The Eye is the Lamp of the Body – Part 1

I was was surfing the TV channels and I saw the title of one show called “Dirty Jobs” so I settled down to see what it is about. There was a young woman in her 20’s wearing a full body white suit that even had a head covering and some kind of plastic window to see through. She was talking about how important her suit is because if her clothes get the smell from her job it would be almost impossible to get it out, besides the smell is intolerable! She also said the suit protects her from many diseases her job may expose her to.

By then I was thinking, “What does she do?!” She obviously wasn’t a bee handler because bees don’t produce a terrible smell! She obviously wasn’t a nuclear scientist or a lab technician of some sort, because the setting was in the afternoon in a wooded area!

The next scenes showed a not too steep wooded hill having human corpses scattered around it, she worked as a forensic scientist in a “body farm”. She explained how she studies decomposing bodies of males and females of different ages, buried in different locations (for example, sunny and shaded areas), buried deep, not buried at all, simply covered with leaves and different causes of death, etc, so she can accurately pinpoint when someone had died. Those scenes went by quickly (thank God).

The next scene was of a bloated (for some reason) dead body and as the camera got close to the dead body the details became clearer and I couldn’t believe how ugly it was. I quickly changed the channel because I was not ready (and still am not) to see that. I mean, from far away and quick scenes the show was “ok”, but not that scene—I simply couldn’t watch it.

The eye is the lamp of the body by Fadi

Later that night I remembered the most “lovely in…features” (Esther 2:7) woman I have ever seen (she was a friend of mine and she is still very dear to my heart, and I pray for her regularly), and how we all one day will die, decompose, rot, and physically speaking we will not only be ugly but disgusting to watch, touch, or smell.

Then I remembered how in my teens, in Iraq, one night while walking home with my dad we smelled the terrible and disgusting smell of a dead cat and I told my dad that it was the most disgusting smell in the world. My dad who was a soldier in the past (rather, forced to be a soldier) said that he has never smelled anything more terrible or disgusting than a decomposing human body. He added that the smell was so terrible and disgusting that it immediately reminded him of  the wicked and evil hearts of humans.

The reason I am writing about this is that we lust after the flesh, the temporary, which will decompose and turn to a corpse. I am not saying we should not become intimate with our spouses, or kiss our children because we all will die one day. What I am saying is that it is important to remember where our flesh will end up one day and the glorious hope we have in Jesus Christ that we will have new bodies in heaven, and that we ought to live holy and pure lives fit for our heavenly bodies, home, and Father.

Are you a Christian who has constantly been defeated by lust? May be you are a man in his mid twenties like me, and don’t know what to do to overcome lust. Here are few tips I will share with you from my personal experience that helped me to overcome.

1) You have to believe the Word of God which says sin is a lie of Satan. If you don’t believe it is true then don’t continue on reading because nothing else will work. So let’s say you do believe it. Here is sin’s definition taken from Dr. Charles Stanley:

“Sin is a promise of Satan to give you what you won’t get.” Simply put, sin is a lie. The Bible says in John 8:44:

“He [Satan] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

Remembering sin is a lie, probably the easiest Biblical truth we can remind ourselves of is to to resist any kind of sin, because it does not take much spiritual maturity; actually, all it takes is a person who doesn’t like to be fooled. Satan’s tactics haven’t changed since the fall of Adam and Eve, and why should he change them? They have always worked fine against us, humans. So the first step to resist sin is to remember it is not what Satan is telling it is: it does not bring any lasting or true fulfillment.

Think about lust in this way:

Imagine someone is trying to sell you a second hand car. He asked for a bit high price but that’s because he has kept it in good condition, the only problem is that you know that he has removed the engine! The car has no engine, but he is not telling you that! Will you buy it? Of course not. Well, lust is pretty much the same thing the only difference falling for lust is sillier than falling for buying the car. Lust promises you what? Happiness? Joy? Peace? Satisfying pleasure? Holiness? Makes you a better husband, or lover? What does it promise that’s good and it delivers? Absolutely nothing, but we keep falling for it!

2) Remind yourself of who you are in Christ. I remember few years ago Dr. Charles Stanley saying in a sermon that when we are tempted to sin we should keep reminding ourselves who we are by saying, “I am a child of the living God and this does not fit who I am!” At first, I thought it was an unpractical idea, I mean who is about to sin feels like he is a child of God?! But I tried it anyway, and believe me it works miracles!

I never knew how powerful it is until one night a couple of years ago I had a dream that I was about to commit sexual immorality. I was terrified in my dream and I didn’t want to do it because I had never as much held a girl’s hand because I believe in waiting patiently for my future wife according to God’s timing. Next thing I knew I woke up from my sleep in the middle of the night as I was shaking my head side to side on the pillow struggling against the sinful/sensual dream and telling myself, “I am a child of the living God and this does not fit who I am” for at least four times. I cannot describe to you the joy I felt that night, not only because I resisted sin (even if it was in a dream), but also for realizing that God was doing His work in my life and He had given me the capacity not only to be able to resist sin but also to hate it.