Focal Point

Do you have a focal point that you focus on?  I heard about five minutes or so of a message yesterday and the preacher hit on this subject so I had my wife type ‘focal point’ on the computer because focal point seemed to resonate with me so I thought I would write a blog on it today.  The preacher talked about skaters and how they spin so fast and when they stop they never seem to be dizzy, they just throw up their arms and smile. If most of us tried that we would be so dizzy we would stagger like a drunk person and more than likely fall down and get sick to our stomachs.  How do they keep their composure?  Every time they spin they focus on an object called their focal point and that is what keeps them from getting dizzy and falling over.

If you think about this it sounds like many people’s lives, they seem to be spinning out of control which causes people to struggle aimlessly without any stability or rhyme or reason to go on with their lives.  So many people have put their hope and trust in so many things and all the things they trusted in have let them down.  In the world we live in we can trust in very little, not people, money, government, jobs, our economy, I.R.A’s, gold or silver, fame or fortune, nothing is very stable anymore except there is one thing that is available to everyone who will chose to rely on Him and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.  If you build the rest of your life on anything else you are doomed to a miserable life here on earth and even a more miserable existence in the life to come where their will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  All of us will live beyond this life but where we spend it is most important.

Jesus said these words about the end of time in Matthew 13:41-43, “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.  There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”  Some time there will be a judgment day and the unrighteous will go where they have chosen to go before they died.  And contrary to what some teach there will be pain and suffering especially when you see the one you have rejected, Jesus Christ himself sitting at the right hand of God in all His glory and you being separated from Him because of your own choosing.

In case you are not convinced let me explain what the weeping and gnashing of teeth stands for.  Jerusalem had a great wall around it for protection; it was also where the people dumped their garbage.  Late at night animals would roam about looking through the garbage for food and some of these animals were hungry lions.  When a man was put on trial for a crime and the verdict of guilt or innocence couldn’t be established they would tie a rope around the man and hang him over the wall, down close to the garbage, late at night and leave him hang there until morning.  If he was still alive when they pulled him up then they figured he was innocent of the crime he was accused of, if he was dead he was guilty.  But there was much more going on there, just think about how scared this man was when he saw the lions coming, he would be so terrified that he would weep and gnash his teeth, grinding them down.  This man was so terrified that even if he lived he would be out of his mind.  It wasn’t a pretty sight and it was also very painful.

So if your focal point isn’t Jesus and you are putting your trust in something else you are only kidding yourself.  This isn’t a game, it is very serious, so if you can’t say if you were to die today that you had put your hope in Jesus, asked Him to be the Lord of your life and your focal point, you should seriously consider it, don’t put it off.  You can repeat this prayer and if you are serious you will be a child of God and Jesus will become your focal point and you will be standing on a firm foundation, praise the Lord!  (Lord Jesus, I am a sinner in need of your forgiveness, please forgive me and cleanse me from all my sin and unrighteousness for I am sorry, and please come into my life and be my Lord and Savior.  I thank you so much for saving me, in Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.) God bless you and have a great day!!