What Are You Looking At?

02/23/2006

It's not, "Location. Location. Location," instead it's, "Focus. Focus. Focus."

Okay, when buying property, "Location" is key, but we're not buying property every day of our lives. Most days we're going about our normal business of getting the kids to school, or getting to our job, or taking care of a household, or even spending time on vacation. Whatever it is we are doing, "Focus" is key!

"Focus on what," you might ask?
If you're asking that question, then this message is for you!

Lately, the rains have been coming down here in northern California. It seems we can barely catch a break before they start in again. Jim and I go to sleep hearing the raindrops on our RV, we wake up, hearing the raindrops on our RV.

I took the "high road" the other day and I told Jim that, "I think it's going to rain for the rest of my life." He wasn't too impressed with my attitude, although he knew I was half joking, and we laughed about it together.

And the rains continue...

While on the road the other day, driving in the rain out to a friend's house, I was reminded (probably by the Holy Spirit within me) that Jesus will return in the clouds one day. "Oh, that's right God." I had lost my focus, I was tired of the rains, and then I refocused and found joy in the midst of a downpour. Come Lord Jesus, Come!

In turning to Luke 21 just now, to read that verse, there's even more there than I expected to find. Luke 21:25 starts off talking about strange events in the skies, nations in turmoil, the courage of many people faltering because of the fearful fate they see coming upon the earth...and then it says in verse 27, "Then everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near!" (NLT)

That's awesome! What hope there is in that! How many of us are faltering from strange events in our lives, from turmoil, from fear? How many of us lose our focus on the Hope we have waiting when all is said and done on this earth, and instead focus on the problems of the day...on the rain that seems to never stop? And yet, if we will refocus our attention on the Word of God, we will find our hope again.

In reading a devotional this morning, it said, "If when faced with bad and told everything is futile and you are able to look up at the end of the conversation and say, 'Yeah, but...' then you still have great quantities of hope...Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible. Hope is from God." (Attributed to Rev. Silas Mueller)

How do we see the invisible?
Feel the intangible?
Achieve the impossible?

We don't! But God within us does!!
That's the power of the Holy Spirit!

God says, "Look to Me. Pray to Me. Read My Word." And when we do, we will have refocused our attention on Him, on His Truth, on His goodness, and we will be able to "stand straight and look up," and have Hope, for our salvation is near!

What does that really mean? It means it doesn't matter if it rains for the rest of our lives, or not, Jesus is coming back and that is where our focus always needs to be!

I don't know about you, but my focus gets off so easily. Sometimes it doesn't even take any sort of change in my outward circumstances and I can start to slip off into a ditch on one side or the other. Even Oswald Chambers talked about that very thing this morning in his devotional, "My Utmost For His Highest."

"Any ambition which is in the tiniest degree away from this central one of being 'approved unto God' may end in our being castaways. Learn to discern where the ambition leads, and you will see why it is so necessary to live facing the Lord Jesus Christ." (March 17th)

When I read, "the tiniest degree," I could relate to this. Anyone on the outside looking in might say we look focused, our lives have not slipped all that much, our walk with the Lord seems to be right on track, we're being "good," we're doing all the "right things," and yet inside we could be the tiniest degree away from facing the Lord Jesus Christ fully, and then there we go.... straight into the ditch, landing in the mud and mire. What then?

"I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God."
Psalm 40:1-3 (NLT)

I need to sing a new song sometimes...I need to sing, "Thank you for the rain Lord, thank You for the clouds that will reveal Your Son..." And the only way to do that, when times get tough, is to focus, focus, focus...on eternal things!

"God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so,
people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from
beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)

We can't always know why the rains come, and seem to never stop.
We can't always know why people die, why planes crash, why abuse happens.
We can't "see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."

"Yeah, but..."
We still have "great quantities of HOPE!"

I think the problem is, a lot of the time, that our focus is off, even to the "tiniest degree." And after a while, that tiny degree gets us so off course, we can't hardly find our way back again. It gets difficult.

