The Higher View

Sunday last, the gentlman who facilitates our Sunday School class read this scripture:

The LORD spoke to me with His strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:

"Do not call conspiracy, everything that these people call conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear and do not dread it.

The LORD almighty is the One you are to regard as holy,
He is the One you are to fear,
He is the One you are to dread." Isaiah 8:11-13 NIV


These days I tend to look at too many things through the prism of current events and geo-political thought.

So I thought about H1N1 and the media frenzy that has surrounded this malady.

I thought about how fear pushed this nation's political leadership into making panicky decisions last Fall concerning our nation's financial institutions.

I thought about the whole man-made global warning hoax and how people are driven to support it based on fear.

I thought about how our President singled out particular media sources and personalities indicating that they were not legitimate.

And I thought:

"What a great verse!"

I always like it when God agrees with me.

Or rather, when the thing that I believe just so happens to be in agreement with God's view.

Anyway, I had to keep going. I had to read beyond the first part of that scripture about what not to do and read on to see what we SHOULD do.

God said - "Fear Me. Consider Me only as Holy. Dread only Me."

You see the problem with my attitude is that while I do pretty good with the first part of the passage; I tend to fail pretty miserably with the second part.

I spend so much time and energy focusing on the "ways" of those we are to avoid, that I forget to focus on Christ.

He is the only One I should fear, dread and revere as Holy.

It's all about seeing our enemies in front of us and then shifting our focus above them. Suddenly the things that were in plain view will fade away as Christ fills my entire field of vision.

The Psalmist said, "I will look to the hills, from whence comes my help; my help comes from the Lord."