Friday, October 30, 2015

Eternal Vision
Mark 10: 46-52 (HCSB)

I heard a commentator on television the other day saying an amazing thing about a politician in the news. This person was testifying before a congressional committee and was said to have presented “the best version of the truth available.” How far has truth and integrity fallen in our country.

A snake and a rabbit run into each other in a forest path one day. When the snake remarked that he had been blind since birth, and thus should be given the right of way, the rabbit said that he, too, had been blind since birth. The two animals then forgot about the collision and began commiserating concerning the problems of being blind. 

The snake said that his greatest regret was the loss of his identity. He had never been able to see his reflection in the water, and for that reason did not know exactly what he looked like, or even what he was. The rabbit declared that he had the same problem. Seeing a way that they could help each other, the rabbit proposed that one feel the other from head to toe, and then try to describe what the other animal was. 

The snake agreed, and started by winding himself around the rabbit. After a few moments, he announced, "You've got very soft, fuzzy fur, long ears, big rear feet, and a little fuzzy ball for a tail. I think that you must be a bunny rabbit!" 

The rabbit was much relieved to find his identity, and proceeded to return the favor to the snake. After feeling about the snake's body for a few minutes, he asserted, "Well, you're scaly, you're slimy, you've got beady little eyes, you squirm and slither all the time, and you've got a forked tongue. I think you're a lawyer!" 

A blind man with a seeing eye dog at his side walks into a grocery store. The man walks to the middle of the store, picks up the dog by the tail, and starts swinging the dog around in circles over his head.

The store manager, who has seen all this, thinks this is quite strange. So, he decides to find out what's going on. The store manager approaches the blind man swinging the dog and says, "Pardon me. May I help you with something?" The blind man says, "No thanks. I'm just looking around."

Obviously, being “blind” refers to two different issues: being unable to physically see; and being blind to things as they really are. This means your eyes may be unable to see or your mind may be unable to understand. Which is the worst condition to find yourself in? I would suggest any time real truth is being hidden. Anytime we have to settle for “the best version of the truth available.”

There is quite an industry set up to prevent, treat, and compensate for physical blindness. Ways that individuals can approximate somewhat sighted lifestyles with the assistance of animals and technology. Blind people can still sense truth.

But the tragedy of incomprehension or being clueless as to truth in perception surrounds us everywhere. We see it in people’s heads doing the ostrich thing to those who desire not to really see no matter what evidence is presented.

Human history is replete with examples of countries and civilizations rewriting histories to hide truth. Manipulation of, and control of truth was what the serpent used to beguile Eve in the Garden of Eden. Lucifer’s invention of a new truth separate from God was the rebellion.

In today’s world we see it in the claim for the word “Palestine.” There has never been an actual country nor an actual group of people by that name yet ancestral claims and history have been invented to support such ideas. It’s become one of the biggest frauds pedaled to the world since the claims the earth was flat. But it supports evil, discredits Jewish history, and pokes God in the eye.

Another deception I’ve recently began to study is the actual cover up, by the Smithsonian Institution, of an ancient civilization of peoples who lived on the North American continent from about 4,000 BC to 1,400 years ago. These people appear to have been red-headed refugees from the Middle East, pushed out by Joshua and the Hebrews conquest of the promised land. 

The Smithsonian covered up the findings of the settlements, cities, mounds, and burial sites during America’s expansion westward because of one little detail: The skeletal remains were often 7 to 12 feet tall and didn’t fall into the scientific agenda of Darwinism, so the evidence was collected and made to disappear. But they couldn’t destroy some 4,000 newspaper articles reporting the finds all over the country and a few still remaining artifacts scattered over the United States.

Who were these people and why do I think they came from the Middle East? Let’s read Genesis 6: 4 – “The Nephilim (Bene-elohim) were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.”  

Supporting this lie is evil, it discredits our Scriptures, and pokes God in the eyes.

God’s truth, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the source of truth that removes physical and spiritual blindness: Let’s hear Mark 10: 46-52:

They came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.

When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!” Many people told him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, “Have mercy on me, Son of David!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up; He’s calling for you.” He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.
Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” “Rabbouni,” the blind man told Him, “I want to see!” “Go your way,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has healed you.” Immediately he could see and began to follow Him on the road.

Faith in Jesus Christ leads to the development of foresight, hindsight, and eternal vision. It cures blurred vision, lazy eye, cross eyes, and nearsightedness. It prevents glaucoma, cataracts, and neuropathy to ever happen.

Any person desiring this truth vision must seek out and develop a trust in Jesus Christ, and as Bartimaeus did, get up and follow Him on the road.

Friends the biggest barrier we have to eternal vision is our human schemes and desires to manipulate truth to please and support our desires and ideas (such as spinning up “the best version of the truth available”).

We see it in a lot of things today that if we were looking with eternal vision we’d discern the preposterous notion that humanity is wise, and the pressure to conform and agree to that is only getting worse.

Spin merchants, ad agencies, and even governments are getting more and more sophisticated in the ways they hand out blinders and blindfolds. We are inundated with inaccurate data, lies, claims, and the like in that just the sheer amount of information alone overloads us beyond our ability to filter and screen. We don’t know who or what we believe until someone tells us.

Our history, our society, our very definition of identity is being rewritten faster than we can read and understand its implications and claim on us. We are being told that lies are human and humans are lies because we can be and become what we want ourselves to be no matter what others may say.

Even the most ludicrous claim imaginable, that of global warming, has recently been debunked by multiple admissions that scientists have falsified data, but still nobody listens. It just sounds good and warmly fuzzy around the global campfire!

The only Global Warming people should fear is the one promised by God in 2 Peter 3: 10
“But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed {that is, burned up}.”

Don't settle for the "best version of the truth available." Accept only the truth of Jesus Christ. 

That’s why God gave us the Holy Spirit and gave us Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, with the promise that they will never change or forsake us, so that we could learn to discern and live His truth. Jesus’ last words to Bartimaeus should point the way:

Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” “Rabbouni,” the blind man told Him, “I want to see!” “Go your way,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has healed you.” Immediately he could see and began to follow Him on the road.  AMEN.