Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – 2 Chronicles 33-36
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 11:33-36
Jesus: You need a light to see. Only an idiot would light a lamp and then put it beneath the floor or under a bucket. No, any intelligent person would put the lamp on a table so everyone who comes in the house can see. Listen, your eye, your outlook, the way you see is your lamp. If your way of seeing is functioning well, then your whole life will be enlightened. But if your way of seeing is darkened, then your life will be a dark, dark place. So be careful, people, because your light may be malfunctioning. If your outlook is good, then your whole life will be bright, with no shadowy corners, as when a radiant lamp brightens your home.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Solomon talks about the plight of the elderly in Ecclesiastes 12 this way: And so we come to the end of this musing over life. My advice to you is to remember your Creator, God, while you are young: before life gets hard and the injustice of old age comes upon you—before the years arrive when pleasure feels far out of reach— before the sun and light and the moon and stars fade to darkness and before cloud-covered skies return after the rain. Remember Him before the arms and legs of the keeper of the house begin to tremble—before the strong grow uneasy and bent over with age—before toothless gums aren’t able to chew food and eyes grow dim. Remember Him before the doors are shut in the streets and hearing fails and everyday sounds fade away—before the slightest sound of a bird’s chirp awakens the sleeping but the song itself has fallen silent.
But today ophthalmologists and audiologists are doing some things to turn back the years in some ways. In a couple of days I get my new hearing aids and I hope to be able to hear those doors on the streets open again and hear the sounds of laughter again and the bird’s chirp like I haven’t heard them in years. The noises in the Army have a tendency to decrease hearing in some frequencies sometimes and age doesn’t help the problem any. So I’m looking forward to seeing what audiology and modern science can do.
Ophthalmologists can now replace those cloudy lens that sit behind the iris. The disease we call it is cataracts that cause those lens to just get more and more milky until you just can’t see through the lens anymore. But now, we can replace those lens. When the patient leaves the doctor’s office, not only is the lens replaced, but now vision is corrected at the same time by shaping the cornea and suddenly the cloudy vision is not just unclouded, but crystal clear.
It’s as if a miracle happens. Those who go through that cataract surgery and have their vision restored understand something of what Jesus talks about when He talks about the way we see. Many go about their daily chores almost blind until that day the surgeon releases them from their bondage and lets the light pour into their lives so they can see again. They can once again experience the world the way God made it, bright and clear and full of light instead of dim and dull and dark because of the lens that has distorted their view.
It’s a shame we can’t figure out spiritual maladies the way we do physical maladies. Satan has clouded our vision so we walk through this world with cataracts if we let him. But Jesus wants to be that ophthalmologist that performs the needed surgery on our eyes so we can see clearly once more. He wants to remove those diseased lens so we can see the way God meant the world to be, not the way we have perverted it through our sinful ways. He can correct our vision so we can see the way we should, we can see through His eyes of love and recognize those who need the same vision correction He gives us. Then we can introduce them to the physician who can help their spiritual vision, too.
Walking around blindly today is dangerous. There are too many pitfalls and dangers to just strike out without sight. Even the physically blind today go through months of training or use support animals to help them through the perpetual night. But the spiritually blind, talk about dangerous. Our eternal destiny is at stake. Satan tries to make us believe that God is too kind to let any of us go to hell. He’s going to save us all, Satan tells us. God is love, after all, right?
But it’s one of Satan’s lies. You see, God doesn’t send us to hell. We send ourselves there. God is love. He made a way of escape for us, but we must take it. The means of salvation is there, but it is still our choice. Ted Bundy’s mother loved him, but it didn’t keep him from choosing to become a serial killer. We make our own choices. I choose to spend eternity with God or with Satan. It is my choice. I choose to let Jesus open my eyes to His light and follow Him. How about you?
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