JESUS ONLY -- Devotional for February 16, from "Good Seeds"

Then a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him!” And all at once they looked around and saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only. (Mark 10:7,8)

The Bible says “No man has seen God at any time.” And maybe that’s good, because it also says that His glory (radiance) is so bright it wouldn’t just blind us, it would kill us! We can’t see God for the simple fact that our eyes were designed to see only material objects and God is spirit, not material. Confinement to a physical body would restrict His attribute of omnipresence – being everywhere at once. Someday we will go to heaven. But we will still have bodies, and be recognized as who we are now. Oh, we won’t have the restrictions that sin puts upon us here (disease, injury, aging, etc.), but we will still be restricted in other ways, being still confined to a body. We will have 20/20 vision, but I doubt if we will ever see God with our eyes. We won’t need to, for then our spirits will be so hyper-sensitized that we won’t need to see Him to know Him and love Him. (Don’t we have a taste of that even now?) Though man cannot see God, He manifests Himself to us in other ways. We can’t see His form, but at times He allows us to hear His voice. Samuel had that experience. So did Peter, James and John, up on the Mount of Transfiguration. And they heard Him loud and clear, I think, because God was correcting a serious error. Jesus had brought His three best friends to this mountain top to reveal His glory to them. In the dazzling brightness, suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared. The disciples were taken aback, with nothing to say. Well, not quite nothing! A good rule to follow when you don’t know what to say is, don’t talk at all. It seems Peter didn’t know that rule, for he piped up, “Say, Jesus, thanks so much for this great experience. Can we stay up here a while longer so we can drink this whole thing in? I know, how about if we camp overnight. Me and my buddies can handle the elements, but we'll put up three little private tents, for You and Moses and Elijah.” That did it! Before Jesus could answer, a voiced boomed from out of the clouds, “Do you have any idea what you’re saying, Peter -- and who you’re talking to? Don’t you know it is God you are looking at? You should be dead by now! Doesn’t His shining radiance give you even a clue that He is My Son? These other two are just men, like you three. Don’t put them in the same category as Jesus. See, they’re gone! Now you just concentrate on Jesus, and Jesus only, from here on out. You got that?” Jesus…plus. That’s still the biggest error today. But the voice still rings from heaven: “It’s JESUS ONLY…YOU GOT THAT?”