When we meet Jesus, the muddy waters of our life make way for clarity.   #theloriclineshow   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   What do you see when the dirt settles? If you have a jar of dirty water and you keep shaking it and shaking it, the water will never be given a chance to clear. Look around, there’s a whole lotta shakin goin on and I’m not talking Jerry Lee Lewis lyrics. The water around us is murky. It’s hard to see through all the dirt that keeps getting stirred up. Truth is being clouded and sadly many will never clearly see. Matthew 13:15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ Here Jesus is quoting the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah was prophesying about Jesus seven hundred years before Jesus. Many would see and witness all the miracles and cultural impact of Jesus’ ministry, but they wouldn’t SEE and know Jesus. Jesus was using Isaiah's words to once again highlight that the more you refuse to be still, seek and know God, the water will always be cloudy in a way and your eyes will never see. If you’re watching this today, by God’s grace, you have been given an opportunity to be still and stop shaking the water. Let the rhetoric and noise around you fall to the ground. Open your eyes and your heart to see what God would have you see. For you, this could be the moment the water becomes clear and you see Jesus. There was a moment like that for the Apostle Paul. He couldn’t see what was right. His ways and thoughts were not the ways and thoughts of God. What he thought was right was wrong and the truth he was convinced he was protecting, he was actually persecuting. But the water was about to clear and his eyes were about to be opened. Acts 9:1-8 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. What Saul thought was right, was wrong. He had it all upside down. He couldn’t see the truth of Jesus because he kept muddying up the water with his own way over God’s way. Jesus stopped him in his tracks and turned his life around. Saul’s encounter with the Lord left him literally blind for three days. But I guarantee during those three days he couldn’t physically see, the waters of his life were becoming crystal clear. What he was believing to be true and how he was living his life was all about to change. He even got a new name. That’s what happens when we meet Jesus. The water settles, we see what is true and He makes us new. That’s the truth. Let the water clear. Listen for the voice of the Lord in your life. Call upon His name right now and be saved. You’ll see yourself on a different path with a new name. I’m Lori Cline.