Ep. 73 The Single Eye

[00:00:00] Speaker A: And man, think about the double minded man, washed back and forth to and fro from the waves of the sea. Right? Every wind of teaching. I mean, and this is what's so fascinating about the relationship aspect of really knowing who you are and who God is and that there's no substitute, right? Like, once I stepped into really seeing, seeing God for who he is and understanding who I am in Him, I'm no longer that double minded man, striving and looking for the next thing that's going to really bring the life I've already been given this life. Oh, God, you actually love me. You're not against me. But no longer do I live as that unstable, double minded man. Like I've stepped into this realm of seeing things the way God sees them. And it's really beautiful. Hello and welcome. Welcome to or welcome back to let's Talk Life, a podcast with two cousins on a journey. And we get to journey together. We were just journeying together in a conversation every weekend. We decided, hey, maybe we should share this with others, equipping others to know and experience life in Christ and the mystery that's been made known that is Christ in us. The hope of glory. And that's our joy, that's our rest, that's our peace. And so that's what we're here to dialogue about again today. Carl, how you doing? [00:01:22] Speaker B: Hey man, I'm making it. I don't know if that's a feeling on the feelings wheel. [00:01:27] Speaker A: Making it, making it. [00:01:29] Speaker B: But you know, just like, okay, I'm doing okay, but it's pretty exciting down here in Central Virginia. We went from like 70 degrees to 98 like overnight, and then next weekend back to 56. So it's just strange, but our middle son Ben's graduating high school tonight at Liberal University. So when the listener hears this, he's already graduated, right? And so all the, all the events leading up to it, like senior night at soccer, the baccalaureate last night, his awards on Thursday, so it was like the week before. And then Monday graduates and then all he has is soccer and work. And we talked about that last week. You know, you brought up I'm free. And you know, it's kind of like thinking that was strange until, until, until we get to this week after we, after we taped it. And I'm just like, oh, yeah, he's free. Oh yeah, he's free. No, no. Our youngest, he's in fifth grade and he wishes he was free. Like, he says, I hate school. Why do we got seven more years? You know? And so There, there's a lot of excitement. My parents came in for a week from Michigan and it just kind of like our, our schedule was so crazy the last eight days. And I'm, I'm a big routine guy. And yeah, routines feel like, like habits or I, I, I like to rest in those routines. And so it's been, it's been, it's been different. And so God's, God's molding and shaping me and there's moments where I'm just like, okay, I'm not resting in Christ. I'm not resting in who Christ says I am. You could just feel it. Wow. And so, yeah, so this, this, this trust, I mean, this is real life stuff, guys. This isn't just, you know, wishy washy Sunday morning, you know? [00:03:20] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:21] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:03:21] Speaker A: Wow. Awesome. Thank you for sharing and congrats to Ben. It's also, it's also my daughter Emma's 20th birthday today. [00:03:30] Speaker B: Wow. [00:03:31] Speaker A: So she's way, way up north. So I don't know. Grand rapids is maybe 1300 miles and she's another. I don't know how many more miles up on the upper Peninsula. But she was down with the family having a big celebration last Saturday. We dialed, that was a couple nights ago. We video called in to say hi to everybody. May's a big birthday month for us. My daughter's birthday, my sister's birthday and my wife's birthday are the same. Actually. My wife and my sister on the 22nd. That's this Friday. So my, my dad's was the 12th. My daughter's is today and my sister and my wife's is. So it's just, and then, and then my, my son is engaged and his fiance now is also a May birthday. [00:04:17] Speaker B: Wow. [00:04:17] Speaker A: It's just a busy month for birthdays in our family for sure. [00:04:21] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:04:22] Speaker A: So it's, that's been wild. But I've been too. Just in a whirlwind down here. Just in journeying with. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:30] Speaker A: With friends and church and just ministry life. So we've been in a whirlwind. I kind of, I've stepped into, you know, it doesn't really affect me, my family, my ministry, but I stepped into the storm with, with friends and that's, that's what we do. It's really a fight, like a fight to stay free. Fight to stay free in Christ. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Right, right, right. [00:04:54] Speaker A: To live loved, to live free. To live full. I mean, that's the book I still have in front of me. It's a, it's, it's a battle for the mind to, to remain there. [00:05:04] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:04] Speaker A: So, yeah, we don't always feel loved free, but it's the truth that we are, we are loved by God, that we are forgiven, that we can live that abundant life. So, yeah, that's been my week. I, I, I was that it's that [00:05:17] Speaker B: it's possible and hopeful. I mean, that, that's where that comes in. It's, it actually is possible. And then, and then there can be some hope, you know, So I just wanted to throw that in there. Go ahead. [00:05:30] Speaker A: Sure. No, it's awesome. I'm just saying that that's been my week. I was even pondering, did we actually record. Was that last week, like, so has this affected me? You know, you kind of brought some of that up and I was like, well, not really. I mean, I really do feel at rest and at peace. I mean, I spoke when I needed to speak and I, and I shared you with, you know, gave wisdom when God just shared stuff with me. And, and I'm not closely, I don't have to go through it every single day of the week. It's, the pressure's not on me. I'm not at stake of losing my job or anything like that. So it's like I can be at rest, but at the same time, I think, man, seven days ago, it feels like it was at least two weeks ago since we've done this. So, yeah, it still, still certainly affects you. And, but I'm really also just, just pleased with, with how God has provided, how God has spoken and worked through the whole situation. