Hello Friends:
Imagine trying to go someplace with a veil covering your eyes. It would be very treacherous, wouldn’t it? Unless you are like my brother, who is completely blind. He has gotten used to navigating familiar places without sight. But unfamiliar places are another story.
Welcome to the Soulwinnersr.us website. Last week we discussed that in the coming weeks I would be sharing a series entitled, “Steps To God”, following mostly the Roman Road to Salvation with a few sidebars along the way. My first post is entitled “Steps to God 1: A Veil Over Our Hearts”.
What is a veil? Here are a couple meanings:
- The common one is the veil for centuries worn by brides when getting married. The veil is meant to signify purity.
- The curtain of the temple in the Old and New Testament of the Bible was known in older versions of the Bible as a veil. The curtain, or veil, was torn in two by a mighty earthquake during the crucifixion and death of Christ.
“We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside, but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed."Paul went on to write in 2 Corinthians 4:3:
“But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.”Those are stern words. I’m going to tell the story of how I had a veil over my heart to the gospel. I’m telling it because it is what I experienced firsthand. I hope that you can identify with me in your own lives the veil over your hearts before coming to Christ. Here’s my story of a veil over my heart:
“After high school and into my early 20’s I felt hopeless to find real meaning in my life. Right after high school I grew my hair long with a beard in my attempt to be what I call a hippie wannabe. I hung out with the drug and alcohol using crowd, and I dabbled in them myself. Maybe being an enlightened drug-using hippie would give me meaning.So, how is a veil over our hearts removed? We’ll talk about it in the coming weeks.
While living the hippie wannabe lifestyle I still felt empty inside, so while living in Wooster where I worked, I went to a local church. With my long hair and beard in a conservative, evangelical church I went forward at an altar call. I thought I found what would end my emptiness. I had some degree of excitement about what I did, but soon after, with little follow-up from the church, I was back hanging with the wrong crowd and again dabbling in drugs and alcohol. I do want to preface that I didn’t get too far into hard drugs because I was too much of a wimp, and it scared me out of my wits to think about getting caught and going to jail and even prison.
So, I cleaned up my act, and started working very hard, got a very good job, and I started trying to buy happiness. I bought a top-of-the line sound system and a brand-new Camaro. I was also socking money away into my savings account. Maybe making good money and buying everything I wanted would stop my emptiness. A degree of contentment lasted for a short while, but it quickly faded back toward my empty feelings worse than before.
I didn’t even realize it. I did all kinds of things to try to be relevant, to be enlightened and even spiritual. I strove to have positive outcomes, to meet my needs, many times to excess. I went through extended periods of time thinking I had things all figured out. I even went to church, and even went forward at an altar. But a veil over my heart remained.”
See you next time,
Arlen
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