Background on Spiritual Blindness

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Beyond the Darkness of Their Blindness

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 50:15-21 , Exodus 16:2-15 , Jonah 3:4, Psalm 103:8-12 , Matthew 20:1-16 , Luke 15:11-32

One of the biggest challenges in the Christian journey is grasping the heart of grace. Oftentimes there is an internal battle between our theology and our lived experience. In this short excerpt, Fred...

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Losing Sight of our Spiritual Longing in the Modern World

Author

Annie Dillard

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:11-12, Job 38:1-7, Isaiah 6:1-5 , Romans 1:20, Luke 19:39-40 , Psalm 19:1-4

In our modern materialistic world, it is easy to lose sight of that sense of longing. In her wonderful collection of essays Teaching a Stone to Talk , Annie Dillard speaks about that growing void...

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Spiritual Blindness in The Magician’s Nephew

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Matthew 13:13-15, Acts 28:27, Hebrews 3:7-8, Jeremiah 7:24, John 10:27, Mark 6:52

Jesus is clear that it is dangerous to close one’s ears, eyes, and heart to the leadings of the Holy Spirit. In The Magician’s Nephew , a novel from C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, Narnia i...

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Sight without Vision

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

2 Kings 6:15-17, Isaiah 42:18-20, Deuteronomy 9:4, Mark 8:22-25, John 9:39-41, Psalm 119:18

Helen Keller, the blind-and-deaf woman who made history by learning to overcome her disabilities, was once asked if there was anything worse than being blind. She answered, “Oh yes! There is something...

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No One is Greedy (Apparently)

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Some years ago I was doing a seven-part series of talks on the Seven Deadly Sins at a men’s breakfast. My wife, Kathy, told me, “I’ll bet that the week you deal with greed you will have your lowest at...

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Blind Bartimaeus and One-Eyed Thor

Author

Mia Levetan

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 16:7 , Isaiah 42:6–7, 2 Kings 6:15–17 , Mark 10:46–52 , Luke 24:30–31, Psalm 119:18 , Luke 18:35-43, Matthew 20:29-34

I absolutely love Marvel movies. I’m talking about Thor, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Widow, Guardians of the Galaxy. All of them. In Ragnarok , Thor, the Norse god, played by the incredibly good-...

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False Narrative: You Are An Accident

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Job 33:4 , John 1:1-4, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 139:13-16

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy describes a view (not his own view, because Tolstoy was a Christian) of the human person, based on a theory of reality he saw emerging in his day. It is a narrative that...

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The DIfficulty of Grasping the Unsearchable Riches of the Gospel

Author

Jerry Bridges

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:8, Exodus 14:21–31, Isaiah 55:1–3 , 2 Kings 4:1–7, Luke 15:11–32, Psalm 23:1–6

Some years ago our pastor told an unusual story about a Southern plantation owner who left a $50,000 inheritance to a former slave who had served him faithfully all his life. That was quite a sum of m...

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Judging Others Stems from Self-Judgment

Author

Curt Thompson

Keywords

But it is important to be aware that the act of judging others has its origins in our self-judgment. As I often tell patients, “Shamed people shame people.” Long before we are criticizing others, the ...

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Turning from Judgment to Compassion

Author

Gregory A. Boyd

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 10:5, Matthew 7:1-5, Luke 6:37-42, Romans 14:10, James 4:11-12, 1 Corinthians 4:5

Even for those of us who follow Jesus on a daily basis, the reality is, our sinful nature has infiltrated our minds, and we often find ourselves, either consciously or unconsciously, judging those aro...

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Missing the Signs

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 12:54-56, Matthew 16:1-4, Isaiah 60:1, Romans 13:11, Psalm 119:105, Genesis 12:1

Earl Palmer frequently tells the story of a cross-country with two other young pastors early in his pastoral ministry. They were making a cross-country trip from the East Coast back to California. I...

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Losing the Other Eye

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Nehemiah 4:14

Professional football players often get heated on the field, sometimes letting their emotions get the best of them when penalized by an official. Art Holst, a longtime NFL referee, recalls a Sunday ga...

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Flowing Blindly Towards a Land of Distraction

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Hurry

Today, a number of historical circumstances are blindly flowing together and accidentally conspiring to produce a climate within which it is difficult not just to think about God or to pray, but simpl...

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St. Valentine & The Origin of Being “Your” Valentine

Author

Ben Lansing and D. J.Marotta

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 17:17–24, Isaiah 6:8, Exodus 24:3–4, John 15:12–13 , Acts 13:46–49, Psalm 119:105

[Saint] Valentine was a priest in Rome when Emperor Claudius II began his hostile reign. Valentine was arrested for performing Christian weddings. While imprisoned, Valentine befriended the jailer’s d...

