KNOWING JESUS

It's the Christmas season and we try to do the best we can amid the hoopla to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Who is Jesus? We probably should not assume that we know the answer to this question in its entirety---that we know Him in His entirety. And if it is possible to know more about Jesus, it will certainly be of supreme advantage to do so, considering that He is God in the flesh. I've known people who were Christians for decades and were still gaining life-changing insights from Him. I'm one of them, thankfully.
How do we know Jesus? I don't think we know exactly what knowing is. Knowing is something of the mind; and we do not know what the mind is. We do not know what a thought is. Sometimes knowing feels more like a thing of the heart; and we do not know, scientifically speaking, what the [metaphorical] heart is. Nevertheless, I think I know my wife of 47 years pretty well; and I sense that she knows me pretty well also; though I would never assume that I know everything about either of us. I'm thankful for this lack of complete knowledge---it keeps life interesting. I know, usually quite accurately, how Lynn, my wife will respond in many circumstances. I know what she will say to me about certain things that I say or do. I can hear her voice in my head frequently. I know her because I live with her and have spent much time with her over the years. I have been with her in joyful and in grief-stricken situations. I have seen her suffer. This is how we get to know someone--being with them, communicating with them. Especially we get to know someone by trying to love them. Loving someone opens the door to understanding them. Jesus encouraged us to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength" [Luke 10:27].  Loving Jesus helps us to know Him, and knowing Him magnifies our love for Him. We love everyone in the world better by loving Jesus first and foremost.  We spend time with Jesus by reading the Holy Word. [We  have great access to the Word now through our technology. I use the BlueLetterBible.com .] We look deeply into His teachings, how He lived His life, how He related to the people He encountered while in the flesh, how He responded to the things that happened to Him. We listen carefully to what those who lived with Him said about Him; how He impacted their lives. We look deeply into the resistance and persecution that He encountered and try to understand the root of it. Did those who opposed Him have a legitimate complaint? What was it that they opposed about Him? Mainly we want to know what His message was.  What was He [is He] saying to the human family that seems so important to so many, to the point that we would demarcate all of history by His time on the earth [2017 A.D., Anno Domini, "In the year of our Lord"]?  We know Jesus by answering these questions. If we have not sought sincerely to answer these questions we cannot rightly call ourselves Christians. To be a Christian means minimally that we are trying to know Jesus, and to walk with Him in spirit. So we study and we meditate on Him, His life and teachings. The Bible says "be still and know that I am  God." [Ps46:10].  Being still is very difficult. But it is very necessary if we are to know God.  We have to take a stand against the noise and impositions of the world; and in our day they are many. We have created an incredibly stimulating world. Sometimes I think that what we label "ADHD" in children is simply their adaptation to the massive amount of stimuli to which they are unavoidably exposed. Perhaps we are all, to some degree, afflicted by attention deficit disorder, our attention being grabbed and pulled into the alluring and interesting and entertaining stimuli that we have surrounded ourselves with. Maybe we are in some way like lemmings, stirred up and excited by our own creations to the extent that we do not see ourselves marching toward the ocean cliffs. I strongly urge you to assertively push it all back, turn off everything, create or find a sanctuary where you can calm and still your soul. Then reach out to [open up to] the God of this universe and thank Him for your life---for food and clothing and a home; for manhood and womanhood, children, beauty, music, a sense of humor. All these are gifts that you did not earn, work for or deserve. Your life is a GIFT! But you can be too busy to be thankful or even take note of how you are living it. God, Whom you approach in your stillness, will help you overcome your pathological busyness, as well as all other problems---ALL of them! He is, after all, God. He keeps us from getting lost in our problems---lost in the world. Jesus warns us about the "worries and cares of the world" and how they choke out life like briers and bushes choke out the fruit of the garden. Jesus keeps us focused on the important aspects of life. He delivers us from being like the man who spent his entire life vigilantly climbing a ladder only to determine that it was leaning against the wrong wall. He saves from being like some of those we see in nursing homes who are bitter or scared of death. We see that those who have walked with Him face death peacefully--even joyfully; and that they continue to bless their loved ones from their death bed. My own mother and father were wonderful examples of this truth. Knowing Jesus brings more blessings into life than we can number. As Isaac Watts penned in the hymn, "We're Marching to Zion": "The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred treats, before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets." 
In our stillness before the God of this universe, we ask Him humbly, "What is Truth?" And He brings us to the One Who said "I am the...Truth..." [John 14:6].  We listen carefully and deeply to this One, and we find gifts and blessings that cannot be communicated except by Him to you.