Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - A New Set of Lenses (Part 2 of 4)

In the previous blog we talked about how desperate we are to see life through a new set of lenses - eternal lenses, and how we will be transformed when we understand that each aspect of our life has eternal significance. I believe this includes three things that we need to be willing to change if we are going to experience all of what God has in store for us as we seek to know and to have His heart. We will look at the first one today and the other two in the next two blogs.

Let's use Levi's story in the Gospel of Luke as our reference point. First, we find in his story in chapter 5 verse 27 the necessity of seeing lost people through the eyes of Jesus. "Going from there, Jesus went out and saw Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth. And He said to him, ‘Follow me.' And Levi got up, left everything and followed Jesus."

Notice first that Jesus went to him in his daily environment - he didn't expect Levi to come and attend the next synagogue service where Jesus was expected to preach. I find this consistent with Jesus' words to His disciples in Mathew 28:19 when He tells them to "Go and make disciples."

The command wasn't to "come and see," which seems to be the evangelism mantra of many of today's well meaning local fellowships. "Come see our new building! Come check out our new children's program! Hey, did you see our new gymnasium? Come listen to our worship band - you'll love it!"

Now there's obviously nothing wrong with having a great worship facility and excellent programming, as long as it's not all for the people who are already safe in the lifeboat. Want to build a new family life center? Great! Find some ways to fill it with the lost teenagers in your community once a month. Use it as a disaster relief site for people in times of crises. The bottom line - remain preoccupied with the people Jesus was preoccupied with - those who were still far from Him and who never knew what it was like to have one day with a Savior. Jesus' command has not changed - it's go and make, not come and see.

Second, when Jesus looked at Levi, he saw beyond what Levi was to what he could be after being bathed in God's grace. We need to remember that a tax collector was the cultural scum of the earth. He wasn't the guy everyone wanted to invite out to lunch after the Sunday service. He was despised and rejected. However, of all the words we could use to describe Jesus' feelings toward Levi, compassion would have to be at the top of our list. "When He saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36 ).

Third, when Jesus saw Levi, He also saw him as a man with the potential for great influence. And we will talk more about this in our next blog. For now, let me ask you, "What is it about your perspective of lost people that needs to be adjusted to match the perspective Jesus had of Levi?" How full is your compassion tank for those who are still far from God? Take a moment to ask God to renew in your heart His compassion for the people around you.