A Spiritual Eye Test

Let’s again turn to the Gospel
of Luke. We find ourselves again in chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. It’s a great image, the one in
the passage before us. that of a light shining in a
dark place. I didn’t plan it this way, but
even the passage in John, which in God’s providence I’ll be quoting
later again this morning, speaks of Christ as the light shining
in a dark place. We all have had those moments,
those episodes in our life where we found ourselves suddenly in
a dark place in need of a bright light. Even a dim light in a
very dark place provides relief from the overwhelming darkness.
I think I shared one time that when I was a young boy, we had
an opportunity to go down into these caverns, these caves. It
was an escorted situation. We got down deeper and deeper
into the earth and colder and colder it got. And suddenly the
leader had us turn off our headlamps. And one by one, people reached
up and turned off their headlamps until the last one clicked off
and the darkness was almost touchable. It was overwhelming. It just
enveloped you. There was absolutely no light
at all. One time, several summers ago, my brother and I, we were
camping, had an opportunity on a totally moonless night, totally
moonless and cloudless to climb up a little hike away from even
the campground, the lights of the campfires. We hiked out into
this glade and suddenly turned off our flashlights and the darkness
was overwhelming. The stars were incredible. But
it’s those moments where you find yourself in such darkness
that a light does come in so handy. And whether it’s an attic,
or a cave or a cellar. Light provides us some relief
in those moments. In times past in Luke’s gospel,
we have seen Jesus use the metaphor of the human body for his own
purposes, for his own end. To use the metaphor of the human
body to teach a spiritual lesson. In times past, we saw that God
called us or Jesus challenged those that were hearing him to
a heavenly hearing test to examine how it was they were hearing
divine truth, how they were appropriating what it was they did hear. Jesus
used the example of the heart and we called it there a spiritual
angiogram where In the earthly image, there is a test that is
done on the human heart. And Jesus says that there is
a test that can be done on the spiritual heart. And so He uses
that image for His own purposes. This morning, He wants to use
that imagery again. Only this time, it’s the eye
that comes into view. And so I put before you this
passage, a spiritual vision test. Chapter 11, beginning in verse
33, where Jesus says, No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it
away in a cellar, nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that
those who enter may see the light. The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear, your
whole body is full of light. But when it is bad, your body
also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light
in you is not darkness. If therefore, your whole body
is full of light with no dark part in it, it will be wholly
illumined as when the lamp illumines you with its rays. In similar
fashion, Jesus challenged those in the Gospel of John, the passage
we just read. For a little while longer, the
light is with you. Walk while you have the light.
Those images are replete in Scripture. They are abundant, overwhelming. The image of darkness on the
one hand and light on the other. It isn’t just John’s gospel and
it isn’t even just the gospel writers themselves. Paul picks
up the image. Peter picks up the image. And
really, the image can be derived even back into the Old Testament.
Let’s look for a minute. Before we even delve into the
passage, I want to do a brief exposition on the contrast, the
biblical contrast between darkness and light. Is it just a matter
of this brief, little, subtle image of clicking on a light
switch in a darkened room? It goes so far beyond that. Darkness
is associated in Scripture with ignorance. Not only ignorance
just out of innocence, but willful ignorance. People literally placing
themselves in darkness by their choices, by their sinful deeds. And as such, it becomes a metaphor
for sin, for sinful acts, for a sinful lifestyle. It is a life
of darkness. It is a condition of moral and
spiritual depravity. That’s what Scripture means when
it speaks of a spiritual darkness. In John 3, 19, it is a realm
that men typically love. Listen to it. This is the judgment
that the light has come into the world. And we’ll see over
and over again that the light is almost always attributed to
Christ or to God. The light has come into the world
and men loved the darkness rather than the light. It’s a realm
where men are comfortable. It’s a realm where men prefer.
Even when the beautiful option of Christ and His light are given
to them, they prefer to cover it over, even as our passage
says. Not only is it a realm that men
typically love, it’s a realm where God is entirely absent.
