Looking Unto Jesus

LOOKING UNTO JESUS - Hebrews 12:2

Last Sunday I was checking the morning news on Yahoo and an article caught my eye. The caption of the article was this "IS LIFE SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL." As I read through the article it would have been very easy to be filled with despair and discouragement because of the way life, even to an unbeliever, is spinning out of control in every area from the economy to even the environment.

Many believers are being faced with difficult times. Multitudes of ministries are facing huge financial crisis's. How do we cope in these challenging times? We need to look to Jesus! One of my favorite devotional authors, J. Sidlow Baxter, offers these thoughts written back in 1960!

"Looking unto Jesus." This should be our fixed mental habit, especially in days like ours. There are the age-end times. Iniquity abounds in a multiplicity of new expressions. The world was never more glamorous or seductive. International affairs move on an immense scale up to new tension hitherto unparalleled. Atomic research and invention have keyed life up to a new tension and sensitivity. In all the human story there were never distractions of louder gaiety on the one hand, and of deeper gravity on the other hand.

Life has never been so fast or complex. Politics, finance, cliques, slogans have never been so clever, complicated or deceptive. The status quo has never seemed more shakily susceptible to violent disruption. This is the age of mental and nervous disorders, of druggist shops, sleeping pills and psychiatry.

This is the 21st century of apostasy of Christendom from the evangelical faith; of moral breakdown, of repudiated sanctions, of adolescent unchastity, of increased divorce, of tyrannical trade-unionisms, of totalitarianisms, and syndicated crimes. There have never been such changes in ANY preceding century.

With all this, and the kaleidoscopic changefulness of the international situation, and the seemingly overwhelming odds against evangelical Christianity, and temptations to compromise, and the plentiful discouragements to those who would be out-and-out Christians, it is easy to get our eyes diverted from Christ to the disturbing developments and discouraging doings around us.

Looking unto Jesus: the words might have been written for this very hour; for the full force of the Greek word is, looking OFF unto Jesus. By an act of intelligent determination we must 'look off' to JESUS, the perfect example of patient endurance and the now-enthroned Forerunner who is the pledge of our own heavenly glorification. Our Lord told us, 'Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; but he that shall ENDURE unto the end, the same shall be saved.' (Matthew 23:12, 13). And the best secret of enduring [in this crazy, ever-changing times] is, LOOKING UNTO JESUS."

I cannot believe those words were written in 1960! Imagine what dear old Baxter would be saying today. Is life spinning out of control for you? Then let's do what the Bible tells us to do - LOOK TO JESUS! He's the only antidote to discouragement! - Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK.

God's WORD for YOU: Job 20-21; Acts 10:24-48

Think about this: "We can depend on God to fulfill His promise, even when all the roads leading to us are closed. 'For no matter how many promises God has made, the are "Yes" in Christ. And so through Him the "Amen: is spoken by us to the glory of God." 2 Corinthians 1:20 - Matthew Henry