{"id":345,"date":"2008-02-26T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-26T14:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html"},"modified":"2008-02-26T14:41:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-26T14:41:00","slug":"seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Life thru the Mind&#8217;s Eye"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R8Rr6QB20RI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/GvDwFkzwPpY\/s1600-h\/mindseye.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R8Rr6QB20RI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/GvDwFkzwPpY\/s400\/mindseye.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>This morning in chapel we had an excellent sermon by Rev. Fleming Rutledge on John 9.  It talked about various ways of seeing and being seen, and most especially  being seen by God. It also talked about various forms of blindness.  My friend Meltem from Turkey recently sent me a link to a most amazing story about a man not only born blind, but born without eyeballs, who is a remarkable painter of three dimensional landscapes which he has never seen in his entire life.   The scientists are of course baffled by all of this as the man never has &#8216;seen&#8217; things by means of his eyes, but only through his mind&#8217;s eye,  his mental imagination of how it must look.  Of course he has heightened senses of tactile feeling, and perhaps his other senses as well,  but Ezraf from Ankara in Turkey is a reminder of how &#8216;fearfully and wonderfully&#8217; we are made and frankly how little we actually understand about all of our composition.   Ezraf to me is a reminder of how, despite all normal expectations,  God can use our disabilities even for his glory, as John 9 says.     Check out his story here&#8212;<\/p>\n<div class=\"ExternalClass\">\n<div><span style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:85%\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L3AgO6H0H98&amp;eurl=http:\/\/widget-58.slide.com\/widgets\/sf.swf\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size:100%;color:#1e66ae\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L3AgO6H0H98&amp;eurl=http:\/\/widget-58.slide.com\/widgets\/sf.swf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> document.getElementById(&#8220;MsgContainer&#8221;).innerHTML=&#8217;\\x0d\\x0a\\x0d\\x0a\\x3cmeta http-equiv\\x3dContent-Type content\\x3d\\x22text\\x2fhtml\\x3b charset\\x3dunicode\\x22\\x3e\\x0d\\x0a\\x3cmeta name\\x3dGenerator content\\x3d\\x22Microsoft SafeHTML\\x22\\x3e\\x0d\\x0a\\x0d\\x0a\\x0d\\x0a\\x3cstyle\\x3e\\x0d\\x0a\\x3c\\x2fstyle\\x3e\\x0d\\x0a\\x0d\\x0a\\x0d\\x0a\\x3cdiv\\x3e\\x3cfont face\\x3dArial size\\x3d2\\x3e\\x3cfont size\\x3d3\\x3ePlease watch\\x21\\x3c\\x2ffont\\x3e\\x3c\\x2ffont\\x3e\\x3c\\x2fdiv\\x3e\\x0d\\x0a\\x3cdiv\\x3e\\x3cfont face\\x3dArial size\\x3d2\\x3e\\x3cfont size\\x3d3\\x3eAmazing ,unbelievable , a blind \\x0d\\x0aTurkish Painter.\\x3c\\x2ffont\\x3e\\x3c\\x2ffont\\x3e\\x3c\\x2fdiv\\x3e\\x0d\\x0a\\x3cdiv\\x3e\\x3cfont face\\x3dArial size\\x3d2\\x3e\\x3cfont size\\x3d3\\x3e\\x3cbr\\x3e\\x3c\\x2ffont\\x3e\\x3ca href\\x3d\\x22http\\x3a\\x2f\\x2fwww.youtube.com\\x2fwatch\\x3fv\\x3dL3AgO6H0H98\\x26amp\\x3beurl\\x3dhttp\\x3a\\x2f\\x2fwidget-58.slide.com\\x2fwidgets\\x2fsf.swf\\x22 target\\x3d\\x22_blank\\x22\\x3e\\x3cfont color\\x3d\\x22\\x231e66ae\\x22 size\\x3d3\\x3ehttp\\x3a\\x2f\\x2fwww.youtube.\\x3cwbr\\x3ecom\\x2fwatch\\x3f\\x3cwbr\\x3ev\\x3dL3AgO6H0H98\\x26amp\\x3b\\x3cwbr\\x3eeurl\\x3dhttp\\x3a\\x3cwbr\\x3e\\x2f\\x2fwidget-\\x3cwbr\\x3e58.slide.\\x3cwbr\\x3ecom\\x2fwidgets\\x2f\\x3cwbr\\x3esf.swf\\x3c\\x2ffont\\x3e\\x3c\\x2fa\\x3e\\x3cbr\\x3e\\x3cbr\\x3e\\x3c\\x2fdiv\\x3e\\x3c\\x2ffont\\x3e\\x0d\\x0a&#8217;; As it turns out,  there is far more to &#8216;seeing&#8217;  than just having eyeballs,  as both Ezraf&#8217;s story and the story of the man in John 9 attest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning in chapel we had an excellent sermon by Rev. Fleming Rutledge on John 9. It talked about various ways of seeing and being seen, and most especially being seen by God. It also talked about various forms of blindness. My friend Meltem from Turkey recently sent me a link to a most amazing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Seeing Life thru the Mind&#039;s Eye - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeing Life thru the Mind&#039;s Eye - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This morning in chapel we had an excellent sermon by Rev. 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My friend Meltem from Turkey recently sent me a link to a most amazing&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-26T14:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R8Rr6QB20RI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/GvDwFkzwPpY\/s400\/mindseye.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seeing Life thru the Mind's Eye - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Seeing Life thru the Mind's Eye - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"This morning in chapel we had an excellent sermon by Rev. Fleming Rutledge on John 9. It talked about various ways of seeing and being seen, and most especially being seen by God. It also talked about various forms of blindness. My friend Meltem from Turkey recently sent me a link to a most amazing&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2008-02-26T14:41:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R8Rr6QB20RI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/GvDwFkzwPpY\/s400\/mindseye.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html","name":"Seeing Life thru the Mind's Eye - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R8Rr6QB20RI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/GvDwFkzwPpY\/s400\/mindseye.jpg","datePublished":"2008-02-26T14:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-26T14:41:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R8Rr6QB20RI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/GvDwFkzwPpY\/s400\/mindseye.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R8Rr6QB20RI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/GvDwFkzwPpY\/s400\/mindseye.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/seeing-life-thru-the-minds-eye.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Seeing Life thru the Mind&#8217;s Eye"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&amp;E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}