Open The Eyes

This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So, how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey. We're glad that you're with us this week.

And it was a beautiful day today, guys. How many of you are able to get outside? You can't just raise your hands because they can't see it on the radio. Oh, wait a listen. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. So more than one of you. Yeah. Yeah.

We went from, gosh, single digits last week to 66 today, something like that. 67, 68, somewhere around in there. Yeah, you know, 220, 221. Yeah. Yeah, no, I got out.

I got out. Me and a couple of guys I work with went to down in McKay's here and just. It felt amazing. this afternoon. Almost wish I would have rode my bike.

Yeah, I was out on the job site today and started the morning, you know, it was in the 20s. And so, you know, I got my Winter clothes on, and then by about, I don't know, 11, I'm like, oh my gosh, I could be wearing shorts out here today. You know, it was just so much of a change. But welcome to North Carolina, if that's not what you're used to. The topic this week came to me.

Just God laid a song on my heart. It's a song I've known, but I haven't listened to it for a long time. Don't know why I haven't listened to it, but uh I just haven't. And I kept hearing it. In my head, and I'm like, okay, I've got to do a topic, and I hear the song again.

I'm like, okay, God, that's maybe that's what you're telling me, is I need to use it for the topic, and it's open the eyes of my heart. And we'll play that as a bump coming back in from the break, at least a part of the chorus. But it comes from a scripture in Ephesians. And it's Ephesians, let me get to it here. seventeen uh one seventeen through eighteen where Paul writes I keep asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened and that you In order that you may know the hope. to which he has called you. the riches of His glorious inheritance and His holy people.

So he's praying for the eyes of the people he's writing to, of their heart, to be open. Right now it may sound a little weird. But you know, the heart. Other than in our western philosophy, the heart scripturally, the heart traditionally in other cultures has been the center of wisdom. We're very brain-oriented in the West, and so we think of wisdom as our thoughts, it's how we feel.

But your deepest decisions are always in your heart. You know, we've talked about it on the air, but you don't typically make a decision to have kids because it's a good financial decision. Right on paper, you're m at a losing cause there. Right, but what about that decision is anything to do with paper? Right, and so you make your deepest, your most intimate decisions, and that's what God is after.

That's where God dwells in your heart.

So it's all about your heart. Yeah. And so I um I was thinking about that and so I have to admit, I have not watched the chosen. and I was a s I was skeptical. Of it because the first few times I tried to watch it, I just wasn't getting into it.

And to be fair, I haven't still watched it. But I did find this clip that I thought was really amazing. from it. And in this clip what's happening is Mary Magdalene had had Followed Jesus, became a believer in Jesus, and then something in her life made her step away and fall back into her old ways. And so, when we pick up this scene, a friend of hers is bringing her back in to where Jesus is, and you get to hear their dialogue, and that's where we pick it up.

So it's good to have you back. I don't know what to say. I don't require much. I'm just so ashamed. You redeemed me and I just threw it all away.

Well, that's not much of a redemption if it can be lost in a day, is it? I owe you everything. Yeah. I just don't think I can do it. Do what?

Live up to it. Repay you? How could I leave? How could I go back? to the place I was.

I just can't live up to it.

Well, that's true, but you don't have to. Yeah. I just want your heart. A Father just wants your heart. Give us that.

which you already have. And the rest will come in time. Did you really think that you'd never struggle or sin again? I know how painful that moment was for you.

Someday. But not here. Yeah, I'm just so sorry. That's right. Look up.

Yeah. I can't. You can. Look at me. Yeah.

Yeah. I forgive you. Yeah. It's over.

Okay, so I have to admit, when I watched that clip, it brought me to tears. You know, Mary Magdalene so many times. in my life, you know that I find myself on the other side of sin. Feeling like here I am again. And just the way that the writers of that chose to portray Jesus.

