The "eye's" have it!

Isn't God's Word amazing! It will speak to you in new ways each time you read it. God is so good.

I was challenged a few days ago by the Director of Bay Area Fellowship's Men's ministry (MoB - Men Of Bay Area) to join with him in reading through the Bible in one year. I accepted that challenge and God showed me something new today. The thing is, I've read this before, but today it really jumped off of the page at me. It's from Matthew 6:22-23a; Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.

This scripture is from Jesus' sermon on the mount when he's preaching about money. It's buried within that section between Jesus telling us that we shouldn't store up treasures here on earth and that we can't serve two masters.

But why is He talking about our eyes within this section on money? Is He addressing envy? I'm not sure. Whenever God's Word speaks about our eyes, in the context of what we see, as a man I tend to think it's addressing lust. If that's the case, this scripture would really seem out of place. Or would it? Jesus knew that the love of money leads to all sorts of problems.

I think the point may be that our eyes can lead us in all sorts of dangerous directions and if we love money more than Him then we're much more likely to follow our eyes wherever they may lead.

So maybe that scripture is speaking about lust to me and envy to the next guy. Maybe it's speaking to the person with "stuffitis." Whichever it is for you, and it could be many more issues that I haven't listed, I encourage you to guard your eyes and guard your heart.

I'll give you another scripture to bring it all home for you. I'm sure you've heard part of the second verse before - it comes from 1 Timothy 6:9-10; But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

God's word is so good. I hope this speaks to you in some way.

Enjoy the ride...