Whose VISION?

Can you believe that it is June already?  Where did this year go?  As a kid in school I can remember dreaming about and beginning to plan for the coming of June and summertime frolic and freedom right after the Holiday Season was over!  How about you?  Now that I am older and have a lifetime of experiences behind me, the coming of the summer months are still exciting… but NOTHING like I thought they were between the ages of six and eighteen!

Our church honored all the graduating High School Seniors a few Sunday’s ago, and the pastor spoke a word of congratulations and encouragement to those in attendance in the congregation.  At one point in his sermon he spoke of how we have most of our needs and major decisions met or made for us throughout our school years, but once we graduate High School, life and the decisions we will make become our own responsibility.

After he mentioned this, I suddenly found myself translated back to 1971 as I stood in the hallway of my parent’s home the morning after my High School graduation services.  I remember that time in my life very clearly.  I recall feeling a little lost and intimidated at the thought of what lay ahead for me.  Like our Pastor had spoken of, I remember thinking how different things were going to be from that point on! 

At that moment in time I had no clear VISION for my life… EXCEPT that I was most likely going to spend it with the cute, intelligent and wonderful young lady that I had spent everyday with since September of the previous year.  And while I can’t say that it was even a conscious thought or that we had talked about our future together, I believe that Piper would tell you that she felt the same way.  No matter what was ahead, I… or better said WE, subconsciously knew that we would experience it together!

Later on, during that same Sunday evening, I found myself standing in the hallway of our home 3000 miles away from the other hallway I found myself standing in some forty-seven years ago on the opposite coast of our country, thinking very similar thoughts as I did back then.  But the big difference in this situation was that I found myself fighting against my faith in wondering IF I would be facing the future with that same, now beautiful, mature, wise and Godly women.  At that particular moment, I began to realize that the possibility of her NOT being at my side TERRIFIED me!

But before that terror could take hold of me, I had the sudden understanding that this fear is in direct opposition to all the Word of God that I have been pumping into Piper and I over the last ten years… So right there and then I was faced with a major decision! 

What VISION was I going to follow?  The one of fear and defeat that I see on a daily basis every time I lay my eyes upon my dear wife, or the one that I see and have been confessing over her from the Word of God?  Put into rather simplistic terms… Is my VISION one of DEATH or one of LIFE? 

Moses told the Israelites (and modern-day Christians as a type and shadow of Old Testament Israel) to choose life.  In a matter-of-fact statement he declared: “I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live.” (KJV)  Jesus clarified to us what Moses was talking about when He told His followers in John 6:63 that “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (KJV)

Well, that makes it pretty clear to me… wouldn’t you say so?  So, whose VISION are Piper and I choosing to follow and live by?  You guessed it… We have decided that the VISION that we choose to have for Piper is the VISION that the Word of God casts forth!

After breakfast the following morning, I was reading to Piper from the current book we are reading together entitled “In His Presence” by E.W. Kenyon and I saw something in an old familiar scripture that I had never realized before.  Jesus told John in a vision on the Island of Patmos that we Christians can overcome the devil, whom He named the “Accuser of the Brethren” (See: Revelation 12:10).  He gave the “secret sauce” to the recipe for a Christian’s long and prosperous life saying: “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony…” (Revelation 12:11 MKJV)

What I had never noticed before was that the word Jesus was speaking about was the LOGOS of God.  It wasn’t just any word that we Christians are to be speaking, but specifically THE WORD of God… that same Word that we find within the pages of our Bibles!  Think about it, Jesus also told His disciples that the words that He spoke were not His own but those of His Father. (See: John 14:10)  So if Jesus… the Son of God… spoke not His own words but those of the Father… wouldn’t it behoove us to speak the same words that Jesus spoke?  I’m thinking here, that if it was good enough for Him then it is good enough for you and me.  Wouldn’t you agree?

So, what is Piper’s and my VISION for our future?  Well, it lines up with… and in fact IS exactly what the Word of God says it is.  I believe that I Peter 2:24 sums it up perfectly when it comes to my wife’s health.  It declares that: “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that dying to sins, we might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.” (MKJV) And I know of at least another 100 verses that agree with that statement!

So, I don’t stop and think too much in my hallway anymore.  Instead I rejoice and speak out God’s (and our) VISION for Piper’s and my future.  What do you think?  Does God play favorites?  Does His Word work for just a few, or for anyone who steps out to read it, believe it, speak it and receive it by faith?  Well, that answer is also pretty obvious!  He is on your side just like He is on mine or any other Christian!

You know… With His Word in your heart and in your mouth… you can’t help but have a bright outlook on your future! 

Have a great weekend!  And as you do keep rejoicing, keep believing in and speaking out His VISION for you as found in His Word.   Then you can’t help but answer yourself when you ask… “Whose VISION am I expecting to have as my VISION today?”