**Christians Aren't Broke (but they may be broken)**
******* stolen from a friend's blog.thought you all might enjoy!!! ****************
Good evening my friends. I hope your day has gone well. The weekend is here and the Lord has put on my heart to write an artical on "broken", so here goes...
We are constantly dealing with Christians who think they are broke. They may have lost their job, or they may be over their head in debt, or they may be facing an unexpected expense that seems to them to be overwhelming.
If you think about it, Moses really made a terrible decision when he decided to suffer with the people of God. He had all the riches of Egypt available to him if he would just "keep his nose clean" and stay in line with the culture, but Hebrews 11:24-26 says, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward."
Think about what he left and what he stepped into. Three million slaves set free and following him through the wilderness. They will look to him for all the answers to their questions and for all their needs. Wow! And imagine what needs this many people would have in a barren land. Did Moses consider himself BROKE?
Think about it:
Moses and his people fled Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and wandered in the desert for forty years. They had to get across The Red Sea at night. Now, if they walked a narrow path, two across, the line would be 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights for all to cross. So there had to be a space in the Red Sea, 3 miles wide so they could walk 5000 abreast to cross the Sea in one night. And at the end of each day, a camp-ground two-thirds the size of the State of Rhode Island was required; a total of 750 square miles. Think of it; all this space for camping, building campfires, (digging latrines), disposing of other waste, etc. They had to be fed and cared for. And feeding 2 or 3 million people requires a lot of food. According to the Quartermaster General of the Army, it is reported that Moses would have needed 1500 tons of food each day. To bring that much food each day, it would require two freight trains, each at least a mile long. Also, you must remember, they were out in the desert and needed firewood to cook their food. It would take 4000 tons of wood and a few more freight trains, each a mile long, to satisfy each days needs...and they wandered for forty years.
In addition, they needed lots of water in the desert. To only drink a little and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons each day, and a freight train with tank cars 1800 miles long, just to bring water! Do you think Moses figured all this out before he left Egypt? I think not!
You see, Moses believed in God. God took care of these things for him. Now do you think God has any problem taking care of all your needs?
Somehow our problems seem very insignificant by comparison. How did Moses endure all of this? Hebrews tells us this in the next verse, verse 27:
"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."
You have often heard the Scripture quoted: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." We are told that in the original language there are five negatives. He is saying that He will never, never, never, never, never leave us. Well, that is pretty reassuring, but I think we miss a lot by quoting only the last part of the verse. We miss the full impact of the verse by leaving the first half out of it. You must have the first half of the verse to have His promise to you in context.
What does it say? Here it is in the Amplified Version: "Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!" Hebrews 13:5
Now doesn't that make a greater impact on your faith? Can't you see that our Father's reputation is on the line here? He owns the "cattle on a thousands hills" and when my Father is not broke, I'M NOT BROKE. Not when He gives me such a promise as we just quoted.
Take heart Christian. Don't mope and whine and carry on like your "going down the tubes." Lift up you head. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" Hebrews 12:2 "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Col. 3:2
When the Eternal, Sovereign, Creator God is your Father, HOW COULD YOU BE BROKE. You may not be seeing correctly. Look at Matthew 6:22-23 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" How great indeed!
No matter what your situation is, SEE GOD, get aligned with Him. Join Him in the intimacy with Him that He is calling you into by this situation. Be "more than a conqueror" in it through Jesus Christ in you that He may receive all the glory.
Read this again and be encouraged: "Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!"
Now read what Oswald Chambers says about this text:
God’s Say-So
"He hath said . . . so that we may boldly say . . ." Hebrews 13:5-6
My say-so is to be built on God’s say-so. God says—"I will never leave thee," then I can with good courage say—"The Lord is my helper, I will not fear"—I will not be haunted by apprehension. This does not mean that I will not be tempted to fear, but I will remember God’s say-so. I will be full of courage, like a child "bucking himself up" to reach the standard his father wants. Faith in many a one falters when the apprehensions come, they forget the meaning of God’s say-so, forget to take a deep breath spiritually. The only way to get the dread taken out of us is to listen to God’s say-so.
What are you dreading? You are not a coward about it, you are going to face it, but there is a feeling of dread. When there is nothing and no one to help you, say—"But the Lord is my Helper, this second, in my present outlook." Are you learning to say things after listening to God, or are you saying things and trying to make God’s word fit in? Get hold of the Father’s say-so, and then say with good courage—"I will not fear." It does not matter what evil or wrong may be in the way, He has said—"I will never leave thee."
