Breathtaking

It was a clear brisk night and the stars were poking out of the darkness like little pin holes.  Living out in the sticks has an amazing blessing with it.  When the lights are out, they are really out!  From our yard we can see stars in ways that I only remember from camping trips up into the mountains back in NY.   It was an exceptionally beautiful night so i said, “honey lets get the kids, some blankets, and some pillows and drive the pickup out into the middle of the field.”  Which we promptly did.  Kari bundled up Averie and Riley as if it were Rochester, NY in the middle of a January blizzard.  We threw the blankets and pillows into the back of the truck.  I fired up the rig and we off roaded it to the middle of the field.  The only one put out was our black lab who wanted so badly to jump up into the truck bead with us.  She finally laid beside the truck and we all laid there and just took in the view.  Breathtaking.  Amazing.  And it would have been peaceful if it weren’t for the 5 year olds tendency to continually chatter about this or that or this or that or this or that.  Even that added to the magic of the moment though.  God is good.  Sometimes its good to just look at creation and to see the fingerprints of God in it.  To see that we serve and live under the watchful eye of an amazing and awesome creator.  To see take in some of the sights and some of the beauty that he has made.

In Romans 1:20 (NIV) it says,
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.“

Jesus Today

Sometimes it’s tough to think about “Jesus Today,” because we think so much about Jesus in the yesterday.  We think about how Jesus was a suffering servant.  How he was a crucified God/Man who put himself in the hands of men and allowed himself to be a sacrifice on our behalf.  We talk about how he did rise from the dead.  We spend oodles of time studying and preaching and teaching about the Jesus story we find in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  And all of that is good.  It’s vital to understanding and believing and encountering the grace of God.

But how often do we remember that today Jesus is.  That today Jesus is living and exalted.  That the Jesus of today is not a Jesus we will humiliate or crucify.  The Jesus of today is the tatted out King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  The Jesus of today is one who will lay his hands on us either with the hands of grace or the hands of wrath.  He is alive.  He is watching.  He is moving.  He is vital today.

 

The bible paints us a picture of a Jesus who today is ruling over everything in heaven and on earth.

It paints a picture of Jesus as a victorious king.  No longer is he suffering on a cross.  But he is the King who wins.  One who will judge.  One who will make war and come out on top.

 

It’s a very different Jesus from the long haired hippie Jesus of the past that people tend to picture.  Instead it’s a picture of a warrior.  A UFC champion.

                                                                                                                            

In Revelation 19:11-16 (NIV) it says,
” I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.“

About People

The thing about people is that…well…they are people.  The thing I love about people is that they are people.  The thing I struggle with about people is that they are people.  It’s amazing to me that when it comes to people God tells us that He created us in His Image.  Wow.  I have to just sit back, and soak that in.  In His Image.

When I look at my daughter with peanut butter all over her face, toes, and hair.  In His Image.  When I look at my 1 year old awkwardly stumbling, fumbling, across the room to me screaming “DADDY!”  In His Image.   When I see people rising in this world.  When I see people endure.  When I see people stand for whats right.  When I see people create.  When I see people care.  When I see what people are made of.  When I see people love.  In His Image.

It could be enough for a person to fall in love with people.  To see people, and to see them in light of that image.  To see them in light of what God sees in them.  It could be enough for us to fall in love with people the way God fell in love with them.  To see them in light of what they were created to be.  To see them in their moments, their glimpses, the smidgen of instances however infrequently they pop up, where people actually look like the finished product they were intended to become.  In His Image. 

It could.  But let’s be honest.  Usually we are so busy criticizing, condemning, and complaining that all we see is the marred image.  The broken unfinished product.  Sometimes, in the midst of the battles in this world all we see is a target, an adversary, a Challenger, a sinner, a worthless worm.  The people around us become those little ducks on the carnival shooting gallery for our criticism and some of us are so good we are really worried that a duck will go by without getting hit and knocked over.  God forgive us for saddling up with the accuser and even doing the shooting for him.   Remind us.  Remind me what it means to see people the way you see them.  As people you love.  As people you created.  As people you dreamed up, and made to be in your image.  As people you are transforming.

God, help me to learn to see people and love people the way you do.  Help me to fall in love with people.  Help me to fall in love with what you are doing in their lives.

In Colossians 3:10 (NIV) it says,
“put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.“