A Real-life Jesus

You should follow my example, just as I follow Christ’s. 1 Corinthians 11:1

I was at a camp with my family, and we were attending a meeting with a public speaker who was giving the evening Bible lesson. My preschool-age son, Brock, had become fidgety, to say the least. He was not going to settle down and sit still, so I took him outside for a walk.

During our exploration of the camp, we sat down for a quick rest on the stairs to the dining hall. As we rested, my son began explaining to me how to have a personal relationship with Christ. He had been watching the JESUS film the past couple of months, and he had become familiar with the invitation at the end of the movie. Brock told me that if you recognized you were a sinner and asked Jesus to come into your heart, he would save you.

I was very excited at what I was hearing. This was my first son, and I thought to myself, This is the big moment! I have been praying he would want to know Jesus, and it is going to happen tonight!

“Brock, do you want to ask Jesus into your heart?” I eagerly asked.

My son thought about the question for a few moments, then very matter-of-factly said, “No.”

I was disappointed and a little bewildered. I wondered why Brock was talking so much about asking Christ into his life if he really didn’t want to do it. Then he made a statement that has become the theme of my entire ministry:

“As soon as Jesus gets out of the Bible, I will ask him into my life.”

That is the Jesus all of us need to know. He’s the real-life Jesus who is more than a character in the pages of the Bible; he’s a Jesus who makes a real difference in our lives here and now.

Lord, teach me how to get you off the pages of the Bible and into the flow of my everyday life.