Category Archives: scripture

Becoming a Word Search Whiz

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“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.”
Psalm 40:1

My wife has recently discovered that she’s very skilled at word searches.  She has installed and uninstalled countless word search apps to her iPod—some because they’re designed poorly, but most because they’re simply too easy for her.  She solves these puzzles in seconds.  And while I consider myself fairly decent at word searches, I’m nowhere near as talented as she is.  I find myself thinking that there is nothing there, while Rachel is busy finding something on every line and column.

I doubt that Israel had word searches back in David’s time, but I’m certain that they frequently experienced similar feelings of waiting for something and finding nothing.  Yet David makes it clear in Psalm 40:1 that it’s not just about IF you wait, it’s also about HOW you wait.  Waiting is like a spiritual marinade: waiting with a righteous attitude that “tastes good” to the Lord (as opposed to something He’d want to spit out) will result in a favorable reward, but waiting with a wicked attitude only builds up barriers to God’s intervention.

It’s no good waiting on God if your waiting consists of complaints, criticisms, and concerns, because as you wait, they’ll permeate your heart and mind, and you’ll lose the faith needed to receive whatever God gives you when the time comes.  Doubt refuses everything it’s offered, but persistent faith draws out blessing…even if it wasn’t there to begin with.  Sustained faith doesn’t just receive whatever it’s given; it actually fuels the creation of something worth receiving.  Our attitude in the valleys determines our altitude on the mountaintops!

In the physical realm, waiting requires no effort.  But in the spiritual realm, waiting requires a lot of effort.  If you want to work out your spiritual muscles, just try waiting patiently, rooted in faith, fed with hope, bearing joy and thanksgiving.  It’s no easy task!  Yet, as David discovered for himself, waiting patiently works perfectly—it never goes unanswered.

Ironically, most people find themselves “suddenly waiting.”  It is rarely our intention to wait; we don’t often want to work out our spiritual muscles.  But we have a Helper who is committed to making us strong.  And in the meantime, God is hard at work, making even our “nothings” into “somethings.”

Divine Dentistry

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“Freely you have received; freely give.”
Matthew 10:8

I am quite convinced that I have the largest sweet tooth of our day and age.  Or at least, I did, before all the cavities ate it down in size.

This also means that I’ve had a terribly hard time learning to share those sweets.  There are many times in my past in which I’ve been reluctant to hand out a few pieces of candy (single-digits, mind you) from the three-pound bag I was eating from.  I’ve repented for my candy-hoarding since then, but that’s how I was: I valued the various combinations of sugar and high fructose corn syrup so much that I was very selective in giving it away.  I knew the end of the bag was coming, and I wanted to make the deliciousness last as long as possible.

I’m afraid this mindset may have infiltrated my faith.  I have been guilty, at times, of being very selective in giving away blessing. And I think it’s because I’ve had a “The end of the bag is coming” approach.  In Christianese, that translates to a “poverty mentality.”  It means that when we don’t truly believe God’s resources are endless, we end up hoarding the blessing, fruit, favor, gifts, and power that come through a relationship with the Father.  But Jesus turns all of that upside down with this statement: “Freely you have received.”

Understanding the abundance of God is vital for our lives to reach their maximum potential in Christ, because we cannot receive more without first giving away what we have.  In this single statement, Jesus teaches the disciples that our eagerness and effectiveness in ministry is directly related to our understanding of how much blessing God is pouring out on us.  If we believe that God only gives a little at a time—that we’re reaching the “bottom of the bag”—we will be very selective when we give it out.  However, if we are aware of God’s overwhelming abundance and infinite nature, we will be eager to give it out at every turn, because we know that our hands can never be emptied of the riches of heaven.

We all have a spiritual sweet tooth that longs for the overflowing riches of a relationship with the Father.  Sometimes, we get “cavities” of fear or hopelessness that diminish the size of our dreams.  Satan might even convince us that we need our hopes pulled out completely.  But as we begin to give out of what we have—whether it’s a giving of love, of faith, of prayer, of service, or of money—the Holy Spirit fills the spaces, and instead puts a crown on the longing of our hearts.

The Bible has some Hunger Games, too (Part 2)

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This is a two-part blog series I wrote for Awaken City that I wanted to re-title over to my blog as well!