1 John 1.5, this is the message we’ve heard from Him and announced
to you that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at
all. Which means that where you have
darkness, you have complete godlessness. It is a realm where God is entirely
absent. It is also a realm where all
the forces of evil reign. Ephesians 6.12 says our struggle
is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. That’s
darkness. It is not only a realm that men
typically love, where God is entirely absent, where the evil
forces reign, but it’s a realm from which we are called. We’re supposed to be different,
we are called from them and we’re supposed to live differently
once we leave there. Listen to this overwhelmingly
abundant thought chased throughout Scripture, John 8, 12. Jesus
spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in the darkness. John 12, 46,
I’ve come as light into the world so that everyone who believes
in me will not remain in darkness. Which prefigures the fact that
everyone, everyone who does not know Christ is in darkness, complete
and utter. Second Corinthians 614, do not
be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness
and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness? So many
times that passage is used there to talk about being unequally
yoked to someone in marriage, it isn’t it’s that, but isn’t
just that it goes so far beyond that. It talks about our association
with evil, participating in evil deeds of darkness. Ephesians
five, eight, you were formerly darkness, that little word throughout
both Ephesians and Philippians. Formerly do a Bible study on
that one time. Find out what we used to be and
how we used to live and the expectations implied therein were supposed
to be different. That’s how we used to be. You
were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk
as children of light. First Thessalonians five, you
brethren are not in darkness. You’ve been called out. You’re
not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief
for you are all sons of light and sons of day. Peter picked
up this thought, not just Paul. Not just Jesus advancing it.
Not just the Gospel writers serving it. Peter said it this way, you’re
a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s
own possession. You’re supposed to live differently,
Peter says. Why? So that you may proclaim
the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness and
into His marvelous light. This realm of darkness is identified
as the explicit domain of Satan, Satan’s world. Acts 26, 18 says
it this way, the whole purpose of those who are proclaiming
the gospel is to open their eyes, the eyes of the Gentiles, so
that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion
of Satan to God. It’s Hebrew parallelism. Darkness
and the dominion of Satan are exactly parallel. They’re the
same thing. Same place. Light. Light is contrasted with
darkness in Scripture. Light, on the other hand, is
the effective domain of both God and Christ. No wonder it
was used of Christ at His birth. Remember Matthew 4? The people
who were sitting in darkness It wasn’t just these shepherds
who were sitting in the field in a dark night. Don’t get lost
there in the New Testament imagery. They were sitting in a sinful
darkness. They were sitting in this oppressive,
hopeless condition, waiting for the Savior. The people who were
sitting in darkness saw a great light. And those who were sitting
in the land saw in a shadow of death upon them light dawned. What beautiful imagery scripture
uses used again in the gospel of Luke, the whole purpose of
Christ’s coming was to shine upon those who sit in darkness.
Used again in Luke’s gospel, a light of revelation to the
Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. It is spoken
over and over again, especially in the gospel of John of Christ’s
mission to the earth. He is called the light. The light
has come. In him was life and the light
was the light of men. John 1, John 3, John 9, John
11, John 12. Repeatedly throughout John’s
gospel, Christ is the light. He’s the hope. He’s the one. He’s the light in the darkened
room. It is spoken of the realm where
God rules and His glory is manifest, where Christ is King. Acts 26,
18, again, the purpose was to open their eyes so that they
may turn from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to
God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sin and an inheritance
among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. That’s God’s
realm. 2 Corinthians 4, 6. God has said
light shall shine out of darkness is the one who is shown in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ. It’s beautiful imagery, it’s
perfect imagery. It is the image above all others
in Scripture, light shining in the darkness. No wonder it’s used of those
hopeless souls who were literally waiting to die. Contrasted with
the light of hope, the Lord Jesus Christ that suddenly confronted
them. Christ was a light to the Gentiles,
but he was also a light to the Jews. Without Christ, humanity
was sunk. Sunken in a gross, dark, superstitious
life, a hopeless life. Without Christ, we didn’t know
the way of life. Without Christ, we worshipped
the works of our own hands. The wisest philosophers who ever
lived were utterly ignorant in spiritual things. Romans says,
professing them to be wise, they became fools. The Gospel of Christ
was like sunrise to the heathen world and to the Jews. It should
have been expected by the Jews, but it wasn’t. And that brings
us into our passage. The very purpose of this passage
was a rebuke to the Jews who should have seen the dawn coming. They should have seen the light.
