Blinded By Truth

The caption that came with this image was; “we are often blinded by the truth, even when it is right before our eyes.”

I find the Truth defined in the person of God the Father’s son, Jesus Christ is most relevant no matter how many years have gone by or will pass.
“Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
The quotes I’m using here are from about ten years ago or so from the book, The Signature of Jesus, by Brennan Manning.

“There has never been a time in Christian history when the name of Jesus Christ so frequently is mentioned and the content of his life and teaching so frequently ignored. The seduction of counterfeit discipleship has made it easy to be a Christian. In a climate of mutual admiration, the radical demands of the gospel have dissolved into verbal Alka-Seltzer, and prophetic preaching has become virtually impossible. By and large, American (and please know that this is not relegated to just the USA) Christians today are spoon-fed on the pablum of popular religion.”

“The gospel of Jesus Christ is no Pollyanna tale for the neutral: It is a cutting knife, rolling thunder, and convulsive earthquake in the human spirit. The Word lives. But in the words of Bonhoeffer, many Christians “have gathered like ravens around the carcass of the cheap grace and there have drunk the poison which has killed the following of Christ.”

“If the gospel were proclaimed without compromise, the roster of card-carrying Christians in this country would shrink. Most televangelist distorts the gospel. Therein lies the Cross except as a theological relic, no clarion call to the body of Christ that we are crucified to the world and the world to us. In half an hour the electronic evangelist has to convert you, heal you, and guarantee your success. Everybody is a winner; nobody loses his business, fails in marriage, or lives in poverty.
If you are an attractive nineteen-year-old and accept Jesus, you become Miss America; if you have a drinking problem, you conquer alcoholism; if you are in the National Football League, you automatically go to the Pro Bowl.”

Incredible as it may sound, the Word itself has become a source of division and self-righteousness. Jesus said that the foremost sign of discipleship would be our love for one another. “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). His teaching is unequivocal here. We would be known as his followers not because we are chaste, celibate, honest, sober, or respectable; not because we are church-going, Bible-toting, or Psalm-singing: We would be recognized as disciples primarily by our deep and delicate respect for one another, our cordial love impregnated with reverence for the sacred dimension of the human personality.”

“We have come a long, sad journey from the first century, when pagans exclaimed with awe and wonder, ‘see how these Christians love one another!’ to the twentieth century, when all over the world nonbelievers dismiss us with contempt; ‘see how these Christians hate one another!’
We have deprived the world of the only witness the Son of God asked for during the supper of His love. Our present disunity cannot be God’s will for us; it is a scandal to angels in heaven and human beings on earth.”

Rich