Posted on by Abe Austin

The Lord Sees You- Summary

As I suggested at the beginning of this series, our topic is one that is very near and dear to my heart. I feel that too often the notion of God seeing all is used to provoke fear in those that are doing wrong, leaving the far more beautiful side of that truth forgotten. A truth that God is never apart from the lonely, that He never misunderstands the misunderstood, that He does not fail to see the overlooked. He is the cure to what ails us.

Jesus Overlooks No One

Humans are finite beings with limited capacities. Even if you never meant to ignore someone, you most certainly have at some point or another. It’s not something we have to feel guilty about (unless it is done intentionally) because our reality is one of mortal limitations.
Anyone that has done any sort of ministry work where they strive for the souls of others knows the reality of this. Anyone who has been a parent knows this. There are simply too many people for you to be there for all of them at all times. There are too many problems that you don’t know the perfect answer to. Perhaps if you could be all things to all people you would, but you simply can’t. And that is why at the end of the day we always have to turn things over to God. He is the one that time and space do not limit, that hunger or stress do not distract. He will always see His children.
Luke 2:5- And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him.
Luke 21:2- And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

Jesus Sees Correctly

I remember a time I went with my wife and son to a park. We played for a little while, had a good time, and then told our son it was time to go to an appointment. He was about two at the time, and seemed fine with the arrangement at first, but as we got back into our car, though, he started to cry and shout. I assumed he just didn’t want to stop playing, explained to him we really had to go, and proceeded to force him into his car seat.
As I got into the driver’s seat my wife was finally able to make out what he was saying: he had dropped his toy car in the grass as we left and didn’t want us to drive away without it. Thankfully we were able to find it, but I left feeling incredibly humbled.
I had been there the whole time, but I had entirely misread the situation. I was unknowingly signalling to my son that I didn’t care about his things. Again, we have finite limitations, and one of the most pronounced is we so often fail to communicate. We misjudge things all the time. I am so grateful to know that my son has another Father, too, one who will never misunderstand him. One who will see directly to the heart of every matter.
Luke 21:3-4- And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

When We Are Seen We Are Made Better

When finally we meet that Lord who always sees us and always sees us rightly, then all the good parts of our heart start to unlock. One of the most common trends in those that commit crimes, particularly violent ones, is that they have a history of isolation. When people are not a part of a community, when they don’t have loved ones at home, when there is no one to see them and understand them, then the worst parts tend to come out.
The opposite is true as well. When one feels acknowledged, understood, and validated they are most likely to seek their own self improvement, find meaningful work, and contribute back to their society.
Some of us may go through periods of loneliness, where we don’t have immediate family members or friends nearby to accompany us. And even if we did have them around us, there would still be those times that they misread us.
But there always remains a Savior who sees us, one who has promised His constant companionship. He sees us and He wants to tell us about all the wonderful things that He sees. Have you ever asked Him to share? I promise you that only good will come of it.
Matthew 28:20- Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Lord Sees You- Life Example

My dearest spiritual experiences have to do with the times that I felt the Lord was seeing me directly. Though I may try to appear as an entirely self-dependent adult to the world, in my heart I am still His child and I still crave His awareness of me.

Growing up I was the fourth child of nine. Though each one of us has always been a distinct individual, it was still hard to not feel labelled as “another one of the Austins.” In fact people still mistake me for one or another of my brothers even today. Any time I reached a milestone in life I had already seen brothers and sisters get there before me. Every accomplishment I achieved had already been exceeded by one sibling or another. I always felt that I was distinct, but I didn’t feel recognized as such.

If nine children seems like a lot, how about the billions of our Heavenly Father? And yet, remarkably, God has never treated me like a “one of.” In many interactions He has reiterated to me that I am “His only.” By which I mean that while He may have many children, I am the only me that He has. I am the only me that He will ever have. And He holds me precious because of that.

Though in the scriptures we hear Him promise blessings to all His children, in my experience He makes a point of delivering those blessings individually. You don’t receive His spirit because you are “one of” anything, you receive it because you are you. Never forget: though the rain may shower us all, the drops that fall on you are individual, they touch no one else.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Lord Sees You- Mark 5:25, 27-34

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

COMMENTARY

And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
I’ve always been impressed how this story illustrates the Savior’s ability to tell the difference between those that brush by him and those that touch him. To the disciples it was impossible to distinguish between the multitude and the one, but to the Savior the distinction was entirely clear.
To this day many people throng around Jesus, but our desire is to be one of the ones that reach out and actually connect with him, and our hope is that he will recognize us when we do.
Personally I can attest that there is a real difference between the two. I’ve been the individual who meanders around Jesus, thoughtlessly going to church and saying my prayers only because it is “what I’m supposed to do.” But I’ve also been the one that desperately needed healing and reached out in hope that he was really there for me. Having felt the sweet reassurance of the latter, I never want to go back to the first.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Lord Sees You- Luke 21:1-4

