How Do You Really Look....No Really

#BibleStudyTime! ^_^

“20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” – Matthew 19:20-22 KJV 

In Jesus' attempt to help everyone in humanity to come up to a higher level spiritually, we get to see some of my favorite displays of people just being.... off. When I see it in scripture, and in our current time, internally I have this reaction:

And I'll be honest, when I do feel led to try to get over 'uh yeah that's not how Jesus sees that....' It doesn't always come out the way I intend it, but it surely gets out and Jesus got my back. And generally He helps me to recover from it all because my motivating factors are right.

And then it's distraction time.....

So! In this young ruler's case, his motivating factors were totally off. The dude was also too insensitive to realize that Jesus was seeing through his 'I want to reach higher spiritual levels, Jesus!' act. Imperceptive.

See, this dude totally missed that it's not how he saw himself, or how anybody he knew saw him. It mattered how he actually looked to Jesus. Jesus. Not his Momma, his Daddy, his relatives, his friends (who probably were just his friends for his stuff.... moving on....), it mattered how Jesus saw him and the dude was off.....

Now see, if Jesus told me what to do, I'd be like 'Hey! Friends that don't even really like me but you love my stuff: EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! WE HAVE A SALE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS! POOR PEOPLE TAKE WHATEVER IS NOT NAILED DOWN! *THROWS MONEY IN THE AIR* I GOT PICKED TO FOLLOW JESUS!!!!! NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME I WILL BE WALKING ON WATER AND NOT SINKING!!!!

But noooooo. Dude done went and got attached to his stuff....

We can look in the Old Testamant to also get a look at how people can negatively react to finding out, through whatever means, that God is viewing them.... differently. Let's look!

“21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
22 And God's anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
23 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.” - Numbers 22:21-23 KJV

Now in this case this dude named Balaam had a lot in common with the rich ruler dude. He liked money. He liked it sooooo much, he was trying to curse God's people for a no good king. Now how in the world he thought this could go well, I don't know.

Now because I might have too much fun calling Balaam's beast of burden by the biblically chosen word (you know a*s.....), I'm just going to say 'Donkey'. I will neither confirm nor deny what I may or may not be saying internally. Jesus already knows. #LOL

Now, instead of Balaam being GRATEFUL that some form of God's great creation was trying to steer him in the RIGHT direction, he's smoting the poor good Donkey! Because his two servants were with him too, but scripture doesn't say they saw a single thing.... probably to busy thinking about all that money....

Either way, they were of no real help. I would have been like: You're FIRED! Moving on..... Back to Balaam:

“27 And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
28 And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
29 And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
30 And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? and he said, Nay.
31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.” - Numbers 22:27-31 KJV

Now, God is letting Donkey talk because Balaam is so spiritually clueless and off at this point that it's a bit ridiculous. And we actually get to see that this Donkey of Balaam has some really good sense. Keeps track of time, realizes who Balaam is and that Donkey has done nothing wrong (especially the mocking part... never happened), in fact, Donkey has been pretty helpful in times of need. And Balaam OBVIOUSLY is in a time of NEED, since he is blind as blind can get! Donkey states a great case, I personally would have loved to continue a conversation with Donkey and probably just push Balaam *accidentally* into the path of the sword welding Angel. But that's just me....

But anyway, Balaam got his eyes opened by God and then he got all soft and stuff. Though it didn't last too long because he went back to trying to make that money off cursing God's people. That's neither here, nor there. The main point, is that God/Jesus saw the situation correctly. In both the case of Balaam and the rich ruler dude. It didn't matter how they percieved themselves to look in the eyes of God, but how they actually looked. Sometimes the secret is staring us back when we look in the mirror, we have issues that Jesus sees. Clearly. And He's always trying to help humanity see how He's seeing us. And humanity gets mad.... and shoots/beats the messenger. Doesn't change the truth (ACTS 2:38 KJV! The rapture is coming! ^_^ Done.). Though the messenger probably needs a break after awhile of getting beat and ignored for no reason other than telling the truth.... Poor Donkey.  I think Donkey and I would have been great friends.