This is from the book Too Busy NOT to pray by Bill Hybels.<\/p>\n
In college I met a lecturer who amazed me.\u00a0 He would sometimes talk about his relationship with Jesus Christ as through he had just had lunch with Him.\u00a0 He seemed able to relate to Jesus as to a friend or brother, having relaxed conversations with Him.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t understand that type of relationship with the \u2018immortal, invisible, God only wise, in the light inaccessible hid from our eyes\u2019 – but I wanted it.\u00a0 And so I started hanging around the lecturer after class until one day I got up the courage to ask, \u201cHow do you seem to know Christ in a way that I don\u2019t ?\u201d<\/p>\n
His answer click in my mind: \u201cMaybe you understand Jesus only as the forgiver of your sins.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was right.\u00a0 A few years earlier I had admitted my sinfulness and recognised my need for a Saviour.\u00a0 I had bowed the knee to Christ, and He had cleansed me.\u00a0 Grateful for His grace in my life, I had been praying, \u201cO Lord, thank you for dying on the cross to forgive my sins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides relating to Jesus as forgiver, I also related to Him as Lord of my life.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t yet understand the whole dimension of relating to Him as He asked us to in John 15:15: \u2018I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master\u2019s business.\u00a0 Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jesus were to explain this verse to you personally,\u201d the lecturer \u2018told me, \u201cthis is what He might say: I want to relate to you as your forgiver and Lord, but I also want to be your friend.\u00a0 I want our conversations to bring you comfort.\u00a0 I\u2019d like our dialogues to have some give and take.\u00a0 I\u2019d like you to think about me during your day.\u00a0 I want you to know you\u2019re never alone, to feel that wherever you go and whatever you do, there\u2019s a companion by your side.\u00a0 I want you to discover my presence in you daily life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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This is from the book Too Busy NOT to pray by Bill Hybels. In college I met a lecturer who amazed me.\u00a0 He would sometimes talk about his relationship with Jesus Christ as through he had just had lunch with Him.\u00a0 He seemed able to relate to Jesus as to a friend or brother, having … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[15,8,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}