Perspective

 "Jesus looked at them intently and said, 'Humanly speaking it is impossible. But not with God. Nothing is impossible with God" Mark 11:27....."Then He said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life." John 11:25

Our faith walk will always be a matter of perspective; ours and of our Father's. In Mark 11, Jesus had been telling His disciples how hard it was for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven, for his life was centered on what he owned. The disciples, looking at things from a human viewpoint, knowing that the natural inclination of the human heart was to achieve, gain more, and look after their own good, wondered then how anyone could enter the Kingdom of God? It was an impossibility, and they were right. Jesus said they were right.....as they saw things. But, as for how He and His Father saw it, nothing, including the salvation of a rich man, was impossible with God. Not even the self-centered, idol worshiping hearts of fallen men and women. And He seals this truth in another verse from the Gospel of John. Jesus, standing at the tomb of Lazarus, tells Lazarus' sister, who believed her brother beyond even His help, that he wasn't. He wasn't because Jesus Christ was the resurrection and the life. Nothing, including death, was beyond His power. Jesus knew all this to be true. Do we?

I think our great problem, particularly here in the rational minded thinking of the west, is our tendency, even in the church, to view all things from an earthbound perspective. We rarely seem able to see things as He does, from the perspective of eternity. Which brings to mind an illustration I came across not long ago. One man was climbing a mountain trail when a terrible storm suddenly blew up. The hiker was so engulfed in the storm that he could not see even 5 feet in front of him. All was dark. At the same time, another man was in a plane, flying high above that same mountain, and as he looked down, he saw the small pocket where the storm was happening, and also that all around that storm was sunlight and clarity. He knew the storm would soon move off and the light and sight that was there, but unseen by the hiker, would show it itself. The hiker only saw the storm. The passenger in the plane saw so much more than that. So it is with us and our God. We only see the immediate difficulty and base our faith on that. Jesus, at the tomb, doesn't see the stone that seals it, but the resurrection power in Him that renders the stone powerless. He has the perspective of eternity, and that is the perspective that the church must have in these days, and in all days. Kingdom perspective and Kingdom sight.

A good pastor friend said that a great problem with most of us is that we live in the realm of "possibility thinking," From this place we see everything from the perspective of what is possible within our understanding. What is possible is limited by the borders of what we think can happen. Where we need to be is in the realm of nothing is impossible for God." There, nothing is beyond His ability. There are no limits to what He is able to do. So, there are no limits to what we believe He can do. In that place, we live with the perspective of eternity. In that place, we aren't blinded by the tomb, but see with the eyes of the One who is the resurrection and the life. Two realms; two mindsets, and two kinds of vision. One or the other will be ours. Which one will we, you, live in?

Blessings,

Pastor O