daily java

Daily Java:

No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house. 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 it is bad, your body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light. (Luke 11:33-36 NLT)

I have noticed that the windows are dirty in my house and in the church. When they are, it bugs the – I started to write daylights out of me, which is funny – but it irritates me greatly.

There is little I hate worse than dirty windows and there is little I like to do less than cleaning windows.

When I wore glasses before this cataract surgery, I would walk around with my glasses dirty. Then when I would clean them, it would be startling. They would be so clean and the light would stream in them.

Dirty windows and dirty glasses cut the light. The house is so much brighter after you clean the windows.

The problem is, the light just can’t get in well if there is a lot of obstruction. It is not that it doesn’t want to. Light just goes. But when there is dirt, or grease or something else, it cannot get through. It is not the fault of the light, it is the fault of the owner of the windows or glasses.

It’s the same with people’s viewpoints. Some people are so negative. And nothing they see is really good. It is because their eyes are dirty. There is something obstructing the light of life getting in.

I have known people, in fact I had a relative once, who looked at everything as slightly dirty. His life had a miasma of filth over it. No matter what you said, he could turn it into something ever so slightly obscene. As a boy, that always amazed me and I was always slightly embarrassed in his presence, or if I had to go somewhere with him. The light of decency couldn’t get through.

There are people I know and have known that have to correct everybody on everything. Their world is that of being always right. The light of others’ viewpoints can’t get through.

There are people who are sad. Everything in life is sad. Nothing good ever happens. No matter how happy others are, there is always sadness around the corner for these people. The light of joy cannot get through.

There are people that are greedy. Everything in life is an opportunity for financial gain. The light of altruism cannot get through.

There are people who are hungry for power. Everything is a power struggle and they strive to come out on top, no matter who is hurt in the process. The light of service cannot get through.

There are people who think life is dangerous, or that think that people are out to get them, or think that aliens are listening in to their brainwaves – and on and on and on.

You could go on forever. I know that as a preacher, I could think of a hundred examples of this. But the point is: people see things according to the filter on their eyes, according to how they think.

When your eyes, your life, your viewpoint, is clean, what you see is clean. You don’t see ulterior motives, or hidden reasons where there aren’t any.

Yes, sometimes there are. Jesus himself said, Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). He knew that you don’t have to go through life as a goofy person. You need to be aware that sin exists and that bad things can happen.

But to look for those bad things everywhere means that your viewpoint or your eyes are bad.

Jesus brings the cleanness to your viewpoint if you let him.