They should have expected it based on the Hebrew Scriptures.
They should have known how great a darkness they were enveloped
in. They should have known the hope of Christ. They didn’t. What I want to share with you
this morning briefly are three elements of this life giving
lamp that Christ spoke of in these few passages, three elements
of the life giving lamp. What he wants to do thereby is
to give us a spiritual eye exam. A spiritual eye exam, one that
looks not at our physical eyes. And we’ve all had those exam.
He wants to go beyond and say, how are we seeing? What are we
looking at? How are we living accordingly? First of all, the likeness of
the spiritual eye, the likeness of the spiritual eye. Jesus likens
it to a life giving lamp. He likens this little device
that we have called our eye to a life giving lamp. And he essentially
says what we look at and how we see it determines whether
we live or die. Look again at verse 33, no one
after lighting a lamp puts it under a way in a cellar or under
a basket, but on the lamp stand. So that those who enter may see
the light. You may recognize this as a familiar
passage, there’s an exhortation in Matthew that is there purposed
or used for the purpose of exhorting us to be witnesses. Listen to
Matthew’s exhortation. You are the light of the world.
A city that is on a set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor did they
light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand.
And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your father in heaven. And we know that to be true.
But Jesus uses the same imagery here in a completely different
way. He isn’t exhorting us. He knows that to be true. He
knows it’s an eventuality that if we see light in time, we will
become light. Jesus knows that to be true,
but he isn’t exhorting them to be lights. He’s challenging them
to see whether they have even yet let the light in. That’s
the challenge here. And essentially what he says
is he exposes the absurdity of essentially lighting a light
and then covering it. but a lampshade, but with an
impermeable device that completely obscures the light, removes the
very function of light. The connection is clear here. Don’t get bound up in that’s
sometimes the trouble with expositing a specific passage of Scripture
is that we don’t ever look back to what the context is. The context
is they had just challenged Jesus for more signs. They didn’t trust
the light that had been given them, and so they wanted more.
Give us more light. Jesus essentially says here that
if they weren’t in such utter darkness, willful darkness, they
would have recognized the light. They would have recognized that
He was greater than Jonah. They would have recognized that
He was the Messiah. Go back again. I mean, these
are the very people about which the Scriptures speak. These were
the Jews that were sitting in darkness, should have been awaiting
their Savior in a hopeless state, having been beat up and captured
and abused for centuries by sinful nations. They should have been
longing for their Messiah. But Jesus says, here the light
has come and they won’t even open their eyes. They are willfully
blinded to spiritual things. And you know what? It isn’t just
them. Probably the great injustice to this passage would be for
us to look at it and say, shame on those Pharisees, shame on
those scribes, shame on those Jews, because they didn’t see
what we see. They didn’t see as clearly as
now I see. You know what? You know what
I believe this passage teaches? I believe this passage teaches
that every one of us has spiritual blind spots, even after we’ve
come to Christ. There are areas of our lives
that we cover over. The light comes, it begins to
expose sin in our lives. And how do we reply? We cover
it over. We either ignore the command or we refuse to read
the command or we refuse to read and obey the command. Some people
read, they’re avid readers of Scripture. Some people read and
even understand, but still refuse to obey. I believe that’s entailed
in what Christ is saying here. All that to say, there’s no break
in the discourse. There’s a clear connection with
what went on before. Those whose spiritual sight has
not been darkened by indifference or unrepentance They don’t have
a need for a sign from heaven. They don’t have a need for more
proof, greater apologetics, as we saw last week. Their entire
soul is full of the light that is around them, ready to be recognized
and absorbed. My question to you, is that you?
How do you look? How do you use the eyes that
God gave you? Are you looking? Are you looking
at God’s light? Do you look to the word to examine
yourselves? The whole purpose of light is
to shine and to expose. So the challenge to us is how
are we looking? When we were in California, I
don’t know why, perhaps it’s because we don’t live near a
big city. Maybe they don’t use these in Fort Collins. But I
saw a phenomenon I hadn’t seen since I was a little kid. The
spotlights flashing in the sky. Have you seen them? Just going
across the sky, drawing your attention to a particular place.
