What is wrong with our perspective???

I sit here in shock. Its 2 o clock in the morning and I can't sleep. I have no desire to sleep and am crushed beyond words. Today a good friend of mine passed away. One month ago I sat at Starbucks with her and talked about God, life, and everything else. I spent 3 months getting to Lauren Williams and was blessed to have her as a friend. It is comforting amongst all of this to be convinced that she is with our Lord. If only our puny minds could wrap themselves around that concept.

Death is one of the hardest things we as humans deal with because we understand the least about it. We understand the eternal concepts and that our faith by Gods election determines our destination. But in all reality we know little about whats on the other side. We know we will be either in the presence of God our outside of it. But the point is this, we know nothing but this earth. We cannot even begin to imagine the implications of heaven or experiencing the fullness of Gods presence.

Remember Ezekiel in the Old Testament trying to describe God in heaven. He does the best this human mind can to try and put what he sees into words and it makes almost no human sense. He cant even describe with human concepts what he sees! It is impossible. Paul likewise in 2 Cor 12 said he could not even speak of the things seen in the "third heaven". See, we as humans have this complex. When we don't fully understand something we have a problem with it. Christianity and faith in Jesus Christ and His Word breaks all the rules that apply to our "complex". Every main truth of scripture ends in a paradox that we will not ultimately understand until we are made perfect. "Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."(1 cor 13:12b).

We as believers must come to this balanced understanding of scripture. The understanding that craves the Word because it is essential for our spiritual growth coupled with the truth that we will not know everything and cannot on this earth. From that perspective, the concept continues. We begin to see things differently as we grow in our sanctification. Our lifestyle begins to be transformed to a practice of righteousness and conformity with the will of God. We start to separate from the world in everything from the way we live our lives. This happens because the entire core of the way we thing has been rerouted. We perceive things from a Godly lens. In other words, our perspective has become eternal, rather than confined by our understanding of a 4 Dimensional, temporary world. Our short life on this earth is NOT all there is to living. In the midst of this transformed thought process, we begin to grasp the concept of selflessness. This concept of removing self and replacing it with Christ in our lives drives us to live unselfishly. From here we begin to grasp the deeper truths. Truths such as the joy found in suffering. Although suffering according to the temporary controlled mind is negative, we as new creations understand that suffering drives us closer to our Lord. We begin to love the trials because we are allowed to take up our cross and suffer like Jesus did. We realize that our true joy is found apart from anything derived from selfish motives, and so suffering becomes our joy.

Finally, following the concept of suffering is the concept of death. In a culture that says death is gloomy and negative, we serve a God that says that death is our prize. Our culture has deemed death as something to fear. Why? because we aren't sure of whats on the other side. The concept of true faith has been stripped from this age. Everyone is living for the temporary pleasures of each day. People fall further into the distraction of sin as God gives them over to the lust of their flesh(Rom 1). As their futile minds dig deeper graves, they are blinded to the concept that the death of the flesh we fight against is the best thing. Nothing here satisfies. Nothing but Christ alone can provide us with life on this earth. You know what the main problem is though. People do not know Jesus. If people had a serious and in depth love relationship with Jesus Christ, then death wouldn't be so dark in this world. Yeah, its natural that we all have an innate fear of it because we don't know what its like. But let's correct our perspective and begin to view death as the beginning instead of the end. The death of our flesh equals being in the presence of our precious Jesus in the state of perfection apart from sin and its consequences. I cannot wait to kiss his wounds, to tightly hold my Jesus, and to tell Him how thankful I am for His unending love. To even try to imagine the concept of actually being in the presence of my Savior overwhelms me...

I want to fly,
up into the sky,
turn my back on this old world,
leave it all behind.
this world is not my home,
its got nothing for me,
only leaves me with emptiness,
and tears in my eyes.
-Shawn McDonald


...may this be our perspective...


...and when our perspective becomes eternal, like our Lords, we begin to model Jesus Christ's example...

"And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

1 John 3:3