A personal relationship with Jesus

[novusCatholic]

I suppose that I have the best of both worlds in how I view God and Jesus.

I believe that God is all powerful, I believe that Jesus is King, and I accept the authority of the Catholic Church. I respect the awesomeness of it all. Every knee shall bow.

But, at the same time, I can say that I also experience a personal relationship with Jesus. It doesn’t get more personal than receiving the Eucharist, and I can feel his presence in my life. I know that he suffered on the cross for “the many”, but I like to think that he did it for me.

We celebrate Holy Communion at Christ’s command, but imagine yourself in the room during the Last Supper. As Jesus told the apostles to eat and drink his body and blood, do you imagine that he was being stern and demanding or do you believe that he offered it in a loving, giving, and inviting way? I’m sure that it was a very personal experience.

 

[JustaServant]

The evangelical concept of a ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus, is modern Western, individualistic terminology unknown to the writers of Scripture and the early Church.
Our relationship with Jesus is intensely personal. That is true, but it is not exclusive.
The often cited verse for this is when Paul said ‘Christ in you, the hope of Glory’.
The problem is that in the Greek that Paul used it is plural, not singular.
It should read ‘Christ in YOU ALL, the hope of Glory.’ The Church is not made up of isolated individuals, but members of the mystical body of Christ Himself. Paul said we are “members one to another”.
Here is what evangelicals must wrestle with:
Jesus gave two very clear commands to His Church, Baptism and the Eucharist.
One cannot baptize oneself, it requires another person. Recieving the Eucharist requires another person, even if its a priest to a shut-un.
Christianity is corparate, not individualistic.
There was an old evangelical hymn called ‘Me and Jesus on the Jerico road’, or something like that. Giving the impression that our relationship with Christ is exclusive to an individual person. That is why they think they can ‘worship at home’ in the privacy of their living room listening to a preacher or sacred hymns.
Jesus gave a very clear worship COMMAND that requires other human beings. Not a ‘Lone Ranger’ christianity.
Catholics have a personal relationship with Christ. We know Him as Lord and Savior, we are members of His Body (how much more personal can one get?), we pray to Him, we worship Him, we adore Him, we seek to follow Him.
More importantly, receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ into our very person is pretty darn personal.
Interestingly, normally speaking, a marriage is not valid until it is consumnated.

John 6:53-56 (RSV) So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

So, can Protestants have a personal relationship with Jesus if they never partake of His Body and Blood?

 

[anthony54321]

I think we go through stages in our lives, when we are younger we start to question God and Jesus and even doubt. But as you mature your connection to both rekindles and you realize there are no other alternatives to the creation of ourselves and our reality…afterlifeandbeyond.com

 

[CopticChristian]

It’s not that I’m not thankful for God’s love for me, and it’s not that I don’t want to follow Him. I do, even though the world drags me down.

But this phrase… ueeegh. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I know we are to be thankful for God’s goodness, and love His goodness by obeying Him. But is that really the same thing as a “personal relationship”? To me it comes off as being Christ’s “buddy”, and Christ is your “buddy”. (If you’ve ever seen the “Buddy Christ” statue from Dogma, maybe you understand why I grimace in disgust at the idea.)

I get seeing God as a father. Yes, you can enjoy your time with God. No, you don’t always have to be in abject fear and terror and solemnity. Or say the Rosary or the Liturgy of the Hours. I get that. At the same time… I don’t see my God or my father the way I’d see my friends. A father is a person you listen to, respect, and obey out of gratitude and a desire to serve. I would die for my father.

A “personal relationship” seems too informal to me. I need a guide. A director. A father. Not a “personal relationship”.

This topic was discussed under “A personal relationship with Jesus”

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=670435

Your thread may compliment the above thread.

 

[TarkanAttila]

I have found that when talking to people who say they have “a personal relationship with Jesus” they totally reject the idea that there is a roll for “the church/regilion”. I think this is why so many people church hop. They go to a church that agrees with them.

My uncle is a “relationship with Jesus” sort. He says that the relationship takes precedence over the religion (to paraphrase). If you’re just practising the religion without the relationship it’s empty. But apparently to him the relationship without the religion is just fine.

I’ll admit not every saint was a Benedictine monk or any such thing. But even such basic things as the Real Presence were known even to so simple a mind as Joseph Cupertino (who was too stupid to even be a lay brother at a monastery without God’s grace), or Isidore the Farmer. Maybe they didn’t say it in those words, or with any pomp or flare about it. But they knew that stuff.

My uncle knows the Lord, I believe. But I don’t think he gets the idea that the facts are important. He sees correctly I am somewhat hesitant about knowing Our Lord. I am. I’ll admit I am.

