For much of my life, I lived in a prophecy-saturated religious culture. I lived in constant apprehension and fear of an impending doomsday. I believed that “the end” could come at any time; I was convinced that we always lived in a window of a “few short years” from the events surrounding the second coming. I did not treasure the message of the Book of Revelation, I feared it. The specific “end-times” interpretation I was taught exercised enormous power over me and many others.
Decades later God’s grace completely changed my understanding of Revelation – from a book to be feared to a book to be treasured. God’s grace helped me to find the authentic message and unique Messenger of Revelation and in the process to discover what it has to say about the real agenda of God – and this agenda does not include performance-based religion.
I was not alone in my experiences. In his book "The Jesus I Never Knew", Philip Yancey shares his childhood experiences growing up in a church that sponsored annual prophecy conferences. Yancey relates that these conferences “revealed” that a ten nation European Common Market would fulfill the prophecy of the biblical beast with ten horns. “What sticks with me, though, is not so much the particulars of prophecy as their emotional effect on me. I grew up at once terrified and desperately hopeful,” Yancey says.
Today millions continue to be enslaved by “just-around-the-corner” interpretations of Revelation. Some live in fear within cultic groups where apocalyptic anxieties allow leaders to combine irresponsible prophecy teaching with authoritarian control, while others experience the rigors of prediction addiction (prophetic teaching that turns into a religious addiction) within churches that generally teach sound doctrine but corrupt and cheapen the gospel with unwholesome speculation. In either case Revelation is used by religion as a club to control and intimidate.
For many years my relationship with God was in large part dictated by what I was taught about the Book of Revelation. I was forever looking to future events and predicted dates that were misinterpretations drawn from Revelation. I was focused on a Jesus who would return, rather than the one who had already come and conquered on the Cross: the risen Lord, the head of the Church, who is always with His people corporately, and IN His people individually.
The power of God’s grace eventually dismantled my former understanding of Revelation. I came to see that Revelation was not about an out-of-control-beast I had to fear; rather it was all about the beauty of God’s amazing grace and the sovereign power of the Lamb.
I now see that such prophetic teaching is much like a drug, providing an incredible rush while also being the source of the depression and disillusionment that inevitably results from unrealized and unfulfilled expectations. By God’s grace, I came to see that the views I had cherished and believed amounted to a sleazy religious carnival where prophecy pundits and pushers sell their prophetic potions.
Along with its equally seductive cousin of religious legalism, prediction addiction had been the language of my life, the drum beat of my religious soul. It is an obsession, a compulsion to continually seek exhilarating “fulfillments of Bible prophecy” in current events of the day. In my experience, the bondage of legalism combined with an addiction to prediction gave meaning and order to my world while at the same time being the perfect one-two punch religion needed to control me. Legalism told me what I HAD to do in order to earn God’s love and the kingdom of heaven. Prophetic teaching assured me that people who did not do what I was convinced the Bible taught would experience the plagues of Revelation. And, on the other hand, if my works were acceptable to God, I would be saved from those plagues.
The two evil cousins of religious legalism and prediction addiction work hand in hand; where one flourishes the other cousin is surely to be found in the same general vicinity. They feed off of each other. They both lead to religious captivity and eventually control those who buy into their premises and beliefs.
For much of my life to age fifty (I am now seventy-four), I was in a never-ending race to be found faithful at the soon-coming second coming, and so my life on earth consisted of earning my own salvation by deeds. There was no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t “get right” I would “get left.” I accepted date-setting as a part of my life; failed predictions would all simply be re-issued by extending the goal line to some even more future and far off date.
Political and historical events and people, past and future, had the lead roles in the Revelation I once knew, with Jesus far from center stage. The Jesus of the Revelation of my past was a far-off, future Jesus, not one who had already conquered on His cross and who was already reigning in my life and in the lives of those who trusted in Him. Seeing Revelation through the eyes of grace, with a Christ-centered filter, revolutionized this amazing book for me. [To be continued.]
