1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate;

This week, we will begin talking about the Kingdom Time Frame as we continue our look at the 5 Kingdom Principles for the Overcomer found in 1 Peter 2:21-23.

From what I can tell, there are no hymns written specifically for this verse.  It’s a shame because there are amazing truths contained here which would be particularly helpful for the culture in which we live.

In an age known for flaming emails of anger, tweets that bite, Facebook status updates that give instant life to something best left silent, verse 23 of our passage whispers a gentle admonition to let it go.  Adopt a Kingdom Time Frame.  Press on in the way Jesus did.

One hymn that expresses this well is I’m Pressing on the Upward Way.  You can listen here on the cyberhymnal  or watch a segment from the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music concert (a medley for strings and piano beginning and ending with I’m Pressing on the Upward Way).

Suite 101 describes the hymn writer Johnson Oatman, Jr. this way:

American hymn writer Johnson Oatman, Jr. was born near Medford, New Jersey, on April 21, 1856. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church when he was 19 years of age. Although he never pastored a church, he was licensed to preach and was ordained by his denomination. Early on in life, he was involved in the family’s mercantile business, but when his father died, he entered the insurance business.

In 1892, he was 36 years old, he started writing gospel songs, and, from then until his death in 1922, he wrote about 3,000 gospel hymn texts. Reportedly, he generally averaged 4 to 5 new texts each week, all through his life from this period. Notably, he received no more than a dollar for each of his songs. His texts were always in great demand by the leading gospel musicians of his day, including Charles Gabriel, William James Kirkpatrick and Edwin Excell.

I’m Pressing on the Upward Way (Higher Ground)

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Refrain

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

Refrain

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.

Refrain

I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till Heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Our Friday hymn to close out the week of Kingdom Actions for the Overcomer is All the Way My Savior Leads Me written by Fanny Crosby.

When I first began at seminary, I wasn’t particularly welcomed by many of the young men who had been raised to believe women don’t do this sort of thing.  One such young man comes to mind when I think about Fanny Crosby.  He gave me a book on her life as a peace offering when he realized I wasn’t attending seminary for the express purpose of taking men’s jobs in order to lead—by my heretical feminism–all of Evangelical Christendom on the fastest pathway to hell. (This tells you something about how I was viewed.)

In the inscription just inside the front cover of this gesture of friendship, he wrote:

May you find hope and peace in the life of one of the Great Cloud of Witnesses. Perhaps there will be a day God will Repay you for these ‘years of the locust’ (Joel 2:25-26).  Perhaps you will look Back Someday and say, ‘I have forgotten the years of the locust’ and ‘for I know whatever befall me, Jesus doeth all things well’ (page 154) But no matter—Relief or Not, our longing for heaven will only grow for: ‘Perfect Rest for me is Promised in my Father’s house above. (page 154).

Want to know something funny?  I sought out this book to write today’s installment on this hymn and Crosby.  But, I had no recollection of the inscription and no hint until just now that on page 154 (quoted in the inscription) were highlighted lyrics to All the Way My Savior Leads Me.  (God is winking today.)

Fanny Crosby, too, was an Overcomer.  Born the only daughter of John and Mercy Crosby, Fanny developed a severe eye inflammation at age 6 weeks and whether due to the mustard poultice treatment or a congenital condition being revealed, Fanny was permanently blind.   In Bonnie C. Harvey’s book Fanny Crosby, she writes,

The first thing people focused on when they met Fanny was her blindness.  But she regarded her affliction as a gift from God, saying, “It was the best thing that could have happened to me” and “How in the world could I have lived such a helpful life as I have lived had I not been blind?”  She believed that without her blindness she would never have received an education.  Further if she had not gone to the Institution for the Blind in New York, she would not have had the contacts to allow her to write hymns for a nationally known publishing firm. 

Fanny also thought that sight must be a distraction.  She had been able to develop her memory and powers of concentration because of her blindness.  She sensed, too, that her lack of sight enhanced her appeal as a speaker, creating a bond of sympathy between her and her audiences that made them receptive to the Gospel message.

Crosby harbored no bitterness toward the doctor, saying, “I would tell him that he unwittingly did me the greatest favor in the world.”  She delighted in the knowledge that the first face her eyes would ever see would be that of her Savior Jesus Christ.

