THE JESUS PERSPECTIVE

Hope is to reign.  If it doesn't, one can be assured that it is antsy to become the heartbeat of our daily walk.  When there is hope....well....then there really is hope. Romans 5:1-5 is masterfully pointed that in our good days (and our bad ones) there is ample reason to hope.  It is declared to be so strong that no one will be disappointed in its reality for any moment.

Our perspective of Jesus verifies this truth.  Once battered and beaten, he eventually succumbed to the pressure of dark and devastating death.  The scene was both horrendous as well as notorious.  Darkness hovered over the earth as he hung from the Cross as if to say to the Roman guard, I have an announcement from Heaven.  You have just killed the Light.

This scene was intentional.  It was public.  Its account is recorded for all to know. Why? Because awe came about three days later.  Jesus arose!  He was back.  Death didn't, after all, have the last say.  From the Jesus perspective, death and all of its cousins went into hiding.

Our hope is never in an earthly person nor a group of people.  The church will let you down.  Ministers will disappoint.  Neighbors will betray and spouses will cause pain. Why is this?  Do we not all know better?  Of course we do.  Yet, everyone of us is caught in a swirl of the dark vs. light argument.  These two not only don't get along; they very much oppose each other.  Mankind is in an awful fix.

Take a look at the political scene in America.  Not only are the parties deeply divided, each party is divided against itself.  Division is the trait of a fallen world.  We have it within us to get along with others; yet fundamentally we prefer (strongly prefer) that if harmony is to exist one must lean toward our way of thinking.  

Churches follow suit.  Division within the divisions are too numerous to calculate.  To top it off, divisions exist within congregations who fly under the same-name banner. What's this about?  

There is a solution; an answer.  The response begins with believers believing in Jesus and not in our name-brand system or organization.  Unity is anticipated by our Living God.  This will bear powerful fruit.

How do we get there?  Each of us is to realize that our ideas are not god.  Our theories have holes in them.  Can we not know truth?  Oh, the Bible says we can.  And one of the truths I have learned about myself is that I don't know as much as I once believed. Jesus was not my perspective.  My doctrinal persuasion was.

So here's what I wish to cheer you on about today.  The perspective of Jesus will fortunately cause each of us to dismount from our religious/political high horses.  In addition, we will find that care for one another becomes central rather than winning an argument or defending a position.  Jesus is to be our perspective and, when he is, life begins to arise from days of darkness and frustration.