A number of years back, my youngest grandson came limping into the house with tears streaming down his cheeks. The palm of one grubby hand and the opposite knee were both scraped raw, obviously the result of some unfortunate meeting of flesh and concrete.
Grandma, the nurse, had gone to the store, so the nursing was up to me. The sobbing subsided somewhat as I soothed and comforted the hurt. But howls of protest went up anew when I suggested cleaning the wounds and putting on some medication. “No, Grandpa! No, no…wait.” When I insisted it had to be done, the immediate question was: “Will it hurt much?”
This was by no means the first experience of this nature, and each time I am both amazed and amused at the reaction. The hurt is already there, the pain is evident, yet there seems to be a fear that the treatment will not be worth the added hurt it may cause. We always try to explain that the washing may be unpleasant for a moment, and though the medication may sting just a little, it will be so much better afterward. It will help keep away infection which could cause a lot more pain, and the wound will heal more quickly. However, I have discovered that only time and experience will convince the fearful child that the cure is worth the hurt.
Then I look at my own life and wonder if I have ever really learned that truth, that the cure is worth the hurt. When there is an area in my life that has been scraped raw by some unfortunate meeting with the realities of life, am I ever afraid of the means by which healing could come? Have I ever pulled back from that word or deed which could cleanse and medicate my wounds because deep inside I was crying, “Will it hurt much?”
Perhaps this was part of the problem of the rich young man who came to Jesus seeking the means to eternal life. We know from the account that he was basically a “good” man; but there was a longing in his life for something more, something beyond. Jesus gave him the exact answer for him, one that was personally suited to his needs. But the young man was afraid that it would hurt too much. He went away sadly, still filled with the pain of dissatisfaction, not willing to risk the hurt of giving up what seemed precious to him.
There are times when we all have pulled away from God, fearing how much it was going to hurt. What more was I going to have to give up? What might God ask me to do, or suffer for Him? How much was it going to hurt to be a “growing Christian”? You can look around at others and see the festering, ugly sores that sin causes. The wound, to heal, must be cleansed, and the proper medication applied. But, oh, there is that dreadful fear that the cleansing and cure will be worse than the injury.
How shortsighted we are! How many times we cause ourselves even worse injury by pulling away from the one who would help us, breaking open the wound even more when we struggle against God’s cure. A physician or nurse is often required to take care of our physical wounds. But for our spiritual wounds, we Christians have the Great Healer living right inside of us – Jesus is our ultimate “Doctor”. He may use others around us to help clean the wound, but the ultimate healing power must come from Him.
Open wounds fall into four categories: abrasions, incisions, lacerations, and punctures. I believe that there are parallels with each in our Christian lives, and God treats each kind differently.
An abrasion occurs when the surface is scraped off and the area is left raw and bleeding. Most of us receive abrasions in our lives almost daily simply by coming in contact with the circumstances of life itself. These raw areas of life could include anything from the small scrape of a traffic jam on the way home from work to the large scrapes of severe financial problems or the seeming senseless injury of a loved one. The only way to avoid these scrapes of life would be to withdraw from life entirely. If I want to live life fully, I must be ready to accept these abrasions as part of the life God allots me, and be always ready to apply His healing balm. The special point that I must stay in awareness of is this: since I am a child of God through my living union with Christ, MY abrasions are HIS abrasions. Christ will apply the medication in love, with the least amount of hurt possible. “For we know that all things work together for GOOD to them that love God” (Romans 8:28). No spiritual festering or infection!
An incision is a cut, and it seems that the incisions of life come from the personal, one-to-one contacts that we have with people. It may be a cutting word or act that causes the incision, and if I do not immediately apply the medication of peace and forgiveness, the wound becomes quite sore and inflamed. Those who cause the incision may not even be aware of the injury they brought about, but it is so easy for me to disregard this fact as I nurse my wound of hurt feelings and injured pride - and cause even deeper sores to develop. No over-the-counter home remedy medicine works here. It must be the prescription medicine of Christ’s peace and forgiveness from within. When I see and accept my weakness of soul and flesh, I grow to that point where I have no human pride to hurt! Then the Healer from within can take over and I will not have to ask if His cure is going to hurt!