I started this blog mini-series by looking at the beginning of Jesus’ temptation, and I’m going to complete it by looking at the end.  There’s a huge amount of wisdom that we can gain from the middle, but I’m just focusing on the two things that have most recently caught my attention in my own journey through the scriptures, because if the Holy Spirit is teaching us something, we secure it and steward it by sharing it!  So…here it goes!

In Matthew 4:3, Satan unsuccessfully challenges the very statement God proclaimed just three verses earlier.  He tries again, and still fails.  He shifts his tactics in the third temptation, suggesting that his way of attaining what was promised to Jesus was better than God’s way, but still Jesus stood fast.  And after Jesus overcame all the temptations that Satan threw at him, something incredible happened in verse 11: “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.”

I’ll take that any day!  (And the great thing is that through Jesus, we all can!)

There’s something powerful about the word “ministered.”  The Greek word used here is diakoneō, which means “to serve, wait upon, or minister,” which is basically exactly what the translation says—but that’s not the cool part.  The cool part is the other places in scripture where this same Greek word is used.  In Matthew 8:15, it describes Peter’s mother-in-law serving a meal.  In Luke 10:40, it describes Martha’s cooking.  In Luke 12:37, it describes a master waiting on his servants reclining at the table.  In Luke 17:8, it describes a servant preparing supper for his master.  In John 12:2, it describes Martha bringing food to the dinner table.

What’s so powerful about the usage of this word is that it very frequently describes serving a meal, and that’s precisely what Jesus is longing for prior to Satan’s temptations.  It doesn’t say so specifically, but I have a feeling that the angels actually brought Jesus meals, just like they did for Elijah.  And it’s at this point that Jesus experiences the same thing David did hundreds of years earlier: “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.”  Jesus shared this principle with his followers through the parable of the prodigal son—the things the son went looking for in the city were the very things the father gave him when he came home.  God wants to grant our desires, develop our dreams, and answer our longings.  He’s a good father!  We simply have to cling to His words—even when Satan tries to challenge them—and He will bring it all to pass.

We all get “hungry” at times.  There are times when we feel weak.  But when we choose to be faithful in the process, we find favor in the payoff…and just like Jesus, it will be precisely what we were longing for in the beginning!

The Bible has some Hunger Games, too (Part 1)

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This is a two-part blog series I wrote for Awaken City that I wanted to re-title over to my blog as well!

I spoke a few weeks ago at Awaken City Church on how to renew our minds.  The full message is available here, but I wanted to expand on something that we didn’t get to spend much time on: the temptation of Jesus, found in Matthew 4:1-11.  There are a few points I’d like to make on this passage, but the first is this:

As I mentioned on Sunday, there are many places in the Bible that seem unnecessarily obvious.  One of those places is verse 2: “After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”

Sometimes I get hungry every 40 minutes…so I can only imagine the rumbles and roars coming from Jesus’ empty stomach.

But as always, even the most obvious statements of the Bible contain some very deep truths.  Many people focus on the fact that Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted.  That was the reason Jesus was led there; to face temptation.  But verse 2 shows us that before the Spirit allowed Jesus to be tempted, He made sure Jesus knew he was protected.  Before Satan is able to come along, Jesus goes forty days and forty nights without any food, and THEN he becomes hungry—which means Jesus experienced forty consecutive days and nights in a row knowing that God was providing for him and protecting him, and that he really was in need of nothing.  That’s what enabled Jesus to pass up the bread that Satan suggested in the first temptation.

Before God allows any hardship to come our way, He provides us with proof that we can handle it with Him.  The Spirit wasn’t being evil by leading Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted; He was providing Jesus with an experience that proved God’s strength to him after he forfeited his own place as God.  And the Spirit wants to do the same thing with us: He wants to provide us with the opportunity to know God’s faithfulness, and then experience how much power there is to overcome the kingdom of darkness simply by having faith in what we’ve already experienced.

So when you face temptation, think back to what God has already made known to you.  You may not be there randomly; God may be setting you up to experience the unstoppable victory that’s released every time you buildyour faith for the future on His favor in the past!

Who’s Winning Now? *victorious laugh*

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There have been lots of epic battles in the history of the world: the Spartans versus King Xerxes’ Persian army, Napoleon’s army versus the English at Waterloo, Heaven versus Hell, Duke versus Carolina…the list goes on and on.  All great material for movies and books, to be sure.

