Welcome to this new week on Things Unseen.

And if you've just recently discovered our weekday podcast community, you're very

welcome indeed to join us.

We never actually meet in person as far as we know, but I hope we all feel part of a

little worldwide community, and we're glad you've joined us.

The longer I've gone on in the Christian life, the question has become more and more

important to me as this.

What was and is, Jesus really like?

Perhaps you know the pop song, Personal Jesus, which was written and recorded by the band

Depeche Mode I think sometime in the late 1980s.

I first heard it in the Johnny Cash version, and maybe Johnny Cash thought the song had

a Christian meaning, the way people speak of Jesus as their personal Savior.

But I think it's actually about how one other person can be a Jesus-like figure to another.

Someone to hear your prayers and to be there for you.

That's who your own personal Jesus is, not actually the Jesus of the Christian faith.

Yet, over the years, I've come to notice that sometimes Christians do make up their

own personal Jesus.

They say things like, the way I like to think about Jesus is, and I hope when they say that,

they maybe start later on to realize that's a muddleheaded way of thinking about the Lord Jesus.

How I like to think about Jesus is irrelevant.

What's important and relevant is what Jesus is actually like.

Or to put that differently, I'm not the one who decides what Jesus is like.

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