Careful What You Look At

Oh great, another admonishment of doom. I'm still having trouble with those ten lawful rule things. How am I going to watch what I am watching every moment of every day? We like to admonish each other, but the Word would have us to love and encourage each other. Your eyes are going to light upon some things in this world that will tempt you. My eyes have the same problem, and so did the eyes of our Lord Jesus. Yet, among all of us only Jesus lived without sin.

We can attempt to go about without looking at anything, at least until we fall into a river or walk into a wall. There is a good chance that the first flat spot we see on the way to somewhere today will have an advertisement for something we don't need or even something tempting. Staring at the ground all day cannot be the answer, for soon the ad companies would realize where our eyes were directed and move the ads down there. Did you know that big retail stores put in systems to track where customers look? Yup, we ain't gonna escape seeing things that tempt in this world. There must be a better answer than monitoring our every glance.

How much better is the cleansed heart that sees, but does not desire what is evil or simply not good for it? In the Revelation, we see a group of souls that God calls pure, virginal, unstained, and other things that of all the people who have ever lived only one could possibly be in his own strength. Did you ever wonder who those folks were and why you or I could not be one of them? I don't think that these are special people that somehow had the strength of will to remain pure in life. If this were possible, Jesus need not have endured the cross. The pure ones that John sees are those God has cleansed through His Son Jesus Christ. You and I are not disqualified from this group by the lives we have lived, but we may be through the time of our birth and calling. Just as we cannot be among the original twelve disciples, not because we are any less or better than Peter, James, and the gang, but because we are living now.

Tomorrow, the Tribulation spoken of in Daniel and Revelation could begin, and you and me might have our calling to become a part of this special group of tribulation saints. However, today is what we are given, and today is the best day in Christ we could possibly have today. New troubles may come, but God's love says that today is a great day in Christ. New mercies are needed, and God's Word says that His mercies are new each morning. Yes, there are a lot of scary things foretold in the Word, but we can be sure of one thing: "I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age." Oops, make that two things, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son..." Uh, oh, better make it three, "And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every one according to his work." Ya know, maybe there are a whole lot of wonderful promises we can be sure of.

Bucky