Sometimes even the tiniest wound can become painful - a little paper cut, or a tiny speck of dust in the eye. We sometimes allow the small, nearly insignificant cuts people have inflicted on us to become much more sore and painful than necessary - all because we neglect to trust Christ to dictate what we should do in dealing with those feelings. Quick medication - quick cure!
Lacerations are similar to incisions, but a laceration is a tear rather than a clean cut. Again, lacerations come from my relationships with people who are part of my life - but they are brought about intentionally and roughly, and the tear is more painful than a cut. Because the edges of such a wound are more ragged, healing takes place more slowly. Malicious gossip is a common source of spiritual laceration, but there are many other ways in which people can tear at us. Physical abuse, constant mental stress, unfaithfulness by a spouse, etc., all tend to rip at us and lacerate us. But the feeling of being overwhelmed by the injury should cause us to fall trustingly into the arms of our internal Physician, Jesus Christ. After the severe pain of a laceration, His cure cannot hurt much. Puncture wounds are those which are self-inflicted. It is difficult for me to admit that I am most often the cause of my own injury, but such things as stubbornness, moodiness, egotism, and self-pity will penetrate my life time and again, and cause puncture wounds which go deeper than they seem and are difficult to heal, if I am not continually watching.
One of the dangers of puncture wounds is that they do not bleed freely as other types of wounds do, and therefore there is no cleansing action by the body itself. This is true also of the puncture wounds in my life. When I allow weaknesses in my own character to penetrate and make holes in my life, I am somehow unable to bring about any self-cleansing for my wound. I must be willing to turn the treatment completely over to God. Without any reservations, I must let Him give me whatever I need to clean and medicate the wound while I grit my teeth against the pain. Does it hurt much? You bet it does! It hurts a great deal! But the hurt is insignificant when compared with the good that will result.
A deep hurt sometimes comes when God sends one of His human instruments to help me see the cause of my self-inflicted wound, so that I can avoid it in the future. Yes, I am learning to be thankful for this, too. It is all part of the little hurt to avoid the later giant hurt.
Let us set our resolve. The next time we suffer any kind of spiritual abrasion, incision, laceration, or puncture, we are going to face the cleansing and medicating process with determination. For we know that only good can result. God is trying to teach us how to refuse to be defeated by life’s pains, and we are determined to benefit from each experience so that when all is said and done and the last hurt has been healed, we will have a place in that new world where “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9)
Jesus Christ founded His universal church, available to all, offering a personal relationship with God. His church is based on relationship, not the rituals, rites, and regulations of religion. But many of the first Christians, coming out of the legalistic law of Moses, wanted to legalize Christ’s teachings, and almost 2,000 years later some who assume they are Jesus’ disciples continue marching to the drumbeat of legalism.
Some of the pagans and Greeks who heard of the newly formed Christian church wanted to turn it into a philosophy, and their efforts continue to this day.
The Romans determined to institutionalize the church, and today a party spirit of “we’re right and your wrong!” pervades Christendom with competing cries of exclusive truth claims echoing across the Christian world.
But one of the greatest insults and perversions of the body of Christ is less than 300 years old. When the gospel came to America, it met the forces of capitalism and free enterprise. Many citizens of these United States have done their best to turn the gospel of Jesus Christ into a business.
Today, in twenty-first century America, God is in the process of being repackaged and reinvented. We Americans don’t have time for theology, doctrine, expository preaching, or Bible study because our attention span is limited to snappy 30-second television commercials filled with special effects. We are used to brief television programs that present solutions for anything from crime and obesity to financial problems and sexual dysfunctions. We want our God presented, explained, and “served” to us in practical, easy to understand, bite-sized portions.
Courtesy of the American entrepreneurial spirit, God is now available in microwave version. We don’t need to wait for one hour while our spiritual food is prepared in the oven. Now it is 60 seconds in the microwave, and we have God where we want Him. Twenty-first century America has morphed God into bumper sticker messages and feeling based multi-sensory experiences.
