It’s Who You Know

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading, titled It's Who You Know, was written by Dave Brannan. In early 2019, Charlie VanderMeer died at the age of 84. For many decades, he was known to thousands and thousands of people as Uncle Charlie, the host of the national radio broadcast Children's Bible Hour. The day before Uncle Charlie slipped into eternity, he told a good friend, It's not what you know, it's who you know. Of course, I'm talking about Jesus Christ. Even as he faced the end of his life, Uncle Charlie couldn't help but talk about Jesus and the necessity for people to receive him as their Savior. The Apostle Paul considered knowing Jesus his most important task, writing in Philippians chapter 3, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him. And how do we know Jesus? Romans 10 9 says, If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. We may know facts about Jesus, we may know all about the church, and we may even be familiar with the Bible. But the only way to know Jesus as Savior is to accept his free gift of salvation.

He's the who we need to know. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 11. But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for the gift of Jesus and the sacrifice he made on the cross for our sin that we could live in forgiveness, freedom, and relationship with you. We pray for all who still haven't come to know Jesus. May they allow us to share what you've done for us and believe. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.