And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

COMMENTARY

And he saw also a certain poor widow
Yesterday we examined a rich and enthusiastic man who climbed a tree just to get a good look at Jesus. Jesus recognized and appreciated his efforts, which gives me confidence that he sees all of our silly attempts to catch his attention as well.
In the gospels we see many other bold individuals: brave Peter asking to walk on the water, the sinful woman washing the Savior’s feet with her own tears, brash Paul unapologetically butting heads with his fellow apostles.
But today we have a much more quiet example, one of a person that is not vying for attention at all. She is a poor widow casting her meager contribution into the temple treasury. Surrounded by others that are far better in worldly terms, she is nonetheless immediately recognized for her quiet faith by the Savior.
I’m sure each of us has done something nice for another and had it gone unnoticed. We have seen how society flocks around the drama or a repentant sinner while the quietly consistent disciple goes forgotten. We have wanted to be humble, but also wanted to be appreciated.
This story of the poor widow assures us that Jesus sees and validates all our efforts to follow. If all the world forget us, he at least never will.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Lord Sees You- Luke 19:2-9

And, behold, there was a man named Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.
And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.
And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.
And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

COMMENTARY

And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not…because he was little of stature.
And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.
Zacchæus was a man “little of stature,” one easy to overlook. Yet Jesus saw him even so. He was also easily misjudged because of his background, yet Jesus saw the real him even so. Jesus saw the man, Jesus saw the heart.
I feel Zacchæus is a character that pretty much anyone can empathize with on one level or another. We all have our times of feeling like small people that the world has little value for. When we accomplish something, no one notices. When we speak, our words are misinterpreted. Most people don’t even see us, and if they do they don’t see us rightly.
Zacchæus may have “sought to see Jesus who he was,” but he was rewarded with a friend who would “see Zacchæus who he was.” Here at last was a person who would really get him. A person that would recognize and appreciate his faithful efforts. A person that would want to abide in his house and hear his sorrows. A person that would know him intimately, call him by name, and bless his home.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Lord Sees You- Question

Some of the most heart-warming messages I’ve received from God are as simple as “I see you.” All of us have had periods feeling overlooked and underappreciated, like we are only supporting characters in someone else’s story.

I am convinced that it is in moments of isolation that people to develop their worst habits and dependencies. Being “seen” by God isn’t just something that’s nice, it’s something we need to be our healthiest, best selves.

In this study I’d like to examine the different ways God sees us, the positive effects that come about by being seen by Him, and what we can do to more fully feel His light around us.

In the meantime, what are ways that God has shown you that He sees and cares for you? What are the changes that have come about in your life because of this knowledge?

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Resurrecting and Enabling Power of Jesus- Summary

As with all gospel studies it is the life experience that matters more than the cognitive understanding. Knowing that Jesus can heal and even resurrect our broken hearts, minds, and bodies is valuable, but far more important is to actually feel this revitalizing influence in our lives. I have certainly felt him lift my weary spirit, restore my broken innocence, and embolden me to become more than I ever was before. While reading stories of how Jesus did the same for others in his day, I find myself seeing myself in their faces.

Jesus Can Heal Anyone of Anything

The scriptures “are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). Accordingly we have examples of Jesus healing the feverish, the blind, the lame, the possessed, and the dead. He encourages the brokenhearted, and restores guilty soul. He is not limited by the type of anguish, he is not limited by the magnitude of anguish.
In a world filled with people that cannot meet our every need it can be difficult to wholly trust in anyone. It is not surprising that it might go against our cynicism to believe that the Savior can save us. And that is why the first requirement of the gospel is simply to have faith.
Mark 9:18, 27- I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.

All That is Required is Our Faith and His Will

Time and time again Jesus assured the recently-healed that it was their faith which set them free. Certainly he possessed the healing power, but because he respects his children he doesn’t force his healing on those who cannot accept it. He illustrated this centuries earlier when he instructed Moses to raise a bronze serpent and instruct the sick Israelites to look to it for healing. The bronze serpent is already there, it’s just up to us to reach to it.
Mark 5:34- Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Mark 1:40-41- If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

The Healing Will be Fitted to the Individual

If you read through the miracles of Jesus to find a specific formula to them you are going to be disappointed. Well, as we just said in the previous section there’s the necessity of him authorizing the healing of the individual, and the individual having faith in that healing, but after those criteria are met there’s no telling what the rest of the method will be.
The woman with an issue of blood believed she would be healed if she touched the robes of Jesus…and she was right. The centurion believed Jesus could just say the word and his servant would be healed…and he was right. Jairus felt that if Jesus came and laid hands on his daughter then she would be healed…and he was right.
In the ending being healed is a very personal thing. Our wounds are individual, and our restoration should be as well. I don’t hurt the same way you hurt, and I don’t want your healing. I’m so very grateful for a Savior that administers to me personally.
Matthew 14:28-29- And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come.
Mark 5:28-29- For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Commandments and Personal Revelation- Summary

This study was an excellent opportunity for me to dive into a topic that has been a big source of confusion to me, and I am sure to many others as well. It’s important to remember that just because one has questions about the commandments does not mean that they don’t want to keep them. That desire naturally wants knowledge to be able to steer correctly, and so studies like these are important. Though I should add that the greatest understanding of commandments does not come by study alone, but by actively living them.

