Sunday 6 January 2013

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Yesterday evening at the church service we sang the hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace...


I was struck with the simple revelation of the importance of the words "turn" and "look." I sat down and wrote on the tithe envelope:

You actually have to turn, this is active, it is an action.
Turning, fixing, looking, focusing, all actions, this is an active response.
Each day. 
Also, this means I am turning, taking my attention off of other things...
What do I need to take my eyes off of?

Then someone came up to the front and spoke further into my revelation. He asked these very important questions:

Who is your God? 
Why can't I keep my eyes on Jesus?

I want to encourage you this morning to ask yourself who or what has your attention?
What are your eyes, figuratively or literality turning to, fixing on, looking at, and focusing on? 
What do you need to take your "eyes" off of?

Remember this is an active action, it likely will be difficult, but it is worth it, because Jesus is LIFE, as Hebrews 12:2 says Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfector of our faith...

Let us! Together, find an prayer partner, an accountability partner, who you can share what you need to stop looking at, and together you can fix our "eyes" on Life! 

Amen




Thursday 3 January 2013

No New Years Resolutions, Only New Life!

I have been reading the Bible in the Message lately, thanks to the technology of my iPhone app I am able to jump between translations, love it!

Besides loving technology I also love the living Word of God, and that is really truly what it is, living. Through reading the Message His Word has been speaking to me in new ways, this is very exciting! So I guess my first point of this spiel is that I would recommend mixing it up, reading different translations to have a fresh reading.

This morning I was reading Romans 12 in the Message, and God spoke so clearly and beautiful to me. His message was simple, not easy, but simple.

I only got as far as reflecting on verses 1 and 2, His Word is so deep and rich...

In my own words:

God helping you, take your everyday, ordinary living and place it before your God as an living offering.

Yes Jesus all that I am is yours, do with me as you will... your will be done not mine. Amen.

Jesus, today I have my "to do list," please have your way with it. May I walk in step with your Spirit, and not get tripped up by my lists. Jesus, please continue to give me the grace to be a living sacrifice. I confess I do not feel like I have been much of a sacrifice lately, not at all actually. Please forgive me for my selfish, and self-centred living. Oh Jesus, please help me to fix my eyes ever on you, and to follow you all the moments of this life you have given me. Amen.

A new day, new year, and new message? No, this is a message God continues to speak to me year after year. I am not in the habit of making new year resolutions, and this is not a blog about breaking that habit.

What this blog is about is new life. Come and make a new life resolution with me, let us together take our everyday, ordinary lives and offer them to God as a living sacrifice, and in dieing to our "to do lists," letting him have His will, and we will be truly living! Amen.

I challenge you to take a moment every morning to offer up your "to do list," your everyday and ordinary lives to Him, it can be as simple as "your will/to dos" be done not mine. Amen."

Here is to NEW LIFE! Amen.