Bella Vista Church of Christ
LIFELINES
September 12, 2001 Randall Caselman
It Depends On Perspective
Perspective, how we see things, is important. For instance, how do we see LOVE? It consists of four letters, the 12th, 19th, 13th and 22nd letters of our alphabet. Learn this, then we know all about love. Right? No, certainly not! Take the phrase, “I love you.” It consists of two pronouns and a verb. Do we know any more about love? No. Well, try another perspective. Look at it grammatically. There is a subject, verb and object. Now we know about love. Right? Okay, let’s look at love in context. I love apple pie is one thing. “I love you” said to spouse, children, parents is quite another. Raise it to still a third level - The agape love of the New Testament, the love of the will which allows us to love the ugly and the unlovable. Then to a higher level still – “For God so loved the world.” You see! What love is to us depends on our perspective - how we view it.
Christianity is a heart condition. Motive is important. Why we do a thing is more important than just doing it. One is legalism, the other is true religion that God accepts. One is the letter of the law. The other is both letter and spirit. Jesus maintains we must have both to be true worshippers. Showing up for Sunday morning worship is important, but being there for the correct reason is more important. True religion, is a matter of perspective. What is our perspective?
How do we see God? Some view God as a crisis management tool, as a rabbit’s foot redeemer, as a genie in a bottle. They never think much about God and their relationship to Him until a crisis comes. Then they sit up straight. They walk church aisles. But when the storm is past, they place Him carefully back into the bottle “til next time.” It’s true, isn’t it, that God must touch all of life or He is not our God.
J. B. Phillips writes of a God-In-A-Box. We have confined God to the church building like old folk to a nursing home. We come visit, pay our respects each week if its convenient. Some of us do allow Him to regulate one day out of seven; wouldn’t miss church for anything. But keep Him in the box, don’t allow Him to have control of our business, our family, and above all, don’t allow Him to have control of our entertainment choices. Mr. Phillips also mentions that we have a problem with what he calls a Second-Hand God. One that we have heard about from family, friends, and film, but have no first hand knowledge of.
What is our perspective of God? Do we view Him only as a crisis management tool, as a rabbit’s foot redeemer who lives in the church building, or do we know Him first hand? Intimately? Do we know God as Father? Faith in God is a matter of perspective - How do we see Him?
How do we see Jesus? What’s in a name? Just a whole lot! Nobody names their child Judas. When we hear the name Jesus, what is our perspective? How do we see Him?
Jesus is Savior. Jesus in Hebrew is Joshua, meaning “Jehovah is salvation” or “God is Savior.” Peter declared to the Sanhedrin, “There is salvation in no other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Mankind needs a Savior. Salvation is our greatest need. Do you see Him as Savior?
Jesus is Christ. The Greek is Christos, which means the Anointed One or Messiah. Faithful Jews looked forward to Messiah. They wanted Him to come. Do we look forward to Jesus in our life? Some hate to see Him coming. He is life-changing. Most Jews missed the Christ because they presumed Him to be something other than what He was. How do we see Him?
Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Master, the Supreme Controller. Does our perspective of Jesus include control? Is He the Lord, Master, King of our life? Some see Jesus as only a good man. If that be so, if He is mere human, He has no real authority. His Name deserves only to be placed alongside contemporary humanitarians, Ghandi, Schweitzer and Mother Teresa. But if He is God, then we must view Him as Lord of life. God help us to be like Thomas declaring Him to be, “My Lord and my God.”
How do we see the Bible? The intellectual community sees the Bible as another piece of literature. Schools study it from this perspective. Something to study but not necessarily to apply to life. Bible knowledge is not enough. Bible knowledge does not guarantee salvation. The Bible has 66 books, 1189 chapters, 773,746 words, 40 writers, covers over 3500 years of human history. So what? Others memorize it. We are told that Nikita Kruschev had the book of John committed to memory, but it made no impact on his life.
What is our perspective of The Book? Do we understand revelation, inspiration and illumination? If the Bible is from God to man (revelation), and if those men did write what God instructed (inspiration), then we must take it seriously and walk in its light (illumination). Folk, to us the Bible is just another book until we allow it to illuminate our daily path.
Proper perspective - how we view matters - is important. My prayer is that we will continue to expand our perspective of God, Christ, and the Bible. But we must understand that it is not just a wider view that we are striving for as much as a proper view. May God bless our search for perspective.
Randall Caselman
