Caught with Jesus

Gary Stebbins, Church on the Rock, Melbourne, FL - February 3, 2010

Recently at COTRM we have been talking about the difference between a Dangerous Church and a Safe church. As I read the Bible, I see nothing safe about the New Testament church. The New Testament church was serious about their relationship with God and dangerous to the world around them because they were a threat to their system of unbelief.

One verse has stood out to me as we went through this series ...
Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

Peter and John had been arrested for talking about Jesus Christ. When the Jewish leaders examined them, they were amazed that these were ordinary men with no particular education. What made them extraordinary was that they "began to recognize them as having been with Jesus."

I believe the same is true for us today. If we hang out with Jesus, we are going to be extraordinary people. God takes ordinary people like you and me and makes us extraordinary, and the catalyst for this is spending time with Jesus.

Jesus Himself said this ...
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

The word know means to be aware of, perceive, understand, or recognize. It indicates a relation between the person "knowing" and the object known- i.e., I know God. What this word communicates is that what is "known" is of value and importance to the one who knows.
We spend time with Jesus because He is "of value and importance" to us.

Do I have eternal life? If I do, I KNOW God.
If I KNOW God, I know Him because He is of value to me.
When something is of value to me, I become familiar with it.

Prayer is one of the main vehicles or tools that God has given to you and me so we can "know" God. If someone is of value to us we spend time with them and we talk with them. There is no better way to get to know the heart of God, than through His Word and Prayer.

Is God of value to you? Then PRAY, talk with Him, get to know Him, pause and make room for Him to speak to you. We serve a wonderful, loving God, who wants us to know Him as He knows us.