It’s All a Matter of Perspective

Someone has a cell phone that works just fine, but they trade it in so that they can have the very latest, while someone else has almost nothing and finds that even the castoff phone is a great treasure. Everything we look at is seen through the eyes of our experience or exposure. When we are hungry, any food looks amazing, but when we are full, even something delicious might not be so enticing. The same thing is true for Christians. The Christian that has grown up going to church and sheltered from much of the world finds it easy to just coast through life, often with little spiritual urgency in mind. I’m not saying this is a good condition to find ourselves in. The one who was lost, but was rescued by God, finds every moment of every day as another opportunity to proclaim the good news. Some use big fancy “Christian” words because it makes them feel superior, while the visitor to the church struggles to understand the basic concepts. I think too many Christians have become comfortable in the world and no longer hunger for God. This is extremely dangerous because without a genuine faith in Jesus, we will suffer greatly in the depths of hell. When our hearts are right with God, the world does not seem so inviting, for in the world is sin, suffering, and despair. I read an interesting quote the other day, “This life is the only hell believers will ever know. But for those who die in their sins, this is their only heaven.” There is so much truth in this statement. In the church on earth, we see a shadow of the things to come, but the reality of heaven is so much beyond what we could ever conceive. The worst day in heave, if there could be such a thing, would be a thousand times better than the best day on earth. That being said, do you see how great the contrast is? Is your longing to be with Jesus beyond any love you have here on earth? Are you willing to give up everything, to take up your cross, and to follow Jesus? When you think of hell and those that are and will be condemned to this terrible judgement, does your heart break for them and does the thought of hell drive you into the hands of our savior, Jesus Christ? If we truly understood how great the differences were, we should be trying to reach any and every one that would listen. Father, too often we live for the present things in the world. Help us, even as we serve here, to long deeply for what is yet to come. Amen