Blind Spot part 2
I'm gonna quote a memory verse tonight, but then I need to quote another one before I can really get into the first one. So that's at least two that we're going to talk about today. Ready? "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do no appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see" (Revelation 3:18). So that kind of seems to go right along with the religious mindset of doing things yourself. Getting things for yourself. Earning things from God. "I have to buy what I need. So I have to earn enough to buy it." But if we're talking about buying GOLD... which, usually we think of buying things WITH gold... maybe there's something else going on here. Look at Isaiah 55:1, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." So to me, BUYING is more about RECEIVING. Its about fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold of the gift we've been given. Not fighting to get something, but fighting to believe that we have something. Its the idea of putting on the whole armor of God. God already put it on us. Putting on the New Man. God already--through the cross--transformed and conformed us to the image of His Son. He put the New Man ON us when He put the New Man IN us. When Jesus was lifted up from the cross He drew all men into Himself... He planted Himself in all men. That's a done deal. That happened. This gold tried in the fire, realistically, that's us. WE are the gold that has been through the fire and is now purified. We are rich in Him. We have no lack because our God has no lack. We ARE dressed in that white raiment. Jesus prepared His bride for Himself. Clean. Without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. That wasn't our job. That was His job. That's what the cross accomplished. Now we are clothed, so we don't need to be ashamed of our nakedness. Now we are clothed in ram skin, or lamb skin. Clothed with the Son. He is our covering. Our provision. We don't have to earn from Him, or "buy" in the traditional sense of the word, from Him. He has given us everything. That's what love is: Giving everything you have and everything you are. He gave it all to us. Simply because He wanted us to have it. He wanted the best for us, so He gave the best to us. We have that. What we need is to, in a sense--because remember, this is all just us "buying" what He has already given us. This is us putting on (or sinking into, and getting comfortable in) what He has already put on us--what we need to do is annoint our eyes so we can see. Let Him make us blind, wipe the slate clean, erase that blind spot, so that HE can light up the world and show us how things really are. I think tommorrow I'm going to focus on one my favorite themes. Dove's eyes. Because seeing past the blind spot in our lives takes, quite literally, the power of the Holy Spirit. We can't do it. If we could, it wouldn't be a blind spot. It would just be an obstacle to climb. Which, by the way--mountains can teach us how to climb, yes. But God brought the valleys low and the mountains high so that we could simply walk the straight and narrow path!