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How
far do you see?
Today was a very important day for me. For years I was suffering from
shortsightedness. "It is only the right eye … 1.75. You can get
lenses if you want to", the ophthalmologist told me some years ago.
I could work, drive, do anything that I was doing but not everything was
so clear as it used to be. But with the years you forget how it used to
be anyway. You live in a dimmer than normal world, with less clearness
in what you see and you get used to the idea that this normal. But I
know it wasn’t. And I know, though shortsighted … I could still live
like this. Nothing too urgent. "It will be done when I have
time". Of course I never had time because I never made the time or
because instead of time I was making excuses. So the shortsightedness
was always there. But this Saturday I thought, "why not?"….
a friend of mine had told me that in Germany at optic shops they look at
your eyes for free and they give you the necessary lenses or glasses. I
had tried once in the past but no employee in the shop could speak
English and since I didn’t speak any German nothing happened. But now,
with my "ein bischen" (a little) German, I could make it. So I
went there. They sent me to the first floor where an employee would
measure my shortsightedness and would tell me what to do. I was waiting
outside sitting on the sofa… she had another appointment. As I was
waiting I thought "what am I doing here Saturday noon-time? Let’s
dismiss this idea with the lenses and go out to the market. It is
Saturday!" But I felt this time I needed to stay. So my turn
arrived. The employee measured my shortsightedness, 2.25 now, and we
booked an appointment for today, 16:40, to get the lenses. I was there
on time and then we started… She would place the lens in my eye and
then I would have to do it alone. Before she did it though, I asked her
to give me a minute to have a look at the world outside without the lens
so that to see then whether there was any difference. So I looked
outside for some seconds and then she started. Initially my eye resisted
to see her finger directed to it ("a finger in my eye!!!??")
but at the end she succeeded. Then I turned and looked outside. My
goodness! All that a little bit dim world was now very CLEAR. Everything
seemed to be more alive. The labels I couldn’t read, now I could!!
"Hey this is good! I like it!" I told her. "Ok. Now it is
time to do it yourself", she told me. And after I tried for some
minutes I did it, paid and left. First thing I saw was the Frankfurt’s
skyscrapers in the city center. I had seen them hundreds of times but
first time they were so CLEAR! The lights in them, the buildings around,
the people everything was VERY CLEAR. How could I miss this for the last
few years? I know how… Because instead of having what GOD had planned
for my eyes, which was to see clearly, I preferred the compromise –
for that is what is actually – of "survival". This goes like
this: "Since I survive, since I live, since I see a little bit, I’m
OK". The compromise of survival does not care whether you LIVE
really, in the abundance and the life God has planned for you. Instead
it says: "go.. just go.. survive… try to make it somehow… you
make things perfect later".
And this is how we think many
times with our spiritual sight too. The spiritual sight as the physical
sight may also suffer from shortsightedness. It does not happen
instantaneously. It is a long process. I didn’t get up one day and my
sight was short. It took years. So also with the spiritual
shortsightedness. It does not happen instantaneously. It develops. One
compromise here, one compromise there and … you have it. "A
little leaven leavens the whole lump" says the Word (I Corinthians
5:6). Suddenly one day you are before a challenge that some years ago
you could very easily pass and now you are afraid. It seems your faith
is not enough to get you over it! Or you compare yourself with what
fellowship you used to have with the Lord and where you stand now and
you find that something has been lost. You are not as alive as you used
to be! You can see the short things, the blessings, your work, home, etc
but the longer things those that pertain to the kingdom, you somehow see
them only dim. They seem dim to YOU and this is because you suffer from
spiritual shortsightedness. The first thing to do is to recognize it. I
had shortsightedness long before I discover it. I discover it
accidentally in the army when I once had to shoot in an exercise towards
an aim 400 meters ahead and could hardly see it at all. But the
shortsightedness didn’t start at that time. It was there since long
time ago. I knew something was wrong with my eyes …. I couldn’t see
as I used to when I was 20. So something was wrong. But at the time I
had to shoot and could hardly see the target then I understood. So also
with the spiritual shortsightedness. It may be there. You know that
something is not right. You can’t determine it but something is really
not as good as it used to be in your relationship with God. It is not
the ALIVE fellowship you used to have. And one day or a period the Lord
starts revealing to you that something is going wrong with the eyes of
your heart. The heart can’t see as far as it could see. One day you go
to where many young believers are, in a worship night for example and
wonder how they jump and sing and are so zealous and at the same time
you wonder why you are not like them now, though you were in the past.
You are COOLER now. You can’t see as far as they see and as far as you
used to see. You suffer from spiritual shortsightedness and you need to
recognize it first! And then, as with the physical shortsightedness, you
have two ways to go. One is the compromise of survival. According to
this… "I don’t need to do anything. I don’t need to change.
It is less than what it used to be but never mind. I will make it. I
will survive. I’m still doing things for God. I go to the church and I
pray, though it is very dry and much less than in the past". You
compromise and you just go. You don’t care whether the life you live
is less than what God had for you, less than what you yourself have
experienced with God. You just go. You do … as all others… AS THE
WORLD! You have compromised. You [I hope nobody falls in
this "you" but I also hope that we all examine ourselves!] are
a LAODICEAN! And to you the Lord speaks:
Revelation 3:14-19
"And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These
things says the Amen, the Faithful and the True Witness, the Beginning
of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold not
hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.
Because you say, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of
nothing-and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, BLIND,
and naked – I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire,
that you may be rich; and white garments that you may be clothed, that
the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; AND ANOINT YOUR EYES
WITH EYE SALVE, THAT YOU MAY SEE. As many as I love I rebuke and
chasten. Therefore BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT"
See the Lord does not say "you are fine. You can stay like this.
You are lukewarm but never mind. Just go on". He says "BE
ZEALOUS AND REPENT!" To be lukewarm is a SIN for which we need to
repent! It is not an acceptable state by the Lord! The only acceptable
state is to be ZEALOUS! That’s how He wants you. He wants you to boil
for Him! The compromise of survival is a sin! If you are in the
Laodicean church, and I know many of us are, the right way is NOT to go
on. It is to RETURN. And …. I have good news for you. Jesus has the
eye salve, the lenses your eyes need. Jesus has the garments, your body
needs. Jesus has the gold that is refined by fire to make you, your
heart, rich. JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. He
has all that you need to make you alive again. But you need to return.
To kneel down and repent. "Survival" is a lie. It is actually
death. Only by repenting and return you will see again and you will LIVE
again with the abundant life, the life of the HEART, that Jesus came to
bring to you (John 10:10).
Revelation 3:20-22
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice
and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with
Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I
also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. "He who
has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Tassos Kioulachoglou
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