Right Side Up
Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Acts 9:8-9 (NKJV)
When life has turned upside down, just change your definition of right side up. Paul was blinded from His encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he must have felt that his entire life was turned upside down. In reality, however, despite his physical blindness, he was finally seeing more clearly than he ever had before.
It may feel that God has let your life turn upside down as well, but could it be that He’s really turning your life right side up? The upside-down experiences are producing a right-side-up perspective. You may think your life is crashing, but when Jesus is involved, your life is being built up. You may think it’s the end of the road, but you have no idea it’s only a turn in the road.
It’s the blessing that the pain leaves with you. It’s the open door that is only discovered after the frantic response when the last door was shut in your face. It’s the gift the diagnosis reveals. It’s the way your hardship shapes your mind and heart. It’s the breakthrough from the blow-up argument. It’s the discovery that you are loved even after your heart has been broken. It’s losing what you think is most precious to you so that you can find the real treasure in your life.
Perhaps today you sit hurt and angry and scared and confused and actionless. While it seems like an upside-down experience, if we trust Jesus and remember that He is always working things for our good, that He loves us with an unfailing love, then we have to also trust that what He’s doing is causing us to become right side up through experiences that feel upside down.
The challenge is to not let your blindness make you stop seeing. We have to move away from seeing with our eyes and move toward seeing with our faith. Don’t let difficulty run through your life and not leave a gift. There is purpose in the pain.
Who is Jesus to You?
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:13-16 (NIV)
Australian preacher Michael Bird has compiled some of the titles of Jesus to show us that no matter what lens we look through, Jesus meets our need and supplies our lack. He wrote:
To the artist He is the One Altogether Lovely.
To the architect He is the Chief Cornerstone.
To the astronomer He is the Sun of Righteousness.
To the baker He is the Living Bread.
To the banker He is the Hidden Treasure.
To the carpenter He is the Sure Foundation.
To the doctor He is the Great Physician.
To the educator He is the Great Teacher.
To the farmer He is the Sower and Lord of the Harvest.
To the florist He is the Lily of the Valley.
To the geologist He is the Rock of Ages.
To the horticulturist He is the True Vine.
To the judge He is the Righteous One.
To the juror He is the True Witness.
To the jeweler He is the Pearl of Great Price.
To the oculist He is the Light of the Eyes.
To the philosopher He is Wisdom.
And above all, to the sinner Jesus is the Savior of the world.
Jesus is all of these things to all of these people and so much more, but the question for you today is “Who is Jesus to you?” What need is He meeting in you? What role is He filling? What interest is He piquing? What fascination is He satisfying? What lesson is He teaching? What promise is He fulfilling?
Whatever lens you are looking through in life, Jesus is the culmination of what you are seeking and the object of your pursuit.
Jesus First
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2 (NIV)
I was asked the most interesting question by a pastor friend of mine. I thought about it for weeks after our conversation. He asked, “Hey Bill, if you were the singular shaper of the church today, what would be your focus and what would you change first?” And to both my answer is this: “I would require more preaching, teaching, and worshipping centered on Jesus, and far less centered on us.”
The church’s focus should be more about the lordship of Jesus, and less about our cultural circumstances, our political issues, or our gender and sexual identity issues. I understand the need to express our worth and our value, our strengths and our potential. I know that we’ve got to speak truth to power, and I know we have issues related to race and politics. Trust me, I get it. We need to be reminded of our inheritance and our spiritual status. We need to be told on a repetitive basis that we’ve got victory and we walk with spiritual might. We need to celebrate the blessings and favor and open doors that God extends to us. But none of these things should be the primary focus of the church. Preemptive above all else is the lordship and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
Why? Because unless we had been made alive in Jesus, we would be floating dead in trespasses and sins, so nothing else matters as much.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying these things don’t matter at all—because they do. I’m saying they do not matter as much as our focus on Jesus. We need to be encouraged, we need to be motivated, we need self-esteem and character building and training. But these are peripheral things, and all of them are enveloped under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the undeniable, indisputable, irrefutable, singular Son of the living God. And He alone can save by His divine power. It’s time for the church to turn its focus back to where it belongs and keep the main thing the main thing.
Jesus, the Great Physician
Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Luke 5:31-32 (NKJV)
The first thing Matthew does after his decision to become a follower of Jesus is to invite Him over to his house for dinner. Matthew’s intent is to invite others who will celebrate with him the decision he has made. Matthew honors Jesus at the dinner, wanting everybody to know that Jesus has changed his life. At the dinner are fellow tax collectors and other individuals, whom the Pharisees view simply as “sinners.”
Before the celebration progresses too far, however, those Pharisees start in on Jesus. They approach His disciples and complain: “Why does Jesus eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
This question is intended to raise suspicions about Jesus’s authenticity and legitimacy as a moral and spiritual leader because He’s hanging out with these spiritually “unacceptable” people.
But Jesus paints a gripping picture of how we should see ourselves and how we should see Him. His answer to the question is essentially this: I am like a doctor, and if I am standing with a healthy person (as you Pharisees think you are in your own eyes) and a sick person (as you view these that I'm enjoying dinner with), which one needs me more?” And of course the answer is the sick person.
Jesus is the Great Physician. He is the eternal spiritual doctor, and He’s practicing medicine, so to speak, on people who are sick from spiritual neglect. He is healing those who have been made even more ill from the malpractice of people like the Pharisees. He is writing out prescriptions, administering dosages, and reversing symptoms.
This portrait that Jesus paints of Himself is a window through which we peer to more deeply understand His relationship to us. Is He Savior? Yes. Is He Sustainer? Yes. Provider, Defender, Sanctifier, Master, and Redeemer? Yes, all of these and more. But Jesus Himself also suggests that He is a Physician.
What spiritual ailment are your suffering from today? Bring it to the Great Physician to be diagnosed, treated, and healed.
Dormant Potential
We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
Not long ago, a seed was discovered within a pyramid in Egypt. It was estimated that the seed was at least 3,000 years old. Just for the fun of it, they decided to plant it and see if it would sprout and grow. To their surprise, it did. It taught them a powerful lesson. Seeds have the ability to store their potential to germinate for a remarkably long time.
That seed teaches us a powerful lesson as well. That seed is a representation of you and me. It teaches us that no matter how long we are repressed, locked in, restricted, imprisoned, or quarantined, the potential for growth, for good, and for fruit is still there.
When that seed finally had the chance to be planted, the 3,000 years of dormancy didn’t matter one bit, because all the potential—all of the power—was still there inside it.
The seed didn’t focus on the limitations of the past. As soon as it was planted, it said, “Let’s go!” and the potential that was waiting inside was released, to God’s glory.
Maybe you are facing a period of restriction, setback, dormancy, or silence. Maybe you feel like your soul has been encapsulated in an Egyptian tomb for thousands of years—alone, neglected, and forgotten.
Let that one little seed be your reminder that there is still potential inside of you.
You still have so much to give, so much to do, so much to show the world—and when you do, God will be glorified.
