Let the Word be Your Vision

Ps 1:1--Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2--But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3--And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

     There is an old song in some of your hymnals, "Be Thou My Vision."  In the past several years, it has been resurrected by modern groups.  Many people that follow hard after God sometimes desire a vision.  I was one at one time.  However, the entire Word of God is a vision if you choose to read and believe it.  Most Christians do not get a vision from the Word of God for two reasons.  One reason is that they very, very, very seldom read it.  The second reason is that when they do read it they only half-way believe it.

     Most of us are having difficult times at the present.  Most of us have a hard time "seeing" their way out.  Therefore, it is of utmost importance that we change our visions.  We have allowed circumstances, what we read in the newspapers and what we see on TV to 'Be Thou My Vision.'  Our faith in our future becomes hazy, confused and sometimes non-existent by what we have fed our minds.  (Note:  It might be a good idea to read my previous blog about feeding the good dog.)

     Jesus allowed the Word of God to be His vision.  I am convinced that, according to Psalm 1, He meditated ONLY on what God said about Himself-----day and night.  That's pretty close to all the time, don't you think?  Let's take a look at some observations.

     ONLY one or two of the religious muckety-mucks believed that He was Who He said He was.  That left thousands in every city that refused to honor Him.  Even after He released people from the captivity of their sins, their blindness, their lameness or demons, they refused to honor what God was doing in His life.  They professed to be the voice of Almighty God to the whole world but refused to recognize His Son.  Jesus never sinned.  He never harmed anybody.  He never did anything shady.  And, He never, never, never got ANY recognition from the religious crowd.  They had their own 'click.'  Only brown-nosers could get in.  How many times has this happened to you? 

     Let's go one step further.  How many of Jesus' family believed He was Who God's Word said He was?  None, but His mother, Mary.  How many of Jesus' disciples believed that He would rise again?  How many stood by Him during His trial and crucifixion?  How many were with Him when He died on the cross?  None, but John the Beloved.  But, that never deterred Jesus.

     To meditate means more than just to think about it.  The Hebrew word for "meditate" also means to plot (or plan), to mutter (or to say it out loud) and to imagine (or to see yourself doing it.)  However, if we JUST think about the Word day and night, we will begin to do more than just think about it.  Here is a good example.  Let's say that all you thought about for thirty minutes straight was a big, juicy cheeseburger or a thick, rich milkshake.  You know and I know that when we think about it for thirty minutes straight, the desire for one or both of those items becomes a compelling urge.  It becomes a necessity of life just because we refused to take our minds off of it.  We could care less if our eating a cheeseburger or drinking a milkshake met ANYBODY'S approval or not.  We were compelled to indulge.

     Jesus, let His devotion to His Father be His approval.  The Word of His Father was His vision.  When everybody else disapproved and even disdained His desire to go to the cross and die, He was compelled to do it anyway..  To just endure the cross was not His main meditation.  It sure wouldn't be mine.  Jesus' compelling meditation, talk, and vision was of Him going down into the very regions of the damned to pay a visit to His life-long enemy, Lucifer.  Jesus' vision for years, and years and years was the same one His Father had for eons and ages.  It was His Father's will, plan, and law, that the (Gen 3:15) "seed of the woman" would one day take thousands of years worth of vengeance out on the 'serpent.'  Jesus was compelled, not by what people thought or doubted, but by the love of the Creator God to meet satan on his own territory and deal him ONE FINAL BLOW.  Jesus couldn't wait to get to the cross not because He enjoyed pain, but because He knew that it was the doorway to destroy the one who invented pain.  In essence, Jesus wasn't looking for a death, He was looking for a fight.  He meditated on dealing that deathblow.  He talked about dealing that deathblow.  He pictured Himself dealing that deathblow.  He plotted HOW He would deal that deathblow.  Just like you, me, the hamburger and the milkshake.  The longer He meditated on it, the greater the joy and desire that welled up inside of Him.  This adds more credence to Hebrews 12:2-Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Don't you reckon that every time Jesus thought about punching satan that a t-total-ton of joy began to jump up within Him?
 
     And when that moment finally came, what a knockout punch it was.  He took your place and mine in dealing the deathblow to satan.  Luke 10:19 declares that Jesus gave us all power over this defeated foe.  We can bind him and cast him out ANY TIME WE WANT TO.  We can lay hands on the sick and have them recover, ANY TIME WE WANT TO.  We can reach the lost ANY TIME WE WANT TO.   The trouble is, do we want to?  Be honest, we are afraid to.  Why?  Because we have let TV, newspapers, and a lot of times what our preacher or church affiliation tell us what God's Word means.  Listen, if God didn't mean what He said in His Word, He would have put a cartoon there instead of His awesome promises.  The problem is, we pay more attention to the cartoons on TV than we do to His promises.

     Let the Word be your vision.  Meditate on it more and more and more.  Think about it.  Memorize and confess it.  Like Jesus did, think about whipping the devil stupid.  Quit thinking and therefore acting like you are satan's mangy cur dog chained to a dead tree and lost in the corner of his back yard somewhere.  See yourself as God sees you in Mark 16:15-18.  Read it for yourself.  I'm not quoting it to you on this blog.  Get in there and read the Bible for a change.  Believe the "GOOD NEWS" and come alive in the Word.  Let the "GOOD NEWS" be your vision and you will change your household, your neighborhood and our nation.

Amen and Amen.