The Greatness of Knowing Christ

My prayer for you today, dear friends, is that you would come to know Christ more intimately. I pray that He would reveal himself to you in a way that you can really sense His presence near you. I pray that He will cause you to hunger and thirst for Him first and foremost in your life. For He is more vital to you than even your bread and water.
In Philippians Paul talks about how he is a highly qualified Jew. He says that if anyone has a reason to boast, it's him because of all that he had attained from being a Pharisee. Then in chapter 3 verse 7 he says:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

He says that he counts everything as "dung" (in the King James version it says dung) compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ! Wow! Knowing Christ must be something really wonderful.
You know, there are so many people around the world who love Christ with such a passion that they are willing to sacrifice their lives, their comfort, even their friends and families for Him. Why would people do that? Because, there is NOTHING in this world that compares to the love of Jesus. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
I like the story of the little boy left in a room with a heater. His dad tells him not to touch it. When the dad walks out of the room, he touches the heater, it singes his fingers. Now he has "experienced" the heater. So later, when a fireman comes and tells him that the heater is not really hot, it is safe to touch, the little boy cannot be convinced. Because now he has experienced the heater. This is what true fellowship with Jesus Christ is like. Once you have experienced it, no one can tell you that it is not real!