And the kids had never seen them. And I knew that Locra Center,
where we were kind of hanging out that week, wasn’t that big
and that I could find this place. And so I began to proceed to
follow the lights and to zero in on them and to go down particular
streets. And we got closer and closer
and the lights got brighter and brighter. And then we pulled
around the corner and there was the machine. Four lights on a
tripod spinning around and the kids were mesmerized by it. You
know what’s amazing? You think of that light, the
very purpose of that light was to draw people to that location.
In this case, some carnival going on down in Montrose. But the very purpose of that
was to draw people to that locale. Can you imagine if they had put
that giant light in the back of a truck and closed the doors? That’s the absurdity of what
Christ is saying. The very purpose of light is
to shine, it’s to illumine. And yet for us, just like with
the Pharisees, it’s very, very true. Very often we cover it
over. We don’t want to see what God
has to say. We don’t want his word to rebuke our sin. We don’t
want it to expose our lives. And so sometimes we’re as guilty
as these Pharisees, even more so given given the light that
we have enjoyed. Jesus clarifies. Any misunderstanding
in this passage, when he talks about lighting a lamp and not
putting it under a cellar, but putting it on a lampstand, he
wants to avoid all ambiguity and the first sentence in verse
thirty four, I think, goes with verse thirty three. Because it
clarifies exactly what Jesus is talking about. The eye is
the lamp of your body. How your body lives in this world,
how we conduct ourselves, how our mind functions, how our mouth
is used is all affected by the eye. It’s talking here about the spiritual
eye, the heart. It’s talking about how we receive
truth, how we take it in, how we imbibe it, how we appropriate
it into our lives. One pastor described it this
way, the eye is the organ by means of which the light is caught
for the service of the body. A lamp itself is not the light,
but merely the instrument through which light is spread. So when
there is anything wrong with the lamp, it cannot serve as
a suitable instrument to provide light. I remember one time I
had driving on a winter road. The Magnusons have
yet to experience this delight. You drive on a winter road long
enough, right? And you’re following a truck. Soon, you know, the
nasty roads covered with dirt and mud and all that stuff. Then
the truck left the highway. And I proceeded down the highway.
Only I couldn’t see a thing where I was going because from following
this truck for X amount of miles, my headlights were completely
covered in mud. So it is with the human eye,
which is the lamp of the body, he goes on and says, when the
eye is sound and right, the light is shining and the eye enables
you to make full use of that light. You can see where you
are, how to walk, how to do your work. But when there’s something
wrong with your eye, you can’t make full use of the light. Even
in the brightest light, your whole body then is wrapped
in darkness. You can’t see where to put your
feet, your work, if your eye is bad. Scripture refers to it
over and over again as spiritual blindness. Spiritual blindness. But when the Gospel comes, when
God opens our eyes, It is as if God gives to us a lighted
candle. And I don’t know how many of
you have ever been in one of those intensely dark places, a cavern,
a cave. Even a candle in that sense is
incredible light. But it’s not sufficient. He’s
not talking about just hearing God’s truth, even giving
agreement to it, admiring it, acknowledging it as truth as
such. That kind of light has to be received into the heart
and obeyed in the life. And until that takes place. The
gospel does us no more good than we were if we were isolated heathens
never having even heard the gospel. Truer words were never spoken
of the human condition, the great hymn was blind, but now I see.”
But the question is, how are you seeing? Are you seeing as
one who has been given the light and are appropriating the light?
Are you using God’s gift, the God-given eyes that he’s given
you, your spiritual eyes? The Pharisees, you see, had reached
some kind of plateau in their own mind, a humanly calculated
standard to which they’d achieved. Have you? Have we stopped looking? Have we stopped examining? Have
we stopped letting God’s word shine in our own lives? Do we
daily look to God’s word to illumine the sinful corners of our own
lives? If not, we’re no different than the Pharisees. Christ said
that there was another element here in this spiritual vision
check. Not only the likeness of the
spiritual eye, but secondly, the impact of the spiritual eye. Look at how propulsive this instrument
is. It provides illumination to the
whole body. Illumination to the whole body.