Crosby’s blindness resulted in the kind of Kingdom Actions that turn from victimhood and fatalism and to acknowledge suffering’s ability to press us forward into the will of God and be true Overcomers.  Blindness allowed her to conduct rescue missions work, advocate for blind studies in front of Congress, teach classes, preach sermons, leave money in her will establishing a home for aged senior males, and to produce her profound legacy of writing over 8,000 hymns including Blessed Assurance, To God Be the Glory, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior and of course today’s hymn All the Way My Savior Leads Me.  You can listen here on the cyberhymnal or enjoy Rich Mullins (another Kingdom Actions Overcomer) perform this hymn in concert.

All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread;
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way;
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible about Kingdom Actions is set apart by this disclaimer:  “The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11…but the story may well be authentic.” This is my favorite verse:

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7)

I like this story not because it’s got a disclaimer and I feel like the rebel I secretly want to be, but because I like picturing my Jesus, knowing full well that He alone is without sin, holding back a grin of greater knowledge, or having a twinkling eye at recognizing a pretty clever–but ineffective–trick when He sees it…or holding back His righteous anger at hypocrisy in front of His face by hyper-religious sorts that can’t hold a candle to Him, and in any case delivering an amazing shut’em-up one-liner.

This one-liner is legally perfect and a total gotcha to maintain His sinlessness in the face of their taunting His grace to submit to His law when in fact, grace and law are two perfect sides of the same Truth.

Note: He didn’t say “if any one of us is without sin.”   They were sinners. He was/is without sin.

As we continue our deep dive into the 5 Kingdom Principles for Overcoming found in 1 Peter 2:21-23, we’re looking at Kingdom Actions.  We’re up to verse 22: “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

Yesterday we saw that Dr. Martin Luther King tried to honor what Jesus modeled for all of us.  Dr. King wasn’t perfect or sinless, but it’s nice—particularly in the “Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Kate Gosselin Age of Poor Choices”—to see that someone like Dr. King still tried to preach honorable living.

We cannot live sinless lives as did our Savior Jesus Christ, but we can rely upon His being without sin as our confidence of His being the only suitable Messiah.  We can try to live pursuing Kingdom Actions even when accused or facing suffering and know that there is grace He can offer precisely because He did not fail whereas we do.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are– yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Let’s endeavor to show Kingdom Actions by seeking His guidance daily, and seeking Him also for mercy and grace for the times we fail.

Today is the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.  Click here to listen, read the text, and purchase a video.  It’s an amazing speech, full of the truth and rhetorical power one would expect from a devout Christian minister with a Kingdom Vision of Overcoming.

During the event of Dr. King’s speech, a 22-year old folk singer named Joan Baez led those in the Washington Mall (around 300,000 people gathered for A. Philip Randolph’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom) in singing “We Shall Overcome.” It became a signature song of the Civil Rights Movement.

“We Shall Overcome” was defensively copyrighted by fellow folk singer Pete Seeger and others in 1963, but current research suggests its origin was not in Seeger’s adaptation, but may have begun in the mind of a black woman named Louise Shropshire as “If My Jesus Wills (I Do Believe, I’ll Overcome Some Day),” click link to hear.

Shropshire and Dr. King had a personal, loyal, and Christian connection, both viewing Overcoming as being intimately tied to the Truth of Jesus Christ.  Overcoming takes a long view. “If My Jesus Wills” contains lyrics like, “Gonna sing a new song…Gonna wear a new robe…Gonna see my Lord” all of which point directly to Jesus.

About “We Shall Overcome,”  in an interview with Blank on Blank, Seeger said,

It was the only record I ever made which sold. The record was called “We Shall Overcome.” It sold 500,000 copies, which for me was a huge sale. I was singing for some young Lutheran church people in Sundance, Idaho, and there were some older people who were mistrustful of my lefty politics.  They said: ‘Who are you intending to overcome?’ I said: ‘Well, in Selma, Alabama they’re probably thinking of Chief Pritchett.; they will overcome. And I am sure Dr. King is thinking of the system of segregation across the whole country, not just the South. For me, it means the entire world. We’ll overcome our tendencies to solve our problems with killing and learn to work together to bring this world together.’

It is doubtful that Dr. King was thinking simply of ending segregation—important though that was.  His sights were set on a distant mountain.  In a speech to the Temple Israel of Hollywood, Dr. King is quoted as saying,

Oh, I know that there are still dark and difficult days ahead. Before we get there some more of us will have to get scarred up a bit. Before we reach that majestic land some more will be called bad names. Some will be called reds and communists simply because they believe in the brotherhood of man. Before we get there some more will have to be thrown into crowded, frustrating, and depressing jail cells. Before we get there maybe somebody else like a Medgar Evers and the three civil rights workers in Mississippi this summer will have to face physical death. If physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children and their white brothers from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive. Yes, we were singing about it just a few minutes ago: “We shall overcome; we shall overcome, deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome.”