Commandments are Given and Followed By Love

One of the ways I’ve come to measure my understanding of a commandment is whether I can see the element of love in it. Can I see the love from God in giving it to me, and the love for myself and others in following it? For example, one could view laws of sexual purity as restricting one’s pleasure, or they could see them as protecting oneself from deep wounding and facilitating a more abiding romance.
Jesus came at a time where the law had been inflated into an oppressive and unwieldy mass. I believe a very real part of his mission was to remind his contemporaries of this love that had been originally intended by the law.
John 13:34- A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 14:15- If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Matthew 22:37-39-Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Commandments Should be Personal

There already existed in the Mosaic Law provisions for the poor before Jesus’s ministry. For example, farmers were required to leave portions of their fields for the impoverished to freely glean from.
When Jesus instructed the rich young man to sell all of his possessions and give to the poor, though, he was asking for something that went far above what the law required. Of other people he had different life requirements.
“Go and sin no more.”
“Behold thy mother.”
“I will make you fishers of men.”
In each case Jesus understood that we need the explicitly spelled-out commandments, but that we then have additional personal needs fitted for our individual growth. To each of us he promises this same personalized guidance.
John 14:26- But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things

Commandments, Guidance, and Revelation

I know there all manner of voices that can cast confusion on the commandments. The world calls them unnecessary, the faithful give different interpretations to them, and your own mind may obsess over whether you are following them properly or not.
Even so there are answers if we look for them. There are resources to guide us rightly. Specific injunctions like those in Moses’s ten commandments lay the ground rules for us. General guidance like those in Jesus’s two great commandments explain what our intentions should be. Personal communion from the spirit adds the final element in being able to make personalized and worthy decisions.
And it is alright if our initial thoughts of what we are supposed to be doing are imperfect. We can be sure that God will steer us as needed, just so long as we are trying sincerely.
Isaiah 28:10- For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Commandments and Personal Revelation- John 14:15; Hebrews 12:6; Matthew 22:37-39

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
…
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
…
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

COMMENTARY

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
These scriptures illustrate a beautiful symmetry in the commandments. Why does God give us commandments? Because He loves us. Why do we keep the commandments? Because we love God.
And yet this seems far removed from the way commandments are typically viewed. The world teaches us that commandments are given by a mean and angry God, and that they are followed by us only because we are afraid of His punishments. It is suggested that commandments are restricting, that they prevent the full expression of the self.
Laws of physics are celebrated, mathematical principles are praised, but laws to govern human behavior are always considered suspect. I guess it’s not too surprising, though, we humans have had a very bad track record when it comes to enforcing “correct” behavior. Most attempts to do so quickly turn into cruelty, intimidation, and fear-mongering.
And so the idea of being led by love instead of being driven by a stick might seem unnatural, and I guess given the ways of the world it is unnatural. But I can affirm it is also the truth. Anyone that has felt “chastened” by God knows it is an overwhelmingly loving experience. How did Jesus correct the woman caught in adultery? He saved her life, then told her “neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The symmetry of love as being the motivation for God giving us commandments and our following them is expanded still further when we realize that the commandments themselves are merely injunctions to love. Love God, love yourself, love others. God does not command us to hate, to steal, or to hurt. He does not command us to condemn or judge. If we respond to those that break the commandments in a way that is other than loving, then we have then broken the commandments also. The beam remains in our eye.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Commandments and Personal Revelation- Exodus 20:3-4, 7-8, 12-17; Matthew 22:37, 39-40

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honour thy father and thy mother…
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet…any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
…
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

COMMENTARY

Moses’s ten commandments are far more verbose than Jesus’s two. Even after reducing the record in Exodus 20 to its most succinct form, as I have done here, it weighs in at 76 words, while the full text of Jesus’s guidance is a mere 28.
And yet Jesus states that his two commandments encapsulate the entirety of the others. And not only of these ten…

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Notice that Jesus says his two commandments are the points upon which all of the law hangs and upon which all of the teachings of the prophets depend. The ten commandments is not the entirety of the law and prophets, they are only the briefest summary of a much, much larger body!

If you read out the entirety of the five books of Moses, the Torah that forms the foundation of Jewish Law, you will find that it is overflowing with commandments. Depending on where exactly you draw the lines between where one law ends and another begins the total comes to about 613 commandments in all!

And that’s just five books of scripture. Other commandments get added all throughout the rest. And on top of those there are additional thousands of pieces of wisdom and advice, things that may not be explicitly declared as commandments but which counsel us on how to live.

Is it any wonder that Jesus felt a need to simplify such a monument of instruction? And make no mistake, it is not that he is abbreviating all of the other commandments, it is that he is explaining the reason behind all of them. Simply put, God has not given us any instruction that falls outside of the umbrella of either:

  1. Loving Him with all your heart, soul, and mind
  2. Loving your neighbor as yourself

And between those two commandments there is a single common trait, the reason behind the reasons. It is a word that we frankly tend to forget as soon as we start talking about commandments. Love.

Let’s take a look at that more with tomorrow’s post.