LEARNING TO SEE, part 2
We use the word "vision" for the ability to see. And we use it for a person's plan for the future and their understanding of the present. What you do today should be a part of a bigger plan for your life. In this study, we will tell about what we believe is the biggest picture, the answer to why we are living on this planet. Our little plans can change from day to day, but if they all go toward this one big plan, our lives will be full and interesting.
Our vision starts with a Maker. We do not know how the Maker himself started. Our picture is not THAT big! But we do know that all of us and the world we live in were MADE. (Hebrews 11:1-3) The Maker must be smarter than the things that he has made. We believe that he made the world and he made us because he wanted to show his LOVE. You do not need to have a religion to see this. It is something that people see because it is the way that we think. It is what makes us different from animals. (See "Learning to See", part 1.) We see things and we know that they were made by some person or some thing. (Romans 1:20) We see that love starts with God the Maker (and not with the things he made), and that he wants us to learn how to give love and to receive love. (I John 4:16)
But something is wrong. (We do not understand everything about how and why this happened, but we will say what we know about it.) It is difficult for us to remember and think about the INVISIBLE world (and the invisible God) that Jesus talked about, because we cannot see God or his world. But we can see the things that he has made. Because of this, people have started to love the things God has made in the way that they should be loving God. (Romans 1:21-25) Many people have started to say that the world itself is their god. People fight to get more and more of the things that God and other people have made, but this does not make them happy. Many people love the things that they have made, in the way that they should love God. The things we make are called idols. (Acts 7:41) God does not want us to love idols in the way that we should love Him. (Exodus 20:4-6)
There was a time when a country named Babylon controlled much of the world. In this country, there were many idols. But one thing this country is most remembered for today is that they started making little idols out of gold and other expensive metals, and they called the idols "money". (They did not call the money "idols" at that time, but because people quickly learned to love the money the way that they should love God, it was not long before money had become an idol. Colossians 3:5) The king and other people who controlled the country agreed to give some of the little gold and silver and copper idols (money) to people if they would work hard for the country. Over the years, people have learned to work harder and harder for money. They fight and kill to get more of it. (James 4:1-3) People have started to think that they cannot live without money. The leaders know that this is not true. They know that the money itself cannot feed them or protect them or keep them warm when the weather is cold; but they do not teach this. They want the people to believe that money can do all the things that God, their Maker, really does for them.
In their hearts, the people know that they are not doing what God wants them to do. They feel guilty, but they do not want to give away their idols and start working for God. Religious leaders teach about many different things, but they will not tell people to leave their idols and to live by faith in God. They tell the people that if they will obey the rules of their religions, it will make them happy. But the rules that the religions make do not stop the people from loving and working for money in the way that they should be loving and working for God. Because of this, the rules do not make them happy. (Romans 7:10)
We believe that God, the Maker of all things, used his Son, Jesus Christ, to tell us in the strongest possible way that the only way to be happy is to leave all of our idols (Luke 14:33, Matthew 5:3) and to use our time to help and love others. (John 13:35) If we do this, the Maker of the world and all that is in it, will give us all that we need. (Matthew 6:33, Philippians 4:19) We are doing this, and we are more confident after having tried it, that what Jesus said is true, and it is what our Maker wants us to do. (John 7:17) Our job now is to tell other people about this. (Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:20)
On the whole, the world is blind. It is difficult to get other people to see what we are trying to get them to see, because they cannot see God. (Romans 8:7) But, by believing in Jesus, we will be able to see God. When people see us obeying Jesus, they will be able to see God's love in the loving things that we do. (Matthew 5:16) The greatest love is when we give our lives for others. (John 15:13) If we give our lives for God, some people will start to believe in God again. (I John 3:16) It is not easy to teach other people about love in this way, but God is helping us, and when we work with him in doing this, we know that we are doing the best thing that anyone can do with their lives. (Matthew 7:13-14) One day Jesus will return to help us teach the world about love. (Acts 1:11) We will be the leaders of the whole world after he returns. (I Corinthians 6:2) But, before Jesus returns, he says that we will be hated and killed by the idol-lovers. (Matthew 24:9-14) For now, we are giving our lives to God and to others by giving them our time. But in the future, we will be doing it by dying for what we believe.
All of this is our "vision". It teaches us to understand many other things about life and about the world around us. We understand that God and love and the things that we do not see with our physical eyes are much more real than the things we CAN see with our physical eyes. (II Corinthians 5:7, I Corinthians 2:9) And we are finding true happiness by living our lives for the things that most other people cannot see.
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