Tommy Tenney - A Gods Eye View: Worshiping Your Way to a Higher Perspective

GODS EYE VIEW

OTHER BOOKS BY TOMMY TENNEY

The God Chaser Series

The God Chasers
Gods Favorite House
The God Catchers

Trust and Tragedy
The God Catchers Workbook
Experiencing His Presence
The Daily Chase (Devotional)
Gods Dream Team

Gods Secret to Greatness (with David Cape)

Secret Sources of Power (with T. F. Tenney)

GODS EYE VIEW

WORSHIPING YOUR WAY
TO A HIGHER PERSPECTIVE

TOMMY TENNEY

Copyright 2002 by Tommy Tenney

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from the KING JAMES VERSION.

ISBN 0-7852-6560-0 (HC)
ISBN 0-7852-6458-2 (IE)

Printed in the United States of America

02 03 04 05 06 PHX 6 5 4 3 2

Dedicated to my three daughters...
whose privacy has been invaded,
whose father has been borrowed,
who still taught me much.

I am forever indebted.
You came as Gods gifts into my life.

DADDY

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: Pick Me Up, Daddy!
I Cant See from Down Here

CHAPTER 2: The Virtue of Zero
Less Is Better and Nothing Is Best

CHAPTER 3: No P.D.A.
Passion Police on Patrol

CHAPTER 4: Discover the Power of Position
Sashaying into Gods Presence

CHAPTER 5: How to Make a Fool Out of the Devil
Tattletales Cant Come In

CHAPTER 6: The Principle of Magnification
Make Mountains into Molehills or Turn Men into Grasshoppers

CHAPTER 7: Reclaiming Worship
The Greatest Mood-Altering Drug

CHAPTER 8: The Power of Proximity
Move Closer, Whisper Softer

CHAPTER 9: Claim Your Backstage Pass
Worship Your Way to Gods-Eye View

CHAPTER 10: Costumed Characters
The Lamb Is a Lion, the Babe Is the Ancient of Days, the Dragon Is a Lizard

PROLOGUE

Plumbers will read this book.
Pastors will too.
Clerks, lawyers, and teachers
will perhaps peruse its pages.

But this book is not for plumbers or clerks
or lawyers or teachers.
Neither is it for pastors.

Pastors may read it
and may even preach from its content.
(With all my blessings, I might add.)

This book is written for worshipers
whatever their earthly occupation.
Remember you werent born to be just a plumber,
a pastor, or a teacher.
You were born to be a worshiper!

Whatever else you do is just a temporary job assignment.
Do it, and do it well.
But while you perfect your earthly temporal assignment,
remember to practice for your heavenly eternal assignment.

May these pages inspire all of us to ascend to the heights of
worship,

as tourists from time looking to view the scene from Gods
perspective,

to get Gods-eye view.

1
PICK ME UP, DADDY!
I CANT SEE FROM DOWN HERE

O rdinary things often trigger the most extraordinary thoughts and memories. When I step into an elevator, for instance, I often think, I wonder how things look from Gods point of view?

The incongruous connection becomes clear when you know that elevators recall memories of my daughters when they were three or four years old. We have always traveled a great deal, and my wife and I made it a point to take our children with us at every opportunity.

At this writing, my three daughters are nearly as tall as or taller than their mother, but I still remember when my youngest daughters view in a crowd was limited to a field of knees, belt buckles, backsides, and purses. My memory holds some clear snapshots of the look on my young daughters face when we stepped into a hotel elevator to go downstairs. Everything was fine until that luxurious but limited space started getting crowded. It seemed that at every floor people tried to squeeze themselves in.

Some people battle a fear of close places well into maturity, but the concern is universal among members of our knee-high population. If you were on that elevator when things got crowded, it probably wouldnt bother you much. The reaction from my little girl, however, was purely predictable. Her little arms would shoot straight up, and her eyes would rivet me with urgent intensity.

Have you ever thought about the view available to the typical three- or four-year-old on a crowded elevator? Ill never forget the sight of my little girls arms reaching upward and the way her eyes sought me out in quiet desperation. She was saying, Pick me up,Daddy. I cant see from down here. There has to be a better perspective than the one I have from where I am.

STRANDED AMONG THE KNEES AND PURSES OF ANXIETY

Once I picked her up and elevated her to the level of her fathers-eye view, she had no problem. If I was distracted or my overly full hands left my daughter stranded down among the growing crowd of knees and purses, her young mind became despondent and full of anxiety. I can imagine her saying to herself, I cant see very good!

Worship is the process of stretching your arms to the heavens in the universal sign of surrender and desperation. It is the way earthbound creatures rivet the attention of their heavenly Creator. When you worship, it is as if you look at your heavenly Father and say, I dont like the way things look down here, Daddy. Would You lift me up? I want to see things from Your point of view.

Worship is the process of stretching your arms to the heavens
in the universal sign of surrender and desperation.

Elevators always remind me that the way things looked to me and the way things looked to my children were two totally different things. That helps me understand that the way things look from our earthbound position is totally different from the way they look from Gods-eye view. His throne is high and lifted up.

God never intended to limit your vision to the low point of view. He always intended for you to view things from the highest perspective, and worship is His way of lifting us above the mundane press of our enclosed space to see things from His point of view.

If all of this seems overly complicated, return to the mental picture of a nervous three-year-old with his arms lifted straight toward his daddys face: this is the posture of worship.

Unfortunately lifes insecurities and challenges arent limited to elevators and other crowded enclosures. While I was writing this book, I received an urgent call on the road and learned that my middle daughter had been struck with a dangerous physical condition that required immediate surgery.

The surgery went well, but the experiences before the surgery proved traumatic for my youngest daughter. She wasnt prepared to see her older sister suffering in pain as an attendant wheeled her away to prepare for surgery (who is, for that matter?).