Frailty is another thing that gets in between God’s say-so and ours. When we realize how feeble we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God becomes a nonentity. Remember God’s say-so—"I will in no wise fail you." Have we learned to sing after hearing God’s key-note? Are we always possessed with the courage to say—"The Lord is my helper," or are we succumbing?
What Are You Haunted By?
"What man is he that feareth the Lord?" Psalm 25:12
What are you haunted by? You will say—"By nothing," but we are all haunted by something, generally by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our experience. The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God. The abiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God. A child’s consciousness is so mother-haunted that although the child is not consciously thinking of its mother, yet when calamity arises, the relationship that abides is that of the mother. So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God, because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time.
If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.
"His soul shall dwell at ease." In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvellous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. "God is our Refuge"—nothing can come through that shelter.
CONCLUSION:
When your circumstances are screaming at you. When it seems there is no way out, you may have the habit of examining the circumstances more and more. Try this: EXAMINE FATHER AND HIS LOVE FOR YOU. If you measure your need it seems so overwhelming. If you measure our Father and focus on Him, you will get things into proper perspective. Look in His Word and see Him. Look in your situation and see Him. What you see is going to determine how you are: "If your eye is evil" your circumstance is seen as overwhelming, but if you have vision and you SEE GOOD, or God (Who is in everything working for your good), your circumstance will become the arena in which God will prove Himself. Then with that victory Father will bring more evil into your life in order for Him to be the Victor in it too, and all glory and praise will be to Him. Remember, Jesus promised, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, every day will have evil in it so you can through your trust in Father be victorious in His Name, to His glory. AMEN.
THE HABIT OF WEALTH
"Partakers of the divine nature." 2 Peter 1:4
We are made partakers of the Divine nature through the promises; then we have to "manipulate" the Divine nature in our human nature by habits, and the first habit to form is the habit of realizing the provision God has made. "Oh, I can't afford it," we say - one of the worst lies is tucked up in that phrase. It is ungovernably bad taste to talk about money in the natural domain, and so it is spiritually, and yet we talk as if our Heavenly Father had cut us off with a shilling!
We think it a sign of real modesty to say at the end of a day - "Oh, well, I have just got through, but it has been a severe tussle." And all the Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will obey Him.
What does it matter if external circumstances are hard? Why should they not be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we banish God's riches from our own lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become craving spiritual sponges, there is nothing lovely or generous about them.
When God is beginning to be satisfied with us He will impoverish everything in the nature of fictitious wealth, until we learn that all our fresh springs are in Him. If the majesty and grace and power of God are not being manifested in us (not to our consciousness), God holds us responsible. "God is able to make all grace abound," then learn to lavish the grace of God on others. Be stamped with God's nature, and His blessing will come through you all the time.
“The Eye is the Lamp of the Body”
A Meditation on Matthew 6:19-24
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Sandwiched between the command to lay up treasures in heaven (6:19-21) and the warning that you can’t serve God and money (6:24) are the strange words about the eye being the lamp of the body. If the eye is good (literally: “single”), the whole body will be full of light. But if the eye is bad, the body will be full of darkness. In other words: How you see reality determines whether you are in the dark or not.
Now why is this saying about the good and bad eye sandwiched between two teachings on money? I think it’s because the specific thing about seeing that shows the eye is good is how it sees God in relation to money and all it can buy. That’s the issue on either side of the sandwich meat. In 6:19-21 the issue is: you should desire heaven-reward not earth-reward. Which, in short, means: desire God not money. In 6:24 the issue is whether you can serve two masters. Answer: You cannot serve God and money.
This is a double description of light! If you are laying up treasures in heaven not earth, you are walking in the light. If you are serving God not money, you are walking in the light.
Between these two descriptions of the light Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body and that a good eye produces a fullness of this light. So what is the good eye that gives so much light and the bad eye that leaves us in the dark?
One clue is found in Matthew 20:15. Jesus has just said, in a parable, that men who worked one hour will be paid the same as those who worked all day, because the master is merciful, and besides, they all agreed to their wage. Those who worked all day grumbled that the men who worked one hour were paid too much. Jesus responded with the words found here in Matthew 6:23, “Is your eye bad because I am good?”
What is bad about their eye? What’s bad is that their eye does not see the mercy of the master as beautiful. They see it as ugly. They don’t see reality for what it is. They do not have an eye that can see mercy as more precious than money.