Just as important, though, is understanding the truth. The things Jesus taught His Apostles. And what they taught the generations to come. Our practises aren’t just preferential. You need to go to Mass and receive Christ, with your body and soul, to go to Heaven. Christ made it that way. It’s only by His Divine Mercy that it can be any other way. But you can’t expect it.

sigh.

I hope for it, nonetheless, cos I think my uncle, misguided though he and many like him are, putting their relationship before the facts, really do want to know Christ, and at least generally see the truth and move toward it.

It’s wonderful to be able to see, feel, and eat Christ, isn’t it?

 

[Randal796]

The personal relationship thingy is entirely new - 1850’s or there abouts
People who claim this are unable to prove it from scripture. The whole concept was created by a man, who’d a thunk it, that started preaching to folks anyehere they would listen to him. Can’t seem to find the source. I know I’ve heard it a bunch of times.

What the Evangelicals don’t realize is that they have become partial Gnostics. While they don’t think the OT God is evil, they are really into “personal Revelation” irregardless of established doctrine. Most want nothing to do with Martin Luther or John Calvin, et al. They will in fact begin to dismiss their own denomination when it pleases them. This is now becoming the “I love Jesus, but hate religion” fad going around. Soon, the Bible will become meaningless to them. It is after all part of icky “religion” is it not?

All the while it is continually stated that folks want to get back to doing things like in the NT Church. These people are blinded by selfishness, the root cause of the Reformation. They are more and more saying things like, “miracles don’t happen anymore, and if they do, it’s from Satan.” Thus, they view things like Marian Apparitions as demonic, healing through laying on of hands is heresy, etc. They have actually thrown God out of Christianity. HUH?!

 

[novusCatholic]

I’m Catholic, and I have a personal relationship with Jesus. I respect the awesomeness of God and the authority of the Church. But I also appreciate that God knows me personally .

I worry that Catholics who have only a legalistic view of the Church and Christianity might be missing out and not experiencing the fullness of the faith. The Church is more than authority and rules. I can’t imagine what my spiritual life would be like if I couldn’t enjoy the personal aspect of my faith. Hardly a Mass goes by that I don’t tear up at some point. Worship and appreciating the presence of God in our daily lives should be an incredibly personal thing. It is a relationship. A personal relationship.

Just because some people are wrong when they deny the full truths of the Catholic Church, it doesn’t mean that they are also wrong to acknowledge that a “personal relationship with Jesus” can exist.

Jesus prayed that we would all be one, just as he and the Father are one. That sounds like love. And love is personal.

 

[GraceDK]

All the saints had a personal relationship with Jesus and I doubt anyone of them would have bashed the term just in order to point out that other Christians certainly mustn’t think they have got something right.

If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus… just like if you dont have a personal relationship with your father or mother, you will not love him personally and when tempted or in doubt you will not persevere. This is logic.

If the Evangelicals use the term “Personal relationship with Jesus” more than Catholics do, then its us that have a problem and not them. Lets face it.

If I ask you about your relationship to another person in this world you will always be able to say: I love him, he is my personal friend whom I trust… or you will say: well I heard about him, and admire him but we are not really well aquainted.
Where persons are involved it will always be the one or the other.

Be careful with people who make fun of such concepts as having a personal relationship with God… Most likely they have only head knowlege about God and either envy or cannot fathom that some people got further…

Also… Jesus has personal relationships with people who are sinners, who lack virtue… otherwise He would have never ever come to the earth, because we all lack. He raises us up… we dont raise him up.

 

[septimine]

The personal relationship thingy is entirely new - 1850’s or there abouts
People who claim this are unable to prove it from scripture. The whole concept was created by a man, who’d a thunk it, that started preaching to folks anyehere they would listen to him. Can’t seem to find the source. I know I’ve heard it a bunch of times.

What the Evangelicals don’t realize is that they have become partial Gnostics. While they don’t think the OT God is evil, they are really into “personal Revelation” irregardless of established doctrine. Most want nothing to do with Martin Luther or John Calvin, et al. They will in fact begin to dismiss their own denomination when it pleases them. This is now becoming the “I love Jesus, but hate religion” fad going around. Soon, the Bible will become meaningless to them. It is after all part of icky “religion” is it not?

All the while it is continually stated that folks want to get back to doing things like in the NT Church. These people are blinded by selfishness, the root cause of the Reformation. They are more and more saying things like, “miracles don’t happen anymore, and if they do, it’s from Satan.” Thus, they view things like Marian Apparitions as demonic, healing through laying on of hands is heresy, etc. They have actually thrown God out of Christianity. HUH?!

Actually, I’ve never heard of it outside of the US – or at least American founded churches. And I think it’s a sort of historical accident. It makes perfect sense to talk about jesus apart from church if you live on the frontier with your family and could only really attend a proper church a few times a year due to distance. If that’s what you have – and it’s what you would have had in 1850 – you aren’t going to think in terms of a church. The other part is that Americans might not be as denominational as Europeans as you never had a state church or even a main church – people from different denominations found the town church – it can’t be a traditional denomination, because not everyone shares that. what do they share? jesus and bible. So Americans rallied around Jesus and Bible and not church. not all that strange, though perhaps not perfect.