Pursue truth? We Americans don’t want to critically examine issues; we want someone to prepackage and shrink wrap our thinking for us, so that there is little mental chewing involved in digesting the final product. What zeal we have for right and wrong often fades as complexities demand intellectual attention, and we find ourselves shifting our allegiance to whatever is quick and easy.
Many would rather read Christian fiction and Christian fantasy than Christian teaching from the Bible. Over a number of years now, one of the germinative contributions to Christian fiction literature from the blockbuster “Left Behind” series has been the merging of Christian fact and fiction. Many readers are either unable to discern the difference or simply don’t care. Is it any wonder that the Book of Revelation has come to be warped and twisted into a disaster movie?
Pursue truth? In our culture of fast spiritual food, many critically important themes of the Book of Revelation have been diminished and devalued in a rush to over-literalize its message and force political overtones and personalities into the text. Topics of eternal significance are continuously stressed in the Book of Revelation, such as God’s grace and God’s judgment against religious and political oppression and evil. The triumphal rule of Jesus and His eventual victory over all religious imposters, who create a Babylon of religious confusion in our world, are pushed aside by attempts to impose human time concepts on this timeless message.
Pursue truth? We want Jesus to come now, in our generation! And there are plenty of prophecy teachers who are quick to realize a financial profit by giving people what the want. As a result, a true Christ-centered focus is at best blurred and, beyond that, sometimes lost in the fog and smoke of sensational, lurid distortions of its message.
Pursue truth? Entertain me and make me feel good. If the truth happens to accompany feel-good entertainment, that’s great. If not, it may be too much trouble for us to pursue truth from the friendly confines of our couch or recliner. Given our cultural reality, the Book of Revelation is not an easy read, and as a result, it is often distorted and “dumbed down.”
Pursue truth? Now we have the “DaVinci Code” – a fictionalized version of the life of Jesus in the books of the Gospel. First Revelation distorted, and now Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Business rears its ugly head again and, presto, the writer, publisher, movie producer, and Tom Hanks make lots of money.
Yes, when the gospel came to America, it surely did meet the forces of free enterprise and capitalism. And many Christians and non-Christians have capitalized on it.
I don’t care how our culture has left you short on time. Prioritize what is really important in the big picture – your spiritual life and your personal relationship with your Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
To be sure, a person could ignore the celebration of our Lord’s death and resurrection. Each springtime, millions of people do it, just as each year millions of Christians ignore the celebrations held by Islamists, Buddhists or by Hindus. But the fact of Jesus Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection no one can safely ignore.
Jesus Christ is a real person established by history. The Communists taught their children that Jesus Christ never existed, that He was a myth invented by religious dictators in order to seduce and control people. But even the most liberal scholarship has not been able to erase Jesus Christ from history. More books have been written about Jesus Christ and His teachings than about any other subject. To ignore this fact is to close your mind to a whole area of truth that is just as valid as the latest space achievement or the newest discovery in medicine.
The person who ignores Jesus Christ can never really understand human culture. Take a walk through any large art museum and carefully note all of the masterpieces that in some way involve Jesus Christ. You will be amazed at their number.
Or, for that matter, consider the world of music. The great classical composers wrote much religious music that centered on either the person or the work of Jesus Christ. The man or woman who refuses to consider Christ is really refusing to enjoy and understand huge areas of human culture, and this is a tragedy.
The person who chooses to ignore Jesus Christ is actually fooling himself; because Christ came as man to show us WHAT GOD DESIGNED US TO BE. He came as a man THAT HE MIGHT DIE, BE RESURRECTED, AND COME TO LIVE IN PEOPLE IN ORDER TO EMPOWER US TO BE WHAT GOD DESIGNED US TO BE.
