Unbiased vision

 

 

It’s well known that many people assume that other people think like they do. Those who tell lies assume that everyone else is a liar. My loving mom assumed that every mother sacrificially loves their children. A friend assumes that “everyone talks and behaves differently depending on who they are with” — which reveals more about him than he realizes.

I know this happens because I make assumptions too. I used to think that everyone told the truth. After a few betrayals and heartbreaks I realized that is not correct. Worse yet, I’ve realized I’m not beyond stretching the truth myself. However, I’ve also realized that how I appear to others is not always correct about who I am. I can be seen according to their assumptions and prejudices even though I’d like to appear BLAMELESS. In studying that biblical word, I found this statement about God:

Psalm 18:25–27. “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.”

God does not change. He is blameless, a God of mercy and purity. However, this tendency to ‘see what I am being the way others are’ also shows up in my view of God, or as this verse says, I can falsely see in Him what is true about me. However, the Bible says if I want to see the purity of God, I need to be rid of the impurity in my own life. Jesus did say, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

Again, if I want to see the blamelessness of God, I need to get rid of the sin in my life. Proverbs 10:29 hints at this with, “The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the blameless, but destruction to evildoers.”

While it seems foolishness to define God by my own characteristics, this is a good way to determine what needs to change in my own life. As I read about Him and find myself doubting that God is just like He says He is, then maybe my problem is using my self-centered filter. In other words, if I think God does not care about me or about the starving folks in the world, could it be because I’m the one who does not care about God or about those hungry people?

Jesus came to redeem sinners. He also came to reveal God to us because this principle works another way: if I see what God is actually like, then what I see in Him transforms me!

It is important to know that the Bible describes Him as totally free from defects, spotless and sinless.

Hebrews 7:26. “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.”

1 Peter 1:18–19. “Know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Hebrews 9:13–14. “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

God knew how badly I needed to see Him as He is — so He sent His Son to open my eyes. Colossians 1:21–23 personalized says,

“And I, who once was alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present me holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed I continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that I have heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven . . . .”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Seeing God as He is without any filter of assuming He is like me changes my life. As Scripture says, when I gaze into His glory, I am transformed by what I see. It works out in practical ways. For instance, I quit complaining and arguing and start love others —

Philippians 2:14–16. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

1 Thessalonians 3:12–13. “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

Such is God’s amazing grace that He would see me in Christ and like Christ — only because He has revealed Christ to my eyes and heart . . . !

 

 

Waiting for His arrival . . .

If I got a letter from my beloved cousin in the USA, filled with news and at the end he said he would be at my house in three weeks, what part of the letter would have me the most excited? Seeing him in person would be a huge blessing. Three weeks would seem forever as I waited for his arrival.

The early Christians knew that Jesus promised to return; they just didn’t know when. This would be both exciting and difficult. Like me waiting for my cousin, they would do all necessary preparations for His arrival but they could not simply sit on the steps until He showed. Paul wrote telling them how to manage their time while they looked forward to that day.

First, they were to wait . . .

 . . . Your faith in God has gone forth everywhere . . . the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:8–10)

This was not a problem for them. In their afflictions and persecutions, they were eager for His return. He would deliver them from God’s wrath, but also from their present distresses. I need to wait also, not because life is sometimes a challenge, but because I am eager to see Jesus!

Second, they were to keep on, not only living godly lives but remembering they were precious in Paul’s life . . .

For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. (1 Thessalonians 2:19–20)

In his book, “The Applause of Heaven,” Max Lucado imagines there will be people lined up to welcome home each believer. He wrote this to encourage his readers to be excited to see Jesus rather than be anxious and fearful about death.

Third, they were to keep on keeping on . . .

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:12–13)

Some have ‘sold everything and sat on the roof’ waiting for Jesus. Paul says no. Instead, we are to abound in love for all people and be holy, cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

Fourth, he gives some details about that event . . .

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18)

Jesus’ return will be a magnificent reunion of believers, so glorious and exciting that my imagination runs wild. This description is debated by theologians but no matter what they say, the promise is clear; we will all be together with Jesus. As we wait, He gives us comfort and emotional strength!

Last, God will do it . . .  

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)

When that day comes, my struggles with sin and efforts to be godly will end; I will be like Christ — because He will finish what He started in me!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, there are days when thoughts of this great event do not enter my mind. Forgive me. I ought to be thinking about Your return so much that my life is increasingly given over to everything You want from me and to Your amazing power to transform it. Lately, I’ve been tired, without a lot of ambition or forward thinking. Fill my mind today with thoughts of Your return. It will not be signaled by the ring of a doorbell, but when it happens, I will know that it is You and that it is time to move from this life and be with You forever. This is my comfort and my hope. Amen.