Orange Moon Saturday, March 20, 2021 The Seen and the Unseen

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

The Seen and the Unseen

    

       We referenced the verse below in a message this week, which led me to ponder the implications of seeking to follow the perspective declared by the Apostle Paul:

       "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18).

      First, Paul does not suggest that we ignore "the things which are seen."  Creation encroaches on us far too much to simply attempt escape from the realities its constantly brings to our doorstep.  The Apostle rather refers to our primary vantage point from which we view all things.  Do we see through the lens of the living God and His truth?  Is the gaze of our spirit led and empowered by the gift of His Spirit?  When the aforementioned encroachment of earthly things demands our attention, do we attend to them in the light of our Heavenly Father's presence, involvement, and working?  Do the pleasant things find us gratefully remembering the Giver of "every good gift and every perfect gift?" (James 1:17).  Do the painful things prompt us to join Moses, who "endured as seeing Him who is invisible?" (Hebrews 11:27).  These and many other questions encourage and challenge us to more consistently emphasize eternal reality, and in so doing, far more effectively and practically address the matters of our present existence.  "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord" (Colossians 3:23).

    The old saw that we can "be so Heavenly minded, we're no earthly good" is surely possible.  However, genuinely walking with God does not cause us to ignore reality and responsibility, but rather to face life in the confidence that "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (II Peter 1:3).  We face things squarely, as it were, because we face God spiritually.  That is, we seek to remember and affirm that the realities of life all bow to the transcendent reality of His life.  As we frequently suggest in these messages, our Lord is the Great Fact of all things.  Regardless of what our senses and often faulty human reason tell us, the Spirit of God and the Word of God bear witness to the pervasive fact of God as the greatest truth of every circumstance, condition, and situation.  "God… worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:3; 11).  Our calling involves remembrance and affirmation of such wondrous truth by faith, and by choosing to view "the things which are seen" through the lens of "the things which are not seen."

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."

(Colossians 3:1)  

"We walk by faith, not by sight."

(II Corinthians 5:7)

Weekly Memory Verse

    For in Him we live and move and have our being.

(Acts 17:28)

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