Green Eyes

This picture was taken on Christmas day at Grandma's house. I love Christmas espescially for the children. One of the best parts of Christmas is the anticipation, the imaginations (sugar plums dancing in their heads) all that goes in to looking forward to that moment when the gifts will be opened. The best part is often the days leading to Christmas. Then Christmas comes the gifts are opened and many times the kids play more with the boxes the gifts were in than the actual gift! What happens? You know the Christmas day blahs, after all the presents are opened and that deep down in the gut feeling comes over you that says "Is that all there is". It's called disillusionment. We have a vision of what we think should happen and that the things we wanted will bring us happiness and reality falls short. Why is there so much disillusionment in this world. Why so many disenchanted people?
The answer is that many of our dreams and visions for our lives are not from God but from our own fleshly desires. If we would expect in life what God wants us to expect then we would be disillusioned (freed from illusions) to begin with!

Disillusion
1.
to free from or deprive of illusion, belief, idealism, etc.; disenchant. –noun
2.
a freeing or a being freed from illusion or conviction; disenchantment.

Some think that to keep from being disillusioned in life you should just lower your expectations and not think big at all......therefore some are against the whole "Vision" concept. This is not biblical. The problem is that when this is taught the person is assuming that another persons "vision" is not from God! What a presumption! What a judgement! What a sin! Who called you to be an inspector and destroyer of dreams. Did it actually cross your mind that you may be the one causing the the "disillusionment".....but its actually a false disillusionment because the person never needed freed from an illusion to begin with.

God did not call us to tear down peoples dreams or visions. Are you going to be like Joseph's brothers who mocked him, sold him into slavery and abandoned him because of the vision God gave him?.....Who are you to judge someone elses dream?......What if God put that in a person to dream that?......What if you are fighting Gods purpose in that persons life? You might say.....then it will happen anyway......Not necessarily......not every dream is predestined! Just like we may have the blood of the lost on our hands we can end up with the tears of a lost dream on our hands too when we stand before God!

When a person has a vision of what God wants them to do......It usually is pretty big and its usually not accepted by most people. There are those that will try to find something unscriptural about it. Matter of fact in church work some go so far as to come up with the ridiculous notion that "church growth" isn't scriptural and that if your church is growing you're compromising on truth. These same people nitpick and find a handful of random churches across the country and find something unscriptural with them and superimpose that image on all growing churches or at least the ones they don't like. Its interesting to note that most of the time it comes down to opinions and or perceptions not anything substantial or factual.

A God vision is much bigger than what man can come up with and in the end it doesn't bring disillusionment it brings about the workings of God in the lives of men! We accuse those with vision many times of trying to do the work themselves and not letting God do it. We use scripture like "God gives the increase" and terms like "We need the power of the Spirit" to make our case against those who are laboring hard in the Lords work because of a vision. Did it ever occur to you that in reality you are guilty of the judgement you are giving and doing the same thing by trying to work at tearing that persons vision down instead of letting God do that work(if its even necessary)? What hypocrisy! Maybe someone destroyed a vision you had long ago, that doesn't make it ok to do the same thing. Maybe the real truth is that you have Green eyes, full of envy.

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" Ephesians 3:20

Distracted

Distracted by the things around us we are! Not to sound like "Yoda" but it's so true. In what age or what generation have men been more distracted? It is amazing to me how many things there are that keep distracting me from my mission in life. I'm not going to make a list of everything because you know what I'm talking about. I want to show you some quotes from an "eyes on the prize" sort of Christian lady. Listen to the focus and feel the mission Fanny Crosby was on. Her eyes were literally on Christ.

"It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me."

"If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind...for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Saviour."

I am so blind at times that I get distracted even by the things that God is trying to use to get me focussed! I find that the most happy, joyous, fulfilled times in my life are when I am totally focussed on the mission that God has for me. When I get distracted my whole life seems out of whack. Listen to what she wrote when she was only 8 years old.

Oh, what a happy child I am,

although I cannot see!

I am resolved that in this

world contented I will be!

How many blessings I enjoy

that other people don't!

So weep or sigh because

I'm blind, I cannot - nor I won't

Its incredible how one that was so blind was so focussed. I want to stay focussed, I don't want to be distracted. I want to teach my kids to think like this amazing woman. God help me not to be distracted, not to turn to the left or to the right........ Help me stay on mission!