I used to know someone who would talk up Jesus all the time. She would boast about her “close walk with the Lord” go into great detail about “the visions Jesus gave her,” and freely and confidently give “God advice” to everyone else. Problem was, her Jesus and my Jesus didn’t always see eye to eye. Being a relatively new believer back then, devouring my Bible to know Jesus better, I just didn’t understand how this could be, especially coming from a person I considered a mature Christian. Truth be told, Her Jesus was a lot nicer than my Jesus. Not more loving because God disciplines those He loves (Proverbs 3:12, Hebrews 12:6), but much more tolerant of sin: her’s, mine, and ours. The whole human race’s bad behavior. I really liked her Jesus, but he wasn’t entirely biblical and her cheap grace really bothered me. There’s nothing cheap about crucifixion. It’s a bloody mess, and Jesus endured it, which cost his life for sin.  
I realize Jesus and Lake Tahoe aren’t really comparable, but hang with me for a moment while I make a go at something here.
This past weekend Scott and I went to Tahoe for the night. We arrived at the lake near sunset. Pulled up to a picturesque beach where three, sand-covered females greeted us in the parking lot. A youthful-looking mother, who probably wasn’t all that youthful, and two young daughters. The girls strolled barefoot in shorts, the mother, sporting shorts too, the expensive hiking kind, carried the kids’ sandals and an armload of sand castle supplies.
“You’re locals,” I said to the little girls knowing by the look of them they lived in Tahoe, while I stood there from the valley wearing wool-lined, knee-high boots in sixty degree weather. “Can you tell me a good place to eat? Some place you like to dine that doesn’t cost too much.” I made eye contact with the mother, her tanned, crow’s feet framing smiling eyes, classy ponytail, and REI North face sweatshirt reminding me of my college days when I lived, worked, and went to school in nearby Reno. Lake Tahoe people always stood out to me there. They’d come down squinting from that amazingly blue lake to shop in Reno. Usually, like this Tahoe mother, I could spot them a mile away.
This Tahoe mom said to try Jason’s by the lake, a fireside grill with a patio. After thanking her, Scott and I walked toward the water while she and her girls headed to their vehicle.
Never have I seen Lake Tahoe the way it was this autumn weekend with beaches stretched out empty, the little girls’ sandcastle endeavor the only evidence of humans existing here. I must admit, I liked this wide open Tahoe much better than summer or winter when all the tourists gather. But with or without people, Lake Tahoe is and will always be Lake Tahoe no matter how I view it, or how it appears to someone else, a local who lives at Tahoe all the time, or someone a world away who’s never laid eyes on this magnificent lake. Just because a person has never seen Tahoe doesn’t mean the lake isn’t there. She’s there in all her glory. And Jesus is there in all His glory, too. A far more magnificent glory than Tahoe.
I’m always confounded when someone says, “Well, I just can’t accept the Jesus of the Bible. Here is a Jesus I can accept.” Then they go on to explain their Jesus, like my friend years ago always talking about her Jesus. A Jesus that for the life of me, I couldn’t line up with the Bible’s Jesus. It’s no wonder this sweet friend eventually came undone. She created a sand castle Jesus. To me, she might as well have been making up her own Lake Tahoe.
Can you imagine if we all just made up our own Lake Tahoe because the real Lake Tahoe didn’t work for us?
The Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” Hebrews 13:8. If you want to know the real Jesus, don’t listen to others. Even church people often get Jesus wrong. Read the Bible for yourself.