Faith, The Eye of the Spirit

[HKHaugan]

Faith, The Eye of the Spirit

In 1952 the Mathews Bridge was built connecting Arlington to downtown Jacksonville. Just before its official opening I drove the first bus across it. It was more a time issue than anything else. The bus was a green JJC bus (now JU). I drove the JJC Glee Club to a concert downtown.

Prior to that bridge being built there were only two other bridges, the Old Bridge (Acosta) and the New Bridge (Main Street) as they were then called. There were two big shipyards facing each other across the river just to the east of the New Bridge (Main Street). Everyday walking over that bridge you could see porpoises swimming which I assumed were coming in to glean the leavings from some shrimp boats docked there. I worked at the shipyard on the Southside and lived in a downtown boarding house on Market St. That distance was my daily walk to and from work

There were only two roads to the beach, the Old Beach Rd. (Atlantic Blvd.) and the New Beach Rd. (Beach Blvd.). Those four were the main ways to move around the county at the time. The population was about 120,000. The city limits sign on the Southside was Hendricks Ave. and the close in present Emerson St. Today we see an expanded city limits to its county line, two Interstates, four more bridges, a built up waterfront, huge shopping centers, big subdivisions and a beltway around Jacksonville. Oh yes, and a population of over a million with an NFL football team.

In the building of a city roads and bridges are taken for granted but the initial effort to build them is a major undertaking. There has to be the first one where there is nothing but water and wilderness. If we can visualize their beginnings someone had to have three things going for them, the reason and plan for them (vision connecting town and beach, crossing a river), the assurance it can be built (submission to the idea), and the motivating energy (the determination and power) to build them.

What has all this to do with being disciples of Jesus? Everything physical has a spiritual meaning behind it. Look at the physical situation and then probe for the possible spiritual parallels behind it. In the case of roads and bridges you have a beautiful way in. They are belief in the vision: building a bridge, a road to the heart of another. The Father's mind as the spiritual architect and His desire to build a bridge to every heart through His Son. Then you have trust in the idea and plan; trusting Jesus as the contractor evangelist using us to reach the heart of another and faith, the spiritual energy of the Holy Spirit, The Lord gives us to carry His plan through to the finish. Again, three things are spiritually engaged, our mind, our heart and our spirit. Each is a reflection of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (architect, contractor and labor force). Created in God’s image each of us have all three capacities. In Jesus they come alive. But most especially it takes the eye of faith to put into reality what the mind believes and the heart trusts. When you see Jesus, you see the complete package of the perfect image of God moving in perfect balance. He said when you see Him you see the Father and His Spirit. What He believed with His mind (His Father's will), what He trusted in His heart (His Father's Word), what He had faith to do (the work of God through the Spirit), He enacted perfectly. Being the exact image of God in mind, heart and Spirit His presence changed the world. Now His task has become ours. That's His desire and our purpose. He said that as the Father sent Him so He is sending us

Jesus carries us forward. He gives us the vision for a road and a bridge to the hearts of others. He gives us the idea and plan to where He leads us to begin and He gives us His Spirit to carry out the vision and its plan. Each of us is called to build a spiritual road to others by getting to know new people. Then He calls us to build a bridge to their hearts so that the Lord crosses from us to them through conversation and committed communication. As we read Scripture the Spirit energizes the relationships we make thus the roads to others and the bridges to their hearts become a reality.

The important thing to recognize is that there is no road or bridge to others unless we step out and build them. In this world there is only a wilderness between people until a road and a bridge is built. Of course it is a risk in any kind of wilderness, forested, social or spiritual. But being missionaries is always risky. Our task is not to use already existing roads but to make new ones. This is why we have started with the eye of the mind, Scripture, the eye of the heart, perception and now the eye of the spirit, faith.

Dr. David Livingstone, the great 19th Century missionary to Africa, called for more missionaries from England. Many responded with these words, “We will come if you show us where the roads are.” He responded, “If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

God made a road and a bridge to our hearts when there was no road or bridge. He made them through the Cross of Jesus. Isaiah got the message, “Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over (51:10)?” “I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up (Is.49:11).”