The Microscope
Carl was preaching yesterday like he usually does. His sermons always bless me. But you know how when you are in church and you are listening to the sermon and you are interested in what the preacher is saying, you are trying to focus but still your mind begins to wander and drift? That was happening to me on Sunday.
A lot of times in those moments I feel like God reveals things to me. It is kind of like taking what the pastor is saying one step deeper and showing me a greater meaning.
Yesterday Carl was talking about Jesus- a lot of pastors talk about Him on Sundays. Here are some of my thoughts on Jesus. These barely scratch the surface- but it is what I was contemplating during church on Sunday.
I believe Jesus is Lord, that He is God and that the only way to get to heaven is through Him- by simply believing in Him and confessing that truth.
We have all seen the silly round black and yellow smiley face with the words Jesus loves you written below it. I know that is a funny juvenile image- but it is so seriously true. Jesus is Love. Jesus does love you and me and everyone. I think christian pop-culture and marketing has really watered down the validity of those words. But seriously it is so true and it is a truth we need to know down deep into our bones and into the core of who we are. He loves us enough to die for us. He suffered for us. He bore all of our pain. He bore every temptation and still resisted and still was perfectly victorious.
I think I can confidently say that we all know how hard it is to resist temptation. I know I have been tempted so greatly sometimes that it physically hurts to resist it. I am not perfect and I have fallen many times and I will continue to fall. I know there are times I have been able to overcome and resist the temptations that come before me but that is only because of the grace that has been given to me. That is only because my eyes are fixed on Christ and I desire to please Him.
But Jesus- he resisted every single time! That is amazing. He never ever fell. I am sure he was tempted far great then I ever was or will be- he had a lot more at stake if he were to fall. But he was strong and stood firm. He was perfect.
As Carl was talking I put myself in Jesus' place. Here we all are learning about Jesus. We study Him, we read His words, we hear stories about Him. We take them and look at them from every single angle. We analyze everything we have on Jesus. He is constantly under a big microscope.
Now imagine you were in that place and that millions of people were treating you in the same way. I would hate to have every word that I ever said scrutinized. I would hate to have stories about me told and criticized. I would be far from perfect. I would think that the stories would only point out my imperfections and would prove to show just how human and fallen and unglorious I truly am.
Here is the amazing part: for Jesus it does the exact opposite. As we learn more about Jesus He only grows more glorious. The more we know about Him the more we realize how awesome He was. We see how great His love is. It is obvious how strong He was and that He truly was perfect and without any fault. That is amazing.
Only Jesus could pass a test like we all give Him constantly. Only Jesus will never fail us. He has promised to never forsake us. He lived with passion and died with passion. He is the lover of our souls. He is perfect and truly worthy to be gloried. None other can compare to Him. He is matchless and He is so great. He is worthy of all our praise.
posted by Kellie # 11:39 AM
