[Faith-talk] the blind jesus
Andrew via Faith-talk
faith-talk at nfbnet.org
Fri May 23 13:52:44 UTC 2014
Hi all just wanted to post an article here from somebody else as it
explaines exactly how i been feeling. and let me tell you right now
that you can't except way i feel then that is just to bad it will
show just how judgemental some people are to me and how supportive
people actually are. anyway hear is the article.
The Blind Jesus
the Identity Of Christ Is You
By Phil Scovell
Warning.
Author's Note. This testimony contains offensive language. If such
bothers you as a Christian, don't read passed this point. If you want
to hear the truth, read on. The particular language is used to
demonstrate the level of frustration people experience. Therefore, it
is representative in nature and not actual. The rest is up to you.
End of author's note.
Recently I was praying with a lady, by the name of Mari, who is
blind. I'm blind, too, so this normally doesn't have anything to do
with the prayer sessions. However, blind people, and those with other
disabilities, forgive me for using the term disability, are
perpetually faced with blind related issues which refuses to let them
think of themselves as normal. What do I mean? Well, let's say you
need to go to the grocery store because you are out of milk, bread,
and Frosted Mini Wheats. So you get on the horn and call 25 of your
best friends, if you have that many, and you get a lot of no answers
and a boat load of excuses and even one friend who says they will do
it but you'll have to wait until next Thursday before they can go
because their car is in the shop. Of course, you know they have three
cars but you let that one go. Then you break down and call your
family members but they rarely want to help in the first place and
they always say no anyhow. They did this time, too, but one also
added that you should be a better planner and keep track of things
more efficiently. Nothing new here, of course, because your mom
always says that and usually one of your sisters, too. You let it
slide. This is all understandable, you've been told by experts,
normally who aren't blind themselves, so you can't blame your friends,
and God only knows you can't blame your own family, but, dad gum it,
you've got to blame somebody and you can't blame yourself, for crying
out loud, so you have only one thing left; your blindness. After all,
you are truly blind; right? So it has to be because of your freaking
blindness. For that matter, if you weren't blind, you could, if you
had enough gasoline left in the tank, run right down to the old store
and buy the things you need for breakfast. Even if you are out of
gas, you could walk, if the store isn't far away, so what's the big
deal? The big deal is your damn blindness and it has been a big deal
all your miserable freaking life. You can never forget that you are
blind because things keep reminding you, including people, that you
are blind. Bumping your head, tripping over your kid's, or grandkid's
tricycle they never put up, stepping over, and falling over, the dog
or cat, receiving a registered letter, or a court summons and not
having any sighted people around to tell you what the hell it is for,
taking a dump and wondering if you are bleeding from the rectum
because your hemorrhoids hurt like somebody is squeezing them with a
pair of pliers, waking up in the morning and discovering one of your
false eyes is missing, or you
have misplaced your false teeth, or discovering you had a nose bleed
during the night and there is nobody to see if you got blood on the
snow white waterbed sheets you paid 130 bucks for, going to work with
two totally different color shoes, brushing your teeth with
Preparation H, unable to find your tampons box, sticking a toasted
marsh mellow in your from you just roasted over a cook out fire only
to discover a honey bee has landed on it and it stings the crap out of
you, bumping your face on the cardoor window as you climb into your
friend's vehicle on the way to church so everybody at church wants to
know what happened to your bruised face, picking up a cold snake the
dogs dragged into your kitchen, thinking it's dead, only to find it
isn't, drinking out of someone else's glass at the church pot luck,
entering the wrong gender public restroom, being targeted at church by
some concerned parishioner and asked how you got pregnant, being
denied a room on a second floor of a hotel because blind people can't
walk up and down stairs, getting off on the wrong floor and entering
the wrong doctor's office, sitting down on the couch to watch
television only to suddenly discover one of your kids left his monster
truck right where you sat down, wearing two different colored socks,
two different styles of cowboy boots, discovering your dog pooped in
the middle of the living room right after company has come to visit
and they pointed it out to you, having someone at church indicate to
you that you didn't eat a remaining morsel of food on your plate so
they stick it on your fork and shove it into your mouth for you in
front of everybody, and I could add at least another 300 things to
this short list. The bottom line is being reminded of your blindness.