And I believe it because somehow the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right: “No lie can live forever.” We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right: “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right: “Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet, that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.” With this faith we will be able to hue out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day. And in the words of prophecy,

“Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This will be a great day. This will be a marvelous hour. And at that moment, figuratively speaking in biblical words: “the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.”

I wonder if something of the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement died along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the day he was killed:

• Shropshire’s “If My Jesus Wills…I’ll Overcome Some Day” (a vastly spiritual song of hope) had already been adapted by Seeger and others.  Jesus may have been willing, but was no longer welcome as the song became “We Shall Overcome” with no mention of Jesus or God whatsoever as our source of strength, perseverance, help, comfort, or faith.
• Dr. King’s “I’ve been to the mountaintop” focus heavenward on the triumphant glory of the Lord was pinned down with earthly shackles and worldly concerns, and the best we could do apart from Christ was linking human arms for manmade marches.
• Dr. King’s words—preached in a movement inspired by faith in Jesus Christ—were reduced to the political power of people to overpower–not actually overcome–by sheer numbers instead of by the eternally powerful “content of their characters” which truly transforms in the eternal scope.

Seeger’s view of everyone playing nicely together isn’t what Dr. King preached.  King did not preach so that we could have an imitation–a human-centered movement of earthbound people with a social conscience.  He preached Overcoming! 

He preached a message of Christian conscience for those looking to God for help.

King preached faith; he preached Truth; he preached love and service;

he reminded American blacks that they are among the world’s richest people, though some are impoverished by US standards; he preached non-violent protesting;

he lived Kingdom Actions like those of his Savior Jesus Christ; and he powerfully preached Kingdom ways of Overcoming…peacefully, truthfully, and ultimately triumphantly.

Overcomers Speak the Truth.

Jesus never lied.  Not even once.

We’re beginning our look at the kind of Kingdom Actions Jesus had–ones that teach us how to deal with sufferings and be Overcomers.  1 Peter 2:22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

Jesus set before us a high standard of conduct and the ultimate example of what perfect humanity looks like. This is what we aspire to as Overcomers: to speak the truth about everything including suffering, and never fake it for the sake of looking religious to other people, or in order to justify ourselves.

I like watching movies and thinking about them from a theological perspective (which makes me no fun to take out to the movies–we watch them in the privacy of home so I can pause and reflect and be obnoxious to my husband who would probably prefer just to watch the film).  In Baby Mama, Kate Holbrook and her surrogate Angie (who is hiding a secret) have a conversation about honesty:

Kate: I don’t want to… This is why I can’t lie to him. 

Angie: You’re not lying to him, you’re just not telling him the truth, there’s a big difference.

Kate:  Is there?

Lying has become such a huge part of American culture that one might suspect it has supplanted baseball as our national pastime.  Its zenith not-so-amazingly coincides with the approaching nadir of Christian discipleship, moral standards, and social ethics. Christians throw up a million defenses so as not to speak the truth…even in love. 

What do we do instead? 

• We hide from the truth, acting as if truth is as relative as the world tells us it is.
• We may speak boldly and say it’s the truth even when it displays our ignorance because it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what God says is the truth.
• We throw accusations at other people to keep them from speaking the truth we’d rather not hear. 
• We beat around the bush and never point out the lies out of fear of being branded (Christian, Evangelical, Zealot, Closed Minded Bible Thumper) or worse being thrust into the pejorative political realm or a specific party (Right-winger, Conservative, Republican, Ditto-Head, Tea Party Patriot) even when the Bible isn’t the GOP Handbook on a wide variety of social, political, and economic issues.   Bill Kristol could tell you that one.  The truth is Liberals, Progressives, Socialists, Libertarians don’t have the Bible as their handbook either, just ask John Stossel and Bill Clinton.

Blow the dust of the Ol’Bible and we find that Scripture says something about that:

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

The truth is hard to come by.  Much harder to see than lying.  Of course everyone is careful not to call lying…lying.  It’s called spin, misinforming, disingenuousness, prevaricating, falsifying, misstating, fabricating, mendacity, unreliability, unsubstantiated information, unproven allegations, partisan accusations, misleading statements, or even occasionally being deceitful.

