![]() The thief watched all these acts and deeds of kindness with no hostility or aggression, and seeing God’s goodness helped him become aware of his own badness. He probably heard Jesus say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34–42). Even when we go to the end of the Gospels and look at the thief who died on the cross next to Jesus, we find all the steps in salvation. In fact, just in the first chapter of John, there are more than 26 references to light and sight! We are finding again and again that we need to see the Lord. And Jesus says to them, “Come and see.” In that same chapter of John, when Philip came to Nathaniel, he says, “We have found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth” (paraphrased). Later, two of John’s disciples say to Jesus, “Master, where are You staying?” (v. ![]() John 1:29 tells us that one day, when John the Baptist saw Jesus walking by the Jordan River, he pointed to Him and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The first step in the process of salvation always begins with seeing the Lord in His holiness and our Savior on the cross. But I don’t believe that any of these are step number one! Even people who have been church members for 50 years will usually say the steps are: repent, believe, accept, and confess that you are a sinner. Wherever I go, I ask people what they think is the first step in salvation. I think the reason so many people have trouble being Christians and staying Christians is that they don’t know where to begin. One of Jesus’ frequent miracles was to open the eyes of the blind. Even Jesus compares our eyes to spiritual understanding and discernment, saying that if the blind lead the blind, they will both fall into the ditch (Matthew 15:14). Most of us consider sight the most important of our five senses. Ninety percent of all the information that comes into our brains comes through our eyes. (Source: Missouri Association for Creation) This means it would take a minimum of 100 years of supercomputer processing to simulate what takes place in your eye many times every second. The human eye has 10 million or more such cells constantly interacting with each other in complex ways. To simulate one-hundredth of a second of the complete processing of even a single nerve cell from the human eye requires several minutes of processing time on a supercomputer. ![]() have it more abundantly,” and I realized that Jesus wants us to give up only the things that hurt us! John 10:10 says, “I have come that may have life, and. But then I saw a new picture of Jesus dying to save me. For many years, I thought God was against me-a great big policeman up in the sky, watching and waiting to see me doing something wrong so He could thump me with His billy club! He was only there to restrict my happiness. I soon realized that maybe I was the bad guy and the police were the good guys. My whole concept of policemen as the enemy radically changed when I saw the man willing to risk his life to save the people he served. Ignoring the pain from his burns, the officer administered artificial respiration seeking to revive the unconscious infant. A fireman hosed him off as he rushed through the crowd to a clearing, where he laid the bundle on the grass and unwrapped it. ![]() Suddenly, an officer rushed out from the door with a blanket in his arms. Then another camera focused on the doomed building’s main entrance, which was engulfed in flames as smoke billowed out the windows and doors. People were trying to climb off the roof onto a ladder. The camera captured all the drama of firefighters rushing in and out to save lives and spraying water on the building. Cops were the “enemy.”īut my whole attitude about the police changed one night when, flipping through the television channels, I happened to see a very graphic news story.Ī building was on fire. One time while I was driving a stolen car, I pulled up next to an officer and asked him for directions just so that a friend and I could later mock his stupidity. We called them “pigs.” We took great pride in sharing stories of how we had insulted a cop without getting caught. When I was growing up in New York City, it was a “cool” thing to make fun of the police with my friends. The Bible teaches that we have a heavenly Judge who sees everything, including the thoughts of our hearts. Ironically, the primary function of these blackened glasses was not to reduce solar glare! Instead, Chinese judges routinely wore them to conceal their eye expressions in court-their evaluation of evidence was credible only if it remained a secret until a trial's conclusion! Sunglasses are still worn by police to conceal their eyes from suspects while scrutinizing evidence. An Amazing Fact: The first "sunglasses" were developed in China about 1430 AD using smoke to tint lenses.
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