Vision: September 23, 2010

Today's Word for Thursday September 23, 2010

VISION

DEFINITION

The act or power of sensing with the eyes; the act or power of anticipating that which or may come to me; an object of sight

SCRIPTURE

"When your eye is good, your whole body is also filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your body is also full of darkness." Matthew 11:36

"Your old men will dream dreams and your young men shall see visions." Joel 2:2.

"Where there is no vision the people perish." Proverbs 29:18

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

When we think of the word "vision" two things come to mind. First is the "vision" we have when we see things as they are. Secondly, we think of "vision" as it relates to things in the future that we want to accomplish. In life today most people see things only as they are now and cannot, for the most part, see past today.

Someone once said that worse than blindness is living without vision. As we think back on our lives we have seen God do so much through our lives and this has been mainly because God gave us visions in His own time to accomplish what sometimes seemed impossible.

We can remember after our sixth child, a woman Dottie knew, came up to her and asked how were we ever going to get our children through college on the income we were getting from our ministry? Her response was simply that God had always provided for us all that we need and would continue to do so. From the day each child entered Junior High School we continually encouraged them to do their very best so that they could get the financial aid they would need to attend college. Each one responded to our vision and they all went to a private college because they excelled at every level of school so that they were able to receive financial aid and low interest loans.

For us, life would have been lacking in purpose if we did not have a vision for our family and a vision even today for the world around us that needs to know Jesus.

Columbus had a vision to find the new world and he set out on a course that was unknown to man and his vision resulted in finding this new world. We have known a few Christian leaders in our life time that had a vision for the impossible. Then God took over and those visions became a reality.

Where there is no vision the people will perish. Leaders that we have known well include: Dr. Billy Graham, Dr Bob Pierce, Dr. Torrey Johnson, Dr. Bill Bright and Dr. Henrietta Mears. They all had visions that when first talked about were thought to be impossible. But look what God has done because these and others had a vision that God had given them and then they acted upon that vision. We all know about the ministries of Billy Graham. Dr. Pierce founded with my [Ken] father World Vision which today is one of the top five charities in the world. Dr Johnson founded Youth for Christ, a youth organization that made a dramatic impact on teenagers lives for over 40 years. Dr. Bright founded Campus Crusade that started as a college ministry and today is a world wide ministry. And finally Dr. Mears founded Gospel Light Press, the first major publisher of Sunday school material in America. These people all were ordinary people that had a VISION and acted upon it, believing God for the impossible.

We challenge you and your family to ask God for a special vision to further His work here on earth. Whether your vision is large or small it is important to God. We can remember our prayer over 50 years ago. It was simply for God to use us and give us a burden for a world that needed Jesus. Then we watched God open doors and we were ready to march through those doors as God led us. God needs you to think and pray this way today.

LEARNING

Our memory verse for this week is found in 1 John 4:10.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

PRAYER

Open my eyes so I can see the world around me with a new vision of how I can reach this world with the message of Your love and free gift of salvation. Enable me to step out in faith believing that I can fulfill that vision because You have promised to be with me and help me. Bless my family and help us to make an impact on the world we live in.