Now, some blind people say this isn't a problem and they never have
such thoughts. These are blind people never to be trusted. It could
also be that they are young but God help you if you are around them
once they get over 50 years of age. What does all this have to do
with prayer? Let me explain.
As I said, I was praying recently with a lady who is blind. Her
blindness, mixed in with all the other things she has faced in her
life, felt as if it were getting the best of her. Since I, too, am
blind, I understood the feelings she was facing. I know what it feels
like never to have anybody from your church call you, let alone come
and visit you, and I know what it feels like at church, when everybody
shakes hands with everybody else but you during the greeting song.
Oh, it has absolutely nothing to do with your blindness, of course,
but people just are busy and they overlook things. Yeah, that's
right. That's what it is alright. A chicken has lips, too. I know
what it feels like to be lonely. Not lonely because you don't have a
friend to call or go visit but because your blind. I know what it
feels like to be standing in a group of perhaps a dozen men after
church, everyone talking to each other, and soon they all drift away
without a single soul even saying hello to you. I've set in circles
of men at pot luck dinners on the church grounds and watch every man
eventually get up and leave without saying one word to me. I was a
deacon in this same church and had preached in this same church many
times so don't tell me they didn't know me. I take that back. Maybe
they did. You see, one time I was sitting in the auditorium where the
head pastor had about 150 people come to his Sunday school teaching.
My wife and I got there early. My wife went with someone, probably to
the bathroom, and soon a man sat down next to me before the class
began. "Hello, sir," he said. My name is Frank."
I stuck out my hand, shook his, and said," Hi Frank. My name is
Phil Scovell. Nice to meet you."
We talked for a couple of minutes and one thing and another and
finally Frank said, "I don't believe I've seen you hear before, Phil.
Have you been coming here long?"
"Only 13 years," I said with a sigh wondering if I should ask him
if this was his first Sunday or what? I didn't. Yes, he was
surprised. I hope he felt stupid, too, but I give him credit; at
least he said hello. As it turned out, he was assigned to meet the
new people who came to the class so what he was doing was his class
participation appointment and far from natural. I had been in this
particular Sunday school class for a year so I have no idea where this
guy had been all that time. I mean, it is sort of difficult to miss
two blind people every Sunday coming in with white canes. Unless you
are blind yourself, of course, but I digress.
I also know what it is like to lose friends because they discover
you disagree with them on something in the Scriptures. I've lost five
close friends, four of them pastors, over this very type of issue. I
know what it is like not to be accepted by your own family because you
are blind.
One day I called my oldest sister just a block away. It was a
Sunday afternoon. I asked what she was doing. At this time, my
youngest sister was living with our older sister because she was
between marriages. "Oh, we are just trying to fix a dumb kitchen sink
but we can't get it," my sister confirmed.
"What's wrong with the sink?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing. You couldn't fix it any way. It's just going to
be busted till we can afford a plumber to come in here and that is
going to be a long time because neither of us have any money."
"What is wrong with the sink?" I said a second time.
"Oh, nothing."
"Describe it to me," I insisted.
She did. I said, "I can fix that."
"Oh, no, It is broken for good. It'll take a plumber at 100
dollars an hour to fix it. Thanks anyway."
I told my sister that I had just fixed the exact same problem all
by myself with my own kitchen sink and it works fine and there are no
more leaks."
She almost believed me.
"I'll walk right down there. Do you need any other parts?" I
asked.
"No, we have everything but don't bother, Phil. I'll get it
fixed. I'll call one of the men in the church and get them to come
over."
"I'm leaving the house now so I'll be there in five minutes."
She was still talking when I put the phone down.
MY oldest sun, he wasn't driving yet, and I walked the block to
my sisters. When I arrived, we went into the kitchen. It was only
the goose neck. It looked identical to mine I had just replaced. I
got under the sink, put everything together, shoot, even a blind man
could do it, and within five minutes, everything was back to normal.
My sisters were amazed. I went home thinking that my sisters probably
went through things like that dozens of times when they could have
just called their dumb ass blind brother to ask him for help. They
never did. They still don't.
All of this has been said simply to explain I know what being
blind is really like. If you meat a dishonest blind person, they will
deny these things bother them. If that is so, good for them, but I
for one never wish blindness on anybody. So, back to the prayer
session. I'm sorry I keep getting sidetracked.
