Apparently, some debris has clogged the driver’s side tube obstructing the flow of fluid. Now, I wonder how long that was the case. I haven’t used that fluid since mid-summer, I suppose. If we don’t need it, we don’t waste it, right? So when I really needed it, it wasn’t working.

Routine maintenance is needed in our automobiles, furnaces, and lawn mowers. Whatever has working parts needs routine maintenance.

How is the maintenance on your spiritual life? Is it working like you want or is something clogged? You only notice its clogged when you use it and need it. Worldly debris can get wedged in there somewhere and we need to clean it out.

What’s clogged in your life?

The neighbor looked at him quizzically and said, “In?”

Could it be that we can’t work with someone because they don’t know what we’re thinking? My wife and I have this problem often. I’m talking about one thing and she’s talking about another. We finally come to the place where it dawns on one of us that we’re misunderstanding something. I’m pushing one way and she’s pulling another.

That problem that you have with the other person just might be a miscommunication on your part. Sometimes we just need to start over and spell out our vision. Which way are we trying to go, anyway?

In our spiritual walk with the Lord, we have the same problem as the pigeon: We have a hard time seeing while we’re on the go. We need to stop between steps – to refocus on the Word and the will of God. Our walk with the Lord needs to have built into it a pattern of stops that enable us to see more clearly before moving on.

That’s why God established a Sabbath rest periodically. Its also why “Daniel…knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God” (Daniel 6:10).

What built-in breaks do you plan into your schedule that help you refocus?

Moishe Rosen teaches a one sentence mental exercise that’s an effective tool in dreaming. It simply involves completing two sentences:

If I had:_________________________________

I would:_________________________________

If you had anything you wanted – unlimited time, unlimited money, unlimited information, unlimited staff – all the resources you could ask for, what would you do?

Your answer to the second question is your dream. What is your dream?

After World War II ended, he said that in his lifetime he wanted everyone in the world to have tasted Coca-Cola. Quite a vision!

When Jesus challenged his disciples to “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations”, He was setting and grand goal for the church. How’re we doing?

Vision is like that; you see it before anyone else can. You see it before it is even there. You see it before you know how to do it. Vision is the dream that supports the foundation. The reason the Wright brothers pressed on in spite of all the failure is they had vision. Thomas Edison’s team of inventors kept on seeing how many ways to burn out a light filament because they had a vision of what could work.

I have a vision of a church network of people actively involved making disciples who can and will make disciples. I have a vision of people who are followers becoming leaders and influencing others to be more like Christ.

What is your vision? What do you see that no one else can see yet?

“One day our headmaster walked into the classroom and put up a broad white sheet of paper with a small black dot in the corner. ‘Boys,’ he asked, ‘what do you see?’ All of us shouted in unison, ‘A black dot!’ Then he said, ‘So not a single one of you saw the broad white sheet of paper? Don’t go through life with that attitude.’.”

When we were of the world, we only saw what was in front of us and what we wanted and thought we needed. But when we came to Christ, we stepped into an understanding of another dimension: a spirtiual dimension. We saw (or should see) a much bigger picture in everything we do. We look beyond the dot to see the white paper as well.

The water was numbing cold that day. The fog was so think she could hardly see the boats in her party. Several times sharks had to be driven away with rifle fire. She swam more than 15 hours before she asked to be taken out of the water. Her trainer tried to encourage her to swim on since they were so close to land, but when Florence looked, all she saw was fog. So she quit…only one-half mile from her goal

Later she said, “I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land I might have made it.” It wasn’t the cold or fear or exhaustion that caused Florence Chadwick to fail. It was losing sight of the goal.

Maybe that’s why Paul said, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

I remember watching the lions in the center ring with the lion tamer cracking his whip and holding those big cats at bay with only a stool. How did he do that, I wondered. The answer is an old lion-tamers trick. The stool has multiple legs. As the lion tamer holds those legs out to the lion, he focuses upon his enemy, and becomes so confused and disoriented by the multiple focus points that he can’t move. He won’t attack one leg without making himself vulnerable to the others. All his energy is neutralized. So he just sits there.

I think its possible for such a thing to happen in churches. If there are too many things for the church to focus upon, it can become disoriented and not know what to do. So it just sits there for fifty years doing nothing, because it can’t decide what to do. What is the primary focus of the Lord’s Church (any church)? Let’s stay focused.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God gave us humans the ability to see both into the heavenly, spiritual realm, as well as the physical, worldly realm, at the same time. There is good news: God has given us that very ability.

The heavenward look enables us to focus on what God says is true and right , and the “earthward” look helps us see opportunities to demonstrate Christlike compassion to people who are entangled in sin.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about seeking righteousness and showing mercy (Matthew 5:6-7). The Apostle Paul reinforced these two concepts when he told the Corinthians to uphold God’s standards but also show mercy to a repentant brother (1 Corinthians 5:1-5 and 2 Corinthians 2:1-7).

That’s what Quatro-ojos Living is all about.