Paul talks in Ephesians about how the unbelieving gentiles had a veil over their eyes, blinders. 

He is telling the church at Ephesus not to be like them… 

Ephesians 4:18: “They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.”

In Mark 7, Jesus talks to the religious Pharisee about their traditions nullifying the word of God…

“religious doctrines of man create a veil over our spiritual eyes and ears, making the Word of God of no effect.”

Mark 7:1-13

Living blinded.

Blinded by the fact that we are pretty much ok. We have ‘good lives,’ we have things ‘under control.’ 

Our uncle is a pastor, or grandpa, so you are good with God from that. 

Not only that — self sufficiency.

We are blessed financially, we can afford to buy our kids the greatest clothes and pay for the sports gear, music lessons, art class, club ball… private lessons, whatever they need. 

We have good jobs, careers, homes, families. 

We have a great group of people at church, they love us and our kids are friends and they have a great circle of friends at school to make them succeed, they are in the ‘in-crowd.’ 

We are good. We do good, and ‘Life is Good.’

We love Jesus, we go to church, we love our church. We pay our tithe, we are comfortable with this life we have, that we made, that we love.

I’ll ask you, because I had to stop and ask myself, “but what is my relationship with Jesus actually like?”

Let me ask it this way…who is the most important person, the most important relationship in your life?

How do you keep that relationship? 

How does that relationship compare to the one you have with Jesus? 

My relationship with Jesus is more than just confessing with my mouth that Jesus is Savior and Lord, and receiving in my heart and being saved, going to heaven.

It’s an actual relationship. 

But it hasn’t always been. 

I’ve been guilty as charged of the aforementioned.

Neglecting the relationship.

Neglecting the time spent talking to Him, and listening.

Getting to know Him by reading the word. 

Pushing against the ‘I just don’t understand when I read,’ pushing into the ‘I just have to have others explain it to me…’ 

It’s not up to others, folks. It’s time to let the pastors off the hook.

Their job is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

It’s your job to nurture those seeds the pastor planted of Gods truth from His word and water them throughout the week.

It’s your job to seek the encounter with Christ, the One true living God. 

Encounter Him daily.

Encountering Him, by letting Him tell you His love for you, and you telling Him how much you love Him, because He first loved you.

It’s not just for the preachers, the spiritual leaders. 

It’s for all children of God. 

You don’t have to have a call to ministry to encounter Jesus and daily walk with Him. 

You don’t have to be called to preach to hear His voice in your daily life. 

Do you encounter Jesus? 

Do you know you’re loved because Jesus tells you? 

Do we read the bible and hear God teaching us, or do we just glaze over, not understanding, and finally put The Book down out of frustration or distraction?

Truthfully, I didn’t know that I didn’t encounter Jesus until I encountered Him.

I didn’t know how superficial my Christian walk was, and how much deeper I wanted to know the person of Jesus afterward.

The religious doctrines of man were truly making the Word of God of no effect in my life, I had a veil over my spiritual understanding. 

I was blinded by being okay, being good, doing this and not doing that… following all the rules.

Being in church, doing all the things…

But my friend… there’s so much more.

Encounter Jesus.

Father God, I pray over every single soul that reads this writing. I pray that as they feel your Holy Spirit tugging at their heart to encounter You, that they see You already putting people, laborers, teachers, teachings into their path to show them more about encountering Jesus, to show them Your perfect love through the person of Jesus. I pray they look with anticipation, confident expectation of this encounter, knowing that you are faithful. Thank you God, that is your will for us to know you more… you want us to know… in Jesus’ name, Amen.