It is interesting that some Christians who say, “You can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ” often, in reality, do not. They have reduced the personal relationship to a one time initial encounter. The relationship is not lived out in their devotional life, in how they treat each other and is not seen as fruit in their ethics. The “relationship” is sometimes looked back on as “when I received Him”, and is not an ongoing covenant relationship expressed by love and keeping His commandments. Let those of us who believe that you can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ make it a way of daily living and intimate communion beyond an initial encounter.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” John 14:15-17 (NRSV)
