| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time” Our Bible verse for today: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.” John 15:19 (CSB) Our thought for today: “The view from thirty-thousand feet” In Matthew 5:13, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us that as His followers we are “the salt of the earth”. Salt is both a preservative and a seasoning. First, it permeates a substance and helps to retard decay and corruption. Second, it makes food taste better. In His illustration Jesus meant that as His followers we are to be like salt. We are to work our way into society, bless people, and spread the gospel. By doing that we stand against the spread of evil. Also, our presence in any situation should make things more pleasant and better for everyone. In that way we are to be “in” the world. Deeply penetrating it and influencing things for the cause of Christ. But at the same time, many New Testament verses teach that we are not to be “of” the world. In other words, as Jesus said in John 15:19, He has lifted us out of it and placed us above it in a spiritual sense. He wants us to learn how to be immersed in the activities of life while at the same time viewing it all from a Biblical and eternal perspective. This is what it means to be “in” the world without being “of” the world. Physically we live in the world, but spiritually we live above it. We experience the circumstances of life, but at the same time live above the circumstances of life. We can think of this as viewing life from thirty-thousand feet. Imagine yourself on an airplane looking down on the earth below. Because of your elevated perspective you can see the grand sweep of the terrain from a much different perspective than if you were standing on the ground. Picture a car driving on a highway below. From your perspective you can see where it has been, where it is now, and where it is heading, much better than the driver can. This is how God views all of life, and this is the perspective He wants to share with us. Unfortunately, most of us claim to have a spiritual and eternal perspective about things but in actual practice we live with a very worldly perspective. We view things from ground level rather than from God-level. We are both “in” the world and “of” the world. But what if we were better at viewing it all from thirty-thousand feet? What if we trained ourselves to step back, rise above the circumstances, and view it all from more of a Biblical and eternal perspective? That is what spiritual growth and maturity achieves for us and that’s why it’s so important for Christians to develop and maintain a Biblical worldview. Things look different from God’s perspective, and He is willing to help us to see things His way rather than our way. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you learn to see things more from thirty-thousand feet. It will make a difference in how you live. God bless, Pastor Jim |
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