All I Can See

WOW! The weekend has come to an end and we are jump-starting a New Week we have transition into the second month of the New Year YES! It's February we have enter into the LOVE month as we take a moment to reflect Gods Love during this month with these words of wisdom He must become greater; I must become less. John 3:30 READ JOHN 3:22–35 Krista stood in the freezing cold on a winter day, looking at the beautiful snow-encased lighthouse along the lake. As she pulled out her phone to take pictures, her glasses fogged over. She couldn’t see a thing so she decided to point her camera toward the lighthouse and snapped three pictures at different angles. Looking at them later, she realized the camera had been set to take “selfies.” She laughed as she said, “My focus was me, me, and me. All I saw was me.” Krista’s photos got me thinking of a similar mistake: We can become so self-focused we lose sight of the bigger picture of God’s plan. Jesus’s cousin John clearly knew his focus wasn’t himself. Right from the start he recognized that his position or calling was to point others to Jesus, the Son of God. “Look, the Lamb of God!” he said when he saw Jesus coming toward him and his followers (John 1:29). He continued, “The reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed” (v. 31). When John’s disciples later reported that Jesus was gaining followers, John said, “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ . . . He must become greater; I must become less” (3:28-30). May the central focus of our lives be Jesus and loving Him with our whole heart. By Anne Cetas REFLECT & PRAY Lord, I often get centered on myself and my needs and wants. Help me to look outside of myself to You. How can I love Jesus best? Who might He want me to love? INSIGHT Scholars disagree about who is speaking in John 3:31-34. Does it continue John the Baptist’s endorsement of Jesus, or is it John the apostle adding his postscript to that endorsement? Since quotation marks were not used in ancient Greek, it’s open to interpretation. What is certain, however, is that the repeated phrase describes the nature of Christ—He is “above all” (v. 31). Bill Crowder