The Eyes of Your Heart

Dear Friends,

Here’s one of the many fascinating things Jesus said:  

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is      filled with light.  But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” – Matthew 6:22-23

In these verses the Lord isn’t just talking about physical eyes and physical light.  He’s talking metaphorically about spiritual insight.  He’s talking about seeing in a new way spiritually.  People who have a “bad eye”, which here really means a bad heart, are said to be lost in moral and spiritual darkness.  But if your eye is good; that is, if you possess a generous heart, undivided in its loyalties, then you will see the world rightly.  The Apostle Paul calls it seeing with the eyes of your heart.  In Ephesians 1:18 he says, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…” The song we sometimes sing, “Open the Eyes of My Heart” is from this verse.  The point is that God wants us to see the world with new eyes, with spiritual insight.

Christian Smith is a sociologist who has studied American Christianity in depth. In his book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Life of American Teenagers, Smith describes what he calls the “de facto dominant religion” among American teenagers.  Unfortunately, his description of the religion of American teens can also be applied to many adults.  It is this: “moral therapeutic deism.”

According to this “religion,” God created the world and watches over it, but has little involvement unless called upon to solve problems.  Smith further describes this “religion” in these terms: “the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”  What then does God require of people?  Simply that they be nice to each other and practice fairness, “as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”        The technical term for this is reductionism, where our deep and rich biblical heritage is reduced to a very self-centered, inner focused faith which is really just faith in faith itself.  In this view, God exists to sanction our desires because human happiness is the highest good.  Long gone is the sense of mission and personal holiness to which all Christ followers are called.  Rather than being challenged to see the world in a new way, and to live accordingly, we are launched on a quest for happiness and it doesn’t matter how immoral we have to be in order to attain it.  This Jesus does not challenge the way we see the world, much less how we live in it because He wants us to be happy; so He sanctions our desires. Others have called this “cheap grace” or “easy believism.”

This Sunday we’ll look at Core Value #7!  The key to this Core Value is to see the world in a new light, from God’s perspective!  When we do this, we will be energized by the fact that we were made for a mission!  Have a great rest of the week and Lord willing, I will see you Sunday!

Affectionately in Christ,

Pastor John

P.S.  Men, I hope to see you at our breakfast this Saturday morning!