Eyes Fixed

When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Matthew 17:8 Who do you see when you look up? I am sitting here at my oldest son's basketball training (which happens to be a lot of my life, next to Jesus). And heard the trainer say this "if you dribble down the court with your eyes to the ground then by the time you look up, you have a defender on each side, and end up panicking and throw the ball at the basket without having a good shot." I instantly got this picture of our walk with the Lord. If we walk with our eyes to the ground or on other things than Jesus then by the time we look up and see Jesus ahead of us, we have been side swiped by something the world or satan has thrown at us, panic and and do something that we are not prepared for. We need to look up, see Jesus and Jesus only! So are you eyes fixed on Jesus or are they fixed on something else?

The Real Jesus

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2 Can we say that seeing Jesus the way we see Him in our lives rather than as He is, forms our ability to get real with Jesus? We go to a church and feel that Jesus is standing at the door looking at the way we are dressed, whether we did everything right this week, whether we smell like cigarettes. The church down the street doesn't even have Jesus in their service. The church further down the street has Jesus dressed in the latest fashion checking to make sure you are old enough to be there but young enough to fit in, looking at you with narrowed eyes to see if you are free enough in Christ to put back a couple of drinks and have enough symbols on our body that show Him off. We see Him big enough and loving enough to get us a parking spot when the lot is full but not big enough and loving enough to heal a cousin of cancer. We see Him as the one who loves us enough that He will forgive our sin of sleeping with our boyfriend but then He in a passive/aggressive sort of way will punish us for not having devotionals 6 days a week by giving us a sickness or making us have a blowout with our boss or giving us a flat tire. We see Jesus in such a variety of ways, ranging from one extreme to another. David Guzik said "To the extent that you see Jesus as He is, to that extent, you are like Him in your life." We need to see Jesus as He is - taking into totality what the Word of God tells us Jesus does and who the Word of God tells us Jesus is. That is what we will know this side of Heaven, the rest will be revealed when we see Him face to face. But that's not for us to worry about, what we need to concentrate on is Being Real with Jesus now! In what area of your life do you need to get Real With Jesus today?

Servant of All

And He sat down called the twelve, and said to them "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all" Mark 9:35 Jesus sat down! This action everyone understood, He was a Rabbi and He was going to teach. When a Rabbi was going to give out something important, he sat down to teach. The question that had been posed, the statement that they needed and desired clarification on was "who would be the greatest?" How does Jesus answer this question? Not by turning the attention on Him and saying "You're looking at the greatest" even though HE IS THE GREATEST of all!! But rather, He turned their attention (and ours) to the last and to the servant. Of course, this is Jesus isn't it? He is the first yet He made himself last and He served all, He served everyone and He set the example for us. If the Son of God, the Most High, the Lord of All can make Himself last and set Himself as a servant then how could we NOT want to do this. This is our example. Guzik said "The desire to be praised and gain recognition should be foreign to a follower of Jesus". The idea here is that we would welcome the opportunity for the Lord to work in our lives through being a servant and not that it would be forced but that it would be something that springs up from our heart, something that we allow, embrace and work into who we are as believers and followers of Jesus. We need to be followers of Jesus that look more to how can we serve others than how are others going to serve us. What kind of servant will you be today? One that desires to be served or one that desires to servant others?