THE LAMP OF THE BODY IS THE EYE

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness. Matt.6:22, 23.

SEEING THROUGH HEAVEN’S EYES – from the book “God’s Outrageous Claims”..by Lee Strobel.

I periodically need to remind myself of the VALUE that God places on other human beings, even when I don’t know the other person or when he or she is very different from me. But to be honest, that’s not natural for me to do.
Every once in a while though I get a reminder, like reading about an incident that occurred in North Carolina in 1995. Ten year old Lawrence Shields was picking through a bucket of debris in a gemstone mine when a rock piqued his interest.”I just liked the shape of it” he said.
When he knocked off the dirt and grit that were clinging to it, and as he rubbed it on his shirt to polish it up, he saw that this was much more than just a rock. It turned out to be a SAPPHIRE. And not just any sapphire – 1,061 carat sapphire.

Here’s the point: when we look at other people, we tend to focus on the outside, which is soiled by sin. We see the rebellion or failure, the bizarre lifestyle or proud attitude, and often overlook the real value that’s on the inside – where each one of us is a gem of incalculable worth, CREATED in the IMAGE OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD. We as individuals, are so valued and loved, that God was willing to pay the infinite price of His Son’s death to clean away our sin and restore us to Himself.

So when you look at someone whose life has been thoroughly corrupted by sin, can you say to yourself, “Their life situation may be AWEFUL, but the image of God within them is AWESOME”… Can you look at the people you may have devalued because they’re different from you or poorer than you or less educated than you, and imagine the ultimate value that God attaches to them despite their circumstances?

When we see people from God’s perspective, all of a sudden we have a new inspiration to treat them with the same dignity, respect, and honor that we desire for ourselves. But apart from that divinely altered perception, I don’t have a chance of being obedient to Christ’s command that I love others as myself. It’s simply not going to happen. We need to see each other as having untold value in the eyes of Jesus.

To love one’s enemy does not mean to love the mire in which the pearl lies, but to love the pearl that lies in the mire”, since we are all made in the image and likeness of God Himself. Gen 1: 26,27.
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I was personally very touched by the above article, and am deliberately trying to see everyone, as made in the image and likeness of God Himself, especially folks who have hurt us or despised us.. and I am thanking God for everyone, for whom Christ has paid the price of his Blood to redeem and reconcile us all back to God, and decided to forgive them all and love them to the end, as Christ also has loved us and shed abroad His love in us..
May the Lord speak to you all also through this article.

For Further Details Contact – Nirupa Jebaraj @
niru1943@yahoo.com.au