Friday, October 22, 2010

Seeing something amazing!

I'm trying to imagine a scenario. What if there was something that many world leaders and church leaders were longing to see but couldn't find? What if our prime minister, and the President of the United States, and many other world leaders of countries like China and Russia and all the E.U. nations wanted to see this one specific thing, but were somehow prevented from doing so? And what if the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury and well-known evangelicals like Billy Graham, Rick Warren and Ravi Zacharias were all itching to see this special something, but couldn't?

And then -- imagine this -- what if God chose to show that special something to you? What if you suddenly found yourself staring right at it, with Jesus standing right beside you smiling and asking, "So, what do you think? Pretty amazing, eh?" (Jesus speaks in Canadian idiom).

It could be said that that's the sort of scenario Luke 10:23-24 represents. "Then turning to His disciples He said privately, 'Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.'" Jesus was talking there about the Gospel. The disciples had just returned from an evangelistic outing, and Jesus was talking about how they had seen the power of the Gospel over sickness and demons.

But Jesus was talking about so much more than that in light of the fact that He in the process of gradually revealing to His disciples the many amazing truths of the Good News He had come to proclaim. He was talking about the salvation and forgiveness and abundant life with Almighty God that makes Jesus' Good News so good! He was talking about being a friend of God and a child of God. He was talking about being set free from the power of sin and about becoming a new creation with a life full of purpose. If you know Jesus, then you are among the ones He's chosen to reveal His Father in heaven to through the wonderful expression and demonstration of the Gospel! Li'l ol' you and me. That makes us blessed big-time. That means we're loved.

The other day, I got to lead a whole family to Jesus in one simple conversation. In one moment, all of them were made new in Jesus. I got to see that. So I not only get to see the wonder of the Gospel realized in my own life, but in the lives of others I meet as well. Because seeing what we've seen means we've got to want to share it, like the 72 disciples that Jesus had sent out in Luke 10:1-20 and who came back rejoicing! Thankfully, that's a scenario we don't have to only imagine as we find joy in Jesus every day!

© 2010 by Ken Peters

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