Draw Near To Jesus So He Can Know You

There is a difference between knowing of someone and actually knowing them. Maybe you have a relative that your parents have often talked about. Through them you know about this relative but you don't actually know them. Then one day you get the opportunity to meet with them, talk with them, live with them for a bit. Now you know them.

Those of you from large churches may know of your pastor. You hear him preach, you read his books, you may even follow him on twitter, but you don't actually know him. You haven't visited his home or sat down to share in a meal. You don't know his personal struggles, victories, fears and hopes. You know of him but you don't know him.

For many people who attend our churches this describes their relationship with Jesus. They know of him but they have yet to meet him. For some, they are comfortable with that. They are content right where they are because it means the lack of relationship doesn't put too much demand on them. They aren't prepared for the commitment of "marriage", the sacrifices they have heard it will require. So they are content just to hear stories and worship from a distance. This is not the relationship Jesus is looking for.

Our relationship with Jesus is an "all or nothing". For those who try to approach him from a distance Jesus brings them face to face. There was a woman who wanted healing for her daughter and stood at a distance shouting. Jesus ignored her until she came and knelt at his feet. Even then he resisted saying he had only come for the children of Israel which provoked her to demonstrate her faith in Jesus. Then Jesus moved in her situation.

Consider Job. He had suffered much and his religious talk was tremendous. He was sticking with Yahweh no matter what, but Job worshiped a God he knew from a distance. As much as he did everything to honour Yahweh he did not know Yahweh. But after being chastised by him and after having lived through this experience, Job responded:

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6)

Job was confronted by the holiness of Yahweh and his self-righteousness melted like wax before him. He realized his condition and his immediate reaction was repentance.

Those who stand at a distance do so because they do not want to be intimate with our God. But in order to love with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength we must draw close. Those at a distance say they are happy with themselves and they want to worship without changing. They want to hold on to their opinions and their actions. Those who come close are confronted by their own wretchedness in the light of Yahweh`s holiness. We fall to our face in repentance but through Jesus Christ he lifts us up as a changed person, a new creation.

We cannot stand at a distance and claim to have a relationship when we only have a "knowing". It is when we draw near to Jesus that he draws near to us and he knows us in the biblical sense of knowing. Jesus knows us but it is intimacy that he demands. It is the reason that he said there will be those who try to enter into his glory and he will turn them back saying, "I do not know you". It is the biblical sense of knowing, the intimacy as we draw close to him and he to us so that he lives in us and we in him. The Christian relationship with Jesus is not a religious methodology but an extremely intimate knowing of each other.

I can share a lot of scripture on this subject but I leave you with the holy words recorded by James, inspired by the Holy Spirit:

"Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. and he will lift you up." (James 4:8-10)

It is frightening to stand in the holiness of Yahweh and to have the ugliness of our heart revealed to us. There is lamentation, mourning and weeping that is provoked. But the greatest moment is when Jesus reaches down and lifts us up. There is no greater moment in all of eternity then to have all that ugliness washed away and stand before our Lord as a new creation, brought about because the Father willed it and Jesus did it.

The Benefits of Detail

Good morning my friends,

You look tired. Did you find there was too much detail in this morning’s reading? As we read Exodus 29 and 30 you might find yourself yawning or contemplating skipping this section; others do. I encourage you to press on. As I said yesterday, there is significant purpose behind each one of these things that are being described to us. However, if you do not have time today to research all of these items then consider this one thing: it is good that our God is into details.

Let us consider another item that he gives great detail to; us. He knows us so well because he is into details. In fact, he knows us far better than ourselves. The great company Google also knows us better than ourselves as they keep tabs on what we search for on the internet and then they know what ads to throw our way. However, the Father knows us far more intimately than this and for a better reason.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31)

Now there is detail for you. As a child I imagined there was one angel assigned to every person just to count their hair every day. Now I imagine my angel working more with subtraction than addition. The fact is we change; the number of hairs, our height, our weight, our preferences in food and friends, our goals, our ideals and so on, yet God is up to date on everything. This is what we cannot forget about our God:

O LORD, you have searched me

and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely, O LORD. (Psalm 139:1-4)


Before it is even on my tongue he knows the words I will speak. Some people find this unbelievable but we all do it, to a lesser extent. When we know someone really well we can often guess what they will say before they say it. This can be extremely funny between parent and child because they know each other very well. With the Father it is even more so because he has known the details even before they existed:


For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16)


Not even a parent knows their child this well. The Father is privy to our most private, secret and embarrassing stuff. He does not read our diaries and journals; he does not need to. He is actually right there experiencing every moment with us. He has done this from the beginning. Some things he has rejoiced in with us. Other things he has abhorred and he remembers those who have harmed us. He knows it all and that is why we read:


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)


Even though he knows everything, the good, the bad and the ugly, Jesus Christ still went all the way for us. He went all the way because the Father knew there was no other way to rescue us. He knew we were enslaved and there was no way out. He knew that no matter how hard we tried we could not rescue ourselves. He knew the details of our difficulties and he did something about it.


I for one am very happy the Father knows the details. I am glad he knows the good and the bad. I am glad because his attention to these details reminds me that he loves me beyond any love I can experience from anyone else. It also means he will help me take care of the bad stuff. It is better to deal with it here and now than when we are standing before him on that day of judgment.


So be glad and rejoice. He is God. We are his people. And he is here with us.