Myopic Church

     Myopia is a word used by oculists for physical short-sightedness as Peter gives us in 2 Peter 1:9, "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his sins."

     What happens when the eye of the soul goes dim?   Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law happy is he."    Spiritual blindness conceals God.   The eye of the soul must be opened before we can see God.   Spiritual blindness conceals danger.   Therefore, where there is no vision the people perish.

     Isaiah gives us a picture of the prophets who err in vision.   "But they have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink; they err in vision they stumble in judgment.   For all the tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean."   (Isaiah 28: 7,8).    Jesus said, "let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind.   And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."   (Matthew 15:14).    Jesus was talking about that self righteous bunch of Pharisees who were more concerned about pleasing the political crowds of their day than pleasing the Lord.   They were so blind they could not see the Son of God even though he was opening the eyes of the blind and healing all manner of sickness, raising the dead and performing miracles every where.   Just a little fear on the part of a preacher of the deacon board or some moss back political crook, will dim the vision of any preacher.

     Why can't the preacher of this day claim the promise of Acts 2:17?   "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh:    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall SEE VISIONS."   With the light of life which is Jesus Christ any young man ought to see beyond this present life.    He should live for the future and not the present.   Tell me, that I did not see something better than the present so called pleasures and lusts of the flesh when God opened the eye of my soul, "God be merciful to me a sinning one and use me if it is possible to use a wretched one like me.   God there and then opened my spiritual eye and revealed to me that I must bear testimony to His saving grace.   I am not talking about preachers seeing G-P-C in the clouds as some have told.   Some one said it meant Go-Plow-Corn.   If some were plowing corn instead of plowing with the heifers the godly preachers would have a more successful work.

     One of the most heart-breaking things of today is the short-sightedness of parents.   They see no evil before their children and they are turned loose to roam up and down the highways and streets of our cities.   Young girls are allowed to make dates with all kinds of boys, night ride, smoke and dance.   Fathers and mothers see no danger in the modern dance or the immoral pictures that our youth are feeding upon.   Little boys trying to play gangsters with toy pistols-- no danger, just boys, they say.   Yes, the short-sightedness of failing to train our children in the things of God.   Fathers and mothers sending their children to Sunday School instead of taking them.   It is a fine thing to send them but it is better to take them.   The short-sightedness of letting the children leave after Sunday School.   1. It is contempt for the preacher.   2. Contempt for the Church.   3. Contempt for God.   As Brother Clarence Walker puts it:    "Any father or mother who will let the children leave the pastor to preach to empty benches is spiritually blind.   They cannot see afar off--they can't see that just in a few days that boy or that girl will be accountable to God for himself and that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that would believe.   If they fail to hear the preached Word what do you think will become of them?    Fathers and mothers do you not see a burning hell that awaits those who refuse the Lord Jesus Christ.   Another short-sighted thing is sending our children to schools of other faiths.   Let us support our own schools and colleges.   Another short-sighted thing for any father or mother to do is to go to the polls and vote a wet ticket.   No man who is right with God will do a thing like that.    When the eighteenth Amendment was repealed the people were just thinking about the present.   Look what has come upon this nation and to my judgement we haven't seen the worst yet.   May God help us as parents to get our eyes open.   We need some of God's eye salve, TEARS of repentance and turning from our sins.   God will take the scales from our eyes as He did Saul in Damascus.

     Peter says there are seven graces we should add to our faith.   May we call them "Vitamins for Spiritual Sight."   (1 Peter 1:5-7).   Peter assumes the existence of faith or salvation, but he said you should not stop there.

     1. Add to your faith virtue--Vitamin "V".   Someone said that virtue was Christian manliness and active courage in the good fight of faith, or moral excellence.   I think we have an example of virtue in the case of Joseph.   The eye of his soul was opened, he saw the years of plenty and the years of famine, while the king of Egypt was blind to the judgment of God.   Daniel is another man who would not defile himself with the king's meat neither his drink.   He stood like a mountain in a raging storm.   When the king wanted to know about the dream that bothered him so much, his men were blind to the meaning.   He called for Daniel and he told him the dream.   Nothing will give you a clearer vision than a clean life.

