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Is it possible to live in this present world the way God created us to live?  Did God forgive our sin when we were born again just so we could “go to heaven when we die”?  Did Jesus come to earth to live as God’s Son, or as the Son of Man?  He most definitely was God’s Son—and yet He was unmistakably a man.  He had to eat, rest, and sleep just like all other men.  He laughed and wept just as all humans have since the dawn of creation.  He had to manage money and relate to relatives.  Yet the peace and confidence with which He did it all was amazing.  It was as if He wasn’t weighted down as others were.  He talked about His Father and His Spirit in such a familiar way that They seemed close, not far off in an unreachable heaven.  His followers would later come to recognize this uniqueness as the very fulfillment of what God intended man to be all along.  In short, they would come to know they had seen God’s presence living in a human body (2 Corinthians 5:19).

But as Jesus brought God near to man He revealed differences in our thinking and God’s thinking. Though He taught a great deal about money, it never seemed to occupy the center of His thoughts the way it does most human beings.  At times He had multitudes swarming around Him, and, while He always had time for others, you got the impression His greatest desire was to be alone with His Father.  When the crowd came to make Him king, He almost seemed to ignore their request making it plain He was not interested in the prestige (or responsibility) they desired to heap on Him.  And though He noticed the beauty of woman, He never gave into the temptation to lust or experience her body.  He seemed to have His eyes fixed on another goal. (Luke 9:51 & Hebrews 12:2)

This focus defined His life.  Everything He did was directed at fulfilling the vision for His life, which the Father had released in His heart.  This desire to obey the Father in order to bring men back to God consumed Him.  Though He went through everything we do that can so easily distract us from our goal, He constantly looked to the Father in order to interpret present circumstances in the light of the vision—in order not to allow them to take captive His focus.  He was “living in the light of eternity.”  What happened here had significance only if it helped to reach the goal of His Father for eternity.  He was not living for Himself:  He acknowledged His life was not His own.  As a man, it wasn’t about Him.  It was about the Father’s desire being realized.  His human life was designed to be a vessel through which the Father’s life could flow—the Spirit of God released in the life of a man.  God’s original purpose for man was now being shown in perfect form.  When asked by His followers to reveal the Father to them, He simply stated,

“He who has seen Me has seen the Father . . . believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I speak not from myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me doeth the works.”

(John 14: 9 & 10)

Watching Jesus was like having a front row seat in the Throne room of God; you were constantly seeing the Father in action.  Yet, this “Throne room experience” came to a puzzling end.  Though for months Jesus had been trying to tell His followers what lay just ahead, they just could not seem to grasp it.  The whirlwind of activity and acceptance by the multitudes was intoxicating.  It left little time (or, for that matter, desire) to reflect on the deeper meaning of the mission of Christ.  Like so many of us, they were living for the moment.  Their association with Jesus had made them highly visible and envied by the common folk.  They had never this much respect from people.  They were “on a roll”…

Are you living for what people think of you—or what God thinks of you?

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.

(This message has been taken from our book Why God Birthed America.  You can order a copy of Why God Birthed America at HERE)