Welcome to the Daily Disciple Podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the podcast. It is a pleasure to be with you all this morning. I hope you're all having a wonderful day.
I hope you all have been having a wonderful week thus far. And we'd love to welcome anyone who's listening for the first time. It is a pleasure for you to join us today and share and learning and growing in the gospel of Jesus. The title of the podcast today is Tunnel Vision.
Tunnel Vision. And I might have forgotten to say, but my name is Kelvin, and I am your host today, and it is a pleasure. So let's get started. We are going to be in the book of Hebrews today.
So you can go grab your Bible, cup of coffee, cup of tea, your journal, notepad, whatever, however it is that you feel comfortable preparing yourself for a little moment of meditation. So the question that I have for everyone today, or I have for you today, is where does your faith line up in the crosshairs of your life? Now, the crosshairs, if you're not familiar with that term, can be found in a rifle or a gun when you're looking through the scope so that you can hit the most precise shot. You know, rifleman or a sniper, like in the military, would utilize the scope as their eyes.
It's a very, very, very precise, clean vision or clear view of what you want to see. And when they find their target, they make sure that the target lines up in the crosshairs precisely. So when they shoot for the target, they hit the bullseye. And the crosshairs just look like a cross inside of their sight, inside of their scope, the sight that they're able to look through.
Now, if you're in the military or you're part of any type of serious engagement, then this is crucial for your survival. You know, if you're in law enforcement or anything like that, and you're in any form of engagement, any form of situations that you could be possibly placed in, you using your crosshairs, you making sure that your sight is clear and your vision is clear and that your focus is clear is extremely important. Your accuracy is pivotal when you're engaging. When you're shooting a bow and arrow, for example, your accuracy, your patience, and your focus will determine your outcome.
So how important is it to have tunnel vision when you're on the battlefield? It seems like it's almost extremely important. And that's why they go through regular testing and practices and procedural things on an ongoing basis so then when they're actually in the moment, they know what to do and their focus never sways. And that's great.
But what about, if I can use the metaphor, the battlefield of life? How much importance would you say is required to your focus and accuracy and patience in your life? Or better yet, when you look at the sights, when you look through the scope of your life, what are in your crosshairs? You see, when you vision your life, what do you have tunnel vision about?
What concerns are you most focused on? To give you an idea, when I view my life within the crosshairs, I see my family, I see, you know, the necessities that we need, whether it's finances and home and food and clothing. But then there's other things like my goals and my dreams, my future plans, my relationship. And then there's also my relationship with Jesus.
Pardon me. And I'm sure that most of you have similar things in your sight lines, similar things that are in your focus. But if you're anything like me, sometimes my focus can shift when my situation changes. You know, sometimes Jesus is in the dead center of my crosshairs.
But sometimes it can be other things as well. And that can be problematic for me. I'm not sure how that would be for you. But I always tend to change with my situation at times.
And I needed to learn that there ultimately has to be one thing that remains clear in order for everything to remain in your sights. Because even Jesus says whatever you focus on is where your heart will be also. So we're going to be reading from the book of Hebrews today. And we're going to be in chapter 13.
And the writer of the book of Hebrews is trying to exemplify the person of Jesus, who he was, who he was like, who he will forever be. He talks about who Jesus is and what his sacrifice meant to the world and what it means for you and your faith in him. The writer of Hebrews was talking to a people who could be very easily distracted by their current worldview in their communities because some believed that Jesus was the Messiah and some didn't. Some were easily swayed by other gods and idols or other things that they felt were more important.
And the writer of Hebrews is trying to bring the people who were very much out of focus with other teachings and focusing on things that they've heard in the past, like the Old Testament, into tunnel vision, where it is not about anything else. Not about a people, not about a culture, not about a piece of land, but the person of Jesus and to just focus on him. And we're only going to be covering one and a half verses today, just basically, because I don't want to read the entire second, but we're going to be reading verses eight and just a part of verse nine. Because I think John Wycliffe, the old theologian who broke down the Bible in chapters and verses in this one section, I don't know if it should be one verse or not, but every time I read it, it feels like it should be read together.
And it says in verse eight, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. Let's just stop there. How important is it for us to be focused on what Jesus has done and what he continues to do in our lives?
You see, when we understand the fact that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then we can rest in the fact that our situations are not new to him. That our situations are covered in his blood, our situations are established, implanted in him, in his firm foundation. This is nothing that he hasn't made sure that he didn't conquer when he conquered death. And this is some of the things that the writer of Hebrews is trying to teach those people that they have so much that can be found in the person of Jesus Christ.
Now, we're believers, we go to church, and we worship and we praise his name. But when we leave church, that Monday afternoon or that Wednesday, when we're in the middle of the week and we've got so many other things caught up, where does Jesus line up in your crosshairs? Because what I've experienced in my life is the more that I focus on Jesus and the person of who he is and what he's done for me, then all of the other things in my life end up making more sense. And what I mean by that is when I focus on Jesus and I focus on his word and I focus on my prayer life, my relationship with him, I can kind of understand a lot of things that may have been confusing for me.
Or not even confusing, but things that I struggled with, struggled with having patience with, struggled with focusing on the right thing at hand, having the right accuracy in a situation and looking at it from the right perspective. You see, sometimes we think that we can focus on some things and we know better because we understand what to do. But our tunnel vision can be easily swayed by our personal opinions. Now, the writer of Hebrews is trying to talk to them about swaying away other gods and idols, but we have those in our life as well.
We have things like television, we have media, we have our iPhones and all these different devices and programs on TV and apps where we can devote so much of our time and energy to. And it's more than likely we're going to miss the person of Jesus in those situations. Those things can also bring dissension in relationship because the teachings and everything that comes from those avenues of media come from people, flawed people. And at best, it can be entertaining, but at worst, it could be extremely destructive.
I've been on social media from time to time and you see people trying to discredit the person of Jesus Christ, trying to raise up other people as people whom we should worship or we shouldn't be worshiping anybody at all because in their opinion, they don't think that there's anything to worship. Hebrews 13, 8 and 9. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.
Have tunnel vision and let's be focused, friends, because when we have Jesus in our life and he is our Lord and Savior and our friend, everything becomes focused in him. We just need to bring it to him and he will show us and he will relieve us of our stress and anxiety and he will give us grace and mercy and focus. And especially tunnel vision, which is what we need to have sometimes in this world. Tunnel vision on the right things.
That's the person of Jesus. Have a great day. Take care. Thanks for listening to the Daily Disciple Podcast.
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