The Apple of His Eye

There are times in life when it seems that our Father is nowhere to be found. Times when we feel like we really need to see Him but we can't. Have you ever felt like God checked out of your circumstances and didn't bother to tell you that He was leaving? Well, the good news is that your feelings were just that - feelings. When we feel like God doesn't see our needs, the truth is very different from our feelings.

Our loving Father never even glances away from us, even for a moment. Psalm 139:3 says, "You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways" (NAS). Look at the picture I've posted with this blog. That child can see only one thing - himself. He's so close to the eye that he can't even see the eye. He can only see his own reflection in the pupil of the eye.

Your Father is watching you. In Zechariah 2:8, our Father called His people, "the apple" of His eye. The word literally means "the pupil." Not only are you in your Father's sight. He is focused on you. He "scrutinizes" your lifestyle. That word means "to fan or to winnow." It's the picture of an ancient harvester throwing the wheat and chaff into the air to let the wind separate them so that the wheat could be harvested.

The winds of trouble may blow in, but your Father is watching you. He is using everything that comes into your life to produce a harvest in you and for you. In the midst of our trials, our Father is not far from us. To the contrary, He is often closer than we think. Look at that picture above again. Then relax. It's all good. That's a guarantee.

Another Explanation of Objective & Subjective Reality

I know somebody who is extremely gifted. He has a charismatic personality, is intelligent and is very competent. He has the capacity to excel at almost anything he tries to accomplish in life. Nobody, and I mean nobody, who knows him would ever wonder if he lacks the confidence to reach any goals he ever set for himself.

But the problem is that he doesn't see himself that way. Instead, he lives with a nagging sense of insecurity that he hides well from others. Although he could reach great heights in life, he lives at a low level of achievement because of those underlying feelings of inferiority and insecurity.

Is he gifted? Could he accomplish anything? Yes! That is an absolute truth. It is what would accurately be called the "objective reality" of the situation.

Is he living out of that reality? No. He believes all the negative things that the recriminating voices in his own head whisper to him. He thinks that the truth is that he is a loser and that if people knew the real him, that's what they'd see. That is his "subjective reality."

What needs to happen in his life is that he needs to come alive to the truth - to the objective reality of who he really is. If that were to happen, his subjective reality would be changed to reflect the truth. He would stop living subjectively under the lie that holds him back and he would then be able to live up to the objective reality that has been true of him all along.

Objective reality is real whether we believe it or not. Subjective reality is what we perceive reality to be at a personal level, whether it's actually true or not. In the case of what Jesus did for us at the cross, the objective reality is that His finished work applies to every person on the planet. But until they believe it, their subjective reality will never reflect the truth - neither in this life nor the next.

Abandoning The Religious Rat Race

Are you on the religious treadmill? Get off. You may find it gratifying in the short run but over the long haul it'll kill you. Driven religious fervor becomes a one night stand repeated over and over and over again. There may be a shallow gratification in one night stands, but nobody would ever mistake it for genuine intimacy. God offers you much more than that. He wants you to experience Him and all of His gifts as a natural part of the soothing rhythms of grace. However, to know that kind of intimacy, we must stop our religious hyperventilating, calm down, stop and smell the roses. God doesn’t need for you to break the three minute mile for Him. He just wants you to enjoy Him, knowing that everything else in your life will flow out of that.

Jesus didn’t come to help us be religious superstars. Far from it, He came to deliver us from empty religion, even orthodox, time honored religion. Jesus came to bring us into intimacy with God through Himself. In His earthly days, as in our day, those most offended by Him have been the religionists who have built their reputation around keeping their golden idols polished to a brighter shine than anybody else in town.

The idols are their own particular rules of the road that must be observed as we speed down the highway they call “Christian living.” Their display case is filled with the specific idols which most easily fit their own personality and temperament and they judge everybody else by whether or not they live up to their own personal standards. People are incidental. What matters is how you are behaving.