One of the “epic battles” that is talked about frequently among Christians is the battle between fear and faith.  There are a lot of Bible verses to quote and sermons to reference and songs to sing in regard to this battle, but rarely is one pointed to Genesis 32.  Jacob has been living with his father-in-law, Laban, and is finally returning to his homeland—but he has some hesitations about his brother, Esau.  Twenty years earlier, Jacob conned Esau out of his inheritance as the firstborn son, and ran off with the blessing of their father, Isaac.  Twenty years is a long time for an offense to grow, and Jacob’s not looking forward to his brother’s reception.

In verse 11, Jacob reveals what’s going on in his heart: “Save me…I am afraid.”  I can almost see the flashing red and blue lights of the faith police in the distance.  Jacob has made himself perfect sermon material for what NOT to do!  Yet what he says in verse 12 turns everything on its head: “But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”  He admitted fear, asked for protection, and then he clung to the promises of God and sent the faith police back home.

Jacob was afraid.  That should be a relief to all of us Christians who have been trying to pretend like we’re not scared of anything because we’re “not supposed to be.”  I’m not at all trying to advocate fear or make light of courage—we truly do have a God whose love for us is perfect and complete, whose protection is unfathomable and immovable, and whose power is more than capable of accomplishing far beyond anything we could ever imagine!  But the truth is, there are times in our lives when we find ourselves worried, anxious, or afraid.  What we have to know in those times is that our faith is not determined by the state of our emotions; our faith is determined by the course of our actions.  I can have a huge amount of boldness in my heart, but never actually walk in faith.  And like Jacob, I can be fearful…but faithful.

It’s not wrong or ignorant to feel fear.  What’s wrong and ignorant is to allow fear to keep you from faith in God’s promises.  The line of faith is always on the far side of fear, and we have to step over our worries to step into God’s promises.  So next time your knees want to knock, don’t try to fake courage.  Accept it.  Admit it.  And then cling to God’s promises and let your actions lead your faith.

A Trick Coin

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Fear is the result of choosing to believe that what’s in front of you is greater than who’s behind you, for “if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  For, “If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them, and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love…[and] perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”

God is not in the business of punishment.  Too often, we wrongly believe that punishment and discipline are the same, and that fairness and justice are one, when God actually disciplines us just so that we might avoid punishment!  And the Lord is certainly just…but he is not fair.  The payment of sin by Jesus’ death on the cross was not “fair” to us—grace, by definition, is never deserved.  You see, God never fights fairly.  He unfairly held the sun in place so that Joshua’s army might win the victory, but in doing so he exacted justice upon those who stood against him.  He unfairly tore down the walls of Jericho so that Israel might win the battle and enter into the promised land, but he remained just by keeping his promises.  He unfairly offers us eternal life in the glory of heaven through the resurrection of Jesus, but remains just by paying the penalty of sin through the death of Jesus.

Do you see?  We have no grounds for fear because of the hope we have in God through Christ!  Fear is the result of wrongly choosing to believe that what is in front of you is greater than who is behind you.  On the contrary, hope is the result of rightly choosing to believe that “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” and that as we “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…all these things will be added to you.”  And hope is not a present reality, but a future reality through faith, “for who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience,” and “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

When you lay hold of this hope, “[writing it] on the tablet of your heart,” you will be able to consider, as Paul did, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Scripture references: Romans 8:31-39, 1 John 4:15-18, Philippians 4:19, Matthew 6:33, Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1, Proverbs 7:2-3, Romans 8:18

How and Why

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“And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that his kingdom was highly exalted, for the sake of His people Israel.”
-1 Chronicles 14:2

It’s a good day when you’re appointed king.  At least, I assume so—I haven’t been appointed king over anything, unless I appointed myself (I take after King Julien).  And while most of us haven’t been appointed king, we probably have been appointed to something.  You may have been appointed an employee.  You may have been appointed a raise.  You may have been appointed a good grade.  You may have been appointed a leader.  You may have been appointed a friend.

