Oh and for all of you who want to say I shouldn't use this column to share my beliefs. This is in the religion part of Newsvine. So if you want to write an article go ahead. The freedom of religion is also the freedom to not read the article.  No one is forcing you to read it.

I have a friend on Newsvine who is blind.  I won't mention his name nor am I judging him in anyway.  This person is blind but has the eyes of his heart open and is looking for truth.  The truth that is sometimes kept fom the sighted because we can see the deception of the flesh and want it.  I often wonder how it is we the sighted can see the lies but are blinded by the gift of sight physically, yet some of those who are unable to see can perceive the truth in a manner we the sighted cannot.  It is a matter of the heart as I understand it to be.

Now to the meat of the matter.  Saying one has to be a conservative or a liberal to understand the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is blindness on the part of the pastor-"teacher" I use teacher in quotation marks because there is but One true teacher as I see it and that is the Christ.  All others are just messengers of His Gospel and are called to deliver His Word in the Way He calls us to, or are others who believe differently and do not deliver His message but one of their own making.-

That being said it should be easy to see who are the spiritually blind and who are the spitiually sighted in Christ.  Well it is easy for for some as we are gifted with the discernment of The Holy Spirit, just as it is hard for others because they are blinded without The Holy Spirit.  Now the ones with discernment we know God's word to be true and it is used to correct us as well as lift us up.  The ones who are blinded want no correction they only wish to be lifted up even in their blindness.  They do not see if they are lifted up in their blindness they only stumble the other people they are trying to lead. 

Now I have been accused of thinking in terms of only conservative and liberal on the basis of my beliefs.  I find that funny as I have people from both sides that agree with me and don't agree with me.  It has nothing to do with conservative or liberal.  It has everything to do with limits and the One who limits that I choose to believe as being the truth.

Let me simplify it.  A blind man is not allowed to drive a car because he would be a danger to himself and everyone else on the road. Not because the blind man is a bad person but because he is blind and cannot operate a car safely.  The limit there is the ability to be able to see the limiter is the safety for all people. 

Now if look at the narrow gate that one must enter in Christ to be acceptable to God we can say that the limit is the need to follow Christ and limiter is the True knowledge of Him.  The Holy Spirit is what reveals Christ to us.  Thus we are blind to Christ without The Holy Spirit and cannot find Him.  How many times have I heard pastors say that and then turn right around and say and unless you are a conservative you won't understand it- not exactly in those terms, but implied-.  Proving they themselves are blinded to Christ because Christ is neither conservative or liberal He is Christ The Son Of God. 

You see I've heard a lot of pastors say they became conservative after accepting Christ and they try to say it was Christ that changed them.  I think it is because they hung around with the people who were conservatives and wanted to be like them instead of wanting to be like Christ.   That is what chased me way from many churches when I was younger.  These people would stand up there and preach the love and forgiveness of Christ then do business like they were the devil himself and all that mattered was how much money they could get for the church or their personal business and to elect "conservatives" whether they were truly Christians or not.

That is being Spiritually blind and if you are in a church that espouses that flee it, get out of it and find one that is non political as far God is concerned.  Because God is not political in mans terms of politics He warned the Israelites of that when they wanted a king like all the other nations.  He told them that they would rue that day, because the kings would send their sons off to wars and that they would tax the people for their own gain-paraphrased-.

The Spiritually blind fall for the lies of the flesh because the rewards of the flesh are what they see.  They have no understanding about eternity and the wealth that they can have in God for that eternity.  They see gold, silver, stones-houses-, paper-money and decrees-, wood- the idols they build or carve as representing their beliefs-, straw-the beds they sleep in while behaving like animals and having no understanding-.  So we have the Spiritually blind leading the Spiritually blind annd calling for a return to the way it used to be.  It has always been since the sin of Adam and Eve that we are in sin.  Jesus Christ took that sin , but the Spiritually blind want you to reject Christ and return to works righteousness by making sacrifices in your lives as if those sacrifices will cleanse you and make you acceptable to God.

Matthew: 15:7-20

⁷Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:

8 These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. " ¹⁰ When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear and understand: ¹¹ Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man." ¹² Then His disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?"

How many people still think that what they eat is what keeps them pure ??  Yet these same people will tell other people lies about the salvation of Christ in order to make themselves the master of them instead of all being under Christ as we are told He is the Master and we are His purchased by Him on the cross.  Now whether we accept Him as the Master is a up to each of us individually.

¹³ But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. ¹⁴ Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch."

Isn't it revealing that The Christ said "Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted."  "Let them alone" "They are the blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, they will both fall into a ditch." 

Don't we see that in the church's and political parties that make the ways of man try to be the Way of Christ ??

¹⁵ Then Peter answered and said to Him, "Explain this parable to us." ¹⁶ So Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷ Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? ¹⁸ But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. ¹⁹ For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. ²⁰ These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."

Remember that adulteries also speaks of worshipping other gods and thefts can also mean the taking of what is God's and trying to make it into theirs.  False witnesses not only against a neighbor or another person, but a false witness agaist the Way of God and trying to lead others away from Him.

Those are the Spiritually blind who try to lead others and would lead them to destruction for their own gain.

I realize not everyone will agree with me.  That is fine.  Believe as you will and so will I.

But just remember this.  I was once Spiritually blind and now I see, and though I once thought I saw beauty with my physical eyes I now see the destruction they behold and they tear up for the sorrow of it.  I thank God He opened the eyes of my heart to His Love in Jesus Christ.

Oh and for all of you who want to say I shouldn't use this column to share my beliefs.  This is in the religion part of Newsvine.  So if you want to write an article go ahead. The freedom of religion is given to all.  So you can believe as you will and I will to.