One Eyed Jacks

The following has been excerpted from my book on money, Are You Worried Yet? Where Is Money Taking Us? (areyouworriedyet.com)   I have changed it slightly for the present application.

Before going any further with this subject of what God is hoping for, I need to share something I saw in March of 2004; let’s call it “One Eyed Jacks.” After sharing the initial insight with a pastor friend, it became: “Streets, Ditches, and Parking Lots.”

What I saw was that there are many who read the Bible with only one eye. They have already been told what it all means, and sure enough, that’s all they can see there. This is basic to the stability of most systems, networks, denominations, “church institutions,” and even “non-denominations.” (Perhaps I need to mention that God is Spirit, not a system.)

By looking at things with only one eye, we lose “depth perception.” It takes two eyes to see into anything with any depth. Perhaps by now you have already noticed that the Bible is pretty deep, in fact deep beyond any likelihood of human understanding, at least, this side of the second coming.

Reading with two eyes can mean many things, but for the present I would like to examine one aspect of two eyed reading and understanding. What I want to say here is that we need to read about God with both eyes open, one focused on His Word as revealed in the Bible, and the other focused on His Word as revealed in the things created, Romans 1:18-20.

If we go through life with only one eye open, we are clueless about the creation. If we read the Bible with only one eye open, we are bound to be religious. Jesus came that we might have life.

So here’s the deal: Jesus said,

Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. (Speaking of the Pharisees, Jesus went on:) Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.⁴

Apparently the Pharisees were/are trying to get somewhere. The way we normally get somewhere is a “street.” Even back then, right next to the streets were “ditches.” The problem is, if you are trying to get somewhere with a blind leader, you wind up in the “ditch.” For now, it is enough to understand that a “ditch” is one bad, but close alternative to a “street.” We will take a closer look at a “street” in a moment, but first I would like to bring this into the twenty first century by saying a word about “parking lots.” They are also a close alternative to a “street.” Where a blind guide is likely to lead you into a “ditch,” a “one eyed jack” can see just well enough to get you into a “parking lot.” In either case, “ditch” or “parking lot,” you’re not getting anywhere once you get there. If you want to get somewhere, it’s a “street.” that you are looking for and should be on. It’s best if you have both eyes open when you are on the way. Did I mention that Jesus is “the Way”?

At first glance, it may look like a “one eyed jack” is a better alternative than a blind guide. The problem is you can’t really get anywhere with either one of them. Perhaps that’s why “church” buildings need to be next to “parking lots.” Jesus has opened up to us a new creation, and a new kind of a city, a spiritual city, and the “street” of this spiritual city is “pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”⁵ Keep in mind that a street is a way of getting somewhere. Even in a spiritual city, we need to get somewhere. In God’s spiritual city, “The New Jerusalem,” (Revelation 21:2) the way we get somewhere is love.

You can see this better in the Greek than you can in English. In the Greek, Christ is “Christos” and gold is “Chrusos.” They both derive their functional definition from the Greek word “Chraomai; furnish what is needed.” For present purposes, it’s “what’s needed” to get somewhere. The bottom line is this: without love we are not going anywhere. “Blind guides” and “one eyed jacks” suffer from a love deficit. Did I mention that in the city of God there is only one street? (Revelation 21:21 – NICE! – Makes it hard to get lost! :-) )

Even before Jesus went to the cross, there were too many lawyers. Jesus died to put the lawyers out of business. Not only was the law nailed to the tree the day Jesus said, “I love you,” but He died to make us into lovers, not lawyers. The way, or “street,” is love, and that love is the “gold” of the economy of God. It’s important to be lovers, because the “ditches” and the “parking lots” are full of lawyers. Don’t even go there. Jesus said:

“Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers… Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” Paul went on to say: “Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong, why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?”

No matter how you look at it, we aren’t getting anywhere with lawyers, except “parking lots” – the ones outside their places of religious business, or “ditches,” as a result of taking their advice. So much for “Streets, Ditches, and Parking lots;” now let’s see if, with both eyes open, we can get a little further on down the street where the hope of God is concerned. :-)