     2. Add to your virtue knowledge--Vitamin "K".   Knowledge is discretion, a right understanding.   A man might be clean and still without knowledge.   The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.   "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."   The rejection of knowledge means the rejection of God.   "I will reject thee, thou shalt be no priest unto me."    (Hosea 4:6).   Peter said, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."   (2 Peter 3: 18).   BUT SUPPOSE YOU DON'T GROW, then your vision is obscured.   Can a Christian grow in knowledge of God and feed on the things of the world, the flesh and the devil?   Will his vision be enlarged by reading all kinds of trashy books and seeing all kinds of filthy pictures?    Will an individual grow in the knowledge of God and never read his Bible; who never attends prayer meeting or Sunday School; who never associates with God's people, who never has any fellowship with God?   No wonder people go after every kind of doctrine.   A man with knowledge of God will not go after the snake worshipers of our day, it is ignorance in the first degree.   Some people think that Christianity is a big noise.   If your shouting won't get into your pocket-book you don't want it.   I say "amen" to shouting if it is from the heart.

     3. Add to knowledge temperance--Vitamin "T".   Temperance is self control, governor of all the appetites.   An intemperate man is one who lives for the present.    He is blind to the future.   Saint Luke chapter 15 gives the story of the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.   The man who drinks, the glutton who eats to satisfy his appetite and never thinks how he will feel when his stomach is loaded until there is room for nothing else.   The old drunkard never thinks how he will feel when the whiskey dies in him nor how empty his pocket will be, nor does he see the burning hell that awaits him at the end of the way.   Peter says, get control of yourself.

     4. Add to temperance patience--Vitamin "P".   Patience is the outgrowth of self control or temperance.   I think we have an example of patience in the case of Job.    In his afflictions he never charged God foolishly.   (Job 3:1).   I think every christian should stop here and see if we possess this Christian grace.   If we do not we are short-sighted.

     5. Add to patience godliness--Vitamin "G".   Patience will result in godly living.   What do we need more than godly men and women in this evil day?   A godly man is one who is filled with the reverence and love for God.   How many reverence His name, His house, His Book, His servants today?   Men who fear God are godly men.

     6. Add to godliness brotherly kindness--Vitamin "BK".   "Be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."   No wonder there is so much blindness, there is so much hate among the people of today.   Hardheartedness, unforgiving spirit--God says if you will not forgive neither will He forgive you your trespasses.

     7. Add to brotherly kindness charity-- Vitamin "C".   Love to God and to His people.   I think this was the vitamin that Peter lacked when he went upon the house top to pray.    God let a sheet down with all kinds of four footed beasts and creeping things and told Peter to "arise, slay and eat."   Just take a good meal of Vitamin C.   What was wrong with Peter was that he was blind to the need of the Gentile world, he lacked love for the whole world.   Any man who fails to see the whole world in need of salvation is spiritually blind.

     "For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.   But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, (infected with spiritual myopia) and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." (2 Peter 1:8,9).

It's great to have good common sense
     And use it as we should,
and know that God will recompense
     When we have nobly stood.
And when we've fought life's battles well
     Like heroes of the past,
Though some on fields of battle fell
     For principles that last.

Good common sense when practiced right,
     And used from day to day,
Will lead from things that curse and blight,
     And sins that bring decay,
To manhood noble, grand and clean,
     And to womanhood that's fine,
That keeps us from the low and mean,
     And helps us rise and shine

'Tis far from common sense we know
     To start with habits bad,
That multiply and grow and grow
     Until they run us mad,
By wrecking body, mind and soul
     That's precious to us all,
And then come short of heaven's goal
     When comes the final call.

It's common sense to walk with God,
     Yet noble and sublime,
The way of life that saints have trod
     That lead from sin and crime,
To all that's great and grand and high,
     While living on the earth,
And then at last beyond the sky,
     Share all that god is worth.

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