The Devotional – 1428 – Open your mind, and then your eyes!

The Devotional – 1428 – Open your mind, and then your eyes!

Proverbs 28:14 – Happy is the man (person) who is always reverent, but he (or she) who hardens (the) heart will fall into calamity.

 

 Comments and challenges

As children we adapt many of family ties as these are the bonds of who we are. One such family tie is our delivery of speaking to one another. As a child in my family it was common for us to ask mom for a piece of “butter bread” or a piece of “peanut butter bread”! I remember trying to bring those statements into my early adulthood. Once on one of the ships I was on I said to a shipmate. “How is that peanut butter bread”? “What”? I said; “is the peanut butter bread fresh”? My shipmate was thinking that I was speaking a foreign language and to him… I was.

Of course by now you have figured out that I was referring to a piece of bread with either butter or peanut butter on it; at least I hope you have because in my mind I still think that way some times and it is not so easy to adapt to a better way of thinking something through. Also, I feel that we all have this problem and that for people who are of an intellectual mind; this difficulty to relate is even harder to overcome. But it is not my way of communicating, nor is it that of anyone else that is of a major concern.

What is alarming though is our determined way of forcing a meaning of something on someone else when it really does not mean that at all. One of the best examples of what I am seeking to say can be found in scripture in the Gospel of Mark and those who interpreted these scriptures for you and I to read. Of course that translation I am referring to is the King James version. (Now I have been thinking through this for a few days so it is not as if I am having a brain storm). I truly enjoy words, I could play with them all day, and I love the way the interpretation of the story of blind Bartimaeus reads.

Mark 10: 46-47 – “and they came to Jericho: and as He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus Thou son of David, have mercy on me”. (We could spend the day just thinking and reacting to these few words).

Mark 10:49 – “And Jesus stood still (awesome), and commanded him to be called, and they called the blind man, saying “be of good comfort, rise; He has called thee!” and casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. (again what opportunity to spend time exploring these words).

Mark 10:51b-52 – The blind man said to Him, “LORD, that I might receive my sight”! And Jesus said to him, “go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole”. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus. (O the tears of joy that fill my soul at the thought of these simple but powerfully inspired words, by the way every word in the Holy Bible is inspired) So now we need to back up a bit and see another event in the Life of Jesus through the eyes of Mark.

Mark 8:22-26 - and he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up and said; “I see men as trees walking”. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house saying, neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

As for me, these two events in the lives of two men who were blind, give plenty of sight to seeking the full revelation of the love of God and of our Savior. Not with words that men put together, but with the “WORD” that only God has for “WORLD” the peoples and language groups of the world, in that; “what I may relate to someone can come across as a sharp stick in the eye, but to others a comforting pillow of hope in God our Creator.

The LORD God removes the “L” out of the WORLD and then He says; “For God so “L”OVED the WOR”L”D that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in HIM should not perish but have everlasting life, John 3:16. To God be the glory and to his children, or as someone who is reading but not yet His child; I encourage you to seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all that is available in the kingdom will be added to you. Matthew 6:25-34.