Dear Friend,
You have to watch out for ditches, you know. A person
can be injured falling into a ditch, and many people have
been killed by driving into them. We therefore have no trouble
understanding the warning Jesus told His audience nearly
2,000 years ago, "if the blind leads the blind, both
will fall into a ditch" (Matthew 15:14). He spoke of
spiritual blindness, of course, and it seems pretty clear
that the ditches are filling up today!
 While most of the world is blinded by ignorance, too many
people are simply refusing to see! They are turning a blind
eye to troubling events unfolding daily that are profoundly
shaping our mind-sets, cultures, morals and our future! "Turning
a blind eye" is an old, but very accurate, adage to
describe what's happening. It implies deliberately
avoiding taking a deep, honest look at reality, ignoring
or refusing to take notice of something. The phrase comes
from a naval battle between the British and Danes, and when
Admiral Horatio Nelson was ordered by signal flag to disengage
from the fight, he intentionally held his telescope to his
blind eye and said, "I see no ships," thus disobeying
his superior's command.
Friends, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the truth
of God. Jesus plainly stated that the gospel of the Kingdom
of God is intended to give us spiritual vision. "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me
to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who
are oppressed" (Luke 4:18). We have to be willing to
see, however!
Jesus was quoting from the book of Isaiah, a prophet who
centuries before had agonized over the blindness of his nation.
His words rang true in the time of Christ, and are still
eerily applicable to the world today! Please read his description
carefully:
| "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that
it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that
He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken
lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls
for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust
in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and
bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers' eggs and weave
the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from
that which is crushed a viper breaks out. Their webs
will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves
with their works; their works are works of iniquity,
and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet
run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and
destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they
have not known, and there is no justice in their ways.
They have made themselves crooked paths; whoever takes
that way shall not know peace. Therefore justice is far
from us; nor does righteousness overtake us; we look
for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but
we walk in blackness! We grope for the wall like the
blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble
at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate
places" (Isaiah 59:1-10). |
Powerful words, aren't they? How well they describe
the spiritual condition of the world today! The question
is, how long can we continue down this path without reaping
terrible results?
The apostle Paul cut right to the point of this spiritual
state in 2 Corinthians 4:4 when he wrote, "Whose minds
the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine on them."
The United Church of God is working hard to proclaim the
good news of the coming Kingdom of God. Satan the Devil,
the god "who deceives the whole world" (Revelation
12:9) is working just as hard to turn any hearer of the gospel
away from that light and lead them blindly into the ditches
of destruction.
Since you are with me to this point, I assume you have
been hearing, at least to some degree, the gospel of Christ,
that you also share our deep concerns about the state of
the world today and that you don't want to walk in
blindness.
I encourage you to take God seriously, continue to search
the Scriptures to prove all things and be willing to conform
your life to what is true (1 Thessalonians 5:21), hunger
for understanding the great purpose for your existence and
commit to walking with God in the light of life! Grab hold
of the truth, don't let it go and, above all, don't
turn a blind eye to the gospel of your salvation (Romans
1:16; Ephesians 1:13)!
 We are here to help in any way we can, and we deeply appreciate
your interest in reaching out to this world with the light
of the gospel. Don't forget to take a look at our new
multimedia Web site hosting the Beyond Today video
programs that are being produced entirely in our home office
video studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. On December 18, the new
programs began airing on 105 local-community cable TV channels
across the United States and on the World Wide Web. So far,
eight subjects have been videotaped and will be aired during
the next several weeks. These include:
- Christmas: Mirth or Myth?
- New Religion for the Middle East
- Better Than Heaven
- Life After Death
- Why Does God Allow Suffering?
- Why Am I Here?
- Is the Bible True?
- The Coming War of the Worlds
 Please visit our Web site www.beyondtoday.tv to
watch broadband, high-quality clips, plus download dial-up
versions if you have a slower Internet connection. MP4 video
files are also available for download to view on the new
video iPods.
As always, we greatly appreciate your continuing interest
in The Good News magazine and the work
of the United Church of God. Please don't hesitate to
let us know how we can be of greater service to you.
Sincerely,
Clyde
Kilough
President
United Church of God, an International Association
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