Archive for August, 2024
Do You Have a Blind Spot?
I have Scotoma (pronounced skuh-tow-muh). No, it is not some type of vehicle, it is the medical term for a visual field abnormality commonly called a blind spot. You have one also. Every eye has a blind spot in the visual field where the optic nerve enters the eye, because there are no photoreceptors at that location. This blind spot is completely normal and is usually not noticeable in typical daily life.
Mine often occurs when I am writing. It is a sphere in which I have no vision. It is like laying a quarter on the page obscuring what is behind it. I can see most of a page, but it has a sphere in which there is nothing. I don’t know why but if I take a drink of water my vision fully returns.
We all have an emotional blindspot. Put simply, they are emotions that we haven’t completely dealt with. We simply can’t see how a certain thing or thought can be true. It may be a significant truth we can’t accept as true.
Those who have a spiritual blind spot can gain a better perspective on the issue if they take a drink from the pool of the Living Water, Jesus. To get a good insight regarding your blindspot get Jesus’ perspective of the issue.
To paraphrase, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that it might give insight to my blindspot.”
There is an old hymn that may take some people back to a small country church. It was by Clara H. Scott, published in 1895. The lyrics are still applicable.
“Open my eyes that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready, my God, Thy will to see;
Open my eyes….”
Apply the principles in the following text to yourself by inserting “my heart” for “your heart.”
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…” (Ephesians 1:18).
Upon gaining spiritual insight to deal with your spiritual blind spot you can say with the blind Bible character healed by Jesus: “whereas I was blind, now I see.” (John 9: 25).
Is there a spiritual, or social, or political, or moral issue regarding which you have a blind spot? Take a deep drink of Living Water and ask Jesus to help you to see it from His perspective.
Eternity Exists
Occasionally we need to take a deep dive in considering a complex spiritual issue. Following is certainly one. Try this, what is eternity, that is, there being no time. We live in a parentheses called “time.” We are so sensitive to it we count seconds. When thinking of spending eternity in heaven or hell we question won’t that get boring?
We ask what age we will be in heaven? We are so preoccupied with growing old that we think the aging process will be a part of the afterlife. No it won’t. Remember we are considering eternity where there is no time, hence no age.
Three things were created simultaneously: time, matter, and space.
John 1: 1 states, “In the beginning was the Word…” Theological scholar Herschel Hobbs says the Greek literally states, “Before time began to begin was the Word….” Sounds confusing but there was a time when there was no time.
Want to go deeper? There was a time when there was no space.
Now the third creation, matter. There was a time when there was nothing, no matter. According to most astrophysicists, all the matter found in the universe today — including the matter in people, plants, animals, the earth, stars, and galaxies — was created at the very first moment of time. They agree, there was an occasion when there was no time. Remember, it was created.
Before these three were created the Trinity existed in eternity. There will be an occasion when this will be true once more.
Following are three examples illustrative of relative facts. Consider a weight, a clock, and a ruler. They aren’t always the same.
A one pound object here on earth weighs one pound because of the gravitational pull on it. On the moon that same object weighs three ounces. Could it withstand the heat on the surface of the sun it would weigh 28 pounds.
The ruler represents mass. Mass, that is the size and density of an object also varies depending on speed. Driving at 50 miles an hour your car is three ten-millionths of an inch shorter. Traveling at 90% of the speed of light it would be half its length.
Now the mind boggler that hints of a state of there being no time. The star Sirius is nine light years away. If traveling there and back at 99.99999% of the speed of light the following would occur. Your friends on earth would be 18 years older and you would be only 12 hours older.
To conclude by saying we can’t understand this is a bummer. It should not be because no such state exists where there is no time, space, or matter with which to compare it. Even the wisest physicists can’t explain it, yet they believe it. Knowing we live on the vortex of such a state which we enter at the moment of death makes it wise to decide in what state we want to spend eternity.
If the state God was in before He created the heavens and earth was good enough for Him, it is good enough for me. I want to spend eternity in it with Him. Jesus stepped through the veil between heaven and earth, died an atoning death on the cross, and rose again to open the portal into heaven to all who by faith believe in His redemptive work and submit to Him as Savior and Lord might spend eternity with Him.
What to Do When God Closes a Door – Part Two
Acts 16: 6 – 10
Have you ever had a vision vanish, a dream die, an aspiration expire, or an ambition annulled? Have you ever had your hopes dashed? Has God ever said “NO,” when you wanted Him to say yes?
Has there ever been a time when you thought you were really doing God’s will and God shut and barred every door you desired to have open?
Has there ever been a time when you saw your plan fold only to see God’s will unfold?
Sometimes God has to lead us to a closed door in order to create within us a willingness to follow Him to another door, the right one. Barred doors can be a blessing in disguise.
In the above text Paul asserted that he wanted to go East toward Asia. He wanted to go to Bithynia for a good reason. He wanted to go preach the gospel. What a noble intent! Notice in verse 6: “…they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit…” God said no. Why?
God always knows more and has stronger love than we. He can see what we can’t comprehend.
On a flight returning from the Bible Land much to our dismay our flight went into a prolonged holding pattern. Amid complaints the flight attendant explained we were in a holding pattern to avert a storm over our desired destination.
