I love to play video games and I do have an XBox 360 and love it. There is one particular game that I like that simulates racing in Formula One competition. I mean you can sense the speed, feel the bumps, and if you are good enough get the exhilaration of winning the race. Like so many of the racing games, you have three different views. One view is the front of the car and you feel like you are sitting on the nose of the car. That view doesn't even show the car you are sitting in and really puts you out there with nothing to go on. The second view is one where you are looking down the hood of the car and it is like you are behind the wheel. I like that view and use it quite often. A third view has you removed from the car and you see the full body of the car and it feels like you are the guardian angel of the car more than the driver. This view is too far removed for me and I rarely use it. It all comes down to the perspective you want when driving this super fast car around hairpin curves with ten other cars trying to keep you from winning. It can get pretty intense, so the view you are comfortable with is the view that will help you react in the quickest and most effecient way to radical situations on the track.
The Christian Life is a lot like XBox 360. As we go through life we see and experience a lot of things and find ourselves needing to make quick and smart decisions about almost everything. When you are a child those decisions are pretty much made by your parents and then you "grow up" and have to experience them on your own. You hope that what your parents taught you as they brought you along gradually will be enough to help you start making some of those decisions on your own. You start to realize, I need to be able to think for myself and think "on my feet."
As in the game I mentioned there are different vantage points when going through life. As a child you pretty well were like view #1 and kind of just took what your parents gave you and trusted it. As you left home though, you found out you were like view#2, and you were seeing that there is a car and that you are driving it and you can even see your hands turing left and right and now things are starting to get serious. The one I want to talk about today is view #3, or the one that is removed from the car, but still is in control of when it should turn or brake, or stop, or accelerate. This is the view I need to reserve for God in my life. In this view, I can see me serving God, or driving in the race, but God is the one controlling my life as I drive. He gives me reactions that help me make the turns and react to other things in the race through the power of His Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews shows who this kind of view is for and what happens when we allow God to control the race. Hebrews 5:14 - But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Isn't that cool? God not only calls us to step up and mature and walk in His Spirit, but He also trains us as we get to know Him better and better every day. That training helps us manuever through even the worst turns at breakneck speeds. That is what I like to call Kingdom Living and very few grasp this great truth and miss the race that God has equipped them for because they never want anything more than view #1. In Paul's letter to the Corinthian church there was a major argument over speaking in tongues. He addressed the problem they caused by telling them to look at it through mature eyes that can only come from knowing God and seeing it with His perspective. 1 Corinthians 13:11 says, When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think like a child, reason like a child; but when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
Now is the time to take the good connection you have with the spring of living water and let God have total control of your life and start to see things like He does. Take on His perspective and you will see the world more fully for what it is and God more fully for who He is. When you start living that way you will have an XBox 360 perspective and the game of life will not rule you. You will rule the game. When the great Game Player, God, is empowering you every day you not only compete, but WIN. We have already lost too much ground as believers in the past few years. It is now time to start taking some of that ground back by doing the only thing that will help. Living a sold out life for Christ. Think about it. What's your perspective? Can you see the whole picture? You will see more and more if you will allow God to show you His perspective. From up there, the view is awesome!!
The Pilgrimage continues.....
David Warren
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