How Well Do You Know Him?

As I read Luke 13 (see vs 22-27)today and thanked God that I knew Him and He knew me so that He would let me into His presence one day, I thought about how well I really knew Jesus. I mean, I know Him, but do I know Him like I would know my best friend?

Anne Graham Lotz, one of my favorite Christian authors and speakers has spent her lifetime pursuing an intimate knowledge of Jesus. In the introduction of her book My Heart's Cry (page xii-xiii), she says the following:

"Like John and the other disciples, I have known Jesus personally. Their knowledge was face to face while my knowledge is by faith, but mine is a personal, direct, experiential knowledge nonetheless. And it has increasingly grown, from the time I was a little girl when I confessed my
sin and asked Him to be my Savior, to the time as a teenager I made the commitment to live my life for Him alone, to the time I drifted from Him in the busyness of being a young mother and returned to Him through the disciplined study of His Word, to the time I answered His call to teach a weekly Bible class, to the time I stepped out in faith to follow him in an itinerant international ministry, to the time I picked up my pen and wrote my first word to be published, to the time when my heart's cry - under unbearable pressure and pain- has been, just give me Jesus!

Yet somehow, like John, I feel that all this time in His presence, all this devotion to His service, is just not enough. I have concluded that it will never be enough until my faith becomes sight and I know Him as fully as I am known by Him. Until that day, I find that my yearning for Him is ravenous, and it has once again led me to immerse myself in the pages of His Word - in particular, the eyewitness account of His life and ministry that was recorded by the disciple with whom I most identify: John."

Do you have a heart for Jesus like that? Anne Graham Lotz is inspiring in her pursuit for more of Jesus. After reading her book and seeing her speak, I'm now reading the gospels in a new light - in pursuit of really knowing Jesus..