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The Love of God Wrapped About Him

Author

Thomas Kelly

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 4:1-3, Psalm 30:5, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 23:4, Job 1:, Job 2:, Job 42:, 2 Samuel 11:, 2 Samuel 12:, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Kings 17:8-24, Daniel 6:, Psalm 34:18

The sense of Presence! I have spoken of it as stealing on one unawares. It is recorded of John Wilhelm Rowntree that as he left a great physician’s office, where he had just been told that his advanci...

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Achulophobia: The Fear of Darkness

Author

James Merritt

Keywords

Scripture

John 8:12

Years ago, my wife and I traveled to Kentucky where I went to seminary and decided to stop and tour Mammoth Cave. The trip marked my first and only time ever to be in a cavern like this, and I’ll neve...

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Why the Church Must Tell of Miraculous Healings

Author

Dave Macphee

Keywords

Scripture

2 Kings 5:, Numbers 21:, Mark 5:19, James 5:14-15, Luke 8:39, Acts 14:3

While I was sitting in Starbucks reviewing my notes for this divine healing writing assignment, I had a valued member of our church sit down with me for an impromptu visit. When he heard the topic of ...

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Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:7, Hebrews 11:1, Psalm 23:4, Psalm 37:23-24, Isaiah 43:2-3

Bill Irwin was not the first person ever to walk the Appalachian Trail. He was not the only individual to begin in Springer Mountain, Georgia, and conclude on Mount Katahdin, Maine. Other adventuresom...

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The Joyful Announcement of the Gospel of God

Author

Darrell W. Johnson

Keywords

Sermon on the Mount

Pastor and Professor Darrell W. Johnson sets the scene for the Sermon on the Mount with great description. This could serve as a model for the beginning of a sermon on the S.O.M. They were sitting i...

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The Importance of our Eyes to our Spiritual Health

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Our eyes are remarkable and accurate signs of our inner spiritual health. They narrow into slits when we hate, envy, and scheme. They open wide in wonder when we live in adoration and generosity. W...

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The Blind Leading the Blind (In a Good Way)

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 4:10-16, Ruth 1:16-18 , Isaiah 41:10-13 , Psalm 23:4 , 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Hebrews 4:15-16

A student who had recently lost his sight was sent to the Seeing Eye Institute for the Blind in Morristown, New Jersey, for specialized training. Upon arrival, he was greeted by another young ma...

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The Kinds of Being Spiritually Lost

Author

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:7-8, Proverbs 27:17, Luke 15:4-7, Luke 19:10

The second lesson this group of new believers has shown us is that the postmodern path to faith is organic. Lostness, of course, looks different depending upon your perspective and personality. It is ...

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Our Lives are about Seeing

Author

Mike Cosper

Keywords

Vision

In his excellent book, Recapturing the Wonder: Transcendent Faith in a Disenchanted World, Mike Cosper questions the desacralizing (removal of the holy) nature of secular life. Life is divested of mys...

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A Spiritual Disaster

Author

Thomas Merton

Keywords

It is a spiritual disaster for a man to rest content with his exterior identity, with his passport picture of himself. Is his life merely in his fingerprints?

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Missing the Stars

Author

Keywords

Blindness

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:18, Colossians 3:1-2, Ephesians 1:18, Psalm 119:18, Matthew 13:16-17, Romans 1:20, Psalm 19:1

Søren Kierkegaard told a parable about a rich man riding in a lighted carriage driven by a peasant who sat behind the horse in the cold and dark outside. Precisely because he sat near the artificial l...

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Spiritual Battles on the Journey of Faith

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:1–7, 1 Kings 3:5–12, Daniel 1:8–17, Matthew 4:1–11, 2 Corinthians 1:13–15, Psalm 119:105

While I am not one to see a demon behind every bush or spiritual warfare in every difficulty, the fact is that we are regularly engaged in the struggle against good and evil—whether we know it or not....

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Self-Deception Discovers False Solutions

Author

The Arbinger Institute

Keywords

Self-deception . . . blinds us to the true causes of problems, and once we’re blind, all the “solutions” we can think of will actually make matters worse. Whether at work or at home, self-deception ob...

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Discernment: Distinguishing the Real from the Phony

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:1, 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Kings 19:11-13 , Genesis 41:15-40 , Isaiah 30:20-21, Matthew 4:1-11, 1 John 4:1-3, Psalm 42:5-11

Scripture also speaks of “discernment of spirits” and encourages us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” This aspect of discernment helps us to distinguish the real from the phony, ...

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The Movement Towards Spiritual Formation

Author

Robert Mulholland Jr.

Keywords

Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation has become one of the major movements of the late twentieth century. Spiritualities of all varieties have emerged on the landscape of our culture—Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Zen, vari...

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Regaining Sight

Author

David Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 146:8, Isaiah 35:5, Isaiah 42:16, John 9:, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Ephesians 1:18

In Annie Dillard's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she mentioned the work of Marius Von Senden who became curious about the effect it had on people who had been born blind to...

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