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it'd be great to go coast through life and not have to face those things. But the reality is that's the thing that really spurred us all to really be united, to stand with each other, to lock arms together, to hold each other's arms up when we need to. [00:06:37] Speaker B: Right? Yeah, it's. [00:06:39] Speaker A: So there's been a lot of, a lot of beautiful things happening in the midst of a lot of chaos. So it's been really beautiful, man. So, yeah, yeah. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Living loved. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah, Living loved. [00:06:49] Speaker B: And so how is that, like, how does that even, you know, like, I guess, like, what does that look like? And how has that just permeated you all over? [00:06:59] Speaker A: Well, it's one of my favorite books, I think yours too, you know. He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobson. And the subtitle is Learning to Live in the Father's Affection. And what does that really look like? Man, there's, there's so much, I guess you could go so many different ways, but It's. It's like I'm not trying to be lovable. It's realizing and believing that I am loved. [00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:28] Speaker A: So living loved really is first and foremost about receiving. [00:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Receiving first. [00:07:34] Speaker A: I think that's really difficult. It's difficult for men. It's difficult for people in America in general. So it's very, very tough. But. But when we see ourselves as loved, we receive love and then it changes how we think. It's like mind renewal. It's a mind shift. It's. Yeah, I'm. I'm. Loved flows into how I think, how I feel, how I choose. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:56] Speaker A: It changes everything. Like I can actually rest in this reality for. So I think a key word that we've always used is just remember. [00:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:04] Speaker A: I think what, what we do with each other is remind each other. [00:08:07] Speaker B: Just remember. Right. Yeah. [00:08:09] Speaker A: If I can remember that I'm loved, if I can remember that I'm forgiven, if I can remember that I'm safe and that the Father has me in his arms. Wow. I can make decisions from those realities, from those truths. And when I do, they're going to be really beautiful. It's not going to be fleshy. It's not going to be sin. It's not going to be the desires of the world. It's going to be naturally, Jesus is flowing out of me and it's just a. A whole different way to live. It's hard. Hard to even process it. But that's. That's the life of really living out of the Father's affection. [00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:45] Speaker A: He loves me. It's beautiful. [00:08:47] Speaker B: It's a re. It's receiving first. Yeah, it's receiving first. I think I had shared that our pre show meeting, which is not taped, that Romans 12 is. Has been sort of. Sort of a trajectory of where I'm going with some. Some saints this summer. And, and it starts by saying, in view of God mercy. In view of God's mercy. Like, like receiving his mercies first. And this is how the life lives out and not the opposite, which is. Well, I need to really work on my behavior. Well, I really need to. It's like a checklist of things I need to do. It's like. No, no, no, no, no, no. Paul says, in view of all these things, in view of his mercies that he's given you, like Titus 3. 5. I think that was a verse you had brought up in your past, or maybe it was Titus 2, I can't quite remember, but that we, by our works of righteousness, not by preaching good sermons. Or it's not about proving that we're worthy of anything. It's a posture of can I allow God to love me? Will I. Will I allow God to love me? And will I receive it? And so will I receive it. So receiving it. And so then there's. There's the, you know, wow. Overflow, right? So learning to live loved, like you said. [00:10:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I get. So I went back to that, thinking of the subtitle for he loves me, but I'm. I'm pulling that out of even his 365 daily reflections here, this book from Wayne too. And this one little entry here is a life lived in Father's love. And the very next one is that there's no substitute for a relationship. And it's like once you see who God truly is, that he's a loving father, and once you see who you are in him, man, that there's nothing that can be substituted. In fact, once you see it, you never. You never. You can't unsee it and you don't want to unsee it. And so it's just really beautiful. And I love this like John, he has in here in the Second one, John 15. This is from the message version of the Bible. I love John 15 anyways, but he says, I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends, and this is what I love. He's named us friends because I've let you in on everything. I love the way the message says that I've let you in on everything. It's not this