Monday, November 01, 2004

When We Blind Ourselves

I had a wonderful weekend at home. Lots of good preaching thanks to the pastoral candidate and lots of good food thanks to the ladies in my church. I left feeling as though I hadn't gotten to spend anywhere near enough time with my parents though. But I really did. I had an amazing conversation with my dad, one that I will not soon forget. That's all I can say about that. My mom and I had some good talks as well. Nothing earth shattering, but the stuff that builds your love for each other even more. I returned very reluctantly to school and feeling odd. I couldn't put my finger on it until this evening. And all I really even know right now is that I'm different. I'm not the same person that drove away from this campus on Friday evening. I don’t exactly know what the difference is, but I know it’s there. As I sit here in the library reading a well-known blog I’m suddenly struck by what has disturbed me for many months. I see mistakes I made this summer, big mistakes, and I ache. I read about what unfortunately is increasingly becoming the norm for our “Christian” world.

When I was younger, somewhere between 1st and 6th grade, my junior church teacher started teaching us about the blind community. She was preparing us for a visit we would have from her niece who was blind. In order to do that she told us as much as she could about what to expect and what life was really like for blind people. She told us in order to know what it feels like we should go home, shut our eyes, and try to walk around the house. I decided to try this myself. Unfortunately, my teacher had not counted on my mom having gone grocery shopping and in my enthusiasm to walk "blind”, I would go too far and step all over my mom's bread. Needless to say, my mom was less than pleased and couldn't understand why I would go around walking with my eyes closed. I was to embarrassed to explain it to her.

I tell you this story to draw some application for our world from it. So many of our preachers and Christian leaders are walking blind. So many of us are walking blind. All across this country “Christian” colleges are teaching students to continue walking blindly. Yet all we have to do is open our eyes. We are not truly blind but we walk as though we are. God has given us His word, and it is void of errors. There is absolute truth in the world. God is a God of love, but He is also righteous and holy. Heaven and Hell do exist, and are very real places. Human beings will be sent to hell, not because God wishes them to perish, but because they do not accept His plan of Salvation. The ONLY way to get to heaven is by believing on Jesus Christ. Not just believing that He existed/exists, but that He was fully God and fully man, He came to earth to die for our sins, which He did, and He rose again on the third day. He is alive sitting at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.

We so often talk about our “freedom in Christ” and the responsibility to be open minded enough to be able to combat bad logic. This is true, but we take it too far. I have been challenged before to move beyond my simple thinking of faith and really be able to defend it. This is true for the most part. As a Christian I have the responsibility to know what the Bible teaches and to be able to defend my beliefs. However, childlike faith is something that we should all strive for. I have heard the “reasoning” that a person is simply a skeptic that needs proof or that they simply wanting to be able to fully believe without reservation. Well, let me tell you about faith, better yet, let me let God tell you out of Matthew chapter 11.

25 “At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes (children). 26Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 27All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

To have faith like is a child is something that we should all want. Yes, read your books, learn to defend your faith, and make sure it is right. But when you stand before the eternal God someday He will want to hear more than “Well God, it just didn’t make sense.” Have you ever prayed for faith? God doesn’t just grant us grace as Ephesians 2:8-9 says, but He also grants us the faith to believe. Not only is grace not of ourselves, but the faith to believe comes from God as well.

Tonight I ache for those who have chosen to be “blind” in this world. Those who have twisted the scripture or flat out refuse to believe that scripture is true no matter how hard it is to swallow. So what if we cannot swallow it? If it all made sense to me, I would either be exalting myself to God’s thinking or lowering God to my thinking. I pray for those who cannot find faith in God. I ache for those who go through life so consumed with their own lives and what God needs to prove to them that they miss the treasure of having simple childlike faith. I realize it’s not easy and that we have different personalities, but scripture isn’t relative. God’s truth applies to all of us.

So tonight, I pray that if you are seeking truth, that you will seek it in the God who is truth. I do not wish to say that I have achieved this all, or that if you are struggling with belief that you are somewhere lower on God’s pedestal. Just the opposite, you are the one God is reaching out to and wishes to welcome home. I struggle everyday. At those times, I must read the rest of that passage in Matthew 11. Not only should we have childlike faith, but when we truly come to Christ, we will receive rest. Our searching souls can find rest everyday in the truth that God is truth.

If we have received salvation from Christ, we are no longer truly blind. We can open our eyes and stop wandering blindly about this life. Let us forsake the imitation truth and really see the truth of scripture. Let us stop shutting our eyes and realize that we have an incredible gift of faith that we are trampling on in our blindness.

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