So we develop a huge vocabulary and are no closer to the truth about the situation.  Maybe it’s time to honor God, open our Bibles, better yet, read in its pages what truth actually is.  Look for standards of conduct the Bible talks about, and start using the word LYING when it applies.

Jesus had no problem with using the word LIAR.

John 8:55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.

(Unfair!  Jesus was God, you protest?) 

Well, neither did the beloved disciple John who used it quite frequently.

1 John 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

It doesn’t matter what we call it.  God doesn’t want us to do it. 

He wants us to speak the truth.

Zechariah 8:16 These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; 17 do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the LORD.

Do you want to be an Overcomer and not be a prisoner to suffering?  We need to start by Speaking the Truth and having the kind of Kingdom Actions that expect suffering without spinning it inward to fatalism or victimhood; or spinning it outward by putting a pretty pious but dishonest frame around the suffering we’re going through; and without lying to ourselves and God, living in denial of the truth that suffering hurts but the story doesn’t end there.

We need to speak the truth to others and to ourselves in order to be Overcomers.

We return to the hymns as we begin another week of Overcoming to discuss Kingdom Actions, one of the 5 Kingdom Principles for Overcoming that were listed for us in 1 Peter 2:21-23.

1. Kingdom expectations; 1 Peter 2:21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you,
2. Kingdom perspective; leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
3. Kingdom actions; 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
4. Kingdom time frame; 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate;
5. Kingdom power; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Today’s hymn is Forth in Thy Name, O Lord I Go by Charles Wesley.

According to numerous accounts, Charles Wesley is often considered the “forgotten Wesley” because his achievements as a prolific hymn writer seem less significant than those of his brother John whose organizational genius founded the great Methodist tradition.  You would never suspect his being forgotten based upon the familiarity of the hymns of Charles Wesley.  They are among the most famous in any hymnal, Methodist or otherwise: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today;  Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; Jesus, Lover of My Soul;  Love Divine, All Loves Excelling; and O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, among nearly 9,000 others.

Christianity Today shares this part of Charles Wesley’s history:

Charles Wesley was the eighteenth of Samuel and Susannah Wesley’s nineteen children (only 10 lived to maturity). He was born prematurely in December 1707 and appeared dead. He lay silent, wrapped in wool, for weeks.

When older, Charles joined his siblings as each day his mother, Susannah, who knew Greek, Latin, and French, methodically taught them for six hours. Charles then spent 13 years at Westminster School, where the only language allowed in public was Latin. He added nine years at Oxford, where he received his master’s degree. It was said that he could reel off the Latin poet Virgil by the half hour.

It was off to Oxford University next, and to counteract the spiritual tepidity of the school, Charles formed the Holy Club, and with two or three others celebrated Communion weekly and observed a strict regimen of spiritual study. Because of the group’s religious regimen, which later included early rising, Bible study, and prison ministry, members were called “methodists.”

In 1735 Charles joined his brother John (they were now both ordained), to become a missionary in the colony of Georgia—John as chaplain of the rough outpost and Charles as secretary to Governor Oglethorpe.

Shot at, slandered, suffering sickness, shunned even by Oglethorpe, Charles could have echoed brother John’s sentiments as they dejectedly returned to England the following year: “I went to America to convert the Indians, but, oh, who will convert me?”

It turned out to be the Moravians. After returning to England, Charles taught English to Moravian Peter Böhler, who prompted Charles to look at the state of his soul more deeply. During May 1738, Charles began reading Martin Luther’s volume on Galatians while ill. He wrote in his diary, “I labored, waited, and prayed to feel ‘who loved me, and gave himself for me.'” He shortly found himself convinced, and journaled, “I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoice in hope of loving Christ.” Two days later he began writing a hymn celebrating his conversion.

Charles, from his premature birth to his conversion and beyond, has been an Overcomer in the best sense.  His hymn Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I Go exemplifies what it means to have Kingdom Vision, Expectations, and Perspective and how they can preserve us for Kingdom Actions even in the mundane or forgotten tasks of Overcomers.  Listen on the cyberhymnal.

Forth in Thy name, O Lord, I go,

My daily labor to pursue;

Thee, only Thee, resolved to know

In all I think or speak or do.

The task Thy wisdom hath assigned,

O let me cheerfully fulfill;

In all my works Thy presence find,

And prove Thy good and perfect will.

