Please read the question is at the END

[Will_Pick]

**I reread John 3, and carefully watched how Jesus dealt w/ Nicodemus
I didn’t see any reference to the concept of this post. Jesus just talks about a belief in him, basically a knowledge. I then jumped to Acts 13 and read Paul’s sermon. He too didn’t say, “Brother have you asked Jesus into your life, do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?” Nope, he too talks about a belief that he rose from the dead and died for the sins of the world.

So basically my question is.

Where do we get this concept that Jesus wants to have a personal relationship w/ us?

**Thanks for your time.
I look forward to your answers.

 

[exoflare]

Where do we get this concept that Jesus wants to have a personal relationship w/ us?

Thanks for your time.
I look forward to your answers.

Good point. I have wondered for a long time about this and keep forgetting to post something about it. It’s sort of interesting the Protestant emphasis on the word “personal”, i.e.: “personal” relationship, “personal” Lord and Savior…

 

[JKirkLVNV]

I think it’s a mistake for Catholics to jump all over Protestants for using the phrase, just as it is for Protestants to assume that only those who’ve said,“The Sinner’s Prayer” DO have a personal relationship. The relationship between Christ and the Church, Christ and the soul, is a spousal one and it’s you really cannot get much more “personal” than that. You cannot get much more “personal” than receiving the Body and Blood, the Soul and the Divinity, of God.

We ARE supposed to have a “personal” relationship with Jesus, because, by definition, the only other kind of relationship to have with Him is an IMPERSONAL one. The problem is the difference in how they define “personal.” They’re right, simple “belief” isn’t sufficient (Saint James said the devils believed and trembled in fear). But it also isn’t a matter of “Jesus, save me!” and that’s it. It’s a matter of adherance and fidelity. That’s pretty “personal.” I grew up Protestant and what they usually meant by “personal relationship” was “real conversion.” Does any Catholic think we DON’T need real conversion (of heart, mind, and soul)? That’s all I’ve ever heard since entering the Catholic Church, from the pope down to my parish priest: the need for conversion.

 

[exoflare]

JKirkLVNV:

I think it’s a mistake for Catholics to jump all over Protestants for using the phrase, just as it is for Protestants to assume that only those who’ve said,“The Sinner’s Prayer” DO have a personal relationship. The relationship between Christ and the Church, Christ and the soul, is a spousal one and it’s you really cannot get much more “personal” than that. You cannot get much more “personal” than receiving the Body and Blood, the Soul and the Divinity, of God.

The term “personal” can still apply, but I just don’t know how Protestants came to develop such an emphasis on it, where there was none before.

 

[Lance]

Good post JKirkLVNV. When the JW’s come around and ask if I have a personal relationship with Jesus I always say, “Yes, I received His Body, Soul and Divinity last Sunday. Did you?”

 

[Della]

I’m with you in what you wrote, JKirk, but most Evangelicals who use the phrase “personal relationship” use it as a litmus test of those who are “saved.” People who don’t use that phrase are often classified as “unsaved,” which is just as wrong as Catholics dismissing the Evangelical OSAS to mean nothing but a one-time experience of Christ.

Now, if we could just get these same good Evangelical folks to acknowledge the fact that one doesn’t have to speak their language in order to be a true Christian, then we might get somewhere. And even to accept the fact that one can be a truly committed Christian as a faithful Catholic, not in spite of our Church’s beliefs, as they so often tell us. Yes?

 

[JKirkLVNV]

Della:

I’m with you in what you wrote, JKirk, but most Evangelicals who use the phrase “personal relationship” use it as a litmus test of those who are “saved.” People who don’t use that phrase are often classified as “unsaved,” which is just as wrong as Catholics dismissing the Evangelical OSAS to mean nothing but a one-time experience of Christ.

Now, if we could just get these same good Evangelical folks to acknowledge the fact that one doesn’t have to speak their language in order to be a true Christian, then we might get somewhere. And even to accept the fact that one can be a truly committed Christian as a faithful Catholic, not in spite of our Church’s beliefs, as they so often tell us. Yes?

AMEN! And Della, the choir director LOVED your poem. I just haven’t had time to talk to him since I gave it to him, but he said at the time it should be easy to set to music.

 

[Della]

JKirkLVNV:

AMEN! And Della, the choir director LOVED your poem. I just haven’t had time to talk to him since I gave it to him, but he said at the time it should be easy to set to music.

I thought you’d agree. And thanks for the news about my poem. I hope he can set it to music. I’d love to hear it when he does.

 

[Fidelis]

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2558 “Great is the mystery of the faith!” The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles’ Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two), so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer.

 

[happygal]

Della:

I’m with you in what you wrote, JKirk, but most Evangelicals who use the phrase “personal relationship” use it as a litmus test of those who are “saved.” People who don’t use that phrase are often classified as “unsaved,” which is just as wrong as Catholics dismissing the Evangelical OSAS to mean nothing but a one-time experience of Christ.

Now, if we could just get these same good Evangelical folks to acknowledge the fact that one doesn’t have to speak their language in order to be a true Christian, then we might get somewhere. And even to accept the fact that one can be a truly committed Christian as a faithful Catholic, not in spite of our Church’s beliefs, as they so often tell us. Yes?

It all depend how you explain PERSONAL to oneself. Our prayer to god is personal, is you, yourself choose to develop that relationship with him, know more of his word, the truth and be like him. To me God is so superior, like my best frez i can tell him everything , praise him for his blessing, his guidance…etc.
So i do not understand why a simple word can be so complicated to all

 

[b_justb]

John 15:12-15 This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

Hard to be a friend without a personal relationship.