Chris Howlett

Jesus Wants to be Your Personal King

In some circles it’s not popular to talk about Jesus as your personal Savior, or having a personal relationship with Jesus. Detractors claim that the words “personal Savior” or “personal relationship with Jesus” don’t occur in the Bible. True. However, Jesus is a person and he invites us into relationship with himself, that’s what the new covenant in his blood is all about(Lk. 22:20). So, what he’s offering is a personal relationship because it is a relationship between persons. I don’t have a problem using this language that’s been part of the evangelical world for a long time.

I do, however, understand that the objection to the idea of a “personal Savior” is the hyper-individualism that exists in the Church today, the “me and Jesus” mentality that excludes loving our neighbor as ourselves as long. As we have our ticket to heaven we’re good to go. This is a pervasive problem resulting from our primary identity as consumers rather than children of God.

It's certainly a legitimate objection, but dropping personal relationship language is not the answer. Instead, we need to add something to our language: Jesus as Personal King.

In Advent we talk about Jesus returning as the Messiah who will be King of the World, fulfilling the hope of Israel as outlined in Psalm 2. But that’s in the future and that’s Jesus’ world-wide reign. It needs to be more personal. Jesus not only wants to be my personal Savior, he also wants to be my personal King. He wants me to voluntarily submit to his loving leadership so I can serve the purposes of his already/not-yet Kingdom. The Kingdom that is already inaugurated in his life, death, and resurrection and will be completely fulfilled at his Second Coming.

Jesus desires a personal relationship so he can be Savior and Lord, Forgiver and Leader, Redeemer and King. He wants to guide my steps and empower me to join him in his mission to rescue my friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members, and the whole world. He’s my personal Savior and my personal King. He saved me and he is sanctifying me. He’s calling me to follow him in his lifestyle which is spelled out in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (ESV).

When Jesus is my King, then my life is no longer about me, it’s about him and his Kingdom purpose. My focus turns outward to see how I can serve others and help them experience the love of the one true God and see their lives changed for eternity. My relationship with Jesus is personal, but it’s not private because he is my leader and my leader is all about rescuing the whole world.

So, how about you? Is Jesus your Personal Savior AND Personal King. Or, are you still trying to be king?

A Virtuous Life is a Happy Life

I’m struck by how many people arrive at mid-life and discover what they thought would make them happy has utterly failed. They pursued the American Dream only to find that it turned, not into a nightmare (at least that would be interesting), but into a ho-hum, boring, uninspired existence. So, they do the typical midlife crisis sort of things, trying to prove their lives have some meaning, purpose, or impact. They engage in extra-marital affairs, buy sports cars, switch careers, undergo plastic surgery, go skydiving, etc. (The list goes on and on). 

The problem with all these is that none of them have the potential to produce lasting change in a person’s sense of well-being, or happiness. We all pursue happiness, often forgetting that merely engaging in the pursuit doesn’t guarantee the desired result.

What does produce lasting happiness? Well, there are several things, but I want to focus on one of them: leading a virtuous life.

Yes, a Virtuous Life

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines virtue as “a behavior showing high moral standards.” How boring is that? First, it’s totally focused on behavior, though it does mention standards. Of course, what would be a high moral standard? Who gets to set the standard? Who decides what’s moral?

I think virtue has to do with character and the attitudes and behaviors that flow from that character. A happy life, a life of lasting meaning and satisfaction, is a life of character. Jesus says “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the hart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45 ESV). The heart that is virtuous produces virtue. The heart that lacks virtue produces evil and evil is in the life-destroying business.

What are the Virtues?

The classical virtues are prudence, justice, temperance, and courage. However, Christians were never really satisfied with this list, so they look to Scripture and found what has been labeled the “Theological Virtues.” These are: Faith, Hope, and Love. But, perhaps there are more. The Fruit of the Spirit seems to be quite a good list of virtues: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, and Self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). From all of this and from other sources I have developed my own list of Twelve Virtues that seem to combine other lists into a comprehensive whole:

The Twelve Virtues: Love, Faith, Hope, Wisdom, Justice, Self-Control, Courage, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, and Goodness. In a future post and book, I will explain these in greater detail. For now, they are relatively self-explanatory.

Pursue Virtues and Experience Happiness

Pursuing and cultivating the virtues has a kind of instant and long term payoff. Not only will you be aligning yourself with true north principles, but you will be producing the kind of life that you truly desire, a life of wholeness, impact, and the joy of leaving a lasting, positive legacy in the lives of others. Want to produce and enhance positive emotions in yourself and others? Love yourself and others. Cultivate faith in something or someone bigger than yourself (try the Creator God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). Develop a hopeful, optimistic outlook. Work on gaining perspective and wisdom and offer it to others. Live in a way that promotes a just world. Enhance your self-control, minimizing emotion-driven and impulsive behavior. Act courageously even when it’s not popular. Revel in the joy of living, even during challenging times. Pursue a peaceful demeanor. Practice patience. Be kind. Live a good life (a morally upright life). These virtues and the choices, attitudes, and behaviors they embody will go a long way to enhancing the experience of happiness that you desire and will promote happiness and wholeness in others.

Like I said earlier, there is much more on this to follow, how to cultivate the individual virtues, how all of this flows out of our true identity, and how a life of virtue is a happy and fulfilling life worth living.