secret. It's. It's been a mystery, but this mystery is now known. And I've. I'm letting you in to know the Father's love for you, to know who you are in him. And Jesus never. He never like, loaded his followers up with. With religious thinking. He never loaded them down with obligation or with guilt and shame. He just. He really manifested this union, relationship, love relationship between he and the Father and said, you can have this too. And then you could jump two chapters later to John 17. And he's praying, Father, may they be one. Like we're one. And that's the fulfillment really, of his whole ministry right on the earth. And it's really beautiful. [00:12:03] Speaker B: Oh, man, I appreciate you saying that because how many times in your life on a Sunday morning, where did. Looking back, not in the moment, but looking back, you can say, wow, that was a lot of. That was a heavy load laid on Me or I laid a heavy load on someone else. Right. Tell me, Jesus. Words are my love. You know, Matthew 11. My yoke is easy, My burden is light and so. So for if I'm. If my burden is heavy, it might not be the one from Him. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. [00:12:39] Speaker B: Yeah. That I'm carrying. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Right. So all. All of this, like, the Father's affection and just understanding all these things, it all leads me to. And we just happened to be studying this last night as well, but this chapter out of the rest of the gospel called the Single Eye. Yeah, all of it leads me to that. Because when I can see things properly, when, like, the cure helps me to see and narrow in on. This is who God is. This is who I am. When I can recognize out if he loves me, that man I can live out of. The Father's affection. That's the single eye. Like, it doesn't matter what else is going on. Doesn't matter. Even my circumstances. I can see in front of me exactly who I am, who God is. [00:13:20] Speaker B: Yep. [00:13:20] Speaker A: And I don't always feel like I want to go through what I'm going through, but I can trust in the Father, and. [00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. [00:13:28] Speaker A: It's so good. [00:13:30] Speaker B: That is so good. And I want to go back to what you said. There's no substitute for relationship, Right? No substitute for relationship. You know, and it doesn't. It doesn't start. I mean, it's go. You go back to. You go back to Moses, but. But you go back to Galatian, you know, the church of Galatia. And they quickly abandoned this freedom in Christ for rules and regulations, man. Rul. Regulations. I think that's. I think that's easy. I think that's much easier because if I just. If I just like, you know, and this is what we say, read the Bible every day, pray, go to church, start giving money, start serving. Like, I don't know if there's a six, one, but. But that's. This is what you do. Well, I'm telling you right now, I can read the Bible, I can pray, I can go to church, I can give money, and I could volunteer time without any transformation inside me, but I can think that somehow I have a relationship with the Father. And so there's no substitute for the Father's affection. There's no substitute for a relationship with the Father through Jesus. [00:14:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:14:31] Speaker B: There's no substitute. [00:14:33] Speaker A: It's so beautiful. And this is what he says in this chapter with the Single Eye, that the secret of the Christian life is learning to live out of the Life of another, learning to live out of the life of another. And this is where we have to like step out of the realm that we can see and process things and step into the realm of things that we can't really see. And, and into the realm of trust and faith and belief and who God is. And so every situation that we're facing, whether it's chaos at home and your family being home and even fear of, okay, my son is graduating and what's next for him and what's, what's the next step for him? Like the stuff we talked about last week, whether it's church related stuff and difficulty and hardship and yeah, you know, pastors wondering if they even have a job in the coming months. And that's right, you have all that stuff, but in the middle of it all you can actually see God. Like that's the single eye. I know who you are, God. I know who I am and I can trust in these truths and live from there. [00:15:42] Speaker B: And so I'd like to share a little bit more on that right in the chapter before it. Nothing happens in our life for which there isn't a God reason. Nothing happens in our life. [00:15:53] Speaker A: Right. [00:15:54] Speaker B: Which there isn't a God reason. If we don't want to see one, we don't have to and we won't. So if I don't see, if my eyes aren't open, open my eyes. God, right? Open my eyes. So if I'm not seeing God in something, I don't have to, doesn't mean he's not there. Doesn't mean. But what's it going to leave me with is a lot of self. A lot of self. So it's going to, it's going to lead to, well, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, anger. Why didn't God change that? Or why didn't God do this? Or why did God withhold this from me? Or why did God, you know, lead this, lead this situation? And so if I don't want to, I don't have to. But man, thank you God for giving me your eyes, your single eye, the single eye so that I, that I can see God. There's something bigger at play here than what I can see. [00:16:48] Speaker A: Right? [00:16:48] Speaker B: And so until I can see it, help me trust you, Father, right? Help me in my unbelief, help me to trust that you're in this, that you, you are doing something greater than I can see. That's the beauty. I mean it is beautiful because guess what? There might not be anything else that changes in that circumstance, but there's something that he's doing in me right now. Drawn to a deeper dependency which leads to joy, peace. I mean, how can I rejoice in affliction and rejoice in trouble? And it's when I have that single eye. