Antioch-U
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Speaker: Bishop Chester M. Wright
 | Chester M. Wright is the Bishop of Antioch, the Apostolic Church located in Arnold, Maryland. Antioch was founded in 1970 and currently has three congregations. Through over 40 years of ministry, Bishop Wright has served as District Sunday School Secretary, District Sunday School Director, District Home Missions Director, Regional Home Missions Director, Sectional Presbyter, Co-Chairman of Global Conquest and Global Vision, District Revival Coordinator, and Chairman of Focus-DC. He served as MD/DC District Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church International for 18 years and is now a honorary MD/DC District Board Member and a honorary UPCI General Board Member. |
The eyes are the unlimited windows of the brain, which automatically gives them direct and immediate access to the mind, soul, and spirit. The eyes have great potential for good, but they also make us very vulnerable to negative influences. What I see can inspire me or cause me to expire spiritually.
The Creator also intended that the eyes would give us pleasure. We know this because of the beauty that He specifically created for the eyes to look upon. When He uses His “artist’s paintbrush” to color the morning or evening sky, how could anyone doubt His intent for our eyes to feast on beauty. The pleasure of sight and the pleasure from sight are both gifts from our Heavenly Father.
However, this gift of sight that God gave us for good and to enrich our lives, also has great potential for evil. If I willfully allow my eyes to be used in any manner that incites me to take pleasure in sin, then I am taking the Lord’s blessing to me and making it a curse to my soul. Therefore, when used Scripturally, the eyes (like the ears) have the ability to greatly enhance my life naturally and spiritually. When used to the contrary, the use of my eyes without the governing of God’s Word will eventually become a liability to my salvation. The latter occurs when my eyes are allowed to connect to the baser elements of my nature. My sinful
nature influences my choices thus perverting their use FROM promoting the following of the Lord’s principles for living in a loving relationship with Him to encouraging our participation in a self-centered, world-loving lifestyle.
This study is a principle-based approach rather than a rule-based approach to the subject of the “separated” (holy) use of the eyes. Nothing in this study is intended to be made into a rule. It is my hope and prayer that, as you study this lesson, the Holy Ghost will begin to formulate in your spirit some personal guidelines for how you will use your eyes in every scenario and circumstance of life: not just in how you use communication/entertainment technology, but in every possible use of your eyes.
If I allow the Lord to guide me in using my eyes in a manner that will please Him, then the following are a few of the more significant results that are potentially mine:
I will “see” God.
I will “see” my relationship with Him grow into all that He has promised.
I will “see” His power and glory manifested in the “Sanctuary.”
I will “see” a great harvest of souls.
I will “see” the Lord when He returns.
In Jesus’ Name!
Having served in the U.S. Navy and having been taught how to navigate a ship (before the GPS System was available), I learned that all mariners who sailed the oceans of our globe, having no points of land for reference, could only find their way by studying the heavens in order to determine their exact position and thereby set the course to their destination. Since the position of the primary stars has been calculated for every day of the year, by determining his position in relation to those stars (called “bearings”), the skilled navigator can “plot” his ship’s precise location on his charts. From that determination he can decide on the necessary course (direction) to set that will take the ship to its desired destination. The night allows sailors to know where they are, but they cannot see where they are going. During the day the Sun allows mariners to see where they are heading, but they cannot determine exactly where they are. Navigators need to regularly experience both the day and the night in order to safely navigate the world’s oceans.
For many Christians, just “maintaining the ship” and “standing watches” are all that is necessary to fulfill their spiritual duties. They don’t really know where they are; neither do they know exactly where they are going. They are more passengers than participants. I hope that just going through the motions of “shipboard life” is not enough for you. It definitely is not enough for me!