"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."We know this one thing, if a man owned a house and a contractor offered to restore it, free of charge, he’d be a fool to deny his offer.2 Corinthians 5:17
Why then do so many men reject the offer of God to restore their spiritual homes? We are indeed a people without spiritual vision.
Showing posts with label Vision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vision. Show all posts
Friday, January 25, 2008
NEW CREATION: Our spiritual contractor!
SCRIPTURE: God's corrective lenses!
"But what does it say? 'THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART' - that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."With rare exception all of us suffer from deteriorating eyesight. As time passes we’re less able to see what we saw before. What can the older person do when he can no longer read? Get eyeglasses. And when even these fail? If his pride will let him, he can get a magnifying glass.Romans 10:8-10
Sin has caused man’s spiritual eyesight to deteriorate. What was once clearly seen in God’s creation is now dim and fuzzy.
When our own limited God-given senses fail us, what do we do? We go to the testimonies of others concerning the faith. And if these seems unclear or fuzzy? We can go to the magnifying glass of God, His written word.
Remember, in the same way we don’t focus on the glass of the magnifier but on the object needing magnification, we must not focus on the words and letters (logos), but on that which they magnify (rhema) … the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
TRADITIONS: The Old Rutted Road -- Part II!
And now, the twist to the story ... there's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad, we see two huge booster rockets saddled to either side of the rocket’s main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. Thiokol Corporation makes the SRBs at their factory at Utah.
The Thiokol SRB design engineers might have preferred to make them a bit bigger … wider not taller, but 1.) the SRBs had to ship by train from the factory to the launch site; 2.) the railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains; 3.) the SRBs had to fit through a tunnel which is only slightly wider than the railroad track; and 4.) the railroad track is about as wide as two Imperial Roman war-horses.
So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a horse's behind! Think about that!
Not only do unreasonable or irrational traditions ruin the vision of the church but they are the cause of some baggage that prevents it from being bigger and going higher and farther.
Ed. Note: Don't think that I'm anti-tradition; I am simply pro-church … the one that is made up of real, live, redeemed children of God.
[The Good, Clean Funnies List], Box 476, Harvest, AL 35749-0476; USA; “The Impact of the Roman Empire on Space Shuttle Design,” 20 October 1999, “ Received from L. Rodney Ford via Doug Taylor.”]
Sunday, January 20, 2008
VISION: Gentile Revolutionaries - vs. - Tub-thumpers!
"Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.'"The 60s were noted for revolutionary hype; individuals and groups such as Angela Davis, The Chicago 7, Timothy Leary, and Yoko “Oh-no,” with their radical thought and behavior, seemed to dominate the day.Luke 14:25-26 [25-35]
But for pure, undefiled, radical thought moved to action, no one could one-up Dick Fosbury in that tumultuous decade.
Fosbury, an Oregon State University student revolutionized track & field‘s high jump with a technique one writer called “at once simple and sublime.”
While the rest of the world was content to high-jump with a forward-facing straddle, called the "Western roll," Fosbury concluded a backward flop was better. He unveiled his radical technique at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Unfortunately, a black-gloved, black-power statement from the winner’s platform by two American athletes overshadowed his unveiling.
From a sweeping arc approach, the jumper propels his shoulders over the bar first, left followed by right … the rest follows — back, rump, calves, Nikes.
It didn't take long for the "Fosbury Flop" to revolutionize the high jump. The reasons for its abrupt success were simple: less of the jumper's body was exposed to the bar.
By flopping in a vertical line, a jumper limited the absolute length of bar cleared, a claim the straddle or scissors methods could not make. Arching the back after the shoulders cleared at a point on the bar improved a jumper’s odds of success, compared with the traditional stretching out horizontally over the length of the bar.
The flop also allowed jumpers to generate more approach speed, this made the high jump a much more watchable and dramatic event.
Fosbury was a true revolutionary in the 1960s, one who left something for others rather than one who took something away from others.[Adapted from FOXSports.com’s “the Forgotten Century” in “Flopping into history Dick Fosbury revolutionized high jump with technique that was simple and sublime” by John Crumpacker; Dec 10, 1999; Copyright (C) 1999 Pro Sports Xchange via News Digital Media, d/b/a FOXSports.com.]
In Merriam-Webster’s dictionary it says one who is a vociferous supporter (as in a cause) is a “tub-thumper.” They give the following as an example of its usage:
Aunt Lucille was a tub-thumper for temperance who never passed up an opportunity to sermonize fervently on the evils of the “demon drink” and the virtues of abstinence.
