{"id":239,"date":"2014-04-11T21:43:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-12T01:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/75.103.85.86\/?page_id=239"},"modified":"2014-04-11T21:44:58","modified_gmt":"2014-04-12T01:44:58","slug":"april-2014","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/?page_id=239","title":{"rendered":"April, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<b><i>Do You Know Jesus? <\/i><\/b>\r\n\r\nDo you know Jesus?\u00a0 Or do you know about Jesus?\r\n\r\nYou might be wondering, \u201cWhat kind of questions are these?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat is the difference?\u201d\r\n\r\nThe difference is knowing Jesus firsthand or secondhand.\u00a0 To know someone firsthand is to know that person personally from experiences of meeting, conversing and sharing of stories.\u00a0 The secondhand relationship is when you only know someone through what you\u2019ve heard from others.\u00a0 You don\u2019t really know the person, you know about the person to the extent of what you\u2019ve heard.\u00a0 So do you know Jesus? Or do you know about him?\r\n\r\nTo know someone is to know that person by heart.\u00a0 There is intimacy in the relationship.\u00a0 It means that you know his\/her passion, what makes them happy and fulfilled, what makes them sad, what drives them etc.\u00a0 When you know someone closely, there is a tendency to grow toward each other.\u00a0\u00a0 People say when you are together long enough, you begin to look alike, think alike and act alike.\u00a0 And then it becomes natural to finish each other\u2019s sentences.\r\n\r\nHere is a problem.\u00a0 For so long, living in the Christianized culture, we have been allowed to speak about Jesus in the secondhand manner so that many of us do not know Jesus.\u00a0 We have knowledge about Jesus, but lack the experience of meeting him personally.\u00a0 And the result is that our faith has often reduced the message of Jesus to practical tips for living life.\u00a0 The Bible has become a how-to-guide for success and happiness.\r\n\r\nSo do you know Jesus? Or do you know about him?\r\n\r\nThe difference shows when you start telling others about Jesus.\u00a0 How would you tell about Jesus to anyone who would want to know?\u00a0 Here is what I would say.\u00a0 Jesus is my savior who gave his life for me because he loved me.\u00a0 I have experienced his love when I was twelve years old and it was amazing to feel this awesome love.\u00a0 Experiencing Jesus\u2019 love changed my life, \u00a0giving me a clear purpose of my life to serve God by sharing Jesus with others.\u00a0 Through Jesus, I have found meaning and purpose for my life and I have found fulfillment in ministry.\r\n\r\nIn a few weeks, we will be shouting \u201cAlleluia! Christ is Risen!!\u201d\u00a0 The resurrected Jesus is available to meet us personally so that we can experience him and the love he has for each of us.\u00a0 Along our life\u2019s journey, Jesus comes along side of us revealing himself to us through the scriptures and worship.\r\n\r\nThis Easter, may you hear the words of Jesus and see for yourselves first hand who Jesus is through experiencing the power and presence of God\u2026.So that you will have your own story to tell about your encounter with the Lord.\u00a0 Jesus is too good just to know about him!\r\n\r\n<b>Alleluia!!<\/b>\r\n\r\n<b>Pastor Grace<\/b>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do You Know Jesus? Do you know Jesus?\u00a0 Or do you know about Jesus? You might be wondering, \u201cWhat kind of questions are these?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat is the difference?\u201d The difference is knowing Jesus firsthand or secondhand.\u00a0 To know someone firsthand is to know that person personally from experiences of meeting, conversing and sharing of stories.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":158,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-239","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions\/240"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/emburyumc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}