 

[Kristin234]

I’m Catholic, and I have a personal relationship with Jesus. I respect the awesomeness of God and the authority of the Church. But I also appreciate that God knows me personally .

I worry that Catholics who have only a legalistic view of the Church and Christianity might be missing out and not experiencing the fullness of the faith. The Church is more than authority and rules. I can’t imagine what my spiritual life would be like if I couldn’t enjoy the personal aspect of my faith. Hardly a Mass goes by that I don’t tear up at some point. Worship and appreciating the presence of God in our daily lives should be an incredibly personal thing. It is a relationship. A personal relationship.

Just because some people are wrong when they deny the full truths of the Catholic Church, it doesn’t mean that they are also wrong to acknowledge that a “personal relationship with Jesus” can exist.

Jesus prayed that we would all be one, just as he and the Father are one. That sounds like love. And love is personal.

My uncle is a Catholic priest and HE asks people if they love Jesus and if they have a relationship with him.

 

[Reuben_J]

A personal relationship with Christ is an abiding presence of Christ in your life. It is the presence of God in your body, your heart and and in your day to day life which you can feel. It is visceral.

Many of the saints speak of an abiding presence in their life, a feeling that God is abiding within them, directing them, and operating in a very powerful way in their day to day life. It takes docility to the Holy Spirit to feel this way but I have felt it myself for extended periods of time.

It feels like a state of constant prayer, where you can’t get God out of your mind. One is in a constant state of converation with God, even in the middle of business meetings and sometimes even when sleeping. It is a wonderful place to be.

-Tim-

Hey, I want to have this personal relationship with Christ. This is what I am striving to achieve in my journey of faith. It is difficult no doubt but that’s because I am human and I have my weakness but my ultimate objective is, I want to be like that - to have the abiding presence of Christ in my life. I do not want to revert back to my human weakness after I left the mass after receiving Christ in the Holy Communion. I really, really want Christ to be in me, to take over and that He manifests in me and not just me in all my weaknesses. Oh, yes, I want that, whatever you call it.

 

[GaryTaylor]

Actually, I’ve never heard of it outside of the US – or at least American founded churches. And I think it’s a sort of historical accident. It makes perfect sense to talk about jesus apart from church if you live on the frontier with your family and could only really attend a proper church a few times a year due to distance. If that’s what you have – and it’s what you would have had in 1850 – you aren’t going to think in terms of a church. The other part is that Americans might not be as denominational as Europeans as you never had a state church or even a main church – people from different denominations found the town church – it can’t be a traditional denomination, because not everyone shares that. what do they share? jesus and bible. So Americans rallied around Jesus and Bible and not church. not all that strange, though perhaps not perfect.

So someone coined the phrase and the rest is history. Made in the USA!

 

[GraceDK]

Hey, I want to have this personal relationship with Christ. This is what I am striving to achieve in my journey of faith. It is difficult no doubt but that’s because I am human and I have my weakness but my ultimate objective is, I want to be like that - to have the abiding presence of Christ in my life. I do not want to revert back to my human weakness after I left the mass after receiving Christ in the Holy Communion. I really, really want Christ to be in me, to take over and that He manifests in me and not just me in all my weaknesses. Oh, yes, I want that, whatever you call it.

Indeed this is humility. Good f you brother. I am sure that Jesus is much closer to those who openly admit they want to be in communion with Him /have a personal relationship with him at all times in their lives, than those who are out to critizise perfectly useful terms just because they are utilised by Christians in other churches.

 

[Reuben_J]

Indeed this is humility. Good f you brother. I am sure that Jesus is much closer to those who openly admit they want to be in communion with Him /have a personal relationship with him at all times in their lives, than those who are out to critizise perfectly useful terms just because they are utilised by Christians in other churches.

Thanks. If personal relationship with Jesus is about being like Jesus, to be transformed to be like him in our thought, word and action, because we experience Jesus so intimately that we are able to love him, to follow his ways and teachings in our everyday life because of this relationship, then I have no problem with the phrase. In fact all Christians should strive to be like that.

We Catholics are very often more than not are hypocrites especially in term of the Holy Eucharist. That is rather harsh but in the churches that I used to go I would see about 98% of the congregation would stand up queuing for the Holy Communion. What holy people we are. No, I am not judging them but I do notice some who should not go for Holy Communion but nevertheless do. These are obvious cases where their cases are known that they are not supposed to receive the Holy Communion. And if such people do it what more to say about perhaps among the 97% who also do?

I think we should not be too worried about catch phrase or something we do not understand and become particularly prejudiced against. I like your post #61 and it makes sense to me.