Continuing in verse 34, the eye is the lamp of your body. When
your eye is clear, your whole body is full of light. But when
it is bad. Your body is also full of darkness. When a person’s heart, their
inner disposition, their willingness to hear and appropriate truth
is right, when it’s been sanctified by none other than the Holy Spirit,
then his whole personality will be illumined. What does that
mean? It’s going to be changed. There are no dark corners of
the Christian’s life, not willfully anyway. There are no areas where
he’s unwilling to shine that little light. He possesses the
true knowledge of God. He will experience peace of mind
that passes all understanding, and he’s going to be able to
thank the Lord with joy unspeakable. That’s what happens when you
appropriate the light in every area of your life. You shine
it around. You go looking on a sin hunt. But on the contrary,
When the heart isn’t right with God, this is a sad condition. This affects your whole life,
your whole personality. Instead of spiritual progress,
there is demise, even degradation. One said it this way, the eye
is to the body what the heart is to the man. If the eye is
dimmed, it does not see objects clearly. The whole action of
the body is more or less effective. If the heart is double-minded
and compromising, the whole character of man will be influenced by
it.” Said J.C. Ryle. The whole character of
man. That means to me, this shining
the light around in your life is to be a daily activity. Because
my character isn’t completely formed as yours. I’m not completed
yet. Are you? I love the way Matthew says it.
The body of the eye is good. If the eye is good, not clear. If it’s good, if it’s functioning
properly. See, when I’m going through some
of these things, I’m never really sure what God’s doing in my life.
I just started seminary. First semester of seminary out
there in California. And suddenly I woke up one Saturday
morning and I can’t focus my right eye. dirty sunglasses,
I concluded. That wasn’t the problem. As the
day went on, the situation got worse and worse to the point
where I began to panic that I had splashed some kind of pool chemicals
in my eye and now I was going to be blinded forever. I went
to the doctor. The doctor dilates my eyes. He
does a test on me. Suddenly, he concludes that it’s
a cataract at 33 years of age. Couldn’t figure out. And I walked
out into the bright California sun and I couldn’t even, I couldn’t
find my way to my car. Thankfully, I had the surgery
for X amount of days. I’m supposed to wear a patch
over this repaired eye, right? I’m supposed to wear a patch
over this patch over this patch over this patch over this patch over this patch over this patch
over this patch over this patch over this patch over this patch There’s another thing that you
find out with only one eye. A thing called depth perception.
You’ve got to reach for something that’s here and it’s actually
here. You’ve got to reach for something that’s here and it’s
actually there. No wonder Jesus says, when the eye
is bad, when the eye is bad, your whole body is full of darkness.
You can’t function properly. You can’t see to do what you
need to do. This reference to a bad eye is
also spiritual. You see, when our faith is diseased,
when it becomes a superstitious faith, when it’s less than true
biblical saving faith, just like the eye, it distorts. It obscures. We don’t live properly. You see,
the Pharisees’ vision wasn’t only bad. It wasn’t just their
vision that Jesus wanted to correct. It was their lives. What Jesus
was saying is their lives were bad. And just like them, as I’ve
already said, each one of us has those kind of blind spots,
areas of our lives, lives that lack the illuminating power of
God’s Word. So the question to us is not
just how are we seeing, how are we looking, but how are we living?
And if we’re not living according to God’s Word, maybe it is our
vision that’s off. Maybe it’s our vision that’s
been off all along. Maybe we’ve set up for ourselves,
like the Pharisees, some human standard to which we’ve attained. Now we have no need of evaluation. The challenge here is what’s
God’s evaluation of your life? There’s a third element. of this passage that I want to
look at this morning. In this spiritual vision check,
this eye exam of a holy nature, not only the light of the spiritual
eye and the impact of the spiritual eye, but the urgency of the spiritual
eye. Look at v. 35 where Jesus says
there, then watch out Watch out that the light in you is not
darkness. And that’s why I say that Jesus
didn’t stop there and wasn’t just referring to the Pharisees
themselves. He says to us, watch out. Be
careful how you’re seeing. Not just how you’re looking.
