Spiritual Blindness

Dear Friends, God bless you! Hope you find this next blog interesting. The purpose of these blogs is to remind one that our life in this material world is severely limited. I am a member of a Prayer warrior list where people ask for prayer for themselves and for others. The latest request was for a family which has just yesterday lost their only son in a motor accident. It is all designed to help us to get our minds and sights elevated from the material world which engulfs and swamps us and tries to absorb our 100% attention, to the only realm that is going to last, THE SPIRITUAL and mainly invisible realm.

This life will soon be over and then to the Eternal life for which we were designed will begin. This is my job as a missionary! I have dedicated my life to be a sign post or a beacon. When I stand every day in the streets with Spiritual Christian Literature, or when I write on the Internet, I am trying to be a beacon or sign post pointing away from worldly things to heavenly spiritual things. Nearly every one who passes even if they do not stop will hear me smilingly say Jesus Loves YOU! I say that to you too. Jesus loves YOU! The message, "Jesus Loves you," is the essence of Evangelism. What is Evangelism? It is Good News. Good News that is too good not to share. A wonderful Spiritual Being, Our Creator whom we cannot see with our physical eyes except in the consecrated Host or bread and wine, LOVES US ALL!

Some people hate me for doing this job. They wish I were dead. In the early Church they killed Christians rather like shooting pigeons or game birds. Thank the Lord it hasn't come to that yet. BUT MY FRIEND it soon might. The Roman Empire was not won over by an Olden Day evangelist like Billy Graham preaching in a stadium to the masses but by the witness of countless martyrs also in a stadium dying for their beliefs and being watched by thousands of ghoulish spectators. In those first 400 years it was quite normal to be murdered for ones faith.

Interestingly enough the main contents of every church meeting for the first 1500 years after Christ, whether it was in a private house or in a building designed to be a Church or a Cathedral, was the Holy Mass. I.e. The Breaking of bread and the drinking of wine to celebrate the Lord's Supper, the Last Supper or Holy Communion. This is what got the people together a simple rather Jewish Synagogue like service with the inclusion of the Lord's Supper. The first 20 to 30 or so Christian Church Leaders and successors of St Peter, or Popes as we call them, all died for their faith. They did not make it to a peaceful death in their sleep in old age. Of course they could have weaseled their way out of it by denying their faith. The Romans would have gladly set them free. But they didn't! I think that is awesome! Don't you?

The word Martyr means Witness. It is the greatest witness. Those first Roman Catholic Witnesses and there were many many of them, went to their death joyfully singing Hymns and asking the Lord to forgive their enemies and tormentors. They knew the best was yet to come. It was such an amazing witness speaking much louder than cleverly knit together words, that the Roman empire eventually ditched its traditional religion and embraced Christianity.

BLIND FROM BIRTH

Here is a whole chapter of the Gospel of John devoted to just one spiritual miracle. Only the raising of Lazarus from the dead is comparable. This is more than any other miracle in the New or Old Testament! Why? I believe it is because there is a very important underlying extremely spiritual message for all of us right here in this chapter.

As Christians we believe that we are all born with original sin. We are all born blind. The great majority continue with their blindness for their whole life span. Only very few are healed. The following verses in Matthew ch 7 verse explains it all.

V13 Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. V14 How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!

Every day we should thank God that He has allowed you and me to see. We have managed with the help of the Holy Spirit to find the narrow way. This narrow way lures us by this wonderful invisible force to forsake all other ways. By Divine Mercy and Divine Grace we realize that religion is not just a traditional thing but is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who came to this earth 2000 years ago and died for my sins and rose from the dead and then ascended into Heaven. All just for me and for you if you accept this. It is all by Grace. It is a gift of God. We can only be thankful and then it is paramount that we pray for all those who cannot see like we can. I believe it really pleases God when we pray for what looks like hopeless cases. The angel taught the children of Fatima a beautiful prayer to be prayed at the end of every decade of the Rosary. O My Jesus! Forgive us our sins! Save us from the fires of hell! (Now a very important part to show that we are thankful and that we care for others) Lead ALL souls to Heaven especially those (the really bad ones including oneself would be a good idea) in most need of Your Mercy.

Another awesome prayer is called the Jesus prayer and dates back to the 6th century. It goes something like this.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner. This is a prayer that one can repeat many many times.

By praying such prayers one puts oneself down. Imagine praying "I thank God that I am saved. I thank God that I am not like other men who are not saved." Reminds me of the self righteous Pharisee as opposed to the poor sinner who sat at the back of the Temple beating his breast and pleading for mercy and forgiveness. Jesus stated very emphatically that only one of those guys was listened to. I do not have to tell you which one.

If I think of myself as a good Christian, which I am definitely not then I will be lifting myself up and then soon I will be putting others down. These above prayers (Spiritual conversations) show us and the Lord that we are thankful and happy to be a partaker of Mercy deserving nothing more than mercy. Pure Mercy. The often repetition of this prayer will help one to become humble and have a care and concern for others. I have noticed in my past more Protestant life that I tended to be much more judgmental of others. For example, "I am saved and so and so is not. I am OK but so and so is not". That kind of attitude just feeds my pride. My being saved is a pure gift from God. This blind man from birth received a pure gift from God. It had nothing to do with whether he was a sinner or whether his parents were sinners but everything to do with God's mercy.

Here is a paraphrase of John Ch 9.

Jesus was walking along with his disciples when they passed a man blind from birth. The disciples were curious as to whose fault it was for this man to be blind. Notice they were looking for someone to blame. That is an old sinful game handed down from our first parents. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. Jesus replied that it had nothing to do with his sins or those of his parents but for an opportunity for God to do a very special demonstration. The special work began with Jesus using his spit and then some earth making it into a paste to anoint the blind man's eyes. This special ointment had special ingredients. Spit from Christ's body to show His divinity and earth to show His humanity. To get a really good sermon on this, listen to this (MP3). Very Significant.

He was then told to go and wash in a public pool called Siloe. This represents Baptism which is the first step for us to receive our sight. He received his full sight and then the neighbours began with their questions as to whether this guy really was the beggar that they had known and seen all their lives. Then the Pharisees got involved and began to question the man as well. He kept telling them what had happened recounting all the details of the spittle, the mud and the public wash. This was the very last thing that the Pharisees, who were already jealous of, and the enemies of Jesus, wanted to hear. The argument back and forth became a battle of mud slinging words and accusations and counter accusations. They were furious with Jesus and blamed Him for breaking the Holy Sabbath. Any excuse to try and get back and accuse Jesus of the tremendous good He was doing releasing people from their afflictions. They wanted Him dead already but were frightened of the people who still thought that Jesus was an amazing Prophet.

Eventually the man came out with that very famous saying, to shut up all the critics. "Whether this man who healed me is a sinner or not, I don't know but I do know that once I was blind and now I can see."

One day at the age of 24, I could not see but the next day after my simple experience on a Railway Train asking Jesus to come into my life, I could begin very slowly and gradually to see Spiritually. I was born again.

The Pharisees thought that they were spiritual whiz kids and could learn from no one. Their blindness remained because of their insatiable pride. They knew the Holy Scriptures by heart but did not apply the teachings to their own lives. They were really blind. Filled with their own ego and dreadfully envious of the true Son of God who was a threat to their self elevated position among the general public.

I hope you enjoyed reading this spiritual blog and I would love to engage with you in any kind of discussion whether you agree or not. Be my guest