I know after Phil died, I would head off into a ditch of emotions that wanted to run wild with despair. There would be times when I was moving along, putting one foot in front of the other, breathing in, breathing out, focusing on all the Promises that Jesus left us with, and then times would come when I would start to lose focus once again, and I so wanted to go there...I would start to veer to the left or to the right, and end up right in the pit of despair, of self-pity, because of the circumstances in my life. The mud and the mire would start to surround me then, and I would start to suffocate in the pain. The choice then became mine, would I cry out to the Lord to rescue me once again, would I focus on His help through the dark times, or would I dive in deeper and stay a while longer, wallowing in the pain?

That tiny degree of lost focus would lead me to a place that was hard to come back from. It has taken years to be able to resist the temptation that still wants to lure me into that pit of despair--but after going there time and time again, and crying out to God to rescue me when I got there, I am learning to keep my eyes on Jesus when the temptation comes to feel sorry for myself. When I'm tempted to think of all I've lost, I say, "Yeah, but..." and I remember the Hope I have in Jesus to see our son again!

It reminds me of an actual ditch that sits just across the road from where our home is parked here. One day I was pulling out of the driveway on my just-purchased motorcycle and I quickly forgot what I had learned about riding. The weekend course I had taken about riding a motorcycle was to teach us one thing, if nothing else... "Look where you want to go, not where you don't." Well, on one of my very first rides, I looked at the ditch instead of the road, and guess where I ended up?" It wasn't a pretty sight! It wasn't a big thing, not a huge mistake, but with a slight turn of the eyes, just the tiniest degree, I could have stayed on the road and out of the ditch. My eyes led me where I didn't want to go. It took me weeks to recover from that little incident!

That also holds true for our daily walk on this earth. We need to be very careful of being that tiny degree off. There are things that will come very close to the Truth of God in our lives, but is not the absolute Truth found in God's Word! That tiny degree of lost focus could end up costing us years of aimless wandering until we find our way back again. It might have us seeking other ways to Heaven, looking for other ways to heal, to prosper, to have a good life. Does God have a plan and purpose for all of this? Sure, He does, He will use it to help us grow, to know Him more--but what if we never took a bite of some of that "forbidden fruit" in the first place? Could we save ourselves from wandering in the desert for 40 years? I'd like to think so.

A friend of mine was sharing with me about an experience she recently had with her son. They attended a Japanese Tea Ceremony. During the ceremony, a Japanese proverb was read. It said, "Every day is a good day." They were to ponder that, and think about what that really means. It was a time to take their focus off this world and place it where it should be. As my friend shared this with me, she said it was obvious that it was more of an internal focus, rather than looking to Christ. All in all, a good thing, not a bad thing to be thinking about--but sometimes, most times, when times are tough, mind over matter just doesn't work. To tell ourselves over and over that "Every day is a good day," is fine and good, but what if it's not? What if we just lost a job that we love, what if we just lost a person that we love, what if we just lost the good health that we've enjoyed, what if...

My friend said, "This ceremony was spiritually focused, not Christ focused. They don't know Christ. There are generations upon generations of religion that their culture has been steeped in and it must be very hard for them to be open to something new, although it's not really new. God is so a part of what they are doing. There is more to what they're doing than meets the eye, there is truth there that they haven't uncovered yet. They feel they have it, but it's not complete without Christ. They are gracious, and it's all very beautiful, but there's something missing. To 'get there' they have to be busy about the stuff to get what they want, it's works related, not Christ related." She went on to say, "Where do they think that heart's desire comes from in the first place? It's God given." She said, "God is amazing in a non-Christian environment."

Okay, okay, I know that some are not going to like this message at all, some are going to argue that there are many ways to worship, there many ways to heaven, many ways to believe, and if it works for you, then that's all that matters...! "Every day is a good day."