I think it must align with how Jesus really is because I've seen him do that over and over in my life. Yeah, I think that all of us can identify with Mary. I remember. when I was a very young preacher. and was at my home one day, had come home from the office to eat lunch or something.

was sitting there and and a knock came on the door. And uh I answered the door and the guy said Are you the preacher? of the church up here? And I said, Yeah, I am. And He said, Can I talk to you?

And I said, Sure. And so I invited him in, you know, to the house. I could kind of tell there was something going on. I didn't know exactly what at the time. But um He he said, uh Have you ever been to the bar down here on the corner of Wolf Road and Main Street?

And I said, well, And he said, Well, well, I have. And I said, Okay. And by that time, I kind of understood what was going on. He had just come from the bar. And He said Well, you know that big mirror they have on the back of the wall?

And I was like, Well, no, I've never been there. And he goes, Well, they have this big mirror. And I was like, Okay. And he said, look, I was sitting there drinking just a few minutes ago. And that mirror There was this bright, bright light that came in that mirror.

And it was Jesus. And Jesus told me to come talk to you. And I was like. That's cool. And at the time, I wasn't real certain that that was exactly what had happened, but I didn't know how he got where he was, other than maybe Jesus told him.

So I listened and and he said, look, I'm changing my life. Right now. And I said, That's awesome. You know, how can I help you with that? And he was like, Well, I think I need to I think I need to, you know, accept Christ and I think I need to be baptized.

And I said, We can we can do all that. But I could tell he was also pretty inebriated at the time. And so It wasn't that I wasn't going to do it, but I just wanted to talk to him and make sure that he kind of understood what was going on. And the more I talked to them, the more he kept saying, I'm changing. I mean, I'm never going to sin again.

I'm not. And I was like, well, wait a minute. And I began to talk to him kind of like Jesus was talking to Mary there and saying, look, look, you. You think you're never going to struggle? And he was like, well, no, I'm not.

I'm not. And I mean, and I tried to push back a little bit.

Well, he got mad. I mean, he was furious with me. But. In my kind-heartedness, I was trying to say, Look, you are setting yourself up for major failure by thinking you're never gonna fail. And I just want to be kind to you, and I don't want to lie to you.

and tell you It's a magic switch in time. We would all love that. I mean, I would love it. I mean, I've been a Christian. The vast majority of my life.

I would still love it today if I could flip a switch and never have to deal with sin or never have to deal with upsetting someone or hurting someone or any of those things. But the reality is, that's not going to happen. Sanctification happens, and that's what Jesus is telling Mary there. The rest will follow. Absolutely.

But we don't like the rest will follow. We want it now. Yeah, we are very instant-oriented. Yeah. You know, it's one of those things is you're telling the story of what that guy says, and we've talked about it on the air many times.

Those words always and never. They're not from God, except when He tells you He's always going to love you and He'll never forsake you. Those are from God. Right. But usually when you hear those things, it's the enemy trying to get you to buy into his lie.

Right, that you're never going to sin again. I thought that when I first became a Christian, and how hard did I fall pretty quickly? Right, and then all the shame and condemnation comes on top of that, and that's what you're hearing in Mary. There. There's so many things God has opened my eyes to.

But the one if I had to narrow it down other than my salvation, Right. is in healing and all the things that led to it. is when he finally helped me understand forgiveness. It began with forgiveness of others that had really done some things in my life that weren't pleasant. And uh You know, I thought that was hard.

You know, but then it got down to when it was real and I had to learn how to forgive myself. over the things that the enemy had long convinced me was my fault. You know, that I somehow had caused the molestation in my life, that somehow I deserved for a sister to treat me the way she treated me, that you know, if I would have been better, if I could have done this, you know, something obviously I did wrong. Right? And it's so ingrained in you.

from the time you're little it's been with you so long you don't even know it's there. Right. And and it's one of those things when I finally got to the place where God helped me understand that forgiveness of others because then it lost power over me. But the one that was a game changer is and the continued game changer is helping me forgive myself. You know, I sin.

