Recently a man came to the prayer centre where I work in great turmoil. He said “I invited Jesus into my heart 10 years ago and I think I meant it and I think I felt His presence. But I don’t feel His presence any more. I think I’ve finally quenched the Spirit through my sins and now He’s left me.”
The guy seemed to know his bible very well. So I said “Can you think of a single verse that ever talks about 'inviting Jesus into your heart'?”
He thought and said “No, I suppose it’s not in the bible.” I said, "But you know what is in the bible...?" We spoke of the High Priest’s clothing in Exodus 28 and 29.
"Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth--six names on one stone and the remaining six on the other. Engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree settings and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the LORD...."Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the LORD. (Exodus 28:9-29)
"Here's the bottom line" I said “Christ, your High Priest has you on His heart. My feelings go up and down. Christ stays up – all the time. And you’ll only feel Him in your heart (sporadically) when you know you’re on His heart, forever."
The centre of the Christian life is not your personal relationship with God. The centre of the Christian life is Christ’s personal relationship with God. But the good news is - Christ includes you in His communion.
Brilliant! Love this...
so key... we spend all our time focussing on faith and the need to drum up faith. When we capture the love of Christ, faith will just well up inside us. I love the use of the high priest for counselling on assurance. Glen, would be great to know your thoughts on what constitutes the ordinary Christian life (I'm thinking about when someone says 'I feel very up and down'), maybe how it interplays with different personality types...but it is not for me to set you work! Thanks brother.
'The centre of the Christian life is not your personal relationship with God. The centre of the Christian life is Christ’s personal relationship with God. But the good news is – Christ includes you in His communion.'
That is so GOOD! :D
Spot on, Glen!
As we Lutherans like to say..."we don't have to feel saved...to know that we ARE saved."
Just a Brilliant post!! i really love the last paragraph...its the heart of your post."The center of the Christian life is not your personal relationship with God. The center of the Christian life is Christ’s personal relationship with God." this will really show the path of true love and meaning of the Jesus love.thank you so much for sharing such a beautiful post..
Couldn't agree more glen. Belief is more important for anything to happen. We should believe first that we reside in the heart of Jesus and he will be in our heart. Nice post though.