Even Jesus wasn’t a good churchman by the standards of the religionists of His day. He didn’t live up to what they thought He ought to be. To them, He had no convictions. He appeared to compromise the purity and integrity of their values by doing things like healing people on the Sabbath, by eating with the crooks (Publicans) and party-animals (sinners) of His day. He was a friend of the hookers and homeless. He didn’t separate Himself far enough from the riffraff, as every good churchman knew one should do. Consequently, He lost His testimony with the Pharisees, an incidental matter which didn’t seem to bother him at all. Jesus cared more about relationships than reputation. He still does.

A legitimate Christian lifestyle gently flows like water along a riverbank, refreshing all who happen to stumble upon our banks. It isn’t a flash flood of activity that honors God. He doesn’t lead us that way, but instead He has chosen to make “[us] lie down in green pastures. He leads [us] beside the still waters [where] He restores [our] soul” (Psalm 23).

Get off the religious treadmill and just put your eyes on Him. He will do "the rest" in you.

The Greatest Love Affair Ever

One day while He walked the celestial halls, Jesus decided to observe the earth. In a far off remote place he found “you”. Humanity was cursed with the curse of Adam and there was nothing beautiful in us. But that did not matter to Him, “I only see you.”

And then suddenly, the arrow strikes. Jesus feels butterflies in His stomach and chills in His spine. A passion passes slowly through his heart and he sighs. This passion takes control of the moment. Even though you are not attractive, a desire to have you rises up in Him. He wants to own you for all eternity.

He waits for you with open arms. His life was aflame for you. From his eyes flowed a burning river that flooded his heart, which was dry with loneliness, because he wanted to submerge you in that very heart.

The Eternal Lover looked through the celestial window to hear the footsteps, conscious that they were your feet walking on the earthly streets. A smile was etched on His face and he said “That’s her! That’s her!” This is not a fairy tale or just a simple story. Jesus is in love with his beloved, the most beautiful of them all. It doesn’t matter if they tell Him that she is not worth it. He is blinded and totally attracted to her.

You are chosen as the person who awakens in Him a burning passion. When He falls in love with you He opens for you the secrets of His love. As you receive it, you are born again. Now you can hear in your heart the most romantic words “I am my beloveds, and He is mine!”

With His irresistible Spirit He touches our interior for the first time, taking us to the true light. In His time, He fills us with affection. We are accepted in His eyes and He softly saturates us with all that is He.

His love springs out like an exquisite bouquet of flowers, aromatic and exuberant that he gives to us through his life. The call of His love sunk into our being, His hands molded us. We are raised up to a place we never thought we would reach. Now we are light because of what He has done.

The force of His love inspires a song of love. We have been born in His love like the dawn is born from the night. The days continue passing, and an emotional Jesus, steps to the Father to express His desire.

“Father, I want to talk with you” Jesus says.

The Father responds, “I am here”

“Father I want to confess to you that I am in love, so in love that when I sit at the table and the angels serve our alphabet soup, I see her name written out.”

“Who is this privileged one?” responds His Father.

“She is on the earth. Father, I want to show her how much I am in love with her. May I have her? I want her for me, and only me!”

“Son, what are you willing to do for her?” His Father asked.

“I am willing to give my all!”


Although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

Jesus is so in love with you that he left behind all of his privileges. In other words He left His throne, His majesty and His Gloria in Heaven (John 17:4),His position (John 5:30, Hebrews 5:8), His riches (2 Corinthians 8:9), His rights (Luke 22:27, Matthew 20:28) and the use of His Divine attributes (John 5:19, 8:28, and 14:10).

When Jesus emptied Himself of everything, it not only meant the voluntary restriction of His divine capabilities and privileges. It also meant the acceptance of suffering, of rejection, mistreatment, hate and the terrible death on the cross.

