Fix your eyes on Jesus and not on others

Let me tell you how this truth recently hit home to me. Sometimes Ray and I -- and so do you -- see generations slip. You see a husband and wife going hard after the Lord; and their children attending church more often than not; and their grandchildren totally uninterested in spiritual things. And through the years we've prayed, "Lord, keep the fire hot! Keep our children fervent for You, our grandchildren fervent for You, our great grandchildren . . ." And God, out of His amazing grace and not because we're deserving, has been answering our prayers. So you can understand our thrill when the first grandchild, Lisa, so zealous for God, became engaged to wonderful Mark, who loves Him as much as she does. I tell you what I've said so far with much prayer, saying, "Lord, don't let this be bragging! So many godly parents have rebellious children, and we're no better." But I tell you the next part of the story with even more prayer, knowing I'm opening myself up for attack. Help me, Jesus. By the night of the wedding I was giddy with joy. God was so faithful to hear our prayers; Lisa and Mark were such treasures. Pastors Ray and John, grandfather and father of the bride, performed the ceremony before all John's loving congregation . . . (". . . Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" "Your daughter and I do . . ." We choked with laughter and tears . . .) At the reception (filled with the Spirit but no "spirits"), the little band began a happy beat, and Ray and I were too exhilarated to sit still any longer. We don't know how to dance, but we were silly enough that night to discover we could wiggle without touching with the best of them. I hoofed around with Ray, with son Nels, and with a teenage Iranian boy our grandson had just led to know Christ. (Some readers are reacting, "Yea for the grandson! Yea for the new believer!" And some are reacting, "Boo for corrupting a new Christian!") Neither Nels nor the new friend knew any more about dancing than we did, but it was celebration time, and we were all full of it. "I could have danced (?) all night . . ." But at a break a girl came up to me and said, "I'm from northern California, and my small group and I have been so blessed studying your book Discipling One Another. May I take your picture?" Suddenly I came to -- and I thought, "Dear Lord, what has she been watching? I wouldn't for the world offend another Christian." I thought of Romans 14 and the need to live conservatively for others' sakes. . . . Then I thought, "The bride's grandmother? Gimme a break." . . . Then I thought of David's uninhibited happiness in 2 Samuel 6, and, like him, I said to myself, "It was before the Lord . . ." In telling you this, reader, I'm exposed and vulnerable, and I'm humbly asking God to cover me from criticisms, for His sake. I tell it to you not to "justify dancing" -- horrors, no -- but because I learned again on Lisa's wedding night that interior motives, not exterior actions, are the bottom line. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) When He sees a rebellious heart, even that man's plowing is sin (Proverbs 21:4); he can't do anything right. But this whole issue of "what's right? what's wrong?" is the reason for Romans 14, and the point of it is, Fix your eyes not on others but on Jesus. Never mind what other Christians do or don't do; "to his own master [not to you or me] he stands or falls" (v. 4). "Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another" (v.13). "Whatever we do, let's do it to the Lord," says Romans 14. "And whatever we decide not to do, let's abstain to the Lord." All eyes directed up! It's a dumb kind of Christianity that constantly looks sideways to check out what each other is doing. It will make us clean the outside of the cup while inside we may be full of wickedness (Luke 11:39): deceit, criticisms, and outward show. Don't fix your eyes on others -- Fix your eyes on Jesus, and give Him pleasure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's pray to Him: How different Your flowers are, O blessed Creator, how different Your insects, how different Your sea creatures, how different Your children! O Spirit of God, clothe me with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. May I bear with others, forgive others, truly love others . . . And most of all, fix my eyes on Jesus! In His own name, amen. * * * * * Guy King says that there's a gold running cup on another man's mantel that could have been -- should have been -- on his own. He was running toward the tape, coming in number one. Somebody was trailing on his right, and he shot a look to see where he was. It was a split-second distraction that his competitor needed, and he flashed by him and won. "Our sole safety [as Christians]," says Guy King, "is to be found in keeping our eyes averted . . . from others, and keeping them unswervingly 'looking unto Jesus.'" --Brought In, pp. 72-73