Preserve me from my calling’s snare,

And hide my simple heart above,

Above the thorns of choking care,

The gilded baits of worldly love.

Thee may I set at my right hand,

Whose eyes mine inmost substance see,

And labor on at Thy command,

And offer all my works to Thee.

Give me to bear Thy easy yoke,

And every moment watch and pray,

And still to things eternal look,

And hasten to Thy glorious day.

For Thee delightfully employ

Whate’er Thy bounteous grace hath giv’n;

And run my course with even joy,

And closely walk with Thee to Heav’n.

I cannot think of a better way to conclude a week on having Kingdom Vision with the perspective of Christ than to use the famous hymn “It is Well with My Soul.”

We all know suffering in our own lives—in ways both small and great.   Suffering is something to be realistically expected, Jesus reminds us.  In context, however, He tells us to take heart because He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

For my own part, I tend to forget sufferings as I look to the Cross.  It’s not that they’ve gone away or that the scars are no longer visible.  I just forget them in the same way I have forgotten what the pain of childbirth is like and most of us have no accurate recollection of teething pain we knew as babies.  We sure cried a lot.  It must have hurt, but how many of us even remember it?

The human mind works in odd ways, but maybe there’s something else going on.  We look not only inward but outward, with comparison of our sufferings with the sufferings of others.  Perhaps this is why I forget.  Those who have faced persecution or starvation or assault, for example, face suffering that is far more acute than my own.  My sufferings in many ways aren’t worth comparing to those endured by so many others.  For certain my sufferings can’t begin to approach those of my Savior.

One day when I was ministering to a friend who was dealing with something I’d overcome, she told me of a couple of common acquaintances, one of whom was newly facing cancer and another who had recently given birth to a stillborn child.  She began to suggest that maybe I could offer to be a listening ear to them and help them in their grief.  At once, her face went pale and she looked up through tears and said, “I had no idea until just now that you’ve dealt with all three of these things!  I am so sorry!” I reassured her that her suggestion was fine–I wasn’t sorry at all for myself.  My heart does go out to others.

Long ago, I concluded that God allows suffering in our lives to focus our sights on the Cross and to prepare us to love others who are distraught.  In some cases, like that of our hymn writer Horatio Spafford, our sufferings produce something of such enduring beauty that we find it easier to forget the pain, by our seeing the face of Christ so plainly and feeling His presence more profoundly.

Judy Hoch has a homeschooling study on the history of Horatio Spafford’s “It is Well with My Soul” . In it, she recounts the famous losses of Horatio Spafford occurring in such a short span of time: his son, his fortune, and his four daughters.  In spite of these tragedies, Spafford’s focus remained on faith—the Kingdom perspective of Christ.  As you read the poem written by Spafford, notice his great faith, how his focus is heavenward, his gaze upon Christ, and how sure is his hope because he has Kingdom Vision.

Hoch has included a video of the Mennonite Men’s Choir singing the hymn.  But if you have more time you can set aside in quiet contemplation for Bill Graham’s favorite hymns sung by the amazing Wintley Phipps, “It is Well” begins at 12:45 in the Day of Discovery program.  In either video, Spafford’s hymn will bless your soul as it has continued to bless Overcomers for generations.

 It is Well with My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—
My sin—not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so—it is well with my soul.

In our series on Overcoming, we’ve determined so far that we want Kingdom Vision.  We need that same perspective of situations that Jesus had.  It’s more than simply seeing circumstances, it’s seeing them filtered through a Kingdom lens–a Visionary Filter of Faith–that both clarifies and widens to the bigger picture. 

We need a Visionary Filter of Faith if we’re going to be a true Overcomer.

Did you ever get one of those coded messages in cereal boxes or a coded game as a kid?  You’d have to use that special red colored film decoder to see the message hidden on the card?  While all the other symbols and markings occluded (there’s a word I haven’t used in forever!) the message, it was revealed by the right filter.

Kingdom perspective is like that filter for spiritual truth and spiritual truth is always the door to the bigger picture, to seeing what is not seen.  Let’s call that Kingdom perspective and Visionary Filter

… FAITH.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. … 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. … 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country– a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

When Jesus used the Visionary Filter, it was because He’d come from the Father.  Jesus knew the spiritual realm as being every bit as real as the physical world.

He had clear, detailed Vision of the bigger picture.

For us, the Visionary Filter of Faith shows us what is real, true, and eternal—what is truth hiding among the world’s distractions and circumstances.

