Do You Have Focused Eyes?

"When you keep your eyes on God and His Christ,

everything will come into focus." -The Brotha

Focused Eyes

 If we focus on God and His Christ, we will plow a straight path and accomplish God's purpose in our lives. When you keep your eyes on God and His Christ, everything will come into focus. In the life of the Believer, we focus on Christ because he was the best example and when we do so, it allows us to be true disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ.  When we do this we become more like the Master.  In fact Christ never taught us to worship him but he did teach us to follow him.  Of course he is worthy of praise and honor because of what he did for us while he was on the scene and when he left us to be with The Father.  However praise and honor does not denote worship, an act of error in which many of us fall into because we have not been properly taught.  We have been primarily taught to worship Jesus versus solely praise and honor him.  By worshiping him, it prevents us from completely focusing on God as the source and sort of down plays God's role in the entire process.   Furthermore it represses us to some degree from being able to completely witness to Jesus' ultimate power and purpose--which came by God's permission.  We focus and anguish over the circumstances he faced and experienced thus the reasons and lessons of those circumstances. 

Follow The Leader

 Furthermore, as true followers of God and His Christ we understand that there is no such thing as chance or accidental circumstances whether challenging or positive.  "All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique."   If God brings you to it, it is for a reason(s) and lesson(s).   Moreover it is our duty to be witnesses to what God is doing in our lives combined with learning to praise and give thanks to Him "In The Middle of It," and not agonize over what we are up against.  We must realize and understand that it is only a test or trail that we are facing and experiencing.   We must then keep our eyes focused on the source which is God.  By doing such, we recognize that the trial(s) and test(s) are necessary for our spiritual growth and development.  It develops our complete trust and frees us from stress and worry because we allow the Spirit of God to bear our burdens.  Through this process we develop a deeper spiritual discernment and we learn to get our of the way and let go and let God, do what he does.  I'm reminded of the old gospel tune "Jesus Can Work It Out," the reason Jesus can work it out is because he understood and practiced the art of focus within its proper context and purpose.  He focused on The Father like none other which allowed him to completely trust God and be free!  This is why he had and has a great effect on the world for over 2000 years.  Might I respectfully assert and suggest, If we understand The Christ in this light, we will began to erase the half trues we have been taught about him and his time among us over 2000 years ago.  We will become true and proper followers of The Christ, then and only then, will we become true fishermen of men, free the captives from oppression, care for the orphan, the widow, and the stranger, advocate for and feed the poor, heal the sick, speak truth to the powerful and change the world.  

Follow his Footsteps

May God continue to grow and develop us and give us deeper spiritual discernment and understanding.  Peace be unto you! Many Blessings! Thank God! Amen! -Selah 

-The Spiritual Institute of Divine Teachings

"I am His beloved child, comforted in sad times and wise and strong in times of change.  There is nothing to fear from the events of my life, no outer condition is forever." -Joel Hicks

Scriptural and Literary Support:

and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills... -Exodus 3:31

Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.  -Job 22:21

Teach me your way, LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.  -Psalm 27:11

  

As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us.  -Psalm 123:2

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and He will make your paths straight. -Proverbs 3:5,6

Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. -Jeremiah 3:15

Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. -Luke 2:47

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  -Romans 8:26

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . -Romans 8:28

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. -Romans 13:11

So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. -1 Corinthians 14:15 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. -James 1:2-8

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.  -1 John 5:20

Nay! were you witnesses when death visited Yaqoub (Jacob), when he said to his sons: What will you serve after me? They said: We will serve your God and the God of your fathers, Ibrahim (Abraham) and Ismail (Ishmael) and Ishaq (Isaac), one God only, and to Him do we submit.  -Surah 2:221

He it is Who has revealed the Book to you; some of its verses are decisive, they are the basis of the Book, and others are allegorical; then as for those in whose hearts there is perversity they follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead and seeking to give it (their own) interpretation. but none knows its interpretation except Allah, and those who are firmly rooted in knowledge say: We believe in it, it is all from our Lord; and none do mind except those having understanding. -Surah 3:7

When Allah will say: O Isa (Jesus) son of Marium (Mary)! Remember My favor on you and on your mother, when I strengthened you I with the holy Spirit, you spoke to the people in the cradle and I when of old age, and when I taught you the Book and the wisdom and the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel); and when you determined out of clay a thing like the form of a bird by My permission, then you breathed into it and it became a bird by My permission, and you healed the blind and the leprous by My permission; and when you brought forth the dead by My permission; and when I withheld the children of Israel from you when you came to them with clear arguments, but those who disbelieved among them said: This is nothing but clear enchantment. -Surah 5:110

And when I revealed to the disciples, saying, Believe in Me and My apostle, they said: We believe and bear witness that we submit (ourselves). -Surah 5:111

When the disciples said: O Isa son of Marium! will your Lord consent to send down to us food from heaven? He said: Be careful of (your duty to) Allah if you are believers. -Surah 5:112

They said: We desire that we should eat of it and that our hearts should be at rest, and that we may know that you have indeed spoken the truth to us and that we may be of the witnesses to it. -Surah 5:113

O you who believe! do not take My enemy and your enemy for friends: would you offer them love while they deny what has come to you of the truth, driving out the Apostle and yourselves because you believe in Allah (God), your Lord? If you go forth struggling hard in My path and seeking My pleasure, would you manifest love to them? And I know what you conceal and what you manifest; and whoever of you does this, he indeed has gone astray from the straight path. -Surah 60:1

Notes from MLK Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Dr. Charles Ess, Philosophy and Religion, Drury University

The Letter consciously appeals to both prophetic  religious impulses (that part of the Judeo-Christian tradition stressing liberation of the oppressed, as exemplified in the Exodus event and the subsequent ethos of care for "the widow, the orphan, and the stranger") and the rationalist/revolutionary  arguments for democratic rights and freedoms developed especially in the Enlightenment, and familiar to us from Locke and Jefferson. Dr. King makes this conjunction explicit towards the end of the Letter when he says

One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

"Somebody has to follow the Messiah, it is not just talking about him, it's not just about praising him, it's about walking behind him as true disciple..."  -Excerpt from Bro. HMin. Farrakhan remarks at Congwm Juila Carson's funeral service

Hard trails are necessary to establish truth. -Farrakhan