Monday, 28 March 2016

What Are We Looking At?

Who is God?

Someone who wants you to look to Him.

Jesus said, "Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light.  
But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!"    Matthew 6:22

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
"The bodily eye is taken as the symbol of the outlooking power of the soul, not the soul - the inner man - itself, but its outlooking power. As the body is illuminated by the eye, i.e. as by the eye the bodily constitution learns its environment, and naturally, almost automatically, tends to accommodate itself to it, so is it with the gaze of the soul. If this be upon the things of this world, the soul perceives, and tends to accommodate itself to the things of this world; if upon things in heaven, it perceives, and tends to accommodate itself to, the things in heaven. 

If' the gaze which should bring light brings only darkness, how terrible in its nature and effects must that darkness be!"

Who am I?


Have you ever seen something you wish you had never seen? I'm pretty sure we all have. My earliest memory of seeing something awful was when I went to the State Fair in California. I was around 7 years old and walking with my family when I looked up at these huge banners with pictures on them. They were pictures of people being tortured in iron maidens and on the rack etc. It was near the entrance to the "House of Horrors."

I was so shocked and upset at what I saw I felt sick for quite awhile. I hadn't known things like that happened in the world. The world is chock full of things we shouldn't look at.

I've noticed as I live my Christian life, God has shown me things I have looked at with pleasure that should be thrown out of my life. Instead of missing those things, I have found greater peace and more time for myself to do interesting and fun things. It is no sacrifice to look away from the world. It feels like it might be, but it isn't! When God asks us to give up something, he always gives us something wonderful to take its place.

"So these (some Greeks) came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  John 12:21  Amen to that.

The more I look at Jesus life, the more I admire him. I think about how he was serene and yet strong. I think about how he talked with people, how he always said the right thing with assurance and poise. I think of how he acted when he was arrested, tried and crucified. I think of his courage, compassion, and conviction. Our God is amazing to look at.

"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth."  Psalm 121:2

"And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."  2 Corinthians 3:18

"Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways."  Psalm 119:37