We prayed into some similar issues, but in short, she was just
tired of being blind. This provides a golden opportunity for demons
to attempt to gain handholds, then possible footholds, and ultimately,
strongholds, in our lives. What we are facing is normal emotional
responses to every day natural experiences of frustrating
circumstances, but the Enemy never plays fair. So, if a lying spirit
is around, this makes it easy for him. "Yeah, nobody really likes
you. Remember school? The kids never liked you and they were even
blind themselves. You don't have a chance. No one from the church
ever calls or comes over and even if they do make plans to come and
see you, they cancel, or worse, they just never show. It's your
blindness alright. Of course, there are other things, too, and you
know what I am talking about. Why, if those people at church knew the
things you had done, they'd never like you. Why don't you just get
drunk. Oh, I know you haven't had anything to drink for 20 years but
now sure would be a good time to start up again. Say, I bet some of
your old contacts have some dope you could score. Yeah, let's do
that. You know how good you felt stoned. Let's do that. Besides,
just once won't hurt anything. Those people really did like you
anyhow. These Christian people have proved they don't because, after
all, you are blind. Remember?" this scenario could be expanded to
include hundreds of variables and other possibilities, blind or not,
and often it works. This time, it didn't because we prayed together
in agreement and let Jesus into the picture.
Within a few seconds of praying, she was in school. She was
little and everybody seemed to move away from her and she didn't
understand why. A lying spirit whispered into her thoughts and told
her a bunch of lies that sounded logically to her little girl's mind.
She felt sad.
Suddenly, and this rarely happens to me, I saw Jesus standing
across the room from the little girl who was all by herself. He was
wearing sunglasses and carrying a white cane which he was tapping in
front of him as if he couldn't see where he was going. I nearly
laughed out loud but didn't. Jesus surely looked comical doing that,
though. That was one of his Intents. I said nothing during the
prayer session about what I spiritually saw as we prayed.
Near the end of our short prayer session, lying spirits were
gathered up and dismissed from their lying assignments against the
little girl. A tremendously strong feeling came over me, as I prayed,
to command the lying spirits to go blind since they used the little
girl's blindness against her to make her feel bad. I didn't because I
didn't want to suggest anything to the woman and spiritually misdirect
her healing experience with the Lord. This was Jesus at work and not
me.
The woman began laughing. "What's so funny?" I asked quietly.
"A hammer came into view and broke something that looks like a
clay pot. It shattered and all these bug like looking things spilled
out. Jesus is gathering them all up," More laughter. "They are all
blind. Phil! They are blind. I am not kidding. They are all blind.
I can tell. They can't see where they are going and Jesus is sweeping
them down a long glass tubing that goes down for miles and miles.
They try and cling to the sides but it is too slippery and they are
falling." Silence. "They are all gone now." Her voice even sounded
clear whereas before, it was depressed and filled with sadness and
frustration.
"Does this really happen?"
No. I'm making the whole thing up. I like fooling people and
misleading them. So don't ever call me because I'll fool you into
thinking all types of weird things, too. "Besides, this can't be
Jesus doing this stuff. He doesn't do this type of healing any more,
does he?" It sounds like to me that you have your theology screwed on
backwards just a little bit. Does Jesus identify Himself with you in
impossible and painful situations you experience as a Christian? No?
Oh, really? Why not? Can't you see Jesus in your life? Doesn't He
care about you and what you face? You see, this was the second
purpose Jesus had in mind which He wanted this lady to experience,
that is, His true identity, with her and in her, as what she faces as
one of His children. Remember the first? He wanted to show Himself
and demonstrate the buffoonery of the enemy and expose his stupidity,
while at the same time, demonstrating His superiority in our lives as
Jesus our Lord. Is He the Lord of your life or did you just accept
Him as your Savior? Do you only have half of Jesus or did you get Him
all at the moment of your salvation? If the Enemy is still torturing
you, Jesus isn't Lord. To whom do you turn when you feel bad? If you
identify with Jesus, He will identify with you. Even if you don't
identify with Him, He will still identify with you. In such case, you
may not recognize His presence but He is there because He said He was.
Remember where you heard i
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