Who is Jesus?

We have been studying through the life of Jesus from the book of John in Chapel each morning with the middle & high schoolers. I thought I'd share some thoughts with you each day about what we are studying that might spur "Jesus" conversation with you and your teenagers. All of us at Skipstone have been soooooo burdened about families....especially our school families and we want to do everything we can to help you! I know that many of you are not attending church right now for a variety of reasons. I also know that a lot of you are hurting...maybe even searching for something significant in your personal and family lives. We are praying for you everyday. Praying that God will make Himself REAL to you and to your family.

Yesterday we were in John 3 and we talked about Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well. You can read it or watch it here. We talked about 3 different characteristics of our encounters with Jesus.

1. Encounters with Jesus are not accidental.
Just like Jesus didn't accidently bump into the Samaritan woman at the well....He doesn't just bump into us. He knows WHO we are in our heart of hearts. He knows WHERE we are (physically & spiritually). He knows the "real me"...the good and the bad. He knows that specific sin that I am tempted by everyday! He intentionally meets us where we are.

2. Encounters with Jesus are life-altering.
They are not just "day-altering" or even "year-altering"....they are life-altering. After encountering Jesus, we should never be the same. How amazing is it that we can have an encounter and a relationship with the creator of the world??? One of the problems that we have is that we miss those encounters. We are so inwardly focused that most of the time, it doesn't even register when we have a Jesus encounter. I imagine myself as that Samaritan woman and I can just see me hurrying to draw my water so I could get out of there so I could get the next thing on my list accomplished. It's so easy to disregard Jesus in our daily lives. He wants to alter our lives but we ignore His work in our lives.

3. Encounters with Jesus are not something you can keep to yourself.
The woman told everyone she knew. She was compelled to share. One of our students had the opportunity to meet Matthew Stafford (quarterback for the GA Bulldogs) this weekend. Guess what she said to everyone she saw on Monday morning??? She told us all about her "encounter" with Stafford. He can throw a football but he can't save our soul. He is a great quarterback but he sure didn't suffer and die so that I could have eternal life. How much more should be be compelled to share about our encounters with Jesus?

For so many of us (myself included), Jesus is something we "do". We go to church. We send our kids to Christian school. We feel pretty good about our goodness when we compare it to our neighbors and friends. All the while we are playing a game. We don't KNOW Jesus. We don't do the things we know that we should do to get to know Jesus.

"Elf" is one of my favorite movies. The part I love most about that movie is when the department store manager tells Buddy that Santa is coming to the store. Buddy gets all excited and screams out "I KNOW HIM". I want so much to have that same kind of excitement and awe when I talk about Jesus. I want to be the one that "knows Him" and more than anything...I want Him to know me too!