Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

How much do we really think about Jesus? We use His name freely enough, even casually, but how much do we really consider Him, think about Him, meditate on Him? He’s certainly worthy of such attention, but we are very quick to make it all about us, instead of about Him. We even manage to turn John 3:16 around that way. God indeed loves us so much He sent His Son to die for us, but we seldom think about what it means that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. Hebrews has been called the New Testament commentary on the Old Testament, but it talks a great deal about Jesus, even though the author probably never saw Jesus in the flesh. 12:2 is foundational for being able to live as a child of God, and it speaks of not taking our eyes off of Jesus. Those who had been His disciples in Galilee had physical memories of Him, but, like the author of Hebrews, we don’t have that. In a way, that makes it easier for us, because physical things can be a distraction. When we think of the perfectly holy – and actually, perfect in every way – Son of God, there are no physical considerations to distract us. We aren’t to forget His humanity, that He had a body like we do and got hungry and tired and hot and cold like we do, but our focus should be on the reality that our Creator allowed Himself to be killed, in order to save us, His creatures. Our lives should be reflections of our absolute amazement and gratitude for that reality. The thing is, the more we think about ourselves, the less we are thinking about Him, and that can easily get dangerous. We aren’t worth that much attention! We are to be completely honest in looking at ourselves, recognizing the gifts God has placed in us and also acknowledging our faults, weaknesses, and failures, but our focus should be on Him. The success of our lives can well be measured by the degree to which we do that.

I am as naturally self-centered as anyone, so I’m preaching to myself here. Babies are naturally self-centered, but they also display a sense of wonder at all the new things they are experiencing, because so much of it is totally new. I got to meet my new great-granddaughter in April, when she was just three months old, and the pictures I brought back display a delight in the world that is attractive in the extreme. Living in Japan, I didn’t get to see my grandchildren at that age, so it was a marvelous experience for me. I need to take that as an object lesson in becoming like a little child, as Jesus said we need to do! (Matthew 18:3) I need to let Jesus become my all-consuming interest, focusing on Him so that He can manifest Himself in and through me. If I fail to consider Him, I am distracted and deceived, and that is dangerous indeed. As I have told people for the past 45 years, I didn’t come to Omura to teach a religion, I came to introduce people to the Lord Jesus. (There’s a pun in that in Japanese.) That will happen only to the degree that I myself am focused on Him, allowing Him to consume my thoughts, words, and actions.

Father, thank You for this powerful reminder. Thank You for such a strong Word to share with the congregation this Sunday. Help me focus on You enough to recognize clearly how this is to be laid out in an outline, so that I won’t be distracted in sharing it, but express Your truth in love, so that lives, both here and around the world via the Internet, may be transformed, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!