He is alive. He is real. He is a person.

A beautiful blog from Francis Sizer (and promoting his book on the topic). Here is an excerpt:

"I only knew about Jesus—I didn’t know Him personally... I knew I loved God and believed in a God who loved me, but I never experienced His love in the same way a person loves another... when someone encounters a person directly, they realize the truth about love in a different way. It becomes a whole different kind of reality...

To know unconditional, consuming love is something that burns in a person’s heart and is engraved upon the person’s soul. It is an undeniable experience and an unforgettable memory indelibly marked in one’s consciousness. This is what it means to be in love. The moment of personal encounter is what a relationship with Jesus is all about. To really know Jesus is not to fall in love with the ideal about Him, but to actually fall in love with Him as a real person I have met. To fall in love with Jesus is not to fall in love with His teachings and then to follow them as a blueprint. It is to fall in love with Him personally, and then out of that love to follow His teachings."