Whatever it is, we’ve all been appointed to some sort of position, regardless of how it’s esteemed.  So, this passage has two huge reminders for us in regards to our position, our status, our situation, our job, our leadership, our friendship, and every other opportunity we can be appointed to:

  1. The Lord establishes us.  David knew he wasn’t king because of what he’d done.  Sure, he had a great track record, and the people were in love with him, but he knew that ultimately, it was God who put him in the position he was in.  I have to remember that too, because when I don’t, I start taking credit for the successes.  The obvious problem with that is that I become prideful and selfish, and end up inhibiting my influence and prohibiting my progress.  That’s a serious enough problem on its own!  But the less obvious issue with forgetting that God establishes me, wherever I’m at and whatever I’m doing, is that I also start taking credit for the failures.  If I establish myself, I’m bound to become prideful, but I am also bound to become depressed: my identity and attitude become wrapped up in the performance of my establishment, rather than the power of God’s grace.  Jesus took our failures when he died on the cross, and gave us his victories when he rose from the grave!  As long as I let HIM establish me, and give HIM the credit, I can trust that no matter what happens—success or failure—it’s in HIS hands, and not mine.  David fought lots of battles, but he knew that he was only responsible for how they started—either by God’s establishment, or his own—-not how they ended. When the Lord establishes you, you get to live worry-free!
  2.  It’s for the sake of His people.  David’s kingdom was exalted, but not because he was a great king who earned some recognition.  He worked hard, fought well, and received tribute from tons of different nations.  But the scripture says he was exalted “for the sake of [God's] people Israel.”  I can be a big nobody, or a big somebody, but whatever position I’m in, it’s for the sake of God’s people.  He has a plan and a purpose for my life, and to understand it clearly and steward it faithfully, I need to remember that it’s not for me or because of me that I am who/what/where I am…it’s for, and because of, God.  Without this truth driving our circle of influence, everything we do becomes self-serving.  We have a natural tendency to make everything about US!  God knows this—that’s why there’s so much in the Bible about the reward we’re promised in heaven after living a faithful life to the end!  But we have a choice: to stake our claim in what’s “here and now,” or what’s there and then.  The “there and then” is promised to be a lot better. We just have to make sure that we remember that what’s “here and now”—our current position—is for the sake of HIS people.  As long as we live with that in mind, we’ll serve more willingly, give more generously, lead more confidently, live less anxiously, love less conditionally…and reap the reward at the end!
Let the Lord establish you, so that you can trust him for the power and the outcome.  And let him establish you for the sake of his people, so that you can live purposefully and store up treasures in heaven as you go wherever he leads.

Mission Shower

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“As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth… ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘and wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means ‘sent’).  So he left, washed, and came back seeing.”
-John 9:1, 7 HCSB

I wear contacts (or glasses when my contacts refuse to cooperate), but I’m not blind.  At least not physically.  I do sometimes feel blind, though.  I would venture a guess that one of the most common wishes people have is to know what’s coming.  In Christianity, that means what “now” is leading up to.  What’ve you got up your sleeve, God?  What’s on the horizon?  Why is this happening?  It can be from an optimistic perspective, or it can be from the depths of depression, but one thing is certain: we always want to know what’s next; how to get from “here” to “there.”

You might not even need glasses or contacts at all, but I’m certain that you’ve felt blind at times too.  When I read verses like Psalm 119:105—”Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path”—or Jeremiah 29:11—”I know the plans I have for you”—I am prone to frustration!  If God KNOWS, then why doesn’t he SHARE?  Why do I so often feel that I can’t see a thing in front of me?

I am finding out more and more that he does share.  Frequently.  The problem isn’t with him (it never is), it’s with me and my lousy perspective.  While he may not tell me the future, God is always more than willing to explain the purpose of the present through the Holy Spirit and his Word, and it’s in this passage from John 9 that helped me to start tuning in to the right spiritual frequencies.  This guy has been blind from birth, and Jesus puts some mud on his eyes and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam, which is the Hebrew word for “sent.”  As I read this a couple of weeks ago, I realized something: that’s how spiritual blindness is healed, too.  Healing of spiritual blindness is found in washing ourselves with being sent.  We begin to “see” as we cleanse ourselves with the mission Jesus saved us for.

All of a sudden, every problem made sense.  The people that were the most bothersome to me became my greatest opportunities to grow in love.  The people that weren’t living by God’s grace and guidance became my highest-priority mission field.  Think about it; let the Holy Spirit wash your eyes in your “sent-ness.”  There’s a purpose that Jesus saved us to; everything comes into focus when we look through the lens of our divine destiny.  We function most effectively and operate most clearly when we look to God’s desire for our lives.  And without God’s purpose at the front of our minds, we are blind to all the opportunity he lays before us.

The best part of this story?  He came back seeing.  That’s what I want!  I want to come back from being washed with restored vision.  I just have to take my “mission shower,” and start living with the revelation that I am an ambassador; a representative.  I am sent.  And that brings both the purpose of the present and the function of the future into perfect focus.

