Are You Seeing This?

Are You Seeing This?

by David Brenneman 

"The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.  But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’  And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?  An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.  And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread.  And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.”  But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?  Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up?  Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  Matthew 16:1-12.

Busy people tend to miss the details.  They miss the sprouting flowers growing up in the cracks of the sidewalk for them to see.

 

They miss the words of other's that are trying to say something really important. 

They miss.  Which is what many generations will fail to admit to before Jesus one day.   Failing to see all the times when He was knocking on the door of their hearts.  Missing all the times when His wisdom saved the day and not of themselves.  Missed all the opportunities that the Spirit presented to guide them to Christ. 

Missed the love letter, written across time, from Jesus to them in the pages of the Bible. 

Missed the love of God because they loved the approval of man. 

My Dear Reader...decision day for you can be right now.  That moment when you just stop in order to really acknowledge the truth of God in your life.  

The things that you ran to in order to feel better about yourself in the here and now rather that to think of your future and where you really stand before Jesus.

Reality is you either stand condemned or stand justified in the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.   Your own righteousness will never add up to the standard of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.  It just won't.  If it did then Jesus went through everything for nothing.  But it wasn't for nothing it was for you and I.  The most precious of all His creation. 

Our choices are to acknowledge Him and receive His free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ alone or to reject Him and receive the consequences of that choice. 

Seeking a sign from God when countless ones have been given that you might have only slightly noticed doesn't not mean that there were none.

The gift you have of breathing, the gift of a heartbeat, is the very grace and mercy of God towards you.  Your body isn't spontaneously pumping blood of its own accord. Look at the plethora of medical history's of hearts just stopping for no known reason.  Well, no Earthly reason anyway.  When a person gets to a point of no return...that they will never ask to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior...then there's no reason to go on if that person doesn't have a part in God's plans for mankind. 

Many many Jewish leaders woke up in Hell soon after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.  Woke up to the realization that everything He spoke of concerning them was the truth as well as everything He said about Himself was truth. 

The first sign for all happened over 2,000 years ago in a stable in the little town of Bethlehem.  The second sign was the sinless life that Jesus lived in front of the world.  The third sign was His full and complete fulfillment of the Scriptures concerning Himself by how He was treated, how He died, how He was buried and arose again 3 days later as both Christ and King. 

The signs are all there.

You're never too low that Jesus can't reach you nor far enough away that He can't find you.  You can never be too far gone to be saved by Him.  That's the power of the cross of Jesus Christ for you and I. 

The Scriptures say after He ascended that He then sat down on His Throne at the right hand of God the Father.  Sat down meant there was nothing left to do.  Everything was completed to open that door to save mankind if mankind would listen and receive. 

What are you waiting for?  I mean really, what's keeping you from asking Him to be the forgiver of your sins and the leader of your life?  Is anything in your life really more important than your eternity? 

Everything you have or hope for is going to waste away except for your soul and spirit.  Everything stays behind when someone dies. 

Nothing you buy these days lasts because of unscrupulous business practices allowing in our world.  Planning obsolescence.  A plan to make sure you must spend time and money to try to either keep what you have or keep up with the Jones.  These plans are to keep you too busy to stop and think about your eternity.  

Sooner rather than later Jesus will be returning to receive His Church to Himself.  In an instant millions if not a billion or so people are going to vanish.  World leaders will conjure up a plausible lie to explain it all away...that people will believe. 

Right before your eyes the world is becoming just as Jesus said that it will be like right before He returns.  

:But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,  treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these." 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Are you seeing this?  

"But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;  for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:8-13.

Jesus wants to save you. 

But you must be the one to ask for Him to save you.  It's not a given based on your looks or life you lived.  

Today might be the day for you to finally stop running and find the true love of God for you in Christ. 

Are You Seeing This?

All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.