Now bring that understanding of the “bad eye” back to Matthew 6:23 and let it determine the meaning of the “good eye.” What would the good eye be that fills us with light? It would be an eye that sees the Master’s generosity as more precious than money. The good eye sees God and His ways as the great Treasure in life, not money.
You have a good eye if you look on heaven and love to maximize the reward of God’s fellowship there. You have a good eye if you look at Master-money and Master-God and see Master-God as infinitely more valuable. In other words, a “good eye” is a valuing eye, a discerning eye, a treasuring eye. It doesn’t just see facts about money and God. It doesn’t just perceive what is true and false. It sees beauty and ugliness, it senses value and worthlessness, it discerns what is really desirable and what is undesirable. The seeing of the good eye is not neutral. When it sees God, it sees God-as-beautiful. It sees God-as-desirable.
That is why the good eye leads to the way of light: laying up treasures in heaven, and serving God not money. The good eye is a single eye. It has one Treasure. God. When that happens in your life, you are full of light.
O Lord, We bless You that the issue of the battle between You and Satan has never been uncertain, and ends in victory. Calvary broke the dragon's head, and we contend with a vanquished foe, who with all his subtlety and strength has already been overcome. When we feel the serpent at our heel may we remember Him Whose heel was bruised, but Who, when bruised, broke the devil's head. Our soul with inward joy extols the mighty conqueror. Heal us of any wounds received in the great conflict; if we have gathered defilement, if our faith has suffered damage, if our hope is less than bright, if our love is not fervent, if some creature-comfort occupies our heart, if our soul sinks under pressure of the fight. You Whose every promise is balm, every touch life, draw near to Your weary warriors, refresh us, that we may rise again to wage the strife and never tire until our enemy is trodden down. Give us such fellowship with You that we may defy Satan, unbelief, the flesh, the world, with delight that comes not from a creature and which a creature cannot mar. Give us a draught of the eternal fountain that lies in Your immutable, everlasting love and decree. Then shall our hand never weaken, our feet never stumble, our sword never rest, our shield never rust, our helmet never shatter, our breastplate never fall, as our strength rests in the power of Your might.
AMEN!!! ;)
Good evening my friends. I hope your day has gone well. The weekend is here and the Lord has put on my heart to write an artical on "broken", so here goes...
We are constantly dealing with Christians who think they are broke. They may have lost their job, or they may be over their head in debt, or they may be facing an unexpected expense that seems to them to be overwhelming.
If you think about it, Moses really made a terrible decision when he decided to suffer with the people of God. He had all the riches of Egypt available to him if he would just "keep his nose clean" and stay in line with the culture, but Hebrews 11:24-26 says, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward."
Think about what he left and what he stepped into. Three million slaves set free and following him through the wilderness. They will look to him for all the answers to their questions and for all their needs. Wow! And imagine what needs this many people would have in a barren land. Did Moses consider himself BROKE?
Think about it:
Moses and his people fled Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and wandered in the desert for forty years. They had to get across The Red Sea at night. Now, if they walked a narrow path, two across, the line would be 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights for all to cross. So there had to be a space in the Red Sea, 3 miles wide so they could walk 5000 abreast to cross the Sea in one night. And at the end of each day, a camp-ground two-thirds the size of the State of Rhode Island was required; a total of 750 square miles. Think of it; all this space for camping, building campfires, (digging latrines), disposing of other waste, etc. They had to be fed and cared for. And feeding 2 or 3 million people requires a lot of food. According to the Quartermaster General of the Army, it is reported that Moses would have needed 1500 tons of food each day. To bring that much food each day, it would require two freight trains, each at least a mile long. Also, you must remember, they were out in the desert and needed firewood to cook their food. It would take 4000 tons of wood and a few more freight trains, each a mile long, to satisfy each days needs...and they wandered for forty years.
In addition, they needed lots of water in the desert. To only drink a little and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons each day, and a freight train with tank cars 1800 miles long, just to bring water! Do you think Moses figured all this out before he left Egypt? I think not!
You see, Moses believed in God. God took care of these things for him. Now do you think God has any problem taking care of all your needs?
Somehow our problems seem very insignificant by comparison. How did Moses endure all of this? Hebrews tells us this in the next verse, verse 27:
"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."