Now Dick Fosbury was not a tub-thumper. I was there! I remember very well his efforts to introduce his revolutionary “flop.” I also remember the celebrity, sports commentators who criticized the flop and Fosbury. I remember more than one “expert” saying, “Give it a couple of years and it will be a vague memory. It's so silly, who will want to do it?”
I was also at San Jose State (College in those days) when Tommy Smith and the other black runner represented our school at the Olympics in Mexico City. And I was there in front of my TV when the evening news showed their pictures, gloved fists raised in the air, heads bowed. In the best sense of the term, they were not tub-thumpers either.
I met Tommy Smith and remember Dick Fosbury, they were both gentle and soft-spoken young men. They were not obnoxious or even annoying in their zeal for what they believed in, they were simply revolutionaries. In many ways they had the paradoxical brick-in-velvet characteristic of Jesus. They knew what they believed in and were willing to stand up and be counted whatever the cost.
Oh how the Bride of Christ needs men of such conviction today, not tub-thumpers … just gentle, committed revolutionaries. Like Luther, Calvin, Moody, Tyndale, Wesley, and many others.
Monday, September 11, 2006
APOSTASY: What the world now calls backsliding!
GOING BLIND SILENTLY: [Proverbs 29:18a]
Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.
Without warning, Jane Berry's father went blind in one eye; the cause was glaucoma. He immediately encouraged his 26-year-old daughter to be tested; she was shocked to learn she also had the eye disease.
Often called "tunnel vision," glaucoma destroys peripheral or side vision. It's caused by a build-up of fluid pressure inside the eye; the eye can't tolerate the pressure, so the main nerve transmitting vision to the brain is damaged. The change is so subtle that by the time a person realizes they have a problem, it's usually too late. Sort of like the proverbial frog in the kettle.
Estimates suggest over 67 million people have glaucoma globally, of whom nearly seven million will go blind owing to late diagnosis or inadequate treatment.
Glaucoma is now the second most common cause of vision loss worldwide and a major factor in car and pedestrian accidents. Doctors urge everyone over 40 to be tested, especially now that a new more effective treatment, with fewer side effects, can help people with glaucoma. One drop per day reduces eye pressure in up to 90 percent of patients who submit to the treatments.
Although it hasn't occur without "warning," the body of Christ is suffering from a similar and untreated problem with its vision. Many, especially the young, truly believe it won't happen to them. The Bible warns, "Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained."
Is there any longer any doubt that "the people are unrestrained"? A people can’t lay hold of the "hope set before [them]" [Hebrews 6:18; cf. Philippians 3:14] if they don't have a vision for that hope. In fact, neither you nor your church can move forward without vision.
Often called "backsliding," apostasy destroys faith and practice. It is brought about by a hardening of the heart. An undernourished heart can't stand secular pressure, so the link between the heart and the mind is damaged. The change is so subtle that by the time a person or church senses the problem they are already apostate. In many cases, we can watch as the Body goes silently blind.
Estimates are that over three quarters of the church in America is has lost its vision, of which more than half are virtual apostates. Sin is the primary cause of apostasy and is the leading cause of individual and family failures in this land.
Since September 11, 2006, church leaders throughout the land have been pleading with the people to get treatment. It's free! The treatment is simple, go to the Word and nourish the heart.
Estimates are that 75 percent of those who do will be cured; the remaining 25 percent can't be cured because they don't have apostasy, they suffer from unbelief. But, Praise the Lord, there's a cure for unbelief also, and it is free! [Ephesians 2:8]
Friday, January 07, 2005
Vision
Second Incarnation [Ephesians 4:1-27; other topics - Church (health & nature)]
David Hansen defines vision as “an incarnation of the will of God in a particular place.”[1] To that I would add, in the midst of a particular people.
Complacency and discouragement are the twin enemies of vision: Billy Graham said, “complacency makes us lazy; discouragement paralyzes us.”[2] Then he challenged his readers to understand the context for his statement: 1) 70% of the world remains unsaved, therefore complacency is not an option; 2) God is still at work around us, we dare not be discouraged.
A church needs to know where God wants it to go, what He wants it to be, and the purpose for which it exists; that journey begins with the mind and heart of God, it is translated into God’s vision for His Church, through His people. A believer cannot plow looking back; neither can a church.
A church is not a society, it is an organism; each member cell must be healthy or the whole organism suffers. A healthy organism has cells focused on the same end … unity in the bonds of peace … the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love [Ephesians 4:3, 16], which is ultimately to the glory of God.
[Adapted from [1] Current Thoughts & Trends, April 1996, 16 #11035; [2] ibid. December 1996, 22 #11686]
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