This Changes Everything | Crossroads Daily

Hey, welcome. We are talking about Hebrews 1 today. My name is Josh. I'm Kirsten. I'm Miko. And I'm Debo. Do you guys, did you guys growing up, did you have, uh, I, we had these toys when we were kids where you'd like look through and you turned it like kaleidoscope deals. Did you guys have those? So I love those. I love those. My favorite part about them was taking them apart and pulling out the plastic pieces that made it. So destroy it. I also figured out how to straighten a slinky, not really straight in a slinky, but like ruin it. So you can never use it again. By the way, this has nothing to do with what we're talking about. Okay. All right. All right. Stop it. I was waiting. How's he going to connect this dot? So Hebrews 1 sort of outlines, uh, Jesus is not just another smart guy. He's not just another prophet or someone with answers. He is God. And so that's, that is truth. And I know in my life there have been many things that have changed the view of Jesus based on what I was seeing, much like a kaleidoscope.

So you look through it and you're like, Oh, that doesn't look anything like what I'm seeing. So I think a question for us is in our lives, what has most shaped your view and understanding of Jesus? What has most influenced your faith? So Hebrews says, Jesus, this is him. He's it. And in our day to day life, there are things that can change that truth. Not the truth itself, but our perception of the truth. Like for the good or the bad. For the good or the bad. Yeah. Yeah. Either way. Either way. So in your life, what has most shaped your understanding of Jesus? I would say for myself, it has been, it has been two things. One is my wife. So I have often said about my wife, like she has, she was the first thing that looked like Jesus to me in my life. And what is, I just got weepy just then. Cry. Cry. Cry. Need some tissue? I don't have any, but I'm here. My wife being who she, who she is, like she is the best, she is the best thing in my life. And when I think about it, like she was the first thing that looked like Jesus to me. As the scriptures describe Jesus, she was it. And so that, she is the biggest thing. Like she is not like some great theologian.

She doesn't study the scriptures 24 hours a day, but she just loves and sacrifices the way Jesus did. And so I think she has been the greatest example and the greatest shaper of my faith. And she would never in a thousand years think that's, that's who I am. She's just doing what she's doing. So I think for me, I think it's, it's definitely, it's definitely her because she acts like Jesus tells us to act and she's certainly not perfect at it, but she's the best example for me. That's so good. I think I can, I can hop on that train as well. I would say my mother and my wife as well. And it's in different areas. I think just the way my mother believes, like just so confidently. It's like how Jesus says, you know, I do as the father, I only do what the father does. And like Jesus is like his level of faith or his, and I don't even know if that would be the right word, but the way that he was one with God and the way he believed in the way he thought my mom would represent that like best in my life. And then with my wife, it's the way she leads. I've literally, she's in corporate America and like just the level of like, you know, I guess authority she has in her role just as a leader. And it's just with so much competence and grace. Like a lot of times, you know, when you see people in leadership, like they were, they carry that big stick and she is the, like, it's unfair for other leaders that I see that I would try to compare to her, you know, because I'm like this, like I pull so much from just the way that she leads her team across the country in such a kind way. It's not like, it's not like so lenient where, Oh, it's everything's fine. It's like, no, like she's competent and she does her work well and she leads her team well and she builds her team up. And it's just in such a graceful way, I believe that when, like, very early on, when I first met her, and I was talking to God about her as my wife, not when I first met her, but

around that time, God, I believe, spoke to me and said, this is going to be a physical representation of my grace in your life. And just the level of, I didn't know I needed that much grace. I'm like, I like being married to her and I'm like, sometimes I look at me from the other side and I'm like, yeah, I need a whole lot of grace and the way that she just does that so well, and just how thoughtful she is, is, yeah, that's who I would say, good. I go back to my, like, middle school and high school self, because I think about, I didn't grow up, my dad was not a good man and he wasn't a good father. And so I really struggled early on with the idea of what a good father is, and also tying that to God. I'd always hear that in church, God is a father. And then I would look at my own father, my earthly father, and he falls short. He was abusive towards my mom, he's just not a good man. And so I really struggled with that. And when I got into my high school years and even my college years, I believe that Lord intentionally put these really good men in my life. And they also felt like God revealed to them that they were my earthly father representation in that season of my life. That happened so many times. And I look back and I think, man, I feel like that was probably the biggest, most influential thing that changed my perception of God. Those relationships that I had with these really amazing men of God that also taught me what good fatherhood looked like, earthly fatherhood, that helped me also see that God is also a really, really good father. That's what I think of, it really, really changed my faith, I think, and almost healed something inside of me and helped me realize that he's a good father. That's right. When I first started reading the Bible, and so little made sense, I just knew I wanted to know more. When I first started learning about how countercultural Jesus was, like how he spoke to women and

