Looking Unto Jesus

For many years before I became a Christian, I was very diligent in the area of morality and religion.

As the Lord was bringing me to the end of self and showing me that I was not who I fancied myself to be, different people would encourage me to, "Look to Christ."

This always seemed like great advice, but there was one problem. I didn't really understand what people meant when they told me that! Looking back, I realize that the problem was with my spiritual understanding, not with their explanations.

I can still vividly remember the day when I was reading about Moses lifting up the pole with the serpent in the wilderness. The people who looked at it, believing they were healed, were healed! I was not suffering from a snake bite, but my problem was just as fatal. It was a lifetime of good works, done in vain, done for the wrong reasons, done without love and gratitude for Christ.

That afternoon, the Lord made everything clear to me... It was like things went from black and white to technicolor! I understood (finally) what it meant to look to Christ... Look to Him and be healed! Look to Him for righteousness, Look to Him and not ourselves, Look to Him and not the world, Look to Him and be saved!!!

My good friend Misty gave me a little pamphlet for my birthday. It is about 3"x4" and only 27 pages long, and it is titled, "Looking unto Jesus: Hebrews 12:2." It is a WONDERFUL help in thinking about what it means to "Look to Christ." (Especially when we remember that we not only look to Christ initially for salvation, but CONTINUALLY!)

The first sentence of the pamphlet is " 'Looking unto Jesus' (Heb. 12:2) Only three words, but in those three words is the whole secret of life."

The pamphlet is broken up into short little paragraphs with Looking unto Jesus as the first phrase of each. For example, Looking unto Jesus... in the Scriptures, Crucified, Who gives repentance, and at nothing else, and not at our creeds, etc.

It is very helpful, and it is written by the man who wrote the following hymn: (A little long, but WORTH the read!)

Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be,
When I let the saviour's pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered:
'All of self, and none of Thee.'

Yet He found me: I beheld Him
Bleeding on the accursed tree,
Heard Him pray: 'Forgive them, Father,'
And my wistful heart said faintly:
'Some of self, and some of Thee.'

Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and ah! so patient,
Brought me lower, while I whispered:
'Less of self, and more of Thee.'

Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered;
Grant me now my supplication:
"None of self, and all of Thee."

Theodore Monod, 1874