Focus On Jesus

Oh! It’s the end of the world! Some of our more “educated” theologians tend to get bored with the Bible because they can only see a physical attachment to it and have totally missed out on the spiritual message given by God. So, they attempt to convince the gullible world that they have delved deeper into the book and found hidden coded messages never before discovered by man in an attempt to become a prophet of special knowledge from God to the world. The Greek word for this type of theology is, “hogwash”! The recent activities of natural disasters around the globe have played right into the hand of one David Meade, a self-proclaimed Biblical numerologist, and others, with his prediction that the end will come this day September 23, 2017. The only problem with his theory is the fact that his Planet X, which is suppose to hit the earth and destroy it, hasn’t come into view yet. It didn’t pop out from behind the sun during the “great eclipse” on its journey to the earth. Ooooo, I don’t know if I can stand the pressure of such knowledge this man has gathered from the Bible. The Word of God is not coded nor sugar coated, but simple, true and straight forward. The message is one of salvation for sinful man, and that’s all. I wonder if he used the rest of the book to help prepare his neighbors and friends for eternity. Personally, I have no idea when the end will come – “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36). But, if asked, I would guess it will come on a Lord’s day, Sunday, the first day of the week, maybe too logical for the educated to think about. For me it would be a great way to start a new week – the Lord’s Day - forever and ever.

[Philippians 2:7-8; John 1:14] Henry David Thoreau once spent a whole day in Walden Pond up to his neck in water. He wanted to experience the world as a frog sees it. He shared the experience, but not the reality. Thoreau did not become a frog! Jesus did not swoop down and survey the human condition from a safe distance. He emptied himself. He laid aside his celestial robes to put on the simple clothes of a man. Divinity clothed himself in humanity. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus borrowed ...a place for his birth (Luke 2:7) ...a house to sleep in (Matthew 2:11) ...a boat to preach from (Luke 5:1-3) ...an animal to ride on (Luke 19:28-36) ...a room to meet privately with his friends (Luke 22:7-13) ...and a tomb to be buried in (Matthew 27:57-60). He who owned it all had nothing for His own! Jesus left ...His purse to Judas (John 12:3-6) ...His supper to his followers (Matthew 26:26-28)  ...His clothes to the soldiers (John 19:23-24) ...His mother to John (John 19:25-27) ...His body to Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38) ...His peace to the disciples (John 14:25-27) ...His Gospel to the world (Mark 13:10) ...His presence with God’s children (1 John 3:16-20) ...His crown for me (2 Timothy 4:8). When Leonardo DaVinci was almost finished with his famous painting, “The Last Supper”, a friend commented on how incredibly moving the painting was – especially the silver cup on the table, “My eyes were immediately drawn to it.” DaVinci became so angry he painted over it blotting it out. The focus of the painting was to be Jesus, not the cup! Anything that distracted from Him had to be removed from the huge fresco. What is the focus of your life? Is your life centered on Christ? Paul wrote, ”For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:2).