Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 04/08/10)

Today’s Devotional Written By A Young Woman With Keen Sight: Tracy Koweh

Right in Front of Me

Luke 23:39-43 (New Living Translation)

³⁹ One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” ⁴⁰ But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? ⁴¹ We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” ⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” ⁴³ And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Today's message in the music comes from the title of Young Joc's song "I Know You See it". Have you ever been riding in a car with someone looking at clouds, and although you're both looking at the exact same image, your eyes see two different things. I can recall playing ‘I spy’ as a little girl with my cousins, and I remember getting angry and wondering how they couldn't see what I saw. As I got older I realized that 1. being in different places in the car gave us different viewpoints 2. that some people would never be able to see it because they choose not to and 3. others would always only see what they wanted to see and nothing else.

We've all heard stories of two children growing up with the same childhood but ending up completely different; two children being raised by single mothers, in a poor neighborhood, with limited education. One ends up in a gang, the other headed to college on a full scholarship. What did one see that the other didn't? I can imagine that the mother of the successful child would say to the other mother, "I know you see it". You have to be able to look beyond your circumstances, and see what God has in store for your future.

This principle was proven on the hillside at Calvary. An innocent man hung between two criminals. One saw the Savior, one saw a man. I'm sure the criminal who Jesus saved thought, "I know he sees it." How can you be that close to the King of Kings and not know it? How can you look into His eyes and not be compelled to worship? How can you smell His blood and not be made whole? How can you be so close to victory, and still die defeated? The answer is simply by not knowing Him.

Today ask God to open your eyes even more so you can begin to really see Him in all His majesty and splendor. God is like no other man or thing on this planet and we miss Him everyday in the little moments because we don't know how to recognize Him. If you hung on the cross next to Him today, which criminal’s eyesight would you have ...........................would you see the Savior, or a man?