The unbeliever who ignores Jesus Christ leaves out of his life the only source of power to save him from sin and then enable him to live a fulfilling life to the glory of God. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
In other words, the people who choose to ignore the remembrance of the events of Easter week are really practicing deception on themselves. They want all the good things of “Christian culture”, but they do not want the Source of these good things. They have no problem enjoying a magnificent painting or a beautiful concert, but they will not acknowledge that Jesus Christ is important enough to know personally, to trust, and to follow.
Why is it that these educated and seemingly intelligent people will practice this deception? Why will they accept the “Christ of culture” but not the Christ of history, the Christ of Calvary?
To begin with, there is an inborn bias in the human spirit that simply does not want God. “All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isa. 53:6). Even the most brilliant scholar is born a lost sinner and has no innate desire to know God or to obey Him.
Evangelist Billy Sunday used to say that sinners cannot find God for the same reason criminals cannot find policemen: They aren‘t looking!
The person who ignores the life, death and resurrection of Christ does so at the peril of his own life. Christianity is an exclusive religion: “Neither is there salvation in any other,” said Peter, “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts. 4:12). Our modern pluralistic society hates this kind of exclusive message, and tells Christians they are narrow and arrogant, and argues that every religion is good if only the follower is sincere. People forget that it‘s possible to be sincerely wrong. It seems that the wise of the world will often not put a premium on the truth of God. They know too much.
We need not defend everything that goes on in the celebration of this Easter event, because not everything is motivated by a love for Christ or by faith in His message. But the fact of Christ‘s suffering, death and resurrection cannot be ignored. The man or woman who willfully ignores this momentous event in history is making it clear that he or she has no intentions of being honest. These people - educated or uneducated - are deliberately blocking out of their thinking a whole area of truth that simply must not be ignored. If any scientist adopted that same approach in his laboratory experiments, he would be drummed out of the ranks as deceitful and dishonest.
I am not saying that a person must celebrate Easter the way various people do - chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs and Easter clothes, etc. That is not important. What is important is that no person can afford to ignore the Christ of history, the Son of God, whose life, suffering, death and resurrection is celebrated at Easter. Jesus said, “For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).
Advising people to pay no attention to Easter is like telling a dying man to ignore the doctor, or a hungry man to ignore food on the table, or a wandering man to ignore the ranger who came to lead him to safety.
Through the turmoil of the world’s activities, every person must come to the reality of Easter. Christ’s punishment took the place of the punishment I deserved and “...by His stripes, you are healed.” If I accept Christ as my Lord and Savior, then I accept the fact that the whole human race died right up there on Calvary with Him. And also, when I accept Christ, I am resurrected out of the tomb to new life in union with Him.
Yes, God invaded our planet – this is a fact of history. And after the events of Easter week, GOD, IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST, INVADED HUMAN BEINGS TO LIVE IN THEM, TO LIVE THROUGH THEM, AND TO LIVE AS THEM.
This is a fact of faith. NOBODY CAN SAFELY IGNORE IT!
What a dumb question that seems to be! Everyone knows that is Jesus Christ hanging there. The millions of crucifixes that have ever been made portray Jesus the Christ dying for our sins.
But is that really WHO is up there on that Cross? The Bible says that there is much more to the Cross than that.
As we enter the Good-Friday/Easter-Sunday Season - death and resurrection - we need to look deeper than and beyond the usual concepts concerning Jesus on His Cross.
"I am crucified with Christ…" Paul said in Galatians 2:20. Paul said that he died right up there with Christ on the Cross. And, believe it or not, he was speaking for the whole human race. Every single human being that has ever existed or will ever exist had their sins paid for by dying with Christ on the Cross. Yes, every person born since Adam to now, and every person to be born in the future IS UP THERE WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS!
What an ominous moment when Jesus dropped a dead head onto dead shoulders and cried out, "It is finished!" Everything that had to do with redemption was finished in those words. From then on, everything that happened was proof of that finished work.
What is the resurrection? It is proof of the finished work! If Jesus Christ had died and not come back to life we would not have the assurance of our salvation. We would never know for sure if we were saved. Christianity is the only religion that has a resurrected Savior. Most religions talk about their dead progenitors who died thousands of years ago. Christianity says that Christ died and came back to life and is now alive inside every one of God's sons. No other religion makes such a statement. His resurrection is a proof of the finished work of Calvary.
