By DeduloPhotos, 2015, MorgueFile.com
The lamp of the body is the eye.
If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.
And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.–Matthew 6:22
Is your eye sound? What does that even mean?
Since all us humans have free will, we determine what we do with our eyes, body, and mind. We’re not programed as robots by God. He gave us choices–choices that have a great deal to do with our lives today and our eternal life. It’s all up to us. But are we doing our best with our gift of choice? And if we’re trying to make good choices based on Truth, are there some who’d like to hide Truth from us to suit their own ends?
Are our eyes seeing the real Truths in our world? Are our leaders??
OR……
Are our eyes, minds, and bodies taking in lies created by others to form our opinions for us? Are we being stroked with persuasions that go against Truth. Yes. Of course. Undeniably!
Persuasion is powerful. If it wasn’t, no advertising could cause us to buy what we don’t need. One of the most used persuasions in advertising is appealing to human compassion, because most of us are compassionate people. We don’t want others to hurt. But we can also be fed a false compassion. This is called propaganda. Propaganda is defined as information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. And propaganda is not necessarily true.
But oh, is it happening today! Half-truths and cover-ups, right under our noses, on our television screens, and our social media.
From Focus on the Family: “In a society where ultimate truth is treated like a fairy tale, an outdated idea or even an insult to human intelligence, the motto of the day becomes, “WHATEVER!” Believe whatever you want. Do whatever seems best to you. Live for whatever brings you pleasure, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. And of course, be tolerant. Don’t try to tell anyone that their whatever is wrong. But where does that leave us? If we have ultimate truth, it gives us both a way to explain the world around us and a basis for making decisions. Without it, we’re alone. We’re just 6 billion organisms running around, bumping into each other with nothing unifying to work for or believe in. It’s every man for himself. And we’re without a purpose; if there’s no true story of where we came from and why we’re here, then there’s nothing that really gives our lives meaning. Sounds a little depressing, huh? And maybe frightening.”–Lindy Keffer
We have to be informed. Especially today, we have to have courage.
It takes courage to go forward when we live a life based on Truth while many around us do not. It takes commitment when many trash genuine Truth.
And it also takes acceptance–the realization that we may be burned because of the absolute truths we believe in, and stand up for.
Translating a World on the Edge 