Pastor's Points - Jesus Friend and Redeemer

I was reading the Philly Inquirer the other day and came across a book review of a book entitled Jesus in America - A History.  Obviously it caught my attention.  It talks about how American's have perceived Jesus through the years.  The reviewer, Ed Voves, spends a great deal of time referring to Ralph Waldo Emerson view of Jesus.  I want to quote the last two paragraphs of the review. 
 
Emerson had categorized evangelical piety and religious rituals as "superstitious mouth honor" of God.  Yet an intellectualized approach to the nature of Jesus had no chance of winning the support of America's multitudes, challenged as they were by the Great Depression, two world wars, the nuclear threat, and polarizing social issues, seeming without number.  There are not atheists in foxholes, as the wartime saying goes, and the consolation of philosophy pales beside the cherished conviction of millions who hold Jesus as their intimate friend and redeemer. 
 

Pastor's Point - 

1 Cor 1:17-25  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."  Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

The review continues:
The personal relationship of Christian with Christ is the unifying theme of this thoughtful, engaging book.  Proceeding from his own religious experience, Fox traces the course of Christian America's religious pilgrimage in vivid detail.  It is a journey still in progress, with Jesus continuing to be the inspiration and guide for the devout of all denominations, "the God-man they cherished...a being of awesome variety, one who in his unanswerable power condescend to take humanity's weakness on himself."  
  
I am glad Jesus is more than a abstract philosophical idea.  He is my intimate friend and redeemer.