Even though he never stopped being completely divine, Jesus took up human nature with its temptations, humiliations and weaknesses, and yet “without sin” (Philippians 2:7-8 and Hebrews 4:15). Why did He do it? It was because He fell hopelessly in love with us. How much did He love us that he decided to leave everything for you?

Jesus stood before the table, telling His Father and all of the celestial beings “I want to get close to her through a new testament. I want to make a new covenant.”

Earthly courtship is just as important as the marriage. Why? Because the happiness of the marriage is determined by how successful the courtship is. A house built on a solid foundation will not fall easily. A field that is worked well, whose quality seeds are sown at the correct time will reap a fabulous harvest.

Dear readers, courtship is the stage in which we pass from “I” to “we,” from the reserved to the donation, from the singular freedom to the plural liberty, from the unknown to the known.

Some of the characteristics we look for in a courtship are: faithfulness, fidelity, purity, patience, friendship, generosity, sensitivity, among others. We also know that sometimes the courtship can be difficult with many struggles, but we can trust the person who is at our side. Jesus is our fiancé and He will counsel, help and accompany us during the entire courtship. Feel His loving heart and protective hand always. When the going is tough, His love is a great motivation and relief for all.

What a glorious vision our groom has! He is willing to show us the perfect courtship because He wants to have the desired person. He has decided to leap unheeded from His platform of love to His masterpiece to ask her to be His bride. Her invitation shines like the sun and its words are filled with truth.

“I want to pay an incalculable and indescribable price for her, a price no one has ever paid.” He said to His Father.

“What is the price you wish to pay.” His Father asked.

“My life! That will be my dowry.”


(This article is an excerpt from the book, God Enjoys You, by Gerardo Vazquez, Director for Grace Walk Latin America. Right now, the book is only available in Spanish, but hopefully that will change in the future!)

Resting in Abba's Arms

It is amazing how the default setting in contemporary Christian culture tends to oppose the concept of rest when that is exactly what Jesus promised to give us. (See Matthew 11:28-30) Just as God called Israel to a land of rest, we are being called to that today. This concept requires a new mind set for most people today. We live in a society where people go on vacation with their cell phones and laptop computers. To rest in Christ, trusting Him to express His life through us sounds lazy and negligent after having lived in the wilderness of rigorous religion for such a long time. Many mistakenly think of rest as some sort of passivity, which it is not. Rest means to trust Jesus Christ as our Life-Source, depending upon Him to empower our actions with His strength and direction.

As a legalist, the concept of rest was so foreign to me that I couldn’t comprehend it. I didn’t know rest was a gift from my Father. I thought it was a sin. I sincerely believed that the only time we would find complete rest was when we died and went to heaven. There was a verse I used to read at funeral services to give comfort to bereaved families. I would share Hebrews 4:10 with them: “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”

When I shared this verse, I would tenderly point out that our beloved friend who had died “has now entered into God’s rest and ceased from his own labors.” I talked about how heaven is a place where there are no more struggles. It is a place where we simply rest in Christ and enjoy Him forever.

Entering into His rest and ceasing from our own works. It sounded like dying and going to heaven to me. Then one day I read the next verse in the passage — Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall down through following the example of disobedience.” What? Be diligent to enter that rest? Now I was in trouble. I had always taught that rest means dying. Now here I was being confronted with the verse that says to be diligent to enter that rest or else I would be disobedient to God. I knew I had better go back and reexamine that verse again and hope that my interpretation had been wrong or else I was in serious trouble! I didn’t know at the time that I had already died with Christ and was able to cease from my own works.

Life in Christ is certainly not a passive lifestyle but neither is it a lifestyle of religious hyperactivity either. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Resting in Him means that we live our lives knowing that He holds us safely in His arms and that His loving embrace carries us through every situation we face in life. Sometimes our lifestyles will involve external activity and at other times it will involve outward inactivity, but at all times we are enjoying His divine hug.

