Folks, take your time… read slowly… let it form a picture in your mind.
I was walking through a damp muddy forest… Up a trail beside a creek… The air was thick… I could feel it… It was then that I saw Him.
Jesus stood on a rock shelf hanging out over a valley in the distance… Beckoning me to hasten to Him.
As I climbed and climbed an amazing thing happened… My legs grew stronger… Not weaker… More refreshed… Not more tired, as I went towards Him.
I was having a hard time and stumbling a lot… Even though I was really paying attention to where I was walking… And stepping… And climbing… But another strange thing happened… And as I looked up at Him while frustrated with the climbing… And as my eyes stayed upon Him… The ground seemed to level out or just make perfect footholds… So I didn’t even have to look where I was stepping… And I didn’t fall.
I was close now… I could see Him through the brush and trail in front of me… A glowing radiance now struck me as I stepped upon the rocks He stood upon… I looked down… And realized I had removed my socks and shoes… Or… Someone had.
He was now just around the corner… The Brightness was almost overwhelming… Almost… But I don’t think I blinked at all… Not even once.
As I rounded the corner… There below was the world for all to see… Every person… Every city… Tribe… Nation… Mountain… And sea… All above it… All below it … All on it… And all under it… All that was concerning the earth… Was there.
The Only reason I even saw all this… Was because Jesus had disappeared… Or at least… For a minute… And as I stood there I imagined that He had wanted me to see all this…
But as I looked closer… I started to see all the wretchedness… All the filth… All the dishonesty… All the hurt… All the pain… All the willing evil being committed and permitted without remorse… Babies dying… Elders starving…doctor’s killing… Armies slaughtering… Men raping… Businesses cheating… Wood and stone and flesh and bone and sex and death and Satan and hell itself … Being worshipped… And a bitterness and anguish filled my soul as I dropped to my knees… And truly saw… Maybe for the first time… MY WORLD .
As I wept with my face in my hands… I felt a Presence beside me … A Hand gently rested upon my shoulder… And a jolt of strength like a bolt of lightning coursed through my veins…
He said to me… Stand My son… And I stood… And as I raised my eyes to look upon Him… He spoke to me these words :
" I showed you all these things my child… That you may no longer desire them. "
John 12:44-47
44 Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.
47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.-
1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 3:19
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Matthew 16:25
25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
James 4:4
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.