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We arrived back in the States having nowhere to stay, as we had rented before we left, and had given away nearly all of our belongings. Thankfully, some family friends were running a homeless shelter in the rougher area of the city, and they allowed us to stay on their property in a small travel trailer. There we helped them in their ministry, handing out sandwiches, praying for the homeless, and in general, waiting on the Lord’s guidance.

I myself was only a child at this time, and I remember little of what happened during the few months we spent there. I was excited to be back in the States, happy and completely oblivious to the reality of how difficult this period was for my parents, for this was the beginning of a very different way of life than we had ever known, a walk of faith that God was just about to teach us.

My parents had come back to the US with the general idea of working and saving money to go back to Thailand, and my dad had already booked several shifts. He worked only a few shifts and had scheduled more, but imagine my dad’s surprise when God then strictly told him that he was not to work at all anymore! Though understandably perplexed, my dad canceled his shifts.

Around this time, the Lord kept putting the story of George Müller on my parents’ hearts. George Müller was a Christian evangelist who lived in England in the 19^th century. He is well known for the way he ran his orphanage, trusting God for everything, and never asking for anything from anyone else. Whenever he and the orphans had a need of any sort, they simply prayed, and God always provided. This story resonated deeply with my parents, and as time went on, they believed more and more that this was the life God had for us as well.

And slowly God began to teach us to trust Him this way. There were times when we had to drive long ways to speak at a church without a penny in our pockets, and my dad tells me of a time when we had no gas, and yet the van miraculously kept going for hours at highway speeds, the fuel gauge at empty the entire way. Divine appointments became the norm, and often we were given money by people we’d only just met. We ate the same sandwiches we gave to the homeless, and my parents woke at 5 A.M. every morning to pray and seek God in the little chapel on our friends’ property.

Although it was certainly an amazing time of seeing God’s perfect provision and timing, it was by no means easy, and both my mom and dad often felt discouraged and uncertain. One morning my mom woke up early and went by herself to the chapel to pray, feeling especially disheartened. She knew that we were supposed to go back to Thailand soon (within the next month, in fact), because the Lord had told them, but with no funds and no plan, she couldn’t see how it was possible. After praying for awhile, she did what many people will advise you never to do—she let the bible fall to the table, opening at a random place. When she looked down, her finger was over the words, “stop doubting, and believe,” (from Jhn 20:27). Needless to say, she was very encouraged and ran to show my dad. We had no more money than we’d had the hour before, but we had something better: confirmation that God was in control.

Then my parents had to register as a non-profit organization (501C3), and send in some paperwork. Many people had warned them that it could take up to a year or more to get the paperwork correct and approved. Moreover, there was a registration fee required to send it in, and we didn’t have the money at that time. So my parents prayed and filled out the paperwork. My dad said that he felt that God was guiding him, giving him the very words to use, and only a day or so after praying that God would provide the registration fee, someone gave us just what we needed to pay it. By God’s grace, the paperwork was approved right away, and my parents felt it was almost time to go back to Thailand.

The time came when the Lord told my parents very clearly that we were to return to Thailand in exactly two weeks.

People would ask them, “well, do you have the money?”

“No.”

“Has someone told you they will send you the money?”

“No.”

But God’s words hadn’t changed.

The following Thursday, a friend invited my parents to go to a prayer meeting with them, and there they met some people who were missionaries to a country in Africa, and had an orphanage there. They told them the story of their call, and that when God told them that they would be leaving, they packed their bags and put them by the door, even though they didn’t yet have the money. This story inspired my mom, and she did the same, packing all of our suitcases and placing them by the door, in trusting anticipation of God’s provision.

Right on time, through various means, God provided my parents with just enough money to buy one-way tickets back to Thailand, and a couple days later we left, and haven’t been back to the US since.

