The God Shot

Photo by: John Mackintosh – Pexels

The Helix Nebula (shown above) is a planetary nebula located in the Aquarius constellation in the night sky. A planetary nebula is the left-over expansion of ionized gases from a cosmic star (Red Giant) that has exploded. This nebula is also called the Eye of God because it looks like an eye when seen from a distance.  The Helix Nebula is approximately 650 lightyears away.  Compared to neighboring galaxies that are not far from the earth.  Don’t let the picture fool you into thinking it is relatively small. The radius is about 2.5 to 2.8 light years.   If you are unaware, a light year is the distance that the speed of light can travel in one year.  If we have a spacecraft that can travel at the speed of light, it will take us 650 years to get there, and if we wanted to travel from one end of the nebula to the other, it would take almost 3 years.  Yeah, pack a lunch and a LOT of movies!

I call this blog the God Shot because it is about seeing things from God’s point of view.  Everything changes when you can get out of yourself, stop looking at things or circumstances from your perspective, and consider other perspectives; there is God’s perspective.  Remember the plastic flexible WWJD wristbands that came out in the 1990’s? It was an attempt to get you to start considering What Would Jesus Do in this situation.  It asks God, “I want your perspective on this situation instead of what I see.”

A scripture in the book of Mark 8:31-33 proves there is a difference in man’s and God’s thinking.

Mark 8:31-33 (NLT)

31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. 33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Jesus told His disciples what was about to happen and what He had to go through.  But Peter, being all loud-mouth, cocky, thinking that he knows everything, was thinking something different.  He was probably telling Jesus, “Lookie here, Big J, we got a good thing going right now.  Your Tik-Tok Videos have gone viral, and we are getting a crowd everywhere we go.  Matthew is making bank from the T-Shirt sales, and we can go far with your healing thang.  People are just getting healed and don’t even have to touch you.  So you don’t have to suffer and die.  But Jesus knew that those ideas did not originate from Peter.  They came directly from Satan.  Remember, Jesus came to the earth so that He could take our punishment and die on the cross for our sins.  If Jesus did not die on the cross, God would not have been able to place our sins on Jesus (remember, Jesus became sin; 2 Corinthians 5:21).  God redeemed us (purchased back to Himself) through the death of Jesus so that we now can have eternal life.  Otherwise, Jesus would have lived a perfect life, and we would still be responsible for paying for our sins.

Many ask, “If God sees everything, and He has His view on things, then how does He allow bad things to happen on this earth?” Many people turn their backs on God because of that one question.  They become atheists because they prayed in the past, and God didn’t answer their prayers.  People are bitter because of the calamity they see in the world and wonder how God can just sit there and do nothing.  And the most popular question is, “How can an all-loving God send people to Hell?”  Deep Huh? I hear crickets chirping in the background.  Or some of you are saying, “Yeah, Ron, why does God send people to Hell for the mistakes of man? Why can’t He forgive like we forgive others who do us wrong?”  I will start with the last comment.  God does not send people to Hell.  YOU send yourself to Hell by rejecting God’s plan of accepting Jesus.  God is perfect, and HE KNOWS that you are not perfect.  So Jesus came to earth to live a perfect life.  Then God placed all of the sins of the world on Jesus on the cross, took out His anger and punishment on Jesus, and now all is forgiven.  You can accept Jesus into your life and live as Jesus lived, knowing you are forgiven.  However, if you reject Jesus, you tell God, “I’m going to trust in my good works because I’m a good person.”  Well, I need to tell you something.  If there are no statutes of limitations for murder on this earth, then there are no statutes of limitations for sin in heaven.  Suppose you are guilty of murder on this earth. In that case, you can change your name, move to a different country, create a new life for yourself, and do all kinds of good work in the community of helping people.  But if the law finds you, it doesn’t matter all of the good things you did AFTER the murder.  You will still suffer the consequences of that murder.  The same is true regarding sin.  In God’s eyes, the price of sin is death.  (Romans 6:23)

I will also answer the above popular question another way, “I don’t know.” I don’t have all the answers, but I know that God always has His reasons.  There is a scripture that says you reap what you sow.  Maybe you see the outcome of what you’ve done in the past and refuse to repent.  God is like a parent, and He chastises the ones He loves.  God also sees the future, allowing things to happen because it is part of His bigger plan.  Again, I don’t have the answers.  But I know God wants us to trust Him regardless of what happens.

Proverbs 3:5,6 (NLT)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

We are commanded to think about things from God’s perspective.  And if we struggle to see things the way God sees things, we have a helper (the Holy Spirit) who guides, interprets, and explains things to us.  Before overreacting to circumstances or what a person says, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us through every storm and situation.

Colossians 3:1,2 (NLT)

 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.”

When I think about this scripture, I think about a thermostat in a room.  If a room is hot and you want it to be cool, it doesn’t get cool by complaining about how hot it is.  Yes, you are stating a fact but not changing the circumstances.  But suppose you walk over to the thermostat. In that case, you are “changing the settings” of the device that can change the room’s temperature.  When you set your eyes on things above and look at things from God’s perspective, you are setting your mind on WHO can change your circumstances.  And if you read the owner’s manual (The Bible), you learn more about God’s thoughts and settings.  I will say it this way. God honors HIS Word.  When you meditate on and speak God’s Word, you set your mind to see things from His perspective.

Why am I talking about seeing things from God’s Eyes?  For two reasons:

1. You need to realize that God is bigger than you, and you can’t do anything without Him.  Man’s pride is saying that I don’t need God.  And God hates pride. (See Proverbs 6:17)  In fact, God hates a proud look.  You are looking at things from your own eyes, assuming you can do things independently and that you don’t need God.
2. To change your heart towards other people. Matthew 9:36 shares one example of how Jesus had compassion for people.  The operative word is called compassion.  Compassion is when you have a deep awareness of someone else’s suffering and a desire to help remove the suffering.

Whether you like it or not, God is watching you.  2 Chronicles 16:9 shares that the Eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.  I don’t want to tell you an untruth, but everything is being recorded.  If you accept Jesus as your Savior, you get a fresh start.  The slate of your sins is wiped clean, and you are declared righteous.  But if you reject Jesus, you will go before the courtroom trying to plead your case based on your good works, but remember, EVERYTHING was recorded.  Jesus will review all of your sins.  Don’t believe me?

Revelation 20:11-15 (NLT)

11 And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. 12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave[a] gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

The only way to erase what is recorded is the Blood of Jesus.

Jesus told Peter before He left this earth to feed His sheep.  If you love God, then treat others with love and compassion.  If you struggle with loving others, that is because you are looking at them through your own eyes.  When you see others through God’s eyes, you will feel God’s abundant love flowing through you to others.  You will feel the strength to love and forgive those who have hurt you.  You will love a stranger, and you will not even know why.  Even Jesus said while He was dying on the cross, “Father, forgive them because they know not what they do.”

Take a moment to pray and ask God, “Help me to see others the way you see them.” I promise you will never be the same.

Be Blessed!

Ron

Ron Cobbs Ministries © Copyright February 1^st, 2025, All Rights Reserved