{"id":404,"date":"2020-01-23T23:14:19","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/?p=404"},"modified":"2020-01-23T23:17:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:17:27","slug":"who-do-you-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/01\/23\/who-do-you-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Do You Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I\u2019m standing\nthere with a group of friends and one says to another, \u201cdo you know Jim Smith?\u201d\nChris answered yes. Mike then asked, \u201cwhere is he from?\u201d Chris didn\u2019t know. \u201cIs\nhe married?\u201d Chris still didn\u2019t know. \u201cDoes he have kids?\u201d Again, Chris had no\nidea. Mike said, \u201cI guess you don\u2019t know him really well, do you? Haha!\u201d (I\nchanged all the names to protect the innocent). But this is exactly what WE do.\nLet me explain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I met\nJennifer, there was a time shortly after when I wanted to know more about her. I\nwanted to know her better. So we became friends. I called her on the phone and\nwe talked for hours. Sometimes 3 or 4 hours at a time. She\u2019d call me and we\u2019d\ntalk for hours again. I began wanting to know what she was like. What type of\nthings she liked. I began reading her social media posts. I began asking people\nwho knew her to tell me more about her. All of this and we were just friends.\nWe had no romantic feelings at all towards each other. Just friends. But I had\nto know her. Not just know about her. And I wouldn\u2019t be able to tell anyone I\nwas her friend if I couldn\u2019t tell them some things about her. Where she was\nfrom. Where she worked\u2026 something. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Right now,\nif someone said, \u201cDo you know Jason Grainger?\u201d, if you said yes, how much\ninformation would you be able to give them? Where is he from? Where did he go\nto school? What does he do now? Does he have children? And the only way you\nfind that information is by either asking people who know him and trusting\nthey\u2019ll give you a truthful answer or reading about him or asking him yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is\nprecisely where most Americans get it wrong. We say, \u201cI\u2019m a Christian\u201d or \u201cI\nbelieve in Jesus.\u201d But do we really? Or are we saying that because we kind of\nbelieve in something greater and don\u2019t want people to judge us for not really\nknowing much about God or any of that spiritual nonsense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See, if you\nclaim, AT ALL, that you are either Christian or \u201cbelieve in Jesus\u201d, then this\nmeans you have, at least, a basic knowledge of who He says He is. And if that\u2019s\nthe case, this would lead you to want to know more about this man. I mean, who\nare you casually professing to know? Supposedly this guy allowed Himself to be\nmurdered so you and I could live. Kind of a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m firmly\nof the belief that you CANNOT possibly claim, in any context, that you believe\nin Jesus, but you don\u2019t pursue Him. Anyone that you want to know, you pursue.\nYou read about them. Ask others about them. I tell my kids all the time that\nwho they are is completely wrapped up in who God says they are. But the only\nway they find out what He says is to read about Him and what He said about us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t need\nanyone to tell me who Jesus is. I have my own belief in who He is to me!\u201d <\/em><\/strong>This is said quite often. The problem\nis, it couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. The reason? He was a LIVING MAN. Not\na fairy tale creature in a children\u2019s book. He lived, walked among us, and left\npeople around Him in awe at the things He did and said. That\u2019s like saying, \u201cI\nhave my own belief about who Michael Jordan is to me.\u201d But knowing absolutely\nnothing about basketball or the Chicago Bulls. If I can\u2019t tell you that he\nplayed for the Chicago Bulls or that he played for North Carolina, then my\n\u201cbelief system\u201d is empty, useless and thereby wrong! I have to read about\nJordan. Watch his old games. Ask people that knew about him. We don\u2019t get to\nhave an interpretation about facts. They\u2019re just facts. But we do get to learn\nabout those facts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So here\u2019s my\nchallenge to us. Learn who Jesus is and was. Read everything you can get your\nhands on. Find out what types of things he liked and disliked. Where did He\nlike to go? Who did He like to hang out with? What kind of promises did He\nmake? Who was His mother? What was she like? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only way\nthat\u2019s going to happen is to get around other people who are in pursuit of the\ngreatest speaker, doctor, leader of all time. It\u2019s going to require us to go to\nplaces where other people are talking about this man. Its going to require that\nwe read books, articles, listen to podcasts, watch video clips. So we can learn\neverything we can about Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not saying\nfor one minute to turn yourself into a religious nut. Quite the opposite. I\u2019m a\nhuge sports fan. Huge fan of good music. I\u2019m simply saying that if I\u2019m going to\nsay He\u2019s someone I know, I better have done my homework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this\npoint, there are times when Jennifer gives me a look and I know what she\u2019s\nthinking. Just the other night she gave this look and I said, \u201cyou don\u2019t want\nto fix anything for dinner and would rather go somewhere, wouldn\u2019t you?\u201d She\njust smiled. I know what she\u2019s going to say, sometimes, before she says it.\nThat\u2019s because I\u2019ve learned her nature. I\u2019ve learned what she likes and\ndislikes. I know Jennifer Grainger!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone\nasks you about Jesus, what will be your response? Could you imagine someone\ncalling you their friend but every time you call, they never answer or reply to\na text? You\u2019d probably think they weren\u2019t a very good friend. And maybe they\nneed to stop calling you their friend. They\u2019re not a good friend at all. This\nis what I\u2019d think if I was Jesus. He\u2019s tried to reach out to us and we refuse\nto pursue a friendship with Him. We pretend to know Him in front of other\npeople because it\u2019s socially acceptable, but we really know nothing about Him.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going to\nchurch doesn\u2019t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes\nyou a car. But it\u2019s a good place to start learning about this man you claim to\nbelieve in. Just start. Move in a forward direction. Start now. Learn\neverything you can. It will literally change your life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay Classy\nGP!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grainger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m standing there with a group of friends and one says to another, \u201cdo you know Jim Smith?\u201d Chris answered yes. Mike then asked, \u201cwhere is he from?\u201d Chris didn\u2019t know. \u201cIs he married?\u201d Chris still didn\u2019t know. \u201cDoes he have kids?\u201d Again, Chris had no idea. Mike said, \u201cI guess you don\u2019t know him … <\/p>\n

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