Jesus didn't just come to deliver us from sin. He also came to deliver us from the religious sweatshop that demands a never ending effort to measure up. The cross has hung a "Gone Out of Business" sign on the door or religion and has taken us all on a permanent vacation with our Triune God. So relax and enjoy your rest.

The Bible As A Barrier

Jesus once said something to the Pharisees that sounds strange at first. The Pharisees were known for their knowledge of the Bible and had a reputation for their meticulous attention to doing what it says. A good Pharisee had much of the Old Testament Scripture committed to memory. They were recognized as authorities on the Bible.

It was to that group that Jesus said these words: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39-40). "You diligently study the Bible," Jesus said, but then He goes on to tell them how their Bible study had no productive value in their lives at all. "The Bible serves its purpose by bringing people into an intimate relationship to me, but you've missed that fact completely," is the point He was making.

To the Pharisee, studying the Bible was an end unto itself. They studied the Bible to know the Bible. It was the final authority on their faith and actions. The problem was that the Pharisees turned the Bible into a manual for living. Jesus minced no words in making it clear that they had become blinded to Him by their own Bible study.

It's a strange phenomenon but not one that has passed away with the decline of the religious sect called "the Pharisees." I grew up being taught that the group to which I belonged were "people of the Book." That's how we identified ourselves. I read the Bible to learn the Bible - to understand its content - to know how I was supposed to live. I used to say, "I live by the Bible."

It all sounds so right on the surface that it's impossible to see the flawed logic of such an approach apart from the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to our error. It is not your Father's intent that you live by the Bible. It never has been. Paul described the proper protocol for living when he said, "the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

We are not to live by the Bible, but are intended to live by the life of the indwelling Christ. The Scripture can give us no life at all. "You think that by them you possess eternal life," Jesus told the Pharisees, clearly making that point that life doesn't come from the Bible but from Himself.

I know it's risky business to talk this way in the climate of the modern church. If you've been taught that the Bible is the pinnacle of your walk with the Father, then it may sound to you like I'm diminishing the Bible but I'm not. I'm exalting Jesus Christ. I believe the Bible but also think it's important to know what our Bible is intended to accomplish.

The Bible became a barrier between the Pharisees and Jesus because they thought that Scripture was to be their final destination. Many think the same today, but it's not. The Bible isn't our destination. It's a sign post, pointing us toward our Destination, which is Christ Jesus.

C.S. Lewis once described how that when he pointed toward something and said to his dog, "Look at that!" the dog didn't see what he was pointing at. Instead, his dog looked at the end of the index finger Lewis used to point. That's how many people have become with their Bible. They don't understand that it serves to point them to their God, not to itself.

As we read and study the Bible, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to see our Triune God and His love for us. If all we see are doctrines to be learned, Greek words to be parsed, church history to be understood and religious rules to be followed, we've missed the point altogether. The Bible isn't a text book. It's a photo album with pictures of Jesus on every page. Until we see Him in our Bibles, we haven't looked closely enough.

You're Not Guilty Anymore!

This song fits perfectly with this week's "Sunday Preaching" broadcast. It's "You're Not Guilty Anymore" by Aaron Keyes. The lyrics are beneath the video. (Thanks to Beverly Daniel for making me aware of this song.)



Not Guilty Anymore

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done;
It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from
Doesn’t matter where you’ve been,
Hear me tell you I forgive

You’re not guilty anymore, you’re not filthy anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours
You’re not broken anymore, you’re not captive anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours

Can you believe that this is true, grace abundant I am giving you
Cleansing deeper than you know, all was paid for long ago

You’re not guilty anymore, you’re not filthy anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours
You’re not broken anymore, you’re not captive anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours

There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Jesus.

You’re not guilty anymore, you’re not filthy anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours
You’re not broken anymore, you’re not captive anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours

You are spotless
You are holy
You are faultless
You are whole
You are righteous
You are blameless
You are pardoned
You are mine!

You’re not guilty anymore, you’re not filthy anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours
You’re not broken anymore, you’re not captive anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours