And He Saw Everything Clearly

“And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’ And he looked up and said, ‘I see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” (Mark 8:22-25 ESV)

Sometimes we can be blinded to our own faults. Sometimes we can be blinded to what everyone else sees around us, but that we do not see. We can be blinded to all that is going on in the world around us and with our governments and with our nations and with our political systems. And we can be blinded to so much of what is going on in the name of Christianity that is not of God at all, but that is of human flesh, instead. And some of that blindness comes from the influences we have had in our lives.

And so we need the touch of the Lord Jesus on our lives to open our eyes to see what we do not yet see, but that we need to see. And we still might not see it all clearly at first, but we need his continued touch on our lives to help us to see clearly the things that are important that we see but that we have not yet seen and perceived and understood and discovered. But we have to want to see. We have to desire that the Lord open our blinded eyes to see our own faults and to see what is deceptive and mind-altering, too.

For if we remain blinded, in certain areas, it may hold us back from being all that our Lord would have us to be, or it could keep us from serving the Lord in the areas of ministry to which he has called us, or it can keep us from loving the people of this world as we ought to love them, too. But the worst of it all is if what we are blinded to is what will keep us out of God’s heaven because we were stubborn and unwilling for him to show us the lies that we are believing and who the liars are whom we are believing and following.

As children, we have certain beliefs and practices and values and traditions ingrained in us via our parents, church people (if we attended church gatherings), our schoolteachers, the government, the media, and other people and influences in our lives. And these influences and what they taught and trained us tend to go with us into adulthood unless something changes to deter us from what we were taught early on so that we are now believing and practicing something different and/or to the contrary.

When I was growing up I had a pastor who taught us that we should get a new Bible (one we don’t have all marked up) and that we should read it like we have never read it before, just letting the Holy Spirit speak truth to our hearts through that. For me, it helped getting a Bible in 20th century American English and closer to my reading grade level so that I could understand it better. But when I began fresh like this, the Holy Spirit showed me so many things that I didn’t have right, that I was taught wrongly.

For we have church denominations which hold to particular theologies, and pastors who were trained in certain theological viewpoints, and so those are what we tend to believe if this is what we were taught early on in life. But when we read the Scriptures with an honest approach and with a willingness to have our blinded eyes opened to lies we have believed and to the truth of what God’s word actually teaches, then the Lord will open our blinded eyes, but perhaps not all at once, but we will begin to see clearly the truth.

And the same applies to anything in this life we have believed because it is what was ingrained in us as children, and because it was what was passed down to us from generation to generation, and because it was what we learned in public school and in Sunday School and via our pastors sermons and via the news media, et al. Are we willing to examine all of our beliefs and practices and traditions against the Scriptures, taught in context, and in prayer to the Lord, seeking him for truth, willing to be found to be wrong?

If our desire is truly for the Lord Jesus, and to do his will, then we should have open hearts and minds to let him examine our hearts and to show us what we have wrong, and what we have right, too, and what needs to change, and what needs to remain and to be expanded upon. For I see so many professing Christians just following something they learned as children which they have carried with them into adulthood, which some or many of them end up doing blindly, without even a thought if it is right or wrong.

And I just now noticed what it says here, that Jesus took the blind man by the hand and he led him out of the village, and that is where he healed him. For the Lord has to take us out of our cultures and traditions and where we have been planted and stuck in the mud so that he can open our blinded eyes and heal us. For if in our stubbornness we refuse to change course or attitudes or beliefs or practices which the Lord wants to change in us, then we can’t be healed, and we will never be able to see everything clearly.

So, I would encourage everyone reading this, and I do this regularly myself, and I will do it along with you, to pray earnestly to the Lord, and to ask him to show you anything in your life or your beliefs or practices where you are blinded to error, where you have something wrong, where you are being deceived and led astray in any way. And then let him open your eyes to the truth, even if it means rejecting something you have always believed, but you have believed wrongly, and even if it means others will reject you, too.

For, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, and we have been crucified with him in death to sin, and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, and so we are now walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, or we say that this is our desire, then we should be willing to allow the Lord to show us any areas of our lives where we have things wrong or where we are doing or teaching what is wrong, so that we can now see everything clearly.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

Caution: This link may contain ads