In Western, I beat the snot out of myself because I know better. Right, but that's just where the enemy wants me. Great. Yeah, Jesus is not in our. I mean, he's not really...

impressed by your Um beating yourself up. I mean, yeah, Paul does talk about, you know, Buffeting your body and all of these things, and running the race correctly. But That's not without failure and Jesus knows it. Yeah, yeah, and Jesus isn't. He'll convict you.

You know, he'll say, hey, you did something wrong, but he won't condemn you. And that's the enemy's job. And we've talked about that many times. We probably will later. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for the boot camp coming up March 12th through 15th.

What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I listened to Morgan Snyder's book, Driving to Work last year, and that was a very profound experience.

So, this kind of culminated into it. I'd have been invited to it several times, and just it never worked out. God really had it set up that I came last time.

So, coming into this one, I knew this one went deeper, and I really wanted it. It's a break for me to get outside of things I've got going on, and I just needed a break from it and needed to reconnect. It's been absolutely that, this process. The covenant of silence, silent prayer, those are some of my favorite parts. This is real connection with the Lord.

You hear him speak, you can get direction, guidance, anything you're missing is there. You always learn something new. It's fun experiencing it with other men. It's fun standing for them and what they're going through. We're all different than unique.

But we all go through the same struggles, and when you hear somebody else went through it too, it kind of gives you an encouragement that, hey, you can make it through this, and God's got you, and He's going to hold you up through it, and He's going to carry you to the next level. Register today at masculinejourney.org. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you.

I want to see you. Welcome back. I probably am going to destroy his name. It's Paul Balacci, I think is how you say his name. And that's the song that was in my head, and that version of the song that was in my head.

And I knew I'd heard it before, I couldn't really place where I'd heard it. I heard it several times. But I knew that there was one time in particular it really meant a lot to me, and for whatever reason it was just getting blocked of where it was. And so I'm on YouTube. I know the name of the song, Open the Eyes of My Heart.

And I'm getting everybody's version of it, and I'm playing it. Nope, that's not it. Nope, it's not Michael W. Smith. Nope, it's not this person.

And then finally, I just asked Chad GBT, I said, who was the originator, the person that originally sung the song? And they told me who it was, and I went and I listened to it, and then it all came back to me. I heard that the first time at my first boot camp. In Colorado, and it is a long song. It's about five minutes.

It's very repetitive, but what it does do. is really makes you focus on Father, just to open my eyes. You know, at the end of the day, I just want to see you. I want to see you in other people. I want to see you in myself.

I want to see you working on me, or whatever that may look like. Right? But that should be our prayer every day, in my opinion. It's just to open the eyes of my heart. And we're going to be talking about that the rest of this show and then the after hours.

Just. Different ways God has opened the eyes of our heart.

So Corey, what about you?

So for me Specifically, um last year, year before, it was really just the depths of his grace. And There is nothing I can do to outrun that grace. Doesn't matter how bad I think it is, doesn't matter how bad the world might think it is. He says look My blood covered that. My blood paid for that.

My sacrifice took care of that already. Yeah. you're still beating yourself up over this. It's done, it's gone. What are you even talking about?

And more to the point that I've really got to forgive myself even for the things that you know, happened years and years ago. That I've had been carrying for years now. And You know And what's crazy is The things that I'm still beating myself up for from years ago. I've done things since then that are objectively worse. Mm-hmm.

But Just the depth. and the power and the reach. and the wholeness Of his grace and his faithfulness to take everything I've done, take it on himself on the cross. carry it to the grave and say it is finished. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, one of my uh we talked about this before the show, one of our favorite videos is a guy named John Lynch. where he talks about grace. It's about a 45 minute Thing on YouTube, you can go get it. It's not the football player, so if you see somebody tackling somebody else, it's not the right guy. It's John Lynch, and it's called the Navigators.

He's not that kind of preacher. He might tackle you. But no, and one of the things he's talking about, and I hate to ruin it for you, Corey, if you haven't seen it, but at one time he's talking about he and Jesus. looking together at Yeah. He's like, my, my, my, that is a lot of sin.

But he said, don't worry about it. Together, we'll take care of it. You know, and it just... Our sin entraps us. It doesn't entrap Jesus.

