Mark spoke from Hebrews 2:5-10 last night, looking at the whole question of what we see and what we do not see. He started by showing us some pictures that illustrate how different perspectives affect what you see.
On the first picture, we can see either a vase or two people; on the second, pillars or men having conversations! It’s all a matter of perspecitve. What kind of people are we? Are we optimists or pessimists? What do we concentrate on in good times, in bad times, in humdrum times? What motivates us or stops us dead in our tracks? How we look at things affects what we see. Verse 8 reminds us of things that are not yet subject to man – the weather, health, time, the economy, war, death, all these things are beyond our control. We need to understand, however, that God is in everything. As we looked at the photos of Goldthorpe around the main hall, Mark challenged us to see God in these pictures. Some saw Him in the sunset picture; others in the clock picture, since God holds our times in His hands. But ultimately, God is in all of them, for He is everywhere. No matter what situation we may find ourselves in, God is there, for He has promised never to leave us or forsake us.
With natural eyes, we may see a world spiralling out of control, but when we see Jesus, we see that God is in control. The ten spies who only looked at the giants and the problems did not enter into the Promised Land, but Caleb and Joshua saw the same things they did and believed that God was greater than the problems (Numbers 13:26-33). We need to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2), throwing aside all our doubts and being confident that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6). We are able to complete the things that God wants us to do, for He writes the story of our lives and is able to help us to finish. Psalm 121 reminds us that God is watching over us. We need to see Jesus so that our perspective is transformed.