Opening my eyes ...

Thursday, Sept 13, 2012. When I was at school, I remember that I did not understand a particular point. It was just unclear to me, hidden before my eyes. I also remember that at some moment, years later, this missing piece fell into my life. And suddenly, it was all clear. It was all easy. I could no longer understand, why it needed to be so difficult.

The kingdom of the Lord …

“Opening my eyes” is the right phrase to describe what happens when you come to faith in Christ Jesus. It is the right phrase to describe what happens when you start to live “in him”. Suddenly, there is a new world opening before my eyes. Or better: it is the same world, but I see it in a completely different way.

When you just fell in love, when you are head over heels in love, the world can look differently as well. Do you know this feeling, that everything is different. The light is lighter, the colors are stronger, people are more interesting and friendlier. Suddenly, the world seems to have more, it seems to be full of interesting things, full of possibilities, full of great things.

With the Lord in your life, many things fall into place, which are difficult to grasp or access without him. Forgiveness, love, justice, humility, life, eternity … all the important things make sense in his presence. With him, in his kingdom, it is all well set. Without him, it does not have a sound basis, and it is not sustainable. It is so crucial to find him, and to live in him!

Nearly a parallel world? Yes and No …

Sometimes one could think that there are parallel worlds. There is the world of faith in Christ Jesus, and there is the world without this faith. Are they parallel? Are they on the same level?

It seems that God gave us this possibility: to live without him. It is a life which is for our life-time. We got some years, and it is clear that they are limited. We are given freedom, since he wants free decisions, he wants us to come to him in freedom, to love him since we want him. So there is a kind of parallel world. But it is far from being on the same level. It is a world of “being lost”. It is a world of “being far from home”. It is a world where his justice, love and consolation is only partly accessible.

The New Testament invites us to come to him and to live in him. It invites us to enter his new world, the world of full justice, of full eternal perspective. It is a world where the weak are loved, where both the weak and the strong flourish to give good things to their environment, where there is a peace beyond everything we know. To enter it, we just need to go to him in prayer and tell him: I want you to guide my life, I want to live with you! Simple words can have eternal consequences. And his love starts to grow … (Roland Potthast) ... more texts