Posted by giveawayboy on October 28, 2003 at 13:07:29:
In Reply to: Quote I found today... posted by j on October 28, 2003 at 10:25:45:
Wow, the thought of SIGHT has gone through my head all month. As incarnational Christians, we believe that Christ WAS SEEN, and we LOOK FOR HIS APPEARING and we wait to BEHOLD THE BEATIFIC VISION. Christ is not an invisible God. I have been reading some Hindu books lately too that stress the importance of VISION or SIGHT in worshipping God. The whole idea is that there is a grace which God gives, a VISION of himself, and that part of worship is learning how to SEE him. I think due to lots of modern pop teaching we play down SIGHT to play up faith. We say we walk by faith, not by SIGHT. Well, there is an element of truth to that, but I think we need to get past the idea of SIGHT in that verse alone. TRUE SIGHT is not merely eye-seeing. Spiritual SIGHT is faith. It is the SIGHT that could make Abraham SEE far off. It is the SIGHT that makes people see a holy land when they exist in a desert. It is the SIGHT that looks for the Lord in everything. This month alone I have encountered SIGHT in every message, in every sermon. I liked the Burgess quote because I do not serve an invisible God, but a VISIBLE one. And, like Steve said on Sunday, there are many moons which APPEAR in the heavens. There are many EPIPHANIES or THEOPHANIES or CRISTOPHANIES out there. We only need to lift our heads to see. SEEING THE DIVINE is more than relying on our own understanding. We SEE with the EYES OF FAITH, the SPIRITUAL EYES he gives us. Like LOOKING INTO AN ICON we SEE Heaven STARING BACK at us. Our whole spiritual life is a quest to GAZE UPON the face of God. In this CONSTANT SEEING, we being to know him and it will transform us. He is always LOOKING at us. We have but to RETURN THE GAZE. It starts in this very moment.