Podcast 3: Building a Relationship With Jesus Christ
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Building a home begins and ends with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In this episode I begin by sharing how I heard the good news for the first time and met Jesus, the Son of God.
When I was a teen, I was invited to a Young Life Ranch in Colorado. The question that was posed to me, “Have you met Jesus?” A song that had just recently been written, and encapsulates my testimony was, “He’s Everything to Me”.
In the stars His handiwork I see, On the wind He speaks with majesty
Though He ruleth over land and sea, What is that to me?
I will celebrate nativity, For it has a place in history
Sure He came to set His people free, What is that to me
‘Til by faith I met Him face to face, And I felt the wonder of His grace
Then I knew that He was more, Than just a God who didn’t care
That lived away out there, And now He walks beside me day by day
Ever watching o’er me lest I stray, Helping me to find that narrow way
He’s everything to me.
2012 was a period of personal reconstruction. Sometimes we need to reexamine our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over a period of many years, I had begun to believe that God didn’t love me the same way as He did in Colorado. I mistakenly supposed that I had not lived up to His expectations. A distance crept into my connection with my Savior.
One of the ways God showed me how much he cared for me unconditionally was through my son John, who has Downs Syndrome. Johnny loves me for who I am and not for what I do. And I love John for who he is, and not for what he can or cannot do. This kind of love is only a glimmer and a taste of the love God has for each of His children. He loves us for who we are, period.
As I asked God to help me love Him, He surprised me by revealing His love for me. I protested and was pointing out that I wanted to love God with all my heart, but He was showing me how much He cared for me. But this is biblical since 1 John 4:19 says, We love, because He first loved us.
The main verse that the Holy Spirit quickened to my heart and mind was, John 15:9, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. I have no doubt of the Father’s love for the son, and here Jesus tells us that He loves us the very same way. Hard to assimilate, but true nonetheless.
Loving God precedes parenting, and being Loved by God, precedes Loving God. Perhaps the best thing we can do for our marriage, is for each of us to let Jesus loves us, so we will fall in love with Jesus and comprehend God’s love for us in a fresh way. For when we are loved unconditionally we can love unconditionally.