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so good. It's so good. That's where he goes on even in this chapter and he references Matthew 6 and the light of the body is the eye. Specifically in the King James version it uses the word single. If therefore the I be single. And so like the contrast of that is what's the opposite of it being single? It would be to be double and right. And so that's, that's really the contra. Like a single eye is healthy. I have one focus. I know and believe. This is who God is, this is who I am. The single focus. The double eye then would be the evil that that passage talks about. And man, think about the double minded man washed back and forth to and fro from the waves of the sea. [00:18:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:06] Speaker A: Every wind of teaching. I mean and this is what's so fascinating about the relationship aspect of really knowing who you are and who God is. And that there's no substitute, right. Like once I stepped into really seeing, seeing God for who he is and understanding who I am in him, man, it's like I'm no longer that double minded man. Like striving and looking for the next thing that's going to really bring the life I've now like I stepped into going, I've already been given this life. Oh God, you know, you actually love me. You're not against me, you're not throwing these, oh, I made a mistake. And so you're bringing these consequences in my life because you, no, that's not God. Sin is its own consequence. So if you choose to do something that you're gonna feel guilty and there's gonna be consequences and whatever that thing might look like. But no longer do I live as that unstable double minded man. Like I've stepped into this realm of seeing things the way God sees them. Yeah, it's really beautiful. [00:19:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:19:10] Speaker A: I can't process everything like that. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Well, and this is very helpful. This is very helpful because we need to be reminded of these divine encounters, these places of trust. Because right around the corner is another opportunity to trust. And I'm going to forget, right? And I'm going to be filled with fear and anxiety and worry as I put my eyes on myself. I'm not gazing upon Christ. I'm not. I'm looking at things with double vision. The, the double eye. And so then the circumstances enveloped me. As David talks about that in Psalms, circumstances surround me and I just love that, that God can bring us out of that. And so that I can walk through this like, he didn't. He didn't. He didn't remove you from the situation. He didn't remove me from the situation. But he's working, he's forming. He's in all things to fashion, inform us. The image of Christ. [00:19:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:57] Speaker B: And the dependency on his affection. [00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah. It's always just so fascinating to me too, how God always puts the right chapter. Like just the fact that this chapter is the one that we studied together last night in the midst of all that we're going through. [00:20:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:14] Speaker A: And at the same time, I have First Corinthians, chapter two sitting here in front of me. And it references in that chapter two times other parts of the Old Testament. And verse 16 it says, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? And it's like man, that. That keeps God kind of at this distance. Right. But then the very last part of the verse says, but we have the mind of Christ. So what we've been given is so incredible. [00:20:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:20:42] Speaker A: And it's not that I'm always living there. It's not that I. [00:20:45] Speaker B: Right. [00:20:45] Speaker A: Perfection isn't the aim. [00:20:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:20:47] Speaker A: Being, but being reminded and knowing and learning to live from this reality is so beautiful. And then I back it up even to verse nine. [00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:57] Speaker A: I just. I love this. No eye is seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. So I always would just stop there. This is what I did often with these scripture. [00:21:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:11] Speaker A: And it would leave me kind of like, first of all, striving to love him more. Secondly, just kind of thinking of him as being so otherworldly, like I can't possibly think the way that he thinks. But the very next verse says, but God. Those are pretty mighty words in and of themselves. But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. And it's like, so what no I could see and what no one could hear, what no one could conceive is actually conceivable. Now I can know that. And it's like, yes, that's the mystery. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:42] Speaker A: God has revealed it to us. And it's just. It's so amazing. [00:21:46] Speaker B: Thank you, God. [00:21:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:47] Speaker B: For your revelation. [00:21:49] Speaker A: Right, right. For giving us that single eye. We don't have to be double minded. We can actually live in that place of rest. We've entered his rest. We have it. Yes, it's ours. We have the mind of Christ. It's just so beautiful, so amazing. So. What a joy. What a joy to talk life. What a joy to live life with Christ in us. Amen.