Bible Ballistics: BBs #457       What’s Got Your Eye???

 

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about

with so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight,

and the sin

which doth so easily beset us,

and let us run

with patience

the race

that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus

the author

and finisher

of our faith;

who for the joy that was set before him

endured the cross,

despising the shame,

and is set down

at the right hand

of the throne of God.”    Hebrews 12:1-2

I saw something recently that impressed me, and while I don’t remember where I saw it, the gist of it was: “If you teach your child to ‘keep his/her eye on the ball’, but fail to teach them to ‘keep their eyes on Jesus’—to what end have you taught?” Our children and grandchildren are so precious and we ought to treasure each moment, yet we who are believers in Jesus, must commit to continually “Looking unto Jesus” ourselves, and not being distracted by the call of the world. For the truth is, if we lead our children to great success in sports, education, finances, and in human relationships and fail to lead them to Jesus—what have we achieved? What have we really done for them?

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples,

If any man will come after me,

let him deny himself,

and take up his cross,

and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life

shall lose it:

and whosoever will lose his life

for my sake

shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited,

if he shall gain the whole world,

and lose his own soul?

or what shall a man give

in exchange

for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 

Notice, Jesus calls us to follow Him, and lays out the cost:

“let him deny himself,

and take up his cross,

and follow me”

This same principle is most aptly stated by Paul, and as we close with it, may we assess our lives, check our ‘vision’, and be sure that we are leading those who are following us (And there are those who are following us-even when we don’t realize it!) to the cross and not the world. Remember we are ‘in’ the world, but we are not to be ‘of’ the world—“My kingdom is not of this world”!

“I am crucified with Christ:

nevertheless I live;

yet not I,

but Christ liveth in me:

and the life which I now live in the flesh

I live by the faith of the Son of God,

who loved me,

and gave himself for me.”   Galatians 2:20