Every human being was up there on the Cross with Jesus involved in the finished work of Calvary. This is what the Father wants every person to understand and believe. The redemptive act is done – complete. The sin of all humanity died in His body, and that includes you and I and everyone. The issue is not whether our sin has been taken care of. The real issue is whether we BELIEVE that it was our sin in the cup of death. Do we believe that we were in that cup? Do we believe that God put us into that sinless body and our sin became His sin and finally killed Him – and every human being died spiritually to their sinful nature right there with Him?
Well then, why is there still a people with a sinful nature still present in the world? The key is BELIEF. A person must CHOOSE to believe in Christ as Savior and Lord before their death with Jesus on the Cross becomes applicable to them individually.
In our material world, we think of things happening in sequence – this happens, then that happens, then something else follows. But God, in His timeless dimension doesn't see it that way. The Bible says that Christ died "before the foundation of the world." In other words, Jesus died before He ever was born as a human being. Mind-boggling! Incomprehensible to our limited minds! But true in God's dimension.
The same is true of every human being. You and I died right up there on the Cross with Jesus before we were ever born from our mother's womb. We died to our sinful nature before we entered this world and took our first breath.
“God showed His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Yes, and even before we were even born as sinners, Christ died for us before the foundation of the world.
IF WE HAVE NEVER TAKEN A TRIP TO CALVARY AND SEEN OUR DEATH UP THERE WITH HIM, WE WILL HAVE A PROBLEM WITH OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE.
If we say this or that negative thing about ourselves, and say that is just the way I am, watch out, it shows we have never been to Calvary. That sinful man, the way that we think we are, DIED! And everything about us that was wrong was in that cup and died in that body (Romans 6:3).
What we have to see is that it is you and I hanging on that Cross, it is not Jesus Christ for He did nothing wrong to be put there. We say He paid the price for us, but that is only half of it. He paid the price AS us. Christ BECAME us in our sins in order that we might BECOME Christ in His righteousness.
Now if we do not see that, we will have a problem with our living, for no longer can we do our own thing as an independent self.
Out of our death on the Cross comes life. "Unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies it brings forth much fruit" (John 12:24). The deader we see ourselves on the Cross, the more life we are going to have. The strongest spiritual law in God is that life comes out of death. If we say that we just cannot get over this little sin, what we are telling everyone is that we have not seen HOW DEAD WE ARE. We are dead to that sin.
Next time we see a crucifix of Christ hanging on the Cross, let us get it fixed in our mind that it is really us! That is how we came to the end of the self that was in rebellion to God and came to the end of our sin nature.
When we say that we can do all things, it is not based on the fact that we have great faith and we can get it done. No! We have died as dead as that Lamb hanging on that Cross. No more blood to flow, no more jerking movement, just a dead head onto dead shoulders. That is how dead we are to sin. It is only from the fact that we have died and been reborn into a living union with Christ that we have a salvation in God.
We have risen with Him after His death AND our death and are now joined eternally in a living union with Christ as children in the Family of the Father.
I have worn glasses since my college days. And when I first started wearing glasses, I noticed every speck of dust on them. As I recall, I even saw specks of dust that weren’t there. I blew on them; I wiped them; I cleaned them; I washed them. Of course, while I was cleaning them and had my attention focused on them, I was not able to see what was really going on around me. Can there be a spiritual application in this?
For many years now, I have almost never seen any dust on my glasses. I have learned to look through them - to see what I want to see beyond the lenses. My glasses are an aid, more than that, they are essential to my being able to see everything better! Periodically, I blow on my glasses, wipe them off, but I am not preoccupied with them. They are one of God’s provisions to help me to see the light that is reflected off everything that is around me.
How many times have we read “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12) and longed to be delivered into this “then face to face” thing?
Deliverance FROM what? We weren’t exactly sure but it sounded like it would be marvelous when it takes place “in the sweet by and by”, whenever that would be.
