Jesus! He is altogether lovely, the lily of the valley, the eternal God made flesh.

More books have been written about Him, more songs penned to honor Him, and more lives transformed by Him than by any other name in human history. He has been worshiped from the day He was born to the present moment, and more people are following Him now than ever before. He is the Nazarene Carpenter, the Jewish Messiah, the Risen Savior, and the Eternal King. Sometimes an old song comes to my mind that puts it like this: “Jesus is the sweetest name I know, and He’s just the same as His lovely name.”

Amen!

In Hebrew, His name is Yeshua, which is translated Joshua in the Old Testament, meaning “The Lord Saves!” In Greek, it’s Iesous. If you go to The Netherlands, they’ll tell you about Jezus. In Finland, you’ll hear about Jeesus. Native Hawaiians call him Iesu. In Korea? Yesu. In Turkey? Isa. He is universal. Whatever the language, He is unique. All over the globe He is revered by generation after generation.

The name of Jesus has been in countless campaigns, festivals, marketing appeals, ministry outreaches, great events, sermons, speeches, prayers, and personal testimonies— as well as innumerable oaths and curses. The entire world is divided into those who know Him and those who don’t.

I am thankful to say I do know Him! He’s the dearest Person in my life. I remember the day I met Him. Do you? I wish you and I could visit for ten minutes so I could hear the story of how you came to know Jesus. Or, if you don’t know Him, I wish I could sit down with you for ten minutes and introduce Him to you.

That’s really what this issue of Turning Points is about, and it’s also why I’ve written The Jesus You May Not Know. I want you to take the journey from knowing about Jesus to knowing Him better and better.

No matter how long you’ve been acquainted with Jesus of Nazareth, there’s far more about Him that you don’t know than you do know. After all, in Jesus “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). He is uniquely both God and Man. As God, His qualities are infinite and infinitely mysterious. Even His human nature is a mystery, and none of us can plumb the depths of His personality.

Make no mistake—it’s not just knowing about Him that’s important. It’s personally knowing Him. No matter how closely you’ve walked with Jesus, you can become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him. Think of the twelve disciples. One of them described himself as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” It was John, and he’s the one who leaned against our Lord at the Last Supper. Two others, Peter and James, were also very close to Him. They formed an inner circle and accompanied Jesus to the Mount of Transfiguration.

Eight of the other nine disciples were also close to Him (Judas being the exception). Seventy other disciples also followed Him closely with untold multitudes following at a distance. Many people knew Christ, but not everyone was equally close to Him.

That’s the secret I want to share with you—you have the opportunity to know Christ more intimately than you know Him today. Sometimes we allow our personal friendship with Christ to stall. The Christians in the city of Ephesus drifted away from their first love (Revelation 2:4). J. Oswald Sanders wrote, “It is possible to have once lived a life of consecration to God and then, by deliberate sin or by simple neglect, to get out of touch with God.”

Has that happened to you? Is your familiarity with Christ stronger than it was last year? Last month? The Bible commands us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

This issue of Turning Points focuses on doing just that.

I wrote The Jesus You May Not Know as a sequel to The God You May Not Know because Jesus is more than a Name. He’s Someone we should know, Someone we should know better, and Someone we should make known to all the world.

This month we will focus on getting to know Jesus more deeply and intimately as we discover Who Is Jesus? 

 

 

From This Point Forward: “Real Christianity”