It's a Bird! It's a Plane! Its a Tax Man in a Tree? (Part 2)

 How do you see God?

 

That was the question that was presented to you in the last post, "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Tax Man in a Tree?"

 

The answer to that question is a very powerful factor in what I do with what I see.

 

I posted this cartoon from Gary Larson, not because I necessarily enjoy cartoons about God, but because it is a very powerful reflection about how we tend to look at God. We see Him as distant and unconnected to us at times. He loves us yes, but He also has a high expectation of demands for us to live up to. He "throws in" pain and hurt randomly to see what we will do with it when we receive it, and sometimes He just adds elements that hurt us because after all we have done something at one time or another to offend Him right?

Wrong!

He is our Father! His purpose and not His fairness dictates the circumstances of our life. He is all consuming, powerful and almighty! He is altogether lovely and He is not distant or silent. his voice booms in our life in a tone that is at times beyond audible!!!

For so many years I was miserably content to retain a head knowledge full of His greatest hits from the old testament and I was convinced that somehow I had offended Him and that I had chased away any hope of ever appeasing Him. I loved Him, but I was afraid of Him. I just lived day to day with the imagined reality that He and I would never or could never be on the same page. He moved in other people's lives, but He was silent in mine. I struggled with things that I should have had the victory in, and asking God for help was like talking to the popcorn finish of the ceiling...nothing. This was God?

I asked in the last post, "How do you see God?" because the answer to that question determines what you do with Him.

Maybe you have never had moments when you could not see Him like the people around you seemed to be able to see Him? If that is so, then I want to encourage you with this second question.

 

WHAT WOULD IT BE WORTH FOR YOU TO SEE JESUS DIFFERENTLY?

 

I am amazed at the amount of people that want change, but not enough to change.I am amazed at the people that i talk to who are really upset that they cannot seem to get anything out of their Bible reading... and get frustrated because, "Bro. Dan i just do not see God that way."

I remember working at a warehouse in Illinois and God brought Ms. Charlotte across my path. My identity In Christ was unknown to me and my view of God was very hindered by my own pride and flesh walk. I did a lot of good things to appease God, but very little through Him. I did not know how. I just knew that because of all of the boxes that I checked on the old "Service list" that I was a step ahead of the other people clamoring for a view of Him as He passed by.
That's when He brought Charlotte into the crowd that I tried to jump to look over. She walked the truck dock every day on He r lunch break and talked to herself and touched everything she came to, literally with her hand. I found out later she was talking with Jesus and speaking the Kingdom to be present in that place. Charlotte knew more than ABOUT Him, she knew Him in a way that I did not. he was close to her and He listened to her. He filled her and He spoke to her.
What frustrated me the most about this was that nothing appeared to be manufactured with her. Everything I saw displayed in her was like it was natural, and it impacted everything around her.
I had solidified in my heart that since she was not a Baptist then she was wrong, but even my solidification crumbled a bit when God used her to speak into my life. How could this be? She was not a Baptist, and in fact she was not an anything! I asked her what she was and she said, "I am a child of the king!" Was this a new denomination?
I could stand it no longer and one day I just approached her and asked, "How in the world do you SEE God?"

God used her to teach me that the Holy Spirit was there to teach me and that He wanted me to know who I was to Him! That was a change for me because I was so paranoid about other denominations that the act of "Speaking to the Holy Spirit and not Jesus or the Father" seemed like it could be dangerous. I remember the first time I got alone with my Bible and asked, "Holy Spirit? Is it OK if I talk to you?"

It was more than OK, and then I discovered that He spoke back! If I asked Him who or what  to pray for, He would place a name on my heart or a need on my heart. If I asked Him who I could encourage and then got quiet, He would put a name on my heart.
 

 

Zack decided, "I am not getting anywhere like this. I am just getting more frustrated listening to others describe the way that they see Jesus... I have to do something about it!"

Sometimes you have to be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and experience if you want a better view of God.

Zacchaeus was willing to put himself "out on a limb" of familiar terrain to see Jesus and it was the best thing that could have ever happened to him.

 

Sometimes, looking at Jesus from a different angle makes all the difference in the World. He climbed a tree.

How embarrassing is it for a grown man to be in a tree? How much does it draw attention to the fact that the only way for him to see Jesus would be to climb a tree because he was so short?

He did not care. He wanted to see Jesus the way that others saw him.

He did not ask what others would think about him, he just did it. If this will change my view of Jesus than I will do it!

"And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.
 And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." ~Luke 19:4-10

Jesus looked at Zacchaeus with all of his faults, and said here is a man who was frustrated about how he saw me, and did something about it. He was willing to change what he was doing to get a glimpse of me, and I can work with that!

Not only do I notice you, I am going to speak with you, but i am going to fellowship with you, and spend time with you, and you are going to come to see me in a different way than you ever thought you could.

After spending time with Jesus, Zacchaeus was able to do something that he never would have believed he could ever do.He changed.

Jesus does that because Jesus is LIFE!

Trees were made to give us a better view of Jesus. That is what Golgotha shows us and because of that tree, we now have  the best view that we could ever hope to have.

Climbing with you,
~Dan