Clear Vision

Finally, The Lovely Joanne and I have un-decorated our Christmas tree, put all the symbols of Christ and the Christian life (light, fruits of the spirit, praise, thanksgiving, proclamation, etc) back in their boxes and taken the tree out to be mulched. 

I noticed something interesting as we took all the ornaments and lights off.  We own 'sets' of various ornaments: several angels, four flame-shaped glass ones, and so forth, so we wanted to box them up together again.  But looking for the fourth snowflake or the last angel became a chore, as one individual piece was hard to find in the midst of the strings of lights and other ornaments.  So we had to un-clutter our view of the tree by unwinding the lights and the gold ribbon from it, so that the missing piece would become obvious.

As you might guess, there's a spiritual lesson from all this.  Christian life is wonderful but we can complicate it with too much activity--even serving--and miss the point of following Jesus.  In Hebrews 12:2 we're reminded that to succeed in the Christian life, we need to be "keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."  When my appointment book or to-do list gets too cluttered, I can lose sight of just following Jesus.  Then I tend to fall back on my own energy and wisdom--which, trust me, ain't enough.  Peter found this out when he was walking on water in Mt 14:24-33.  When he took his eyes off Jesus (he "saw the wind and the waves" -- what was he doing looking at them?) he fell into the lake.

'Keeping our eyes on Jesus' might require un-cluttering our lives by fasting from food or some favorite distraction like watching football games, even during the playoffs.   It might require taking our burdens of guilt, anger, and unforgiveness and loading them on Jesus instead of trying to haul them around ourselves.  Or it might mean completely trusting Him instead of our own performance, law-keeping or some other form of self-righteousness, which we humans tend to fall back into regularly.

The exercise of looking once more to Jesus and Him alone for our salvation--our acceptance into the love of God--would be a good thing to do at the beginning of 2011.  The exercise of looking to Him for direction at every point in the day instead of following our human motivations, helps us focus on finding following His will.  You might have to unwind some of the 'stuff' that's become wound around your life, in order to see Him clearly, just like I unwound a bunch of stuff from the tree to see those last few ornaments.  But the vision of Jesus, a clearer understanding the glory He has called us into, will take your breath away.  Aren't quite sure what I mean by that?  I'll see if I can describe it for you next time.

Face to Face

The Lovely Joanne and I talk by phone during her business trips, as a way to stay connected.  What's better is when she can call me on her computer and we can see each others' faces.  We can read the emotions in the facial expressions, not just hear the words, and that's a far greater connection. 

Wouldn't it be nice to have a direct, face-to-face connection with God?  Adam and Eve got to talk with God in the garden of Eden.  Abraham spoke with God in person (Gen. 18) but that seems to have been a rare thing even for Abraham.  Moses was said to talk face to face with God in Ex. 33:7-11, but ancient Israel as a whole never saw God's face or heard his voice.  Who said that?  Jesus himself, in John 5:37:  "And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face."  


Let's look at those words in context, in John 5.  Jesus heals a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, where people who were "blind, lame and paralyzed" waited for an occasional miraculous healing.  The Pharisees, keepers of all things righteous, objected to Jesus 'breaking' the Sabbath day.  Jesus begins to explain how they don't see what is right in front of them -- explaining that he is the Son of God, so clearly that they are ready to kill him (verses 16-18).  He says that he does only what he "sees his Father doing" and his Father "love the Son and shows him everything he is doing" (19-20).  Jesus says that "those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life" (24). 


Again, he talks about his relationship with the Father, and the authority he carries, in 36-38:  "But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you."  To cap that off, he tells them that they are refusing to see what the Father has been showing them in the scriptures: "You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life" (39-40).  


Jesus met people who were blind, lame and paralyzed at the pool.  For some reason, we only read about one whom he healed, although there could have been others, because John has a specific reason for bringing this story to us.  What is it?  That these Pharisees were spiritually blind, lame and paralyzed by their refusal to believe.  (Watch the number of times Jesus refers to seeing and hearing in this passage.)  Most of all, he points to himself as the one true Messenger from the Father.  Jesus came to show us the Father (John 14:9) so that we would no longer be blind, lame or paralyzed spiritually; and so we would see the Father through him, face to face.  


Want to see God face to face, to know him intimately?  Look at Jesus.  More on that next time.