A Personal Relationship with Christ: Its Basis in Scripture and Experience

[MadHermit]

The United Methodist Church's mission statement is to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." Accordingly, the UMC excels at meeting social needs such as the needs of the homeless and socially marginalized, treatment of life-threatening diseases like malaria and AIDs, and natural disasters. Their statement stresses obedience to Jesus and imitation of His example, but lacks an emphasis on personal connection. So I persuaded my UMC church to adopt this mission statement: "to bring people to a life-changing personal relationship with Jesus Christ." But there is a problem: the words "personal" and "relationship" are not applied to Jesus in the NT. So we must ask these 5 questions, which serve as the basis for this thread:

(1) What NT imagery and terminology implies the equivalent of a personal relationship with Christ? And in what sense is such a relationship "personal?"

(2) Human relationships are personal partly because we have feelings towards friends and family members. Well, we can't just THINK our way towards God. So can we FEEL our way towards Christ? Church leaders often warn us against confusing faith with feelings, adding that feelings can be deceptive. Sometimes life's tragedies deprive us of our ability to feel loved by Christ. Sometimes life circumstances reduce our faith to blind trust in an seemingly irrelevant God because we feel no love for Christ and no personal connection with Him in our hour of greatest need.
Are there holy emotions? What is the proper connection between feelings and a personal relationship with Christ?

(3) Human relationships become personal because we converse with those we love and they converse with us. Can we have a personal relationship with Christ if we have little or no awareness of Christ speaking directly to us, apart from Scripture? How, then, can Christians know that Christ speaks to them?
(4) Human relationships are personal partly because we are aware of an acquaintance's personality as distinct from character. How many Christians can describe the historical Jesus' personality as opposed to His character? Can our relationship with the Risen Lord be personal in the sense that we experience Christ's personality and not just His character and teaching?

(5) Jesus teaches us to address God as "Abba Father" in prayer. Yet the OT warns us that, literally speaking, God is neither human nor male; and God warns us of the dangers of humanizing His thoughts and ways:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9)."
How can we take this warning seriously without undermining the intimacy of perceiving God as our heavenly "Dad" (Aramaic: "abba")?
How can we avoid the idolatry of recreating a humanized God in our own image?

What do you think?

 

[Grandpa]

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

We must personally come before Christ and ask Him for His Gifts. Our personalities will dictate what we ask and how we ask it.

Christs personality and character will dictate what He gives and what He denies and how and why.

In this way we will learn about Christ and His Personality and Character.


I don't think we need to shy away from telling people they need to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Or even that it is possible to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

[calibob]

The United Methodist Church's mission statement is to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." Accordingly, the UMC excels at meeting social needs such as the needs of the homeless and socially marginalized, treatment of life-threatening diseases like malaria and AIDs, and natural disasters. Their statement stresses obedience to Jesus and imitation of His example, but lacks an emphasis on personal connection. So I persuaded my UMC church to adopt this mission statement: "to bring people to a life-changing personal relationship with Jesus Christ." But there is a problem: the words "personal" and "relationship" are not applied to Jesus in the NT. So we must ask these 5 questions, which serve as the basis for this thread:

(1) What NT imagery and terminology implies the equivalent of a personal relationship with Christ? And in what sense is such a relationship "personal?"

(2) Human relationships are personal partly because we have feelings towards friends and family members. Well, we can't just THINK our way towards God. So can we FEEL our way towards Christ? Church leaders often warn us against confusing faith with feelings, adding that feelings can be deceptive. Sometimes life's tragedies deprive us of our ability to feel loved by Christ. Sometimes life circumstances reduce our faith to blind trust in an seemingly irrelevant God because we feel no love for Christ and no personal connection with Him in our hour of greatest need.
Are there holy emotions? What is the proper connection between feelings and a personal relationship with Christ?

(3) Human relationships become personal because we converse with those we love and they converse with us. Can we have a personal relationship with Christ if we have little or no awareness of Christ speaking directly to us, apart from Scripture? How, then, can Christians know that Christ speaks to them?
(4) Human relationships are personal partly because we are aware of an acquaintance's personality as distinct from character. How many Christians can describe the historical Jesus' personality as opposed to His character? Can our relationship with the Risen Lord be personal in the sense that we experience Christ's personality and not just His character and teaching?

(5) Jesus teaches us to address God as "Abba Father" in prayer. Yet the OT warns us that, literally speaking, God is neither human nor male; and God warns us of the dangers of humanizing His thoughts and ways:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9)."
How can we take this warning seriously without undermining the intimacy of perceiving God as our heavenly "Dad" (Aramaic: "abba")?
How can we avoid the idolatry of recreating a humanized God in our own image?

What do you think?

The words homeless. addict or HIV aren't in in either. So are we to ignore them?

 

[TM19782017]

As someone who went through an 8 year opiate addiction and rehab and was released from it through submission and faith, I questioned how so many others were unable to dig deep in their faith?

I am someone who likes to help people if I am able....What I learned from my experience and talking is that so many people usually hang on to one past experiences that was so traumatizing in their life, they carry that pain as their reasoning of why God doesn’t exist....They and myself said, how can God exist if I am going through so much pain?
Be it a father or mother who abandoned them, whatever...Their reality is theirs and no one should ever say their view is wrong.

However, regardless of how anyone begins in life, it does not predict the future.

I also believe that a good starting point for anyone is to just be alone and start with something like, “God, I don’t know if you are real but, if you are, I could use your help”.
Faith the size of a mustard seed, remember.

Beginning with small steps.

What is the harm in believing that good things are possible?

A very good quote I remember is, “There is a voice that doesn’t use words, Listen!”