J. Vernon McGee and his wife often drove around southern California to enjoy the local beauty. After seeing one marvel after another, J. Vernon would sometimes say to his wife, "We must remember. We don't see it as it really is. All of this is under God's judgment. It will all pass away.”
Skyscrapers, money, governments, cars, houses, and all other physical things will pass away someday. If we miss this fact, we will misjudge life, thinking money will always save us, feeling material things will always be around to satisfy us, and deciding well-built homes will always shelter us.
If we deem this world to be our ultimate destination, things go awry. We begin to think our brains are smart enough to figure life out, and believe we can accomplish life’s most important activities in our own strength.
When we judge everything in light of the here and now, we miss the point of our existence. To be successful in Christian living, a believer must live pondering the there and then, and weigh every detail of life on its scales.
How can we know if we are not doing this well? Certain telltale signs betray us. If we live without seeing the spiritual as supreme, our Bibles grow dusty (We leave them at church, and don't miss them till the next Sunday.), our tithes are coveted and withheld, and our Sundays are taken up with absenteeism from church; worship of God is replaced with catering to self.
Let me give a concrete example of how it can look for us if we learn to accurately distinguish the two worldviews. Jobs can define us, and we like making money to buy what we want. Yet many of us are miserable at work.
Could our worldview be part of the problem? Would it be different if we took a spiritual look at our workplace rather than a material one? What if we first and foremost saw ourselves not as employees, but as missionaries?
What if we decided God by His own sovereign choice put us in that specific environment not for the work, but for the workers, especially those who are far from God? Learn to take the spiritual look, the everlasting look.
The ultimate issue is perspective: here-and-now versus there-and-then. We urgently need to get it right. Otherwise we invite disaster, as Israel did.
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