And delivered TO what? If things seemed dark, then we hoped we would be delivered into that glorious light.
We were quite confident that whatever that deliverance would be, it would be heavenly. We have trusted the Father that everything would be perfect - eventually.
Ah, but getting back to daily life, we generally are concerned with the here and now and expect that the by and by will take care of itself. What do we find in the here and now? Temptations, aggravations, weariness, circumstances and situations, along with what we consider to be “good” things.
COULD ALL OF THESE THINGS THAT OUR TEMPORAL LIFE CONSISTS OF ACTUALLY BE OUR “GLASS” THAT APPEARS DARK? Has the Father allowed these things to be our lot for a purpose? Do they have anything to do with bringing us to Christ or to a clearer VISION of who and what Christ is, and therefore since Christ lives in us, to who and what we are?
What do we think about minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day? “For as he thinks in his heart, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7). Am “I” really the sum total of what I think? No. Is that who “I” am? No. What we think is often the major contributor to our concept of who we are. But is that “you”? Is that “I”? Not at all. When you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been born again with Christ and His holy nature living within you. Then these worldly things cannot possibly be “you”! Soulish-self, perhaps, but not “you”!
The way we see events is our “glass darkly”. It is not what happens to us; it is the way we perceive the events. We wonder if they are “good” or “evil”, did Satan do them to us, or was it that other person who wronged us? How about our response to these happenings? Will we gladly accept them (I did not say “like” them, but “accept” them) as allowed for overall good as Job did?
What happens when you are in the dark for a long time and are suddenly exposed to much light all at once? Are you not dazed and blinded? Is it not better to get slowly accustomed to the light gradually?
What are we growing to see? Are we getting a clearer vision of Christ in all things? Or, on the other hand, are we looking at the person who aggravates us, the faucet that keeps leaking, the difficult economy, the frustrating work environment, and on and on?
What is our “glass”? What do we see? Perhaps the real question is: Are we looking AT the glass or THROUGH it? To see Christ we need clear vision.
There is another example of learning to look through something and not focusing on it but rather seeing beyond it. A decade or so ago, computers created for us what are called “3D Magic Eye” pictures. When we examine the details of the flat picture, it just looks weird - a bunch of repeated images that do not make sense. But when we learn to focus our eyes beyond the level of the picture surface itself, a wonderful three-dimensional picture appears almost magically. It is like the picture surface is a glass through which we are looking into a box with multiple depth images. But if our attention wanders back to the picture surface itself, we immediately lose our depth perception. We become lost in the image detail again and lose the glory of what can be seen beyond.
So what is our “glass darkly”? Some examples are: sin (ours and others), the world, the flesh and the devil. But Christ has conquered all of these! WE DON’T HAVE TO CONQUER THEM! Christ is the conqueror, and He lives within us. He is our life.
For example, our sin as Christians. Sin is serious - it can seriously cloud our vision. It is a missing of the mark of God’s standard for our human existence. But it is not fatal in a Christian. We quickly wipe the lenses without becoming preoccupied with guilt, and proceed to view beyond to God’s panorama for our life.
What about conflict with other Christians? We must look beyond our smeared glasses and must see in the Christian the same one life that we have. It is the same one life that Christ IS. It is the only life. How can we love God whom we have not seen? By loving the Christ in our Christian brothers and sisters whom we do see (I John 4:20-21).
What about unconverted people of the world? Can we see Christ in them? Of course not, there is no Christ to see. We cannot see Christ in them, but we CAN see God dealing with them in such a way as to bring them to salvation and life in Christ. The lenses may be pretty mud spattered, but we can still see beyond to God’s purposes. We can “hate the sin” by cleaning the lenses with the lens tissue of God’s love and seeing to the future accomplishment of the grace of God’s salvation.
Always, whether with people, circumstances, or whatever, our necessity is to see through them to Christ. With singleness of eye, we only see Christ. When we no longer have anything to do with seeing the “glass”, then we will see Christ — FACE TO FACE!
