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Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus “When Paul received his sight, he also received spiritual insight into the Person of Jesus Christ. His entire life and preaching from that point on were totally consumed with nothing but Jesus Christ— “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” ( 1 Corinthians 2:2 )” It’s no accident that Christmas is more popular than Easter. The world doesn’t want to consider Jesus at all; but if they must they prefer the innocent child in a manger to the man hanging on a cross. I know I need the Jesus who feed 5000; I have physical needs. I know I need the Jesus who allowed the children to come to Him; I need to be comforted. I know I need the Jesus who  taught with a power never seen before or since; I have a need to know. I know I need the Jesus who heals and cures; I am sick. I know I need a risen Christ; because I need death to be conquered. I know I need Jesus who promises a Comforter because I need a constant presence and guidance. It’s the crucified Jesus that’s […]

Today is March 31, 2010 ~ the last day of March! April is just right around the corner… and how I love this time of Year and Spring! Everything is New Again – as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus! We are Easter people. That is good and proper. The Resurrection of Christ changes everything, but Friday comes before Sunday. We tend to skip over the Passion and Death and go right to the Resurrection. That’s a mistake. The Glory of Easter morning is more real if we have focused on the events of Thursday through Friday.  We tend to look for distractions on Good Friday. In Acadiana more crawfish are boiled on Good Friday than any other day of the year. I started the morning with the idea that I would suggest that we watch the Passion of the Christ on television on Friday; but I could find no showings on the hundreds of channels on cable this weekend. You can watch the Passion of the Christ on line. But isn’t it strange that the most popular movie on the subject isn’t broadcast during the entire Easter weekend? On the positive side,  Jesus of Nazareth  airs […]

I live in a needy world, a world in which I am the neediest of all. It is frustrating and exhausting. There are needs at every turn. Everyone seems to “need”  time and attention. Don’t they know I have really nothing to offer them? I can only apply band aids to wounds and hollow words of consolation to problems and deep hurts. I am spending too much time in the world and it is doing no one much good. We fail others when we fail to put God first. It is the greatest pride to think that time spent with others is more important than time spent with God. What is it that we believe we can do for others that God can not? We do best for others when we spend time with God interceeding for them.  If  Christ “always lives to make intercession” ( Hebrews 7:25  ), and the Holy Spirit “makes intercession for the saints” can we have too much devotion to intercession? Any priority that puts anything but God first dooms us to distraction. If we try, even to do His work, on our own without enough time with Him we won’t have enough of His […]

What is visible is such a small part of what is real. I often forget that what people know of me is limited to what they observe: my physical appearance, my actions, what I say. But there is so much more of me: my inner life, my thoughts, concerns, spiritual stuff. Even more I forget that what I “know” of others, on my own, is similarly limited. I only know what I observe. There is so much more to others. Yet, I still find myself reaching conclusions, dare I say judging, others by what I see.  For Christians, that’s not the way it should be. With our life in Christ should come spiritual discernment, in our time spent with Him we should be learning some small part of His knowledge, concern and love for others. That is, I think, what OC is talking about today. Sometimes we get knowledge, but leave the concern and love behind. “If we are not heedful and pay no attention to the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other people are failing, and then we take our discernment and turn it into comments of […]

The Christian Church seems to have concluded that God wants us healthy, wealthy and wise. It’s easy to see how we got to this point. We have concluded that the point of life is happiness and we “know” that to be happy we must have our health, we need things and we need worldly wisdom. We then march to the conclusion that those who are not healthy or who do now own a lot or who act “foolishly” are out of touch with God. When we do that, it is we who are out of touch with God. The God I know wants me and the worldly situations He puts me through have as their purpose getting me to Him. He may need me healthy to do something He wants me to do; but I may need to suffer illness to learn what He wants me to learn. He may give me the things of the world; because He has something He wants me to do with them. He may keep them from me, because He knows they distract me from Him. I may seem wise in the ways of the world, but I have no wisdom of my […]

We certainly want to be ready when Jesus comes for us. It is very helpful to consider often during the day whether He would be pleased to find us doing what we are doing.  But I think this verse means more than that. We need to be alert to surprise visits from Jesus. Sometimes He touches our lives and we only realize it was Him when the moment has passed. We can see Him in a beautiful scene. He can surprise us in the loving actions of one of His children; often one we didn’t recognize as a child of His.  Sometimes He surprises us with encouragement; but He can also rebuke or warn. His visits are particularly surprising when they come from children or “ordinary” people.  Not ever word from the Lord comes in church or from a Minister. He speaks to us and reaches to us always. It is our task to be alert and sensitive to Him. One of the truly sad things is that we can be “so absorbed in our service to Jesus Christ that we are not ready to face Jesus Himself at every turn. The greatest need is not facing our beliefs […]

On the surface, OC is a bit obvious today. He tells us to just do what Jesus says. But for me it’s never that simple. If I know Jesus is telling me to do something, mostly I’ll do it. There are some problems. First, I don’t always know what Jesus is telling me to do. This is another way of saying that I don’t always recognize His voice. This is, of course, my fault. I have not developed a keen enough ear to hear Him. I am not so in the habit of continuous obedience that I always recognize His voice. I know in most situations this is just an excuse. I have His written word. I know that every word in it comes from God; but I don’t follow every word of it. I do just what OC warns against. I sometimes conclude the Word is “mistaken” or “a bad translation” or “meant only for that time and place and not a universal truth.”  I know if I will just obey His clear written Word, I will be living in His presence and become more sensitive to those special instructions He gives us in our special situations.  “I […]

My posting is a bit late today – about 12 hours. Some days just don’t go as you plan. I normally write my posts between 3 and 5 in the morning. I didn’t wake up until 7:30 this morning and Samantha had spent the night. When she spends the night, we go to Mel’s for breakfast. She likes the smiley face pancakes. Then my brother, who I promised not to name today, and I had projects to do. Then Nicky came over for his overnight. They I took Nicky and Sam to see “How to Train a Dragon.” Great movie. By now, it’s 4 in the afternoon. Today, OC is discussing a higher state of mind and spiritual vision that can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. I feel completely inadequate to discuss a “higher practice of personal character.”  I think we sometimes over-spiritualize such things. Sometimes a higher practice of personal character is as simple as spending time with people you love and letting them do as they want rather than doing what you would otherwise do: whether it’s having pancakes, or going to a movie or playing with your iphone. I am reminded […]