Theology, Shmeology

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“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.”
–Hebrews 6:4-6

This is one of the biggest verses people use when they’re having theological debates about whether or not you can lose your salvation.  There’s a lot of mystery in it.  But before I dig into Hebrews, I want to look at another passage.

There’s a story in Acts 8 about a sorcerer named Simon who believes, is baptized, and sees miracles, but Peter says to him, “You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God…For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”  The Bible doesn’t lie – Simon believed and was baptized, and as Mark 16:16 says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”

So will we see Simon in heaven?  I have to say yes!  But did he get to take part in any more of God’s ministry while he was on earth?  It doesn’t sound like it.  Jeremiah 15:19 says, “IF you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman.”  Proverbs 1:23 says something similar: “Repent at my rebuke!  THEN I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.”

Back in Hebrews 6, verses 7-8 talk about two types of land: one that produces a useful crop, and one that produces thorns and thistles.  Interestingly, both are described as drinking in rain that falls on it.  So this mini-parable teaches that the same “rain” can fall on two types of “land,” but only one will be found useful and receive a blessing.  What is the difference between the two lands?  Matthew 3:8 is very clear: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

If this is a parable, and the land describes our lives, then what is the rain?  It’s described in verses 4-5: enlightenment, tasting the heavenly gift, sharing in the Holy Spirit, and tasting the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age.  But is all that synonymous with salvation?  Surprisingly, I don’t think so.  In Matthew 7, Jesus talks about people who have called him “Lord,” and prophesied and cast out demons and performed miracles in his name, but never were known to him.  1 John 2 addresses this idea as well: “Even now many antichrists have come…they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.  For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”  So Hebrews isn’t talking about salvation at all.  It’s talking about what you do with the goodness of God that’s given unconditionally.

Both passages (from Matthew and 1 John) have another thing in common: in both cases, the next verses address persistence in putting God’s word into daily practice.  In Matthew, Jesus says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”  In 1 John, John writes, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.  If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father…as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him.”  This is the exact same idea the author of Hebrews has been writing about!  5:11-6:2 is all about the danger the Hebrews are in because they haven’t matured in Christ as they ought to.  Why not?  There’s only one reason given, in 5:14: “Solid food is for the mature, who by CONSTANT USE have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”  It’s in KEEPING with repentance that we produce fruit.

So, after all that…what does this passage mean?  It means that seeing miracles – and even performing miracles – don’t validate your Christianity at all.  You can taste, and you can see, and you can still fall away by not putting God’s Word into practice.  And once you’ve fallen, it seems that you’re out of the game!  If you really believed and were baptized, salvation’s still yours…but either way, ministry is blocked off for you.  You can only be born two times.  And the only way to protect yourself from not falling away is by persevering to make God’s ways your ways.

So don’t give up.  Keep pressing on.  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”  And don’t lose heart – because, as the author of Hebrews writes in 6:9-12, “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case – things that accompany salvation.  God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.  We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.  We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

Psalm 19:7-9 (Part 2)

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“The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes…”
-Psalm 19:8

  1. Joy comes through obedience.  The last thing on a kid’s mind when he’s getting spanked is, “I love my life!”  It’s probably closer to the opposite.  (And if it’s not…well, good luck to his parents.)  Discipline usually makes us frustrated and angry.  But as we all are expected to discover as we grow older, discipline is done for the future reward, not the present pain.  So, to be honest, we shouldn’t be confused in the least when we are failing to discover the joy of the Lord while remaining disobedient to His commands.  Does that mean He doesn’t love us?  Of course not.  What it means is that we are more aware of the goodness of God as we walk in alignment with the precepts of God.  The Creator knows His creation—it makes sense that doing things His way is the best way for us.
  2. Vision comes through God’s direction.  Contrary to what any mother of a picky-eater will say, carrots don’t really improve your eyesight.  And in the same way that being told to eat your vegetables “because they’re good for you” isn’t really enough to make you want to eat them, David knew when he wrote this psalm that being in God’s word just because it’s the “Christian thing to do” wasn’t enough to keep us reading it.  If we want to see what God sees, we’re going to have to pay a lot more attention to what He says (Ps 119:105).  In the kingdom of God, our ability to see is proportionate to our ability to listen.  It has nothing to do with our eyes, and everything to do with our faith.  And as we learn to listen closely, we will discover how to see clearly, too.