Losing Sight

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 7: Losing Sight

Opening Thought:  This chapter had two points in my opinion, the first and more discussed is the knowledge of the world-famous book The Pilgrims Progress written by John Bunyan. As useful as this discussion is, I’ll let you discover that portion on your own, if you ever decide to acquire Zacharias' book. The second point is much simpler but overlooked a bit when Zacharias offers his discussion questions. The second point derives from an anecdote about Zacharias visiting a museum for John Bunyan and discovering the young lady working the ticket booth at the museum had never read the famous book which was being honored. This shocked Zacharias, which I think I would had been too. I worked for a few years at a bookstore, and the longer I worked there the more books I became familiar with because it helped me with my job. So, the second point I would bring up, and which I thought Zacharias was going to focus more on, is that we as people of faith need to know the text we are representing. In short, READ YOUR BIBLE!

The devotional begins with: Ephesians 1:13-14 [NIV]

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Second Thought: I have had this issue that Zacharias faced where you speak to someone in a professional capacity, who you believe should be educated in that profession they are representing, but you soon discover they know extraordinarily little. Now if you are answering a phone or taking tickets for a living you may not need an expert level of knowledge but even the ability to speak the lingo of the subject matter helps the people who are contacting you for support, feel confidence in what you are engaging over. I uses to work for a cell phone company, now, generally I know extraordinarily little about the technological specs of cell phone, though I can use most tech easy enough, but do not expect me to explain much beyond it. However, for the year I worked for a cell phone company as a customer care agent, I learned everything I could so I could be the best agent possible. And even when people called in with frustration and anger because something had gone wrong with their plan or phone, because I knew my stuff, I could help them quickly and efficiently.

As a Cristian if you are trying to welcome people to the faith and you are being caught off guard when people engage you about your faith, it might be because you are not sure what your faith is about. Yes, I believe people can have faith in God with limited knowledge of the Bible, but it is challenging to live up to the calling to make disciples if you do not know what the Gospel and Christ are all about.     

Continual Work: Really make efforts to see a value in knowledge. If you let God into your heart God will use your heart to guide you, but God gave you a mind and fortitude as well, and these things also need to be finely tuned.  

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: There are a few things I use to be more knowledgeable in that I would say I am no longer. In my youth and young adult life I was an artist, I had a practiced skill and a pragmatic knowledge-base for sketching, painting, mural work, and graphic design. The more I have moved from that life into the ministry life, the less up-to-date my artistic knowledge is. That is okay. I do not need to know everything. As an ego driven person, I sometimes have to remind myself I do not need to be the expect at everything but having enough knowledge to maintain a good conversation is great!

Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: Colossians 3:23

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

I like this passage because it reminds us that we were created by the image of God. If God were before you and said, “can you help me wash the floors”, I would assume because you would want to make a good impression with God and be helpful, you would do your best to make sure the floor was clean and shining. If you work at a drive-thru restaurant and some snot-nosed teenager who happens to also be your boss tells you to wash the floors, even though its not the ideal boss, we are still called to respect the work at hand and the people who offer the work to us. Being able to dedicate yourself to tasks, duties, and/or employment is a gift. We tend to treat it like the means to an end, and sure we all need money to survive, but if the only motivation we have is the material gain then all the jobs and work we produce will be subpar.     

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Prayer for your day: God, give us the endurance and dedication to be learned people of faith. Stir in us a spirit of curiosity, hard work and meaningful ambition. Let us cultivate in our nature a character which will seek You out in all we learn and do. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Artistic Close: Sometimes it can feel like we are fish in the water, food pops down in front and it could be a good meal, or we could become the meal. Sometimes I think people avoid knowledge or engaging in dedicating ourselves to important things because we can be fearful that we are going to end up on the plate. However, if you are a truth seeker the knowledge, what you will seek will serve you well. And, when other turn to you too seek knowledge in faith you can assure them its not bait in the waters, rather the living waters themselves.

Leaping Brook Trout chromolithograph (1874) by Samuel Kilbourne. Original from Museum of New Zealand. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.