  This is a question we must ask each day, and the beauty of it is that day by day, He will answer it as He leads us into ever deeper knowledge of Himself.
    The book of Revelation was written by the disciple who was closest to Christ's heart, John, yet even John, on the Isle of Patmos, fell on his face when he beheld the glory of His Lord.  He writes in Revelation 1:14-15, "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a flame of fire.  His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters."  This is an aspect of Jesus not much talked of today, and encountered even less.  A Jesus who walks along the shore, hugs children, and heals bodies, is a beautiful one, but He is also one that we, consciously or not, feel we can control.  We can encounter this Jesus, and still feel we are lords of our own lives.  No one can encounter the Christ John describes and remain the same.  We will either flee from Him, or fall before Him.  We will never be the same.  We will never live the same.  And Jesus will never again be just the gentle Shepherd, or unassuming Friend.  He will be the Mighty God described in Isaiah 9.  He is the Mighty God.  Do we know Him as such?  Have we encountered Him as such?  Will we encounter Him now?

Blessings,
Pastor O