Seeing Jesus

Seeing Jesus was the theme of this week's Church service, and we kicked the service off in fine style with this fabulous, uplifting hymn. Seren and I both have it on our mp3 players, so we were singing our hearts out!


Shine Jesus Shine

Because the theme of the morning was Seeing Jesus, one lady and her son came up to talk about one way in which they've seen Jesus in their lives. The little boy is profoundly deaf, and was born without cochlears, and there is nothing which can be done to allow him to hear at all, and yet, he recently astounded his speech therapist by being able to say the word 'Hello'!!! His mother showed us a little video of her son saying 'Hello', and oh, when I heard his little voice, I couldn't hold back the tears. As his mother said, it's their own little miracle.

Once the kids had gone through to KatCh, the main service was led by one of the male Church leaders, and again, his sermon focused on 'Seeing Jesus'.

He said that we can see Jesus in the bread and wine of communion, in our daily walk with God, in other Christians around us, and also that Mother Theresa talked about seeing Jesus in the poor.

He then moved on to talk about when people in the Bible saw Jesus, and we read from Matthew 17, when Peter, James and John went up a mountain with Jesus and saw Jesus' 'transfiguration' (to change form), when his face shone like the sun and his clothes were dazzling white. They also saw Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah, and were terrified when they heard God's voice saying that Jesus is His Son, with whom He is pleased. The disciples closed their eyes in fear, but when Jesus told them not to be afraid, they opened their eyes and saw only Jesus.

The verse that he particularly wanted us to focus on was the one where it says that when the disciples looked up, they saw ONLY JESUS. And he said that if we want to follow Jesus effectively, we too need to see ONLY JESUS - we need to have a clear picture of what he's like and what he calls us to do.

The pieces of the puzzle really fell into place for me when he explained that we need to see Jesus as the man who is like us, who knows us and understands us; and we need to see God as God who is unlimited. If God were just like man, He would be limited, no better than us; and if Jesus were just God, He would be too big, immeasurably powerful and great, but too big for us. Jesus bridges the gap between man and God.

Thank you Jesus!

He then talked about just how important it was that the disciples saw ONLY JESUS after He had touched them and told them not to be afraid. He said that if the disciples had looked up and seen nobody, then ... well, they would have just come down the mountain with a story to tell, not knowing whether what they'd seen was real, and not having any proof. It would just have been an experience.

If they had seen only Moses when they'd looked up, they would have been impressed by the great man of history who had seen and spoken to God face to face, a man whose faith was all about what he DID for God. And if they had followed Moses' example, then maybe places, people and activities would seem more important than God Himself. If we focus only on what we do for God, and how we do it, then we are missing the point, we're not getting the whole story.

If they had seen only Elijah, the prophet who was full of power and miracles and prophesies, who challenged tradition, and was happy to be very isolated, on his own, then the disciples wouldn't have had the full truth then either. Elijah stands for truth, but only part of it, he brings the sense of guilt, sin, inadequacy and repentance, but again, that is not enough on its own.

And if the disciples had seen all three of them, Jesus, Moses and Elijah, they would have walked back down the mountain with Moses to teach truth, Elijah to give power, and Jesus to teach compassion, and would have in effect, been trying to bring best of faiths together. But as he said, that wouldn't necessarily work. In the world today, people sometimes try to combine multiple different faiths from around the world and bring them together, but again, that's not the whole truth either.

Which is why the disciples looked up and saw ONLY JESUS. Because in Jesus we see Moses bringing 10 commandments, but Jesus saying that the most important commandment of all is to love God with all our hearts. We see a bit of Elijah, but Elijah's job, as John the Baptist, was to point forwards to Jesus. As he said, once you get to destination, don't need the signposts anymore.

Jesus doesn't need anyone else. He came down the mountain with the disciples as the answer to their fears, and would soon be their Saviour, and give them hope. He was the man who lived with men, who didn't condemn them for failing to live up to God's standards, and brought them love and compassion, showing them that they were sinners but that they could be forgiven. Jesus came down the mountain to everyday life, to die for us.

And as he said, we need Jesus to come down from that mountain to be with us in our everyday lives. We need to focus on Jesus. Jesus has been there and understands, but even better, He understands with power over death and demons. The power to save us.

We then prayed together, and then, before we took communion, we sang this most beautiful hymn, which really hammered home exactly what Jesus did for us.


When I Survey The Wondrous Cross

So when I took communion, I asked Jesus to forgive my sins, and thanked Him for dying on the cross for me. Wow.

As I just wrote that, the words to the first verse of the hymn 'Amazing Love' by Graham Kendrick came back into my mind ...

My Lord, what love is this
That pays so dearly
That I, the guilty one
May go free!

Thank you Jesus!

I'll leave you for now with the Text of the Week from the Church pamphlet:

"Oh god, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory." Psalm 63 v 1-2.