You have often heard the Scripture quoted: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." We are told that in the original language there are five negatives. He is saying that He will never, never, never, never, never leave us. Well, that is pretty reassuring, but I think we miss a lot by quoting only the last part of the verse. We miss the full impact of the verse by leaving the first half out of it. You must have the first half of the verse to have His promise to you in context.
What does it say? Here it is in the Amplified Version: "Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!" Hebrews 13:5
Now doesn't that make a greater impact on your faith? Can't you see that our Father's reputation is on the line here? He owns the "cattle on a thousands hills" and when my Father is not broke, I'M NOT BROKE. Not when He gives me such a promise as we just quoted.
Take heart Christian. Don't mope and whine and carry on like your "going down the tubes." Lift up you head. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" Hebrews 12:2 "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Col. 3:2
When the Eternal, Sovereign, Creator God is your Father, HOW COULD YOU BE BROKE. You may not be seeing correctly. Look at Matthew 6:22-23 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" How great indeed!
No matter what your situation is, SEE GOD, get aligned with Him. Join Him in the intimacy with Him that He is calling you into by this situation. Be "more than a conqueror" in it through Jesus Christ in you that He may receive all the glory.
Read this again and be encouraged: "Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!"
Now read what Oswald Chambers says about this text:
God’s Say-So
"He hath said . . . so that we may boldly say . . ." Hebrews 13:5-6
My say-so is to be built on God’s say-so. God says—"I will never leave thee," then I can with good courage say—"The Lord is my helper, I will not fear"—I will not be haunted by apprehension. This does not mean that I will not be tempted to fear, but I will remember God’s say-so. I will be full of courage, like a child "bucking himself up" to reach the standard his father wants. Faith in many a one falters when the apprehensions come, they forget the meaning of God’s say-so, forget to take a deep breath spiritually. The only way to get the dread taken out of us is to listen to God’s say-so.
What are you dreading? You are not a coward about it, you are going to face it, but there is a feeling of dread. When there is nothing and no one to help you, say—"But the Lord is my Helper, this second, in my present outlook." Are you learning to say things after listening to God, or are you saying things and trying to make God’s word fit in? Get hold of the Father’s say-so, and then say with good courage—"I will not fear." It does not matter what evil or wrong may be in the way, He has said—"I will never leave thee."
Frailty is another thing that gets in between God’s say-so and ours. When we realize how feeble we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God becomes a nonentity. Remember God’s say-so—"I will in no wise fail you." Have we learned to sing after hearing God’s key-note? Are we always possessed with the courage to say—"The Lord is my helper," or are we succumbing?
What Are You Haunted By?
"What man is he that feareth the Lord?" Psalm 25:12
What are you haunted by? You will say—"By nothing," but we are all haunted by something, generally by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our experience. The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God. The abiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God. A child’s consciousness is so mother-haunted that although the child is not consciously thinking of its mother, yet when calamity arises, the relationship that abides is that of the mother. So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God, because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time.
If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.
"His soul shall dwell at ease." In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvellous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. "God is our Refuge"—nothing can come through that shelter.
CONCLUSION:
When your circumstances are screaming at you. When it seems there is no way out, you may have the habit of examining the circumstances more and more. Try this: EXAMINE FATHER AND HIS LOVE FOR YOU. If you measure your need it seems so overwhelming. If you measure our Father and focus on Him, you will get things into proper perspective. Look in His Word and see Him. Look in your situation and see Him. What you see is going to determine how you are: "If your eye is evil" your circumstance is seen as overwhelming, but if you have vision and you SEE GOOD, or God (Who is in everything working for your good), your circumstance will become the arena in which God will prove Himself. Then with that victory Father will bring more evil into your life in order for Him to be the Victor in it too, and all glory and praise will be to Him. Remember, Jesus promised, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, every day will have evil in it so you can through your trust in Father be victorious in His Name, to His glory. AMEN.
THE HABIT OF WEALTH
"Partakers of the divine nature." 2 Peter 1:4
We are made partakers of the Divine nature through the promises; then we have to "manipulate" the Divine nature in our human nature by habits, and the first habit to form is the habit of realizing the provision God has made. "Oh, I can't afford it," we say - one of the worst lies is tucked up in that phrase. It is ungovernably bad taste to talk about money in the natural domain, and so it is spiritually, and yet we talk as if our Heavenly Father had cut us off with a shilling!
We think it a sign of real modesty to say at the end of a day - "Oh, well, I have just got through, but it has been a severe tussle." And all the Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will obey Him.