He put us in a holding pattern. I didn’t want a holding pattern. He put us in a holding pattern for our good. Why? Because he knew more than we knew and was concerned for our welfare.
Sometimes God puts us in a holding pattern. Why? Because He knows more than we and He wants us to make our connections safely.
God put Paul in a holding pattern. He wanted to go to Asia and God said “NO”. Why? God knew more than Paul and He wanted him to make his connections.
Has God ever put you in a holding pattern? Why? Because He knows more than you and is concerned for your welfare. He wants you to make your connections.
God said, “Paul, Asia is out. Macedonia is your route. Don’t go East, go West, that’s the best.” Why? Because there were some connections about which God knew and Paul didn’t.
God knew Asia would not be open to the gospel. Macedonia was on route to all the fertile fields of Europe. Beyond Europe was the mission field of England and Scotland. God knew what not even Columbus knew when he ventured westward. The door to the East was closed. The door to the West opened and eventually the gospel brought to America a land not even known of at the time God closed the Eastern door. Thank God He pointed Paul in the right direction.
How do you suppose Paul felt at the time it happened? Probably very much like us when God closes a door on us, frustrated.
Can we learn from Paul’s experience? Can we learn to trust God when confronted by closed doors?
What to Do When God Closes a Door – Part One
Acts 16: 6 – 10
Have you ever had a vision vanish, a dream die, an aspiration expire, or an ambition annulled? Have you ever had your hopes dashed? Has God ever said “NO,” when you wanted Him to say yes?
Has there ever been a time when you thought you were really doing God’s will and God shut and barred every door you desired to have open?
Has there ever been a time when you saw your plan fold only to see God’s will unfold?
Sometimes God has to lead us to a closed door in order to create within us a willingness to follow Him to another door, the right one. Barred doors can be a blessing in disguise.
In the above text Paul asserted that he wanted to go East toward Asia. He wanted to go to Bithynia for a good reason. He wanted to go preach the gospel. What a noble intent! Notice in verse 6: “…they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit…” God said no. Why?
God always knows more and has stronger love than we. He can see what we can’t comprehend.
On a flight returning from the Bible Land much to our dismay our flight went into a prolonged holding pattern. Amid complaints the flight attendant explained we were in a holding pattern to avert a storm over our desired destination.
He put us in a holding pattern. I didn’t want a holding pattern. He put us in a holding pattern for our good. Why? Because he knew more than we knew and was concerned for our welfare.
Sometimes God puts us in a holding pattern. Why? Because He knows more than we and He wants us to make our connections safely.
God put Paul in a holding pattern. He wanted to go to Asia and God said “NO”. Why? God knew more than Paul and He wanted him to make his connections.
Has God ever put you in a holding pattern? Why? Because He knows more than you and is concerned for your welfare. He wants you to make your connections.
God said, “Paul, Asia is out. Macedonia is your route. Don’t go East, go West, that’s the best.” Why? Because there were some connections about which God knew and Paul didn’t.
God knew Asia would not be open to the gospel. Macedonia was on route to all the fertile fields of Europe. Beyond Europe was the mission field of England and Scotland. God knew what not even Columbus knew when he ventured westward. The door to the East was closed. The door to the West opened and eventually the gospel brought to America a land not even known of at the time God closed the Eastern door. Thank God He pointed Paul in the right direction.
How do you suppose Paul felt at the time it happened? Probably very much like us when God closes a door on us, frustrated.
Can we learn from Paul’s experience? Can we learn to trust God when confronted by closed doors?
Our Transforming God
If you would you like a summary mantra for life try these verses:
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name” I Chronicles 29: 11 – 13.
Pause and ask yourself if this is descriptive of the God you profess to believe in. If so, act like it when things seem to go wrong. That kind of God can control things good and bad. Relax and rejoice. When you respond to Him as one having such traits and resources then alacrity replaces anxiety.
An illustration of His willingness and ability is illustrated by author and artist John Ruskin in his book entitled “Modern Painters” he tells of a footprint in a manufacturing town. It was the personification of impurity. It is composed of four elements: clay mixed with soot, a little sand, and water. If the four left to follow their own instinctive qualities of unity would become clear and hard. They gathered light in splendid ways. Gathering only the blue rays of the sun they produced a sapphire.
The sand arranges itself in a mysterious way and infinitely fine particles which when properly aligned reflect the blue, green, purple, and red rays in their greatest beauty called an opal.
The soot becomes one of the hardest substances in the world and is transformed from its blackness into a substance reflecting all the rays of the sun at once. The vivid blaze of reflected light from the solid substance is called a diamond.
The purified water becomes a dew drop or a crystalline star of snow.
If God can refine and redefine the impurities of a footprint surely He can transform the vilest of sinners, and meet the needs of the most disadvantaged of people.
There is a line from an old hymn with the appeal to “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” The relief does not come from taking the burden to the Lord, but in leaving it there.
You may be facing a challenge that suggests a hopeless end. The God who awaits to help you offers endless hope. It is boundless.
His transforming power is available to meet your personal challenges. Your puddle of mud can be transformed into an assortment of attributes.
The concluding verse from the Lord’s Prayer is a summary of this passage. “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” (Matthew 6:13).
Now go back and read once more the paragraph opening this post. Read it as to the Lord.