Practicing the Presence of Jesus

My wife and I have been reading through "The Christian Family" by Larry Christenson. I highly recommend it. You can get a copy (cheap) at just about any online bookstore / seller.


We have read through over half of it and just finished the chapter "Practicing the Presence of Jesus." Let me share part of the chapter via a quote. Please share your thoughts with us. You may post a response on this page!

Practicing the Presence of Jesus

"We said at the beginning that the secret of good family life is simply this: To cultivate the family’s relationship with Jesus. We began with a consideration of Divine Order. But Divine Order alone is not enough. As God’s Order begins to shape the outward form of a family’s life, the presence of Jesus must be given full sway to transform its inner life. And here is where we face a fundamental problem.

Precisely what do we mean by “the presence of Jesus”? Just how does a family “live together with Jesus Christ”?

Our little niece, Martha was about three years old when she reported a simple and profound discovery to her grandmother. She pointed to a picture of Jesus on the wall and said. “That’s Jesus. I say ‘Hi’ to Him, but He doesn’t say ‘Hi’ back to me. Her sister, Nancy, younger by a year picked up the thought and declaimed at the table one day, “Je’thuth, Je’thuth, Je’thuth! Dat’s all I hear ‘round here, but He don’t say nothin’!”

With the innocent candor of childhood, they put their finger on a deep mystery and paradox of the Christian Faith: Christian faith is a personal relationship with Jesus, but Jesus does not behave like an ordinary person. He doesn’t come around so I can see Him. He doesn’t speak to me, He doesn’t write me any letters. He doesn’t call me up on the telephone. A ‘person’ is someone I can talk to and be with, but ‘He don’t say nothin’!

It is not that the child is a skeptic. He is simply a realist. He hears Jesus talked about as a person. In prayers he hears Jesus addressed as a person. So he expects Jesus to behave like a person. But time after time this does not take place. So as the child grows older, he begins to accommodate his thinking to his actual experience: Jesus was a person on earth long ago; one day we will meet Him in heaven as a person; but in the meantime, ‘He don’t say nothin’! A personal relationship with Jesus alternates between nostalgia and hope, but does not touch down in the here and now.


If the truth were known, many adults would confess the same sense of puzzlement and frustration voiced by children. They know about Jesus and they truly believe in Him. Yet the experience of a distinct personal relationship is vague or lacking. (emphasis added)

Why is it, for instance, that so few Christians can speak simply and confidently of having experienced clear guidance from the Lord in a matter of their own life? Many even protest piously that it is presumptuous to think one can know the specific will of God. If a child were sent to the store by his father, he would state it as a matter of simple fact to anyone who inquired as to the purpose of his trip. How many Christians can say with childlike directness that they are where they are – that they do what they do- because they have received a command from their heavenly Father?

Theological textbooks and evangelical tracts are fond of distinctions like this: “It isn’t enough to know about Jesus--you must enter into a personal relationship with Him.” We may nod agreement to this, but what do we actually understand such a phrase to mean? A personal relationship implies a definite encounter and exchange between persons. Suppose a husband and wife have a long talk over the supper table. They do not come away from the table wondering whether they have spoken with one another. They are not plagued with uncertainty as to whether there actually has been a personal encounter and exchange. Yet, for many Christians, the sense of personal relationship with Jesus is plagued with a sense of uncertainty and vagueness.

The problem is this same one discovered by our little nieces: Jesus does not behave like an ordinary person. How can you have a personal relationship with Someone who doesn’t say ‘Hi’ back to you?

An American was traveling in Germany and needed directions for getting to a certain town. He saw a Shell service station-a comfortably familiar sign-and stopped to inquire. He came back crestfallen to those waiting in the car, and reported, “He can’t speak English.” In America, a Shell service station is a place where one can speak to an attendant and get clear directions. But in Germany, even though Shell attendants make noises, ‘They can’t talk.’ For all practical purposes, ‘They don’t say nothin’!

This is the experience of many Christians. The outward symbols of personal relationship- words like ‘see,’ ‘speak,’ ‘know’--are familiar. But when they try to enter into the experience of these words in another realm, the realm of the Spirit, they meet with disappointment and frustration.

At this point, of course, we can offer the standard theological tranquilizers prescribed for quieting down this kind of raucous realism: We ‘see’ Him with the eyes of faith; He ‘speaks’ to us in the Bible; we ‘meet’ Him as we encounter human need; we ‘know’ Him in our heart. All of this is true. But for many Christians this becomes only pious speech for ‘He can’t talk.” They may take the pill, and quiet down, but their longing for a truly personal relationship with their Lord remains unsatisfied.

It is not enough merely to say, we see Him with the eyes of faith, we hear Him speak in the Scripture, we encounter Him in our involvement with people, we know Him in the depth of our hearts. Just as it would not be helpful merely to tell the American, “You must speak to the Shell attendant in German”- if one does not also tell him how to speak German. As a matter of fact, one can enter into a fine conversation with German Shell attendants, once one has learned the language of that country! And one can enter into a dynamic personal relationship with Jesus, if one is willing to learn how personal relationship is established and maintained IN THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT.

Your thoughts?

Friday, Aug. 10 - 102 degrees in Memphis