But it's not! Every day is tough, every day can break our hearts, tear us down, lead us into a pit of despair, without our Hope being in something that is rock solid! In reading a book recently on spirituality, it talked about praying to an unnamed, unknowable force for guidance. All I could think was, how could I trust something that had no name and I could not know? I have come to know my Lord, to know His ways, to trust His decisions, and I can follow my Lord with sureness that He has my best interest at heart. 

Many days I listen to a song in the morning, as I get ready for work. They sing the words, "Every day with you Lord, is sweeter than the day before." How can that be true when times might be tough, when the heart misses, when the bills go unpaid? It can be, when we take our eyes off of this world, and all the problems here, instead focusing on all that Jesus did to bring us safely Home where we'll spend eternity with Him. It's a focus on all that He would have us learn in this life, all that we are able to share with those around us about His goodness through the tough times, all that God does each day to show His love for us in so many amazing ways! "Every day with you Lord, is sweeter than the day before," because there is Hope in Your Word! We can choose to believe, or we can choose not to believe. It doesn't change who You are!

In talking with a friend about whether there is a Heaven and a Hell, it made for an interesting discussion. I love these kinds of talks! I love to focus on the deeper issues of life, and get past whether it's "raining" outside or not. My friend didn't believe in Hell. She said she believes that Hell is right here, right now. She can't really imagine a God who would send people into an eternity of fire and torment. Okay, that's a struggle, I have to admit. We believe in a loving God, and it is hard to believe that a loving God would do that to someone--but, God's Word says there is a Hell, so what are we supposed to do with that? Ignore it because we are uncomfortable with it? We can't! If we are to believe God's Word, and Jesus' very words say, "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell..." (Luke 12:4-5 NLT) Then I have to believe there is a Hell waiting for some who walk this earth!! And to be a good friend, I have to warn others about it, just as Jesus was doing in Luke 12.

The next time I talked with this friend, she said she wanted to look up some scripture about Hell. I said, "But you don't believe in Hell." She was silent for a second, then she laughed and told me to, "Shut up." She still loved me, even though we had disagreed. Sharing God's Word doesn't always make me popular, just as this message is not making me popular with some of you, but "I plan to keep on reminding you of these things-even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth. Yes, I believe I should keep on reminding you of these things as long as I live." (2 Peter 1:12-13 NLT)

"But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach their destructive heresies about God and even turn against their Master who bought them. Theirs will be a swift and terrible end. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of them, Christ and his true way will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction is on the way. For God did not spare even the angels when they sinned; he threw them into hell, in gloomy caves, and darkness until the judgment day. (2 Peter 2:1-4 NLT)

Life on this earth may seem hellish at times, but the true Hell will be complete separation from God. Even in a Japanese Tea Ceremony, where the focus is good and beautiful, but not on Christ, Christ is still there. He is everywhere we go on this earth, whether we believe in Him or not. It doesn't matter what we believe on this earth, God is still active and drawing us to Him, asking us to choose to believe that He loves us, and then to love Him in return. In Hell, God will not be there, there will be no goodness of any kind...that will be a Hell as we have never known on this earth, no matter how bad things got here.

So, have I gotten off focus here with this message? Perhaps so, but I haven't gotten off true north... "standing straight and looking up." We should all be looking where we want to go, not where we don't. It's the only way that will keep us out of the ditch and on the road that leads us Home.

Will we still end up in the ditch from time to time? Yes, we will. I have been there more times than I would like to count, but I'm learning to focus better each day on my Lord as He leads me through this maze called life. As we learn to study the Bible, to "mediate on it day and night," we will be reminded that "the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:8 & 9b NLT) When He is not, then every day will not be sweeter than the day before.

As I finish up this message on a new day, the rain has stopped and the skies are a beautiful blue. I'm just a bit disappointed...does this mean that Jesus won't be coming back today?

Refocus Diane, refocus!!
This is the day the Lord has made...rejoice and be glad in it!
Psalm 118:24 (NKJV)

Come rain or come shine, have a blessed day,

Diane