“Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things (the thing) of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace.”

Back in the days when I was flying airplanes, I always had a point … a point to land when the flight was over. It might be a thousand miles away or it might be right back where I started, but it was a point. I had a flight plan to get there. Sometimes I would have to make in-flight corrections to deviate around bad weather. Sometimes I had to compensate strong winds by flying a course slightly off course. But there was always the point.

When I go hunting, I have a point that often has a rack of horns on it. My point is to hit the animal. Sometimes I have to compensate for the drop of the bullet, depending on the distance traveled. Sometimes when the animal is running, I have to aim for where it is going to be when the bullet travels the distance. But there is always the point, a point of contact.

People go through life with points, not always good ones. They decide where they want to be and then figure out how to get there.

Unfortunately, many Christians miss the point of their faith. They come to church just to get their ticket punched and go on about their secular stiving for their secular points. They go about their schedules and the world’s demands. God gave us a beautiful life to be used wisely.

We should keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, taking time to pray, to dive into scriptures and to turn to Jesus continually throughout the day so that He can guide our steps. Keeping our eyes upon Jesus means turning away from a world that urges us to do more, be more and doesn’t want us to focus on Jesus, but on all the outwardly things. Every day we should surrender to God’s agenda and accept that His grace is sufficient enough.

In Exodus 3, Moses was doing something mundane, tending someone else’s flock, when he encountered the burning bush. At that point he made an intentional decision: “I will now turn aside,” he said. If he had been heading to a meeting with eyes glued to his smart phone, he might have missed that declaration of the divine in the ordinary, and thereby missed God’s call to him. When I keep looking for my burning bush, strain my divine lens of the ordinary, I find God turning my ordinary into extraordinary, declaring His divine each day and giving it His purpose.

What is your point?

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

If we are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13–14), why is our salt and light not doing more to season and enlighten our culture? Why, in fact, are churches and Christian institutions sometimes the problem more than the solution?

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SIX WORDS TO ENCOURAGE AND SHARE

• You are doing a great job.
• This is your year to shine.
• Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it.
• What you do has greater impact than what you say.

— Stephen Covey

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THOUGHTS TO LIVE BY

• You got to nourish to flourish.
• Every end is a new beginning.
• Dreams don’t work unless you do.
• Moments give birth to new memories.
• Happiness is always an inside job.
• Live like there is no tomorrow.
• Fall seven times; stand up eight.
• With great power comes great responsibility.

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WARNING: Sugarcoating the Gospel may fill church, but it will not get people to Christ!

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

• Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities.” DALE CARNEGIE
• If you add anything to Jesus, you actually take away something from Jesus. Ken Whitten
• We have to be careful where we focus our attention. Dan Shock
• Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. HELEN KELLER
• Sometimes, when God’s voice breaks through and He gives us a warning about something we are about to do, we say, “Thanks, Lord, but I don’t need any help there. I know what I’m doing.” The truth is, we don’t know what we are doing. And we do need His help.
• The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26
• A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another’s.
• You set the table and God brings the people. Martha Moore
• The only mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. Henry Ford
• Life on earth is short, eternity somewhere is forever
• “A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears,” once observed the 16th century French statesman and author Michel de Montaigne.
• Jesus is the bridge between God and man. Dan Shock
• We shouldn’t judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Martin Luther King, Jr.