What does it matter if external circumstances are hard? Why should they not be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we banish God's riches from our own lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become craving spiritual sponges, there is nothing lovely or generous about them.
When God is beginning to be satisfied with us He will impoverish everything in the nature of fictitious wealth, until we learn that all our fresh springs are in Him. If the majesty and grace and power of God are not being manifested in us (not to our consciousness), God holds us responsible. "God is able to make all grace abound," then learn to lavish the grace of God on others. Be stamped with God's nature, and His blessing will come through you all the time.
“The Eye is the Lamp of the Body”
A Meditation on Matthew 6:19-24
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Sandwiched between the command to lay up treasures in heaven (6:19-21) and the warning that you can’t serve God and money (6:24) are the strange words about the eye being the lamp of the body. If the eye is good (literally: “single”), the whole body will be full of light. But if the eye is bad, the body will be full of darkness. In other words: How you see reality determines whether you are in the dark or not.
Now why is this saying about the good and bad eye sandwiched between two teachings on money? I think it’s because the specific thing about seeing that shows the eye is good is how it sees God in relation to money and all it can buy. That’s the issue on either side of the sandwich meat. In 6:19-21 the issue is: you should desire heaven-reward not earth-reward. Which, in short, means: desire God not money. In 6:24 the issue is whether you can serve two masters. Answer: You cannot serve God and money.
This is a double description of light! If you are laying up treasures in heaven not earth, you are walking in the light. If you are serving God not money, you are walking in the light.
Between these two descriptions of the light Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body and that a good eye produces a fullness of this light. So what is the good eye that gives so much light and the bad eye that leaves us in the dark?
One clue is found in Matthew 20:15. Jesus has just said, in a parable, that men who worked one hour will be paid the same as those who worked all day, because the master is merciful, and besides, they all agreed to their wage. Those who worked all day grumbled that the men who worked one hour were paid too much. Jesus responded with the words found here in Matthew 6:23, “Is your eye bad because I am good?”
What is bad about their eye? What’s bad is that their eye does not see the mercy of the master as beautiful. They see it as ugly. They don’t see reality for what it is. They do not have an eye that can see mercy as more precious than money.
Now bring that understanding of the “bad eye” back to Matthew 6:23 and let it determine the meaning of the “good eye.” What would the good eye be that fills us with light? It would be an eye that sees the Master’s generosity as more precious than money. The good eye sees God and His ways as the great Treasure in life, not money.
You have a good eye if you look on heaven and love to maximize the reward of God’s fellowship there. You have a good eye if you look at Master-money and Master-God and see Master-God as infinitely more valuable. In other words, a “good eye” is a valuing eye, a discerning eye, a treasuring eye. It doesn’t just see facts about money and God. It doesn’t just perceive what is true and false. It sees beauty and ugliness, it senses value and worthlessness, it discerns what is really desirable and what is undesirable. The seeing of the good eye is not neutral. When it sees God, it sees God-as-beautiful. It sees God-as-desirable.
That is why the good eye leads to the way of light: laying up treasures in heaven, and serving God not money. The good eye is a single eye. It has one Treasure. God. When that happens in your life, you are full of light.
O Lord, We bless You that the issue of the battle between You and Satan has never been uncertain, and ends in victory. Calvary broke the dragon's head, and we contend with a vanquished foe, who with all his subtlety and strength has already been overcome. When we feel the serpent at our heel may we remember Him Whose heel was bruised, but Who, when bruised, broke the devil's head. Our soul with inward joy extols the mighty conqueror. Heal us of any wounds received in the great conflict; if we have gathered defilement, if our faith has suffered damage, if our hope is less than bright, if our love is not fervent, if some creature-comfort occupies our heart, if our soul sinks under pressure of the fight. You Whose every promise is balm, every touch life, draw near to Your weary warriors, refresh us, that we may rise again to wage the strife and never tire until our enemy is trodden down. Give us such fellowship with You that we may defy Satan, unbelief, the flesh, the world, with delight that comes not from a creature and which a creature cannot mar. Give us a draught of the eternal fountain that lies in Your immutable, everlasting love and decree. Then shall our hand never weaken, our feet never stumble, our sword never rest, our shield never rust, our helmet never shatter, our breastplate never fall, as our strength rests in the power of Your might.
AMEN!!! ;)
posted by Alicia Beth @ 4:02 PM
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