Not just is the eye functioning, but be careful how you’re seeing.
Are you seeing truly objectively? The light in us becomes darkness
when we’re wise in our own conceit. We begin to settle into our own
standards. Jesus would go on to call the
Pharisees blind leaders of the blind. Jesus challenged them
over and over again throughout the Gospels already to have eyes
to see. As I’ve already indicated, it
wasn’t just their bad vision, it was their bad lives that were
in view. It’s no less the case with us. No less the case. No wonder he says, watch out.
Be very watchful. Be vigilant over this area of
your lives. It’s absolutely crucial. I’ve
said it before. You know, there’s times where
people make a profession of faith and I find us so willing, so
eager, too eager to rubber stamp them and profess them Christians.
In fact, we make it a great business of ours never to question anybody’s
faith as being legitimate, even though their lives are completely
contrary to everything that God says. And the biggest offenders
of that is us. We never look at our own lives.
We never doubt our salvation based on the way that we’re living.
We never say, could I possibly not be saved? When Scripture
says, Scripture says, examine yourselves to see whether you’re
in the faith. 1 Peter 1, that very challenge
is laid out in great detail. If these things are yours, you’re
saved. But if they’re not, you have
good reason to question. That’s exactly what you need
to do. Watch out! If that’s the case,
your whole life is going to change. Therefore, your whole body is
full of light with no dark part in it. It will be wholly illumined. There’s no doubt about it. We
are going to struggle with areas of our lives for the rest of
our existence here on earth. This vision, this spiritual eyesight
is life transforming. It affects everything. When it
says holy, illumined means complete, entire, utter. To the furthest
extreme, it affects everything. It affects every part of your
life. It changes everything. Since here, what Jesus is saying
is that faith leads to sanction. True faith will lead to purity
of life, purity of mind, purity of speech, purity of deeds. True faith changes everything. One man said it this way, the
spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. In these words, we
catch an echo of these thoughts and the diffusiveness and the
divineness of the light which is so fully developed. But Jesus
now directs his attention to each person individually and
binds it on the conscience of each to ask himself whether the
light of gospel has brought about a genuine, deep interchange of
his heart and life. And that’s all we ask this morning. How are we seeing? Has it truly? Can it truly be said to have
affected everything? Has it wholly illumined your
life? If not, if not, the thought in
Matthew’s gospel, same passage, same scenario, Matthew 6, 22
and 23. If therefore the light that is
in you is darkness, how great the darkness. What Matthew says
there, what Matthew records Jesus saying there? What are the stakes if I’m not
seeing correctly? What are the stakes if I’m not
examining my life in light of God’s Word? What Matthew says,
if the light that is in you is darkness, if you really haven’t
turned on the light, if you haven’t appropriated the light correctly,
what are the stakes? Jesus says, how great is that
darkness? That darkness is utter and it’s eternal. Let’s examine
our hearts of the light that God has given
our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s examine our hearts. Heavenly Father, We know that it is part of the
sinful human condition to allow ourselves to plateau. And in
that sense, the Pharisees have nothing on us. We know that we’ve
done much the same thing, we’ve determined the standard, we’ve
graded ourselves on a curve, we’ve looked around us and found
a comfortable niche as Christians in which to park ourselves. And
so, Father, we humble ourselves before You. And each one of us
can acknowledge those dark corners in our lives where we have not
allowed Your Word to shine. Relationships, words, deeds,
places, practices, habits. Father God, don’t allow the darkness
to overwhelm the light that is in us. For those who have truly come
to Christ, grant them the grace to continue to appropriate that
life so that Your Word will be true in their lives. It will
be wholly illumined. For those who have just flirted
with the light, toyed with the light, from time to time shined
the light on parts of their lives and found it to be sin that it
is, and have been unwilling to deal with it, Father, grant them
the grace. to be saved, to appropriate that life in such a way, that
light in such a way that their lives would be completely transformed. Having been touched by Your light,
make us lights in this dark land that we may proclaim by our works
and our words the light of the world that has come. Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord God, we thank you. We ask
your blessing. In Jesus name, Amen.