What Are You Looking At?

        There’s a story about a cantankerous man who was always ready to start a fuss. He was so ornery and combative that when he died, his adult children had this epitaph etched into the headstone on his grave: "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" As it turns out, that’s not a bad question to consider. It’s one I’m convinced God would have us to ask ourselves. One particularly powerful passage that makes that clear is 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, which reads as follows: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." The apostle Paul penned those words 2,000 years ago. "What are you looking at?" is a question that seems to leap out of that passage! And, as it does so often, the Bible cuts to the chase and confronts us with the simple but profound thought that, after all is said and done, we are spending our lives primarily "looking" at and living for one of only two kinds of things – "things which are seen" – or "things which are not seen." Here’s the real kicker – all these "things" fit inescapably into one of only two possible realms – "temporary" or "eternal." Millions live their life obsessed daily with and chasing after seen things! Seen things are everywhere you look! From the stressful to the sublime, from the good to the bad, from the pleasurable to the painful, from the happy to the hellish, from the delightful to the deadly – we are surrounded by and immersed in "things which are seen." What we sometimes forget is precisely what the devil wants us to forget – all these "things which are seen" are temporary. As in Temporary! That’s TEMPORARY! From cars to clothes to cancer: TEMPORARY! From pain to pleasure to possessions: TEMPORARY! From jobs to jeans to joy (based on material circumstances, that is): TEMPORARY! We ought to write it on our eyelids and stamp it indelibly on our hearts – if you can see it, if it is of a material physical nature, it is TEMPORARY! Oh, and I almost forgot – these bodies we live in and obsess over and spend so much time and money and energy trying to decorate and beautify and preserve – the apostle declares the uncomfortable but undeniable and unalter- able truth in verse 16 that they are "perishing" (ESV "wasting away"). Little wonder, then, God would urge each of us to ask ourselves, "Self, what are you looking at?" Are you primarily fixed and focused on seen, temporary things or unseen, eternal ones?

Joan Rivers said, "Looking 50 is great if you’re 60." Whether 5 or 15 or 95 – the outward man is perishing. Does that reality along with the stress and suffering and disappointment you see in life discourage you? It does so many. Remember the apostle’s words: "Therefore we do not lose heart." If you are a discouraged Christian, fainting instead of flourishing, pulling back instead of continuing to serve, I would urge you to carefully consider this question: "What are you looking at?" Have you lost sight of Heaven? Are your eyes fixed on temporary things or eternal ones? Just asking. 

– Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

A Flexible Jesus?

     A phrase found in the Bible in Mark 4:36 has always intrigued me. As Jesus and the apostles prepared for a boat trip across the Sea of Galilee, Mark records, "And when they had sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships" (King James Version). Some 40 years ago I heard Brother G. P. Holt preach on that verse, and one of the things he preached stuck permanently in my brain. He declared that if you want Jesus to get in your boat and travel across the sea of life with you, you will have to take Him "even as He is." He won’t let you be in charge of who and what He is and what He teaches! Holt went on to declare Jesus Christ is Lord and that those who wish to follow Him must take Him "even as He is" in matters relating to morality, doctrine, the plan of salvation and His church, etc. In short, we must accept Him as the New Testament depicts Him – the crucified Savior of the world (1 John 2:1-2; 4:14) – but also a living Lord who demands faithful obedience from followers (Luke 6:46; Acts 2:36).


       There is irrefutable evidence many modern believers in Jesus don’t like to take Jesus even as He is. Pluralism demands choice in everything – from the kind of clothes we wear to the kind of church we attend to the kind of morality we practice (or not) to the kind of sex we want (and with whom) to the way we want to be saved or even if we need to be saved or not! Meanwhile, many want a flexible Jesus they can bend and shape to sign off on all this. In his book, Mean and Wild, Mark Galli references his interview with Stephen Prothero in 1994. In that interview, Prothero contrasts an older way of thinking about Jesus to the newer mindset. He said: "Christians traditionally, as they’ve shaped Jesus, have been worried about getting it wrong, including the Puritans. Americans today are not so worried. There isn’t the sense that this is a life-and-death matter, that you don’t want to mess with divinity. There’s a freedom and even a playfulness Americans have [he means in their approach to religion] ... The flexibility our Jesus exhibits is unprecedented.

      There’s a Gumby-like quality to Jesus in the United States. Even turning Jesus into a friend among born-again Christians–that kind of chutzpah is something that was unknown even to Americans in the Colonial period" (p 16). If you don’t know, Gumby was a green clay humanoid creature created in the early 1950's and featured on TV and a movie. Like a lump of moldable clay, Gumby could expand and bend in endless ways. He was flexible off the flexibility scale! The New Testament does not depict a flexible, Gumby-like Jesus. A loving and caring and forgiving Jesus to be sure - the cross puts that beyond debate.  But we must take Him "even as He is."  He is declared to be "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). His Person, position, commands, gospel, doctrine, plan of salvation, teaching about the church, etc., do not flex or bend based upon opinion polls or personal preferences of people.

      Colossians 1:18 proclaims the inflexible truth about Christ: "And He is the head of the  body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." Jesus Christ will travel this life with you, but you must take Him "even as He is." He is faithful off the scale - but He is not .flexible. Think about it

  – Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Mat 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

It was the night of betrayal. Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane with His three closest disciples, Peter, James and John. He told His disciples to wait while He went a little further to pray. When He came back, He saw that His disciples were asleep. This He did three times and three times when He returned, His disciples were sleeping. He said to them: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (v.41).

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak – The three disciples were just too tired. I’m quite sure they tried to keep themselves awake. But their eyes wouldn’t allow.

Have you ever tried to keep away while the worship or Bible class is going on but couldn’t? Your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak. God knows the heart. He knows when a worshipper’s spirit is willing but his flesh is weak. By affirming that “the spirit is willing,” Jesus was saying that He knew the disciples wanted to stay awake and pray, but the weakness of the flesh had overpowered the spiritual desire to pray and watch.

But He also knows when a worshipper’s spirit is unwilling and he tells his flesh to go to sleep. There is a difference between a spirit that is willing and another which is unwilling. The disciples’ spirits were willing to do what was right. In fact, just a few minute earlier, all of them had pledged their lives to Jesus (v.35). Peter even declared he would die with Jesus than to deny Him. But, as it turned out, they fled when their Lord was arrested (v.56).

Jesus was not scolding His disciples but exhorting them to beware of the weakness of the flesh. He knew they had tried. Our Lord will be more concerned with those whose spirits are not willing. An unwilling spirit is a brother to the flesh.

What does an unwilling spirit do?
1. No qualms about falling asleep during worship.
2. No plans to attend mid-week Bible classes, Gospel Meetings, church activities.
3. No desire to serve God.

An unwilling spirited Christian has no struggle with the flesh. He does not feel bad about not setting the right example: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5).

The willing spirited Christian cares for the things of the Spirit. Therefore, he makes it his purpose in life to walk in the Spirit; to do those things which the Holy Spirit approves. So, he aligns his life towards godliness: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11, 12).

The spirit that wants to live right but fail will receive more mercy than the spirit who chooses to live according to his liking. God calls to be holy like Him (1 Peter 1:15, 16). God knows sometimes the flesh is weak. And, His mercy extends to those who are struggling in their spiritual life: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The unremorseful ones are those who say they have no sin; their spirit and flesh are one.

Therefore, let us check our spirit: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). What about you? What kind of spirit do you have?