H2O college ministries

Perspective.  If there is any on thing Jesus tried to show us, it was to “see” the truth.  So much is wrapped up in that word, “see”.  In fact seeing Jesus is seeing the exact representation of God the Father (hebrews 1:3).  Jesus taught us about seeing the Kingdom of God at hand; in fact he stated that the Kingdom of God is within us.  What?  It is a perspective shift, or even better stated, a new paradigm.  Time and time again we read the urgency in Scripture to “consider”, or to “fix your eyes…” or “fix your thoughts…” and so on.  The apostle Paul taught us about a worldly and a spiritual point of view (2 Cor. 5:14-16).  He also taught us that believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior means that we are a new creation!  Talk about getting a new perspective (or life…)!

We are worldly.  Then we are spiritual.  We are sinners, but, somehow are now holy (after salvation).  We are to commune with God, but we love ourselves too much.  We want to commune with God (or are we deceiving ourselves?), but we do nothing about it.  We want God, but we want this and that.  We pray and explain to God how tired we are that there is still a distance between you and Him.  You further explain that you are trying “all” that you can in order to change this or that or to get rid of this or that.  Then somewhere in this chaos Jesus speaks and says, “PEACE BE STILL!”

When we are spiritually born we have a longing for God.  There is an internal move (or dance) to want God (words are inadequate to explain this phenomenon).  So we get inot spiritual disciplines because initially we want to please God and to know Him more intimately, but over time they turn into a conditioned experience.  We do them because they will achieve a result.  The typical results that we look for are intimacy with God, holiness or righteousnesss, passion, and spiritual fruit (Gal. 5).  Then the inevitable happens, disciplines, or simply ‘being’ a Christian, turns into a duty and disappointment.  What happened?  We lost perspective.  We just simply want to shrink the distance between us and God.  That is all we truly want (I hope, I must hope).

Rub your eyes.  Get the sleep out of them because I am going to try to point you in the right direction.  Jesus is often described as an author.  Author implies He has complete control of his created beings.  He starts the story and finishes the story.  He creates the scenes, plot, and outcomes.  Jesus is attributed with authoring our salvation, holiness, and faith (heb. 2:10-11; 12:2).  I must quote 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith…”  He initiated our story of Salvation.  You, in fact, have very little to do with your coming to Salvation.  Jesus pursued you, He called you, He opened your eyes, He saved you, and you acted upon it.  He created a new being in you and sanctified you.  You try your best to be righteous in a worldly view because you are already righteous in the spiritual view because of Him.  But Jesus is the one who even develops your character in making those righteous decisions and perfecting you into His likeness (Phil. 1:3-6) and He is faithful in completing it.  There is a peace that overwhelms me when I understand this (isn’t that called grace?).

Perspective.  What am I trying to say?  If Jesus is the author and perfector of our salvation, holiness and faith, then He is in the process of “shrinking” that distance between us and Him.  If He started a work in you, which He will finish, means He already is in the process of “shrinking” that distance.  Your role is simple, but complex.  Fix your eyes on Jesus, always.  In all things, fix your eyes on Him.  All things slowly fall into place when your eyes are fixed on Jesus.  He is your new perspective!