elevated them and the woman, adultery, and how he just spoke to the men in the room. There was just something about all of the ways that Jesus spoke and loved women in scripture that for me made him so, that was the thing that made him real to me and made him worth following was like, I heard a pastor teach, I don't know, probably a podcast or something around how something like that should not have been written down, like thousands of years ago. I feel like a rabbi, a teacher in the church, like a Jew should not have been just like willy-nilly hyping up women how Jesus did and talking to them one-on-one and sending them out to share his gospel, like the woman at the well, where he was talking to the Samaritan woman and was like, great, I know everything about you, you now know that I am God, go tell your town about me, and they meet Jesus that way. And I just remember being like, oh my gosh, I don't know the math on it, but like women in America couldn't even vote like 100 years ago or something like that, which is kind of mind blowing. But thinking about thousands of years ago, someone chose to write down like the value of women to Jesus and how there were so many examples of them just used in his ministry and examples of healing and grace, I was like, this has to be real, because I know that that's not something that the history books would be like, you know what, this will make this guy really popular. So that was like tangibly something that really shaped my faith early on. So actually seeing Jesus' works changed you. Yeah. That's pretty great. So last sort of quick thought is we, so how we see Jesus, you know, the things that filter our perception of Jesus shape us, but we have a choice, like we can choose to do things day to day that make us turn our gaze towards Jesus. So quick, what are the things you do or the things you would aspire to your best self if you could? do it yeah turns your gaze to Jesus daily things daily if I if I hit this I'm gonna I'm yeah my gaze is towards Jesus yeah prayer like giving up things

that are completely out of my control and just having faith that he's gonna do something about it tell me in like two sentences what prayer is prayer for me two sentences only what is like what is that is that I'm just like talking to outer space like what what is prayer yeah this morning it is genuinely thinking of one people I said I would pray for and actually praying for them you know and to genuinely asking for things that I know cannot become reality without him healing provision and finances provision and you know I don't know my family circumstances yeah there's something about stillness that um I believe God is still like revealing to me like this is how I've designed you you know be still with me yeah and there's something just stillness and for me to kind of like curate that that vibe like I'll put on like some of those like just worship instrumentals and like that's what I listen to on my way to work this morning that's what I listen to here and just like I guess it would be prayer but it's really just very conversational with God either there's either I'm silent if I'm you know in a car doing that and you know I'll listen to that or I'm just having a conversation with them or if I can just be like in like in my space on the sofa or something and just like there's so many things that I could be doing but I'm just going to choose to be like still in this moment um like it helps me to fix my eyes on God but I think God has specifically designed me where I need that and I need like deposits of those regularly and sometimes multiple times throughout my day yeah so yeah that's right that's right yeah I think for me it's it's starting out in the word every single day like first thing I I think there's something about doing it first it like shows the priority in my life and so and also like meditating on on his word which is just like at least for me finding a scripture and just like reading it over and over again and like helping myself believe that truth I think that helps me keep my eyes on him yeah I think I think mine is not doing something it's actually not doing something and it is choosing not to escape so I think I think right now for me the the the thing that separates me most from Jesus or skews my view of him is my ability to disassociate my ability

to escape my ability to not be present and the idea of I didn't come up with this guy named brother Lawrence did a long time ago but the idea that you practice the presence of God yeah whether that's prayer whether whatever it is but I think for me it's choosing to not escape choosing to not choose something that will distract me or take my attention away I don't I mean I could I could not read the Bible for a week right but if I choose Jesus I'm going to be present with you right now whatever that looks like which by the way makes makes following Jesus so much less performative it's not about how much you pray it's not about how much of the Bible you read it's like yeah Jesus I'm going to choose you over something else right yeah whatever that something else is it's like I love that because I literally had a thought like in what I'm doing this isn't making me wiser this I'm not learning anything and I'm just really with you right I'm just being yeah I'm choosing like in my in my mind in my heart like God you're with me in this yeah and yeah yeah there's no point to it other than worshipping you yeah it's awesome yes I'm gonna have to burn my phone you should probably burn your phone to see you next time