This past week I had the privilege of sharing in an online revival series that was set up by one of my dear friends/co-laborers (and former student.) His heart was to have messages for a week leading up to Election Day and then there was a prayer service. When I was preparing the message, I was drawn to something that was a big mantra at the first of the year… that this would be a year of vision… 2020 vision… clarity… Yet, then the year started playing itself out and we have found ourselves in the midst of uncertainty… confusion… chaos… and, instead of clarity, it seems like we are in a fog.
You see vision is the ability to see… but that is not the same thing as visibility. Visibility is the distance in which one can see; and is affected by light and conditions. You can have 2020 vision with what is right in front of you, but it is not necessarily helpful when trying to travel in the fog.
I have often written over the years about handling pressure on the basketball court… about being able to make a play even though the defense is trying to cause confusion… chaos… and lack of clarity. When teaching how to do this on the basketball court I run players through drills to teach how to make passes that take advantage of “hot spots” on the opponents and make it harder for them to deflect or steal the ball… I also use the drills to show where and how I want teammates to cut… (ie on a break when the player with the ball gets it to the middle, he/she should know and trust that teammates are filling the lanes on a straight cut from free throw line extended to the box… and if you have played for me, you can probably hear me screaming, “no banana cuts!”)
If you are not a basketball player, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with vision or visibility or the Word of God… I believe the Scriptures are what give us proper vision and, even when there is confusion and chaos, clear visibility that cuts through the conditions.
Psalm 119:105 calls the Word a Lamp and a Light; It illuminates where we are… and where we are going! Therefore, I do not believe that we can effectively navigate the times/conditions we are in apart from truly hiding God’s Word in our hearts! (Psalm 119:11)
Throughout the Scriptures we see the clear directive to use the Word to navigate through life! I think we can even go as far as to say we will live in a fog apart from the Word.
One of the most common phrases we hear in today’s church world is that we are called to be “Christ followers.” It is a concept Jesus Himself used several times when calling us to follow. Yet that leaves the question of what it really means and how to do it.
The easiest assumption to make is to say following means go and do what He did (i.e. follow in footsteps.) And when He was here on earth in earthly form, there was some validity to that thought… go where He was going and then do what He was doing… which I have often said was the best discipleship program available.
I believe the idea of following/discipleship is 100% rooted in taking in the Word… the Light that was given to us. After all, the claim of Jesus is that He was the Word made flesh… the “Logos.” In other words, Jesus, was God incarnate (in the flesh)… the fullness of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
In the book of John, Jesus describes Himself as “the Light”, the same description as what is given to the Word: John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Jesus promises vision and visibility to those that “follow” Him. The Word follow, in context, is not as much about what we do, but more about how we think (which in turn affects what we do.) Jesus was speaking to the crowd as a teacher and the word He used for “follow” is one that literally means one that would be a disciple or side with one’s party… (sounds like a good election week term)… one that would ascribe or buy into the other’s platform. We follow Jesus by ascribing to His teachings… allowing them to “transform” how we think, and thus how we live.
Even in the confusion and chaos, we can have clarity and know
where and what we need to be doing!
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