ODJ: online attention
October 14, 2011
Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness (vv.22-23).
READ: Matthew 6:19-34
If you’re reading this devo online, in a few minutes you might move on to other websites. As you do, pay attention to what grabs your attention. What pics or words prompt you to pause for a second look? What links do you click on, and why?
When Jesus said the eye is the lamp of the body (Matthew 6:22), He was alluding to the ancient belief that the eye was an internal fire. Light proceeds from the eye, interacts with the light emitted from the object of focus, and then returns through the eye and penetrates into the heart.
You become like whatever draws your attention. If your eye is “good,” literally “single” or “simple,” your commitment to purity and truth will flood your entire body with light (vv.22-23). But if you play both sides of the street—if you embrace provocative pictures, rumors, or vitriol, then your whole body will become shrouded in darkness. The virtual world can do real damage to your soul. What items on the Web light up your eyes?
Advertisers use sex, gossip, and greed to create sticky sites that are difficult to leave. An evil eye will rationalize hanging around. You know better than to click on that racy story, but you tell yourself it won’t hurt this once. And so you awaken the appetite of lust, and now every time you log on you hope to ogle something new, and soon your shriveled soul is harboring dark and shameful secrets.
Many sites get rich luring people to their destruction, so the most dangerous thing you can do is mindlessly surf the Web. Take Jesus with you online. When possible, use the Web in the presence of others. And remember that whatever lights your eyes can also change you. —Mike Wittmer
Are there any websites you should stop visiting? As a whole, does spending time on the Internet help or hinder your Christian life? Why?
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it-
RSS Feed
Related
ODJ: inside information
April 1, 2010 Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true” (v.31). READ: Luke 18:31-34 Tiptoeing mischievously toward me, my son leaned down and placed something near the base of the chair where I was sitting [...]
ODJ: scandalous grace
February 22, 2012 Then some of them began to spit at Him, and they blindfolded Him and beat Him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards slapped Him as they took Him away (14:65). READ: Mark 14:53-65, 15:1-20 Imagine you’re a member of an organised crime ring with connections to corrupt city [...]
ODJ: complete integrity
June 20, 2010 Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity (v.47). READ: John 1:43-50 If Jesus were to identify one thing He appreciates about you, what would it be? Nathanael, whom some scholars say was also known as Bartholomew, heard the following words from Jesus, “Now here is a [...]
ODJ: apart or a part
September 8, 2011 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ (v.12). READ: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 In The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, Reggie McNeal writes, “A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a [...]
Christian Courses
Day Of Discovery
Discover The Word
Discovery Series
Help For My Life
My Utmost For His Highest
Our Daily Bread
Our Daily Journey
RBC Ministries
WarungSateKaMu
Manasociety
雅米