We should be more worry about not being like Jesus. Do people see Jesus in us in the ordinariness of our lives, in how we talk or love? Are they attracted to our lives on account that we are Christians? Will they be spurred to know more about Jesus and become Christians just by seeing us? These should be bigger concerned for every Catholic. And if having the so-called personal relationship with Jesus will lead us to be more and more like him, then I guess, why condemn such spirituality?

We have the Holy Eucharist which we receive during the mass. If we really have it, then we should be like Jesus, for in the Eucharist he is body and blood eaten. We should be what we eat, shouldn’t we? Isn’t Holy Eucharist about all that? But if after receiving it, we are still the same old us and hardly be like Jesus, then we have received it without faith and improper disposition.

Here is the thing: it works both ways. The Catholics who have the Holy Communion who thinks others cannot be good Christians are no better than the Protestants who boast about personal relationship with Jesus.

 

[GraceDK]

Thanks. If personal relationship with Jesus is about being like Jesus, to be transformed to be like him in our thought, word and action, because we experience Jesus so intimately that we are able to love him, to follow his ways and teachings in our everyday life because of this relationship, then I have no problem with the phrase. In fact all Christians should strive to be like that.

We Catholics are very often more than not are hypocrites especially in term of the Holy Eucharist. That is rather harsh but in the churches that I used to go I would see about 98% of the congregation would stand up queuing for the Holy Communion. What holy people we are. No, I am not judging them but I do notice some who should not go for Holy Communion but nevertheless do. These are obvious cases where their cases are known that they are not supposed to receive the Holy Communion. And if such people do it what more to say about perhaps among the 97% who also do?

I think we should not be too worried about catch phrase or something we do not understand and become particularly prejudiced against. I like your post #61 and it makes sense to me.

We should be more worry about not being like Jesus. Do people see Jesus in us in the ordinariness of our lives, in how we talk or love? Are they attracted to our lives on account that we are Christians? Will they be spurred to know more about Jesus and become Christians just by seeing us? These should be bigger concerned for every Catholic. And if having the so-called personal relationship with Jesus will lead us to be more and more like him, then I guess, why condemn such spirituality?

We have the Holy Eucharist which we receive during the mass. If we really have it, then we should be like Jesus, for in the Eucharist he is body and blood eaten. We should be what we eat, shouldn’t we? Isn’t Holy Eucharist about all that? But if after receiving it, we are still the same old us and hardly be like Jesus, then we have received it without faith and improper disposition.

Here is the thing: it works both ways. The Catholics who have the Holy Communion who thinks others cannot be good Christians are no better than the Protestants who boast about personal relationship with Jesus.

I think you cannot call having a personal relationship with Jesus a “spirituality”. In my view if you receive the Holy Communion, which has been by some compared to the union of spouses, then you’d better have a personal relationship with Him.
There are two persons, you and Christ. If you see Christ as an idea, or a being who is infinitely removed from you in space and who isn’t near you all the days of your life, always loving you ardently and guiding you according to His wisdom… then how will you be able to choose Him over the temptations of this life. How will you say yes to persecution on account of a friendship where you really have no personal relationship?
Indeed in some ways the personal relationship with Jesus will be vastly different from any relationship on this earth. He is a Holy Holy King and we are impure creatures before His Majesty, totally below His rank in any way size or form. But Relationship and personal… these terms are fully justified, and even those who slander their use, should strive after their reality.

 

[Sam_777]

I think you cannot call having a personal relationship with Jesus a “spirituality”. In my view if you receive the Holy Communion, which has been by some compared to the union of spouses, then you’d better have a personal relationship with Him.
There are two persons, you and Christ. If you see Christ as an idea, or a being who is infinitely removed from you in space and who isn’t near you all the days of your life, always loving you ardently and guiding you according to His wisdom… then how will you be able to choose Him over the temptations of this life. How will you say yes to persecution on account of a friendship where you really have no personal relationship?
Indeed in some ways the personal relationship with Jesus will be vastly different from any relationship on this earth. He is a Holy Holy King and we are impure creatures before His Majesty, totally below His rank in any way size or form. But Relationship and personal… these terms are fully justified, and even those who slander their use, should strive after their reality.

Interesting viewpoint Grace…

 

[Reuben_J]

I think you cannot call having a personal relationship with Jesus a “spirituality”. y.

Ah, my bad, poor choice of word. My admission that I do not really know about this phrase but if the outcome of it is something good as has been pointed out then to me it should not be something to be treated with disdain just because it is unCatholic.

Just because it’s proponent does not show good example, “if you don’t have personal relationship with Jesus you’re not Christian”, does not debunk the belief practice. Similarly many Catholics do not show good witnesses to the Holy Eucharist but that does not make it false.

Thanks for the explanation.