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¹ Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” ³ He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ⁵ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” ⁶ he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. ⁷ You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ⁸ “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; ⁹ in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'”

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were a religious group that emphasized purity, kept the Jewish oral traditions zealously, and were probably the one group that opposed Jesus in His ministry more than any other. Although the Pharisees may have started out with good intentions, over the years they had become hypocritical, and over all seemed to have strayed from the heart of many of the traditions and principles that God had put in place, like keeping the Sabbath, prayer, fasting, and many others. In Matthew chapter 15 we see that the Pharisees kept traditions that contradicted the very commandments of God, yet complained against Jesus’ disciples that they did not wash their hands before eating, a tradition passed down by mere men.

John 12 says “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” (Jhn 12:42-43 ESV)

Many times in the Bible, Jesus warned His disciples, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven,” (Mat 6:1 ESV) and He goes on to teach us how these acts of righteousness ought (and ought not) to be done.

In giving to the needy:

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mat 6:2-4 ESV)

In prayer:

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mat 6:5-6 ESV)

In fasting:

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mat 6:16-18 ESV)

In Jesus’ day, it seems as though many of the Jews had “abandoned the love [they] had at first,” (see Rev 2:4) and instead sought the approval of Man. In truth, this is a problem we still see today, and in this present age, the words of Isaiah the prophet still ring true, that, “this people draw near with their mouth and honor [God] with their lips, while their hearts are far from [Him]” (Isa 29:13 ESV) And this is something that causes many Christians to stumble. But God’s desire is that when His people give to those in need, pray, fast, or in anything they do, that they would “do all to the glory of God,” (1 Co 10:31 ESV) and, “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with [their] hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and [their] bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb 10:22 ESV)

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“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

A couple years ago, I took a course in photography. In this class we learned techniques and various principles in photography that would help us convey the message that we want in our finished pictures. In photography, composition is extremely important, because the composition of a photograph will have an effect on the finished product, or, to put it another way, our “big picture.” If this is not done correctly, the photo may come out imbalanced or convey a different message than the one we intended. So, before we press the shutter button, let us first think long and hard about what we want our “big picture” to look like.

Let’s say there is a beautiful landscape set out before us. The sun is beginning to set, there are mountains, trees, a stream, and a long road leading to a tiny house in the distance. Different photographers will take different pictures. One person’s photo may emphasize the horizon and mountains, another may use the stream or road to draw our eyes to the little house, and yet another may use the silhouette of a tree as the main focus of their photo. Each picture will emphasize something and tell their own story depending on the photo’s composition and where the photographer chooses to focus.

By now, you may have already guessed that I’m not just talking about a principle in photography.

In the Bible, Jesus compares our eyes to a lamp. If our eye is good, then our whole body will be full of light, and if our eye is evil, our whole body will be full of darkness. Here we might ask, “How can one’s eye be evil?” In this passage, Jesus is not speaking specifically about our physical eye, but actually He is speaking again about our “treasures,” or that which is first in our hearts. If our eye were a camera lens, we might use the words “focal point,” because in the end, that which we continually focus on, will become our big picture.

To put it simply, Jesus is the light, and if our eye is focused on anything other than Him, that is darkness. The first chapter of John speaks of Jesus this way, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” And again, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:4, 9-12 NIV)

In the original Greek, Matthew uses the word “haplous” (ἁπλοῦς) in the place of “good.” “If your eyes are good [haplous], your whole body will be full of light.” The word “haplous” means “whole,” “single,” or “singular,” and is actually the antonym for the Greek word for “double” From this definition, we might translate Jesus’ words another way: “If your heart is undivided, your whole body will be full of light.”

As soon as Jesus finished speaking of this, He said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” And here we come to the heart of this passage. Within the heart of each and every person there lies a throne, upon which only one may sit. That one is that which we make first in our lives, and if that is not Jesus Christ, the only true light, our whole body will be full of darkness.

“. . .If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

(Picture courtesy of Good News Productions International and College Press Publishing)

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