Jesus is above and beyond all that. Right, he's our navigator to get. through that, that muck that we sometimes choose to put ourselves in.

sometimes is chosen for us. Right. And those old things you go back to, Corey, as we talked about a little bit earlier. Those are the ones that were in your foundational development. And they've been with you longer than anything else in your life, just about.

Right, and that's why it just feels so normal or so This is the way it's supposed to be. Right, when it's really not. It's just been in our, entwined in us for years and years and years. Amen. Terry, you want to share a little bit about how Jesus has opened the eyes of your heart?

I would love to because it was probably one of the best journeys of my life. It was like a starting over of learning to breathe. I was at a men's retreat and um My brother, my blood brother, my older brother had gone. And if you were married, you could have took your wife, you could have took your wife, and that's how it's always been. But this time, my sister-in-law, she didn't go, so it was just he and I and every other guy in the state of South Carolina was a part of United Methodist Minute at the time.

Um So I knocked on his room door. It was a Saturday afternoon. We had a break time so you could go out with your friends, your family, whatnot, hang out a few minutes on the beach or whatever you want to do. His sister-in-law didn't go. I knocked on his door and asked, Hey, man, what are you going to do?

Go something to eat? And he told me, No. He says, Terry, I'm tired. It's been a long week. I'm just going to lie here and give up on some rest.

I said, Okay, cool. I said, Well, look. Let me bring something back. I said, what do you want? And he goes on, man, whatever you get, you know, whatever you get, just bring back.

Okay.

So I started to walk out of his room. and I'm going down towards the the parking lot, car lot, or whatever. And I'm feeling this thing like, you know what it sounds like when somebody deposit coins in a bank and go, ching-link. I felt this jingle in them. Oh, okay.

So I kept my journey going on, got in my car.

Well, I'm realizing I had spent 20-some years in the military.

So I hadn't been in the house with this guy over 20-some years. I don't know what he likes.

So I pick up my phone, pick up the phone, I call my sister-in-law, look. I said, what does Larry like? You know what? I'm going to get something. She directed me to the frozen food section in Walmart or Kmart and she said, Hey, if you get this over the phone, you get one of them, get one.

He'll be fine.

Okay, cool. Go there, make two purchases, one for him, one for me. Walk up to gather up a couple bottles of water, go up to the register, pay for it. And again, I feel a chilling.

Okay.

So I as the way going back to the um hotel I remember I had no utensils, man, I had no plastic wear. Oh my god, this ain't gonna work.

So there's a KFC off on my right-hand side. I needed to make a turnip to get the red light, KFC.

So I pull in there.

So here I am and this line is like three people deep. and I noticed in the guy at the register it was a tall Yeah. And on the side of him, there was a short, to be more specific, there was a taller white kid, gentleman. On the side of him, it was a shorter black lady. I think she was actually showing him how to take orders.

Obviously, he was probably a new employee.

So I can see she was poking pink things and whatnot, you know, as these customers went down. When I got to the front of the line, she said, hey, I'll be right back. She went, I looked at the kid. He looked at me, I said, man, this is the easiest order all day. I said, you could do it.

He said, What is it? What is it? I said, Man, all I need is some plastic ware. You know, a fork knew. And he threw both arms up in there.

You can't see me on Riddle, Lamb. He went, Woohoo, I got this. I got this. And he pointed towards the parts over there with all the ketchup. He said, Man, whatever you want.

I said, Are you sure? He goes, Yeah. You know, we Give a bump fist and laughing and whatnot. He goes, hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo. I walk out the door and I feel a ching-ling again.

I'm driving towards the back to the resort. Get up to the resort and knock on Larry's door. And he goes, Hey man, here you go. What do you want me to do? Do you want me to do this for you?

He goes, Terry, just set it over there. He said, I'll get it. I said, You sure? He goes, Yeah. I said, Okay, man, cool.

You know, I set it on the side there. As I walk out, I feel it again.