Are you living today with the Visionary Filter of Faith?

What do you hope for?  What do you see?  What country are you longing for?

Read through the passage again and note how the ancients–these Overcomers–saw at a distance what was only possible with a Visionary Filter of Faith.

We are still looking at The 5 Kingdom Principles for Overcoming as found in 1 Peter 2:21-23, and gaining that Perspective we need to live fully and fruitfully.  We want more Jesus, to have the Kingdom Vision to see the Savior clearly in the midst of a million pretenders and manmade saviors.

Who are they and what do these culturally created false messiahs look like, distracting us from Jesus?  All you have to do is watch the nightly news and you see a whole bunch of pretenders, fakes, false hopes, and maybe nice people, but very shallow saviors:

• Money—if you have enough, you’ll never have to worry ever again.  You can provide for yourself!
• Power, Celebrity, Fame—if you know the right people you’ll live a happy life as master of your own destiny.  You’ll be popular!  Better yet, you’ll be someone else’s god.
• Technology—if you have the right app or the right device, you’ll have a leg up on everyone else.
• Health—if you work out, eat right, and sleep well, you’ll live almost forever!
• Drugs—if they’re legalized and you use the right one, your mind will be opened and your environment will be like paradise.  You will know total freedom!  It’s kind of like heaven…sort of.
• Politics—if you look to the government to solve all your problems, it will!  Just like magic!
• Tolerance—if you just stop having moral standards and careful discernment, I’m ok, you’re ok.  We’re better than ok.  We’re tolerant! Apply halo here and listen to the angels sing.  

* * *

Shallow saviors, to be sure.

* * *

And they are precisely the reason so many people lose hope.

People become jaded, give up, and learn to resent other people.  Following false messiahs provides distraction–they will only lead us to fatalism, victimhood, and ultimately death.

We fall into the trap of seeing ourselves in comparison to others whose Facebook statuses and curb appeal lives say that they’ve made it to the top!  And here we are at the bottom.  “What I need is more ____,” we think.  Fill in the blank with any false hope.

The Truth is: What we really need is more …Jesus!  We need Kingdom Vision that shows the way of clarity in a world of distractions.  We look to Jesus because He left an example so that we might follow in His footsteps.

Mark 8:34 Then Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

That’s Perspective that truly saves!

There is so much more to Kingdom Vision than simply seeing.  It’s focused seeing—seeing what God sees as important in an overall scene of earthly pain, discrimination, injustice, disease, hunger, and chaos.  “Focused seeing” doesn’t ignore reality, but it widens the perspective even while examining every detail for Kingdom principles.  What does this look like?

I like analogies.  Did you ever look at the Where’s Waldo pictures?  There were always a bunch of pretenders in the picture whose presence was there to make finding Waldo harder.  They served as a distraction to keep our eyes off of a focused and relentless search for Waldo.  Usually, they didn’t even look like Waldo, but you see red and white and think, “There he is!”  No.  Oooh!  Is that him?  No.  And you keep searching.

But once you see Waldo, you can pick him out right away!

Suffering is a pretender just like all the red/white scarves and skirts and flags, calling attention to itself.

What is our adversary’s singular goal in creating a larger picture of suffering, injustice, chaos, bitterness, strife, and keeping us busy with a whole host of problems?  He wants to lead us to death by distracting us from seeing the redemption God offers in Jesus Christ. Troubles, Jesus tells us, we will have many!  But to take heart, He has overcome the world! (John 16:33)

Suffering both distracts and focuses our sights–they are two sides of the same painful coin.

 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ (Luke 8:10)

Whew!  Doesn’t that seem a bit unfair?  Not when we think about it this way: For those who choose to see with Kingdom vision and not just our eyes, Jesus (who is far better than Waldo) is in plain sight.  Once you see Jesus, you really do see Him.  You know it’s Him.  Not just what He maybe looks like among a million manmade messiahs and pretenders in a world of suffering, but you see Jesus.  You know Him.

Likewise, when we have Kingdom Vision we see the Way, the Truth, and the Life—even in the midst of chaos.  Parables were just a way of affirming who had already adopted Kingdom Vision and saw the Truth of Christ plainly and clearly, and who among us were still distracted, looking for answers in any old place.  Over the next few days we’ll explore how to have this Kingdom Vision and how it helps us in overcoming suffering.

Sufferings and troubles will come.  But the real question is can you still focus on God’s Truth in Jesus Christ in spite of suffering?