So now I know God is trying to do something, right? And I'm trying to put it together because I'm excited. God, what are you doing? I'm trying to shake this tree, see what falls.

Okay, so I tried to explain it to a couple of my friends that was at the retreat, and I couldn't do it.

So I realized quickly that God wasn't finished yet, so I couldn't explain it. that following Monday, Me and Larry, my brother, who was at a retreat with me, we were at a homegoing for a mutual friend. And I had figured out, I had found out that Sunday what God was telling me, what God told me. And this is the clincher, guys.

Okay, I am excited about men's ministry. I think it's one of the greatest things in the world and easy. This is what God told me, and I told my brother Larry this. I said, God told me. to be effective in what he called me to do.

I must treat every man as if he is my brother.

Okay?

Now God used my my natural brother who I dearly love. And he said, man, if you're going to be effective, you've got to treat everybody that way. You can't pick and choose. You got to do the same thing, dude. You got to hustle to the store, pick it up, make sure it's right, make the stops, get it right, then present it to him.

And I can honestly tell you, gentlemen, I had not walked away from that. You know, and it kind of it's crazy because that was just a seed of what God dropped into my heart. Because on that same thing, as I'm a granddad now, I've got two awesome grandsons, but there are other little kids. Around us have no relation to me, but just happen to be in my circle, they call me granddad. You know what?

I have to love them the same way. My daughter-in-law has taught me how to be a man with other women, younger women, that's not mine, but how to love them like a daughter. I've got other women as single moms with kids. The kids call me granddad, and I treat them as my daughter. That seed has blossomed into something that I could have never imagined only because God opened my heart.

Man, that's good.

So, you got all that from KFC. The only thing I can remember growing up is they had the spork, which was a spoon-fork combination. That was the greatest thing ever. But here's Topset by far, Terry.

Well, I just wanted to say our boot camps are way better than his men's retreat was. Yeah, absolutely. Because we feed people there. You don't have to go to Walmart to get food. If you come to, I mean, Robby makes brisket, we do all sorts of things.

I mean, it's awesome, good stuff. Yeah, yeah, I think God wanted to teach me how to hustle in the ministry, bro. Oh, there you go.

Okay.

All right. That's a cool story, Terry. That really is a cool story. I think he's trying to teach us to relax. Yes.

Right. And to be present. Yes. When we're there. And that therefore you go to Walmart one time before boot camp and you don't go till after you're done.

You try not to. Yeah. Food line maybe. But not not Walmart. We don't have time to really get into another one unless Wei has a quick one.

On wh when God's opened the eyes of your heart. Grant, you got something? Yes. Remember that one is a very, very bad accident? Mm-hmm.

Remember saying that to the Lord. Yeah. Absolutely. And he's done that, hasn't he? Yeah.

Now now God has opened the eyes of your heart. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I notice a lot of times what you comment on, Grant, when you comment is about Jesus' love.

And so I'm guessing that that's one of the things that he really opened your eyes to is just how much he loves you. Yes. So I can So I'm Give to others. Absolutely. You know, love what you return what you've been given.

Right? Because we're not called to be reservoirs, we're called to be rivers. Right? Not store it up to let it flow through us. And so I hear you do that pretty often: is really share a lot about God's love, and that's pretty cool.

Anyone else got anything they want to throw in there real quick? We've got a little bit more time. We've got a minute. Itself is man to man. And m and me to my mother.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'll talk about this more probably in the next after-hours show, but There's a whole list of things when I really think about it. Anything I've improved upon in my life? is attributed to God open the eyes of my heart. You know, if I'm a better father, which I hope that I am than I was, right, it's because of God's work.

If I'm going to be a better husband to my fiancée, it's because of God's work in my life. Right, and it takes him opening your eyes of your heart. to see him and know how to do it with him. Right, and walking that journey with him, and that's key. You know that in any situation, Just asking God, God, open my eyes.

You know, I remember having some difficult things to walk through. Man, they've always went a lot better when I've asked him to be with her with they're with me. Mm-hmm.