<TITLE>03. Par 13-21</TITLE>L-13 And he fumbled around till he found him a rock that was out in the sun, that had probably fell off the walls when God had shook the old wall down, the days of Joshua. He sat down on this rock, and was trying to think about his dream the night before, how real it would be if he really could see. But, he--he couldn't see. He was blind. And he begin to think about these things, and his mind drifted back to boyhood.

L-14 You know, I--I like to do that, sit and think about things that's gone by, pleasant things, of victories I've seen the Lord win, and--and the times.

L-15   And Bartimaeus, as we know him by name, dreaming that night that he received his sight, he begin to think about how real it would be if he really could see. He thought, "Oh, I've been blind so long, I don't know how I'd even know how to get around again." So he begin to think about many years back, when he was a little boy. He used to play out there on the hill, the side, it's on the bank where the Jordan comes down; and the valley is down there, which they raised grain. And he lived up on the side of the hill, we'll say. And he remembered how pretty it was, and in the Springtime, to--to watch the--the little flowers as they growed; and how he would pick little handfuls of them, and sit down and look at the pretty blue skies.

L-16 You know, blindness is a horrible thing. When I see a man, blind, my heart goes out for him. But, yet, I know of a blindness that's worse, spiritual blindness; how God made man to--to visualize Him, and they can't do it.

L-17   One time, the Cincinnati zoo, I was down there, my little daughter and we were. I'm a great lover of outdoors, as you know. And I seen they caught an eagle and--and put him in a cage, and that poor fellow! I heard a noise; and I was holding little Sarah by the hand, and we--we went down to the cage. And there this great big bird, bloody all over his face, feathers all beat off of him. I thought, "What a pitiful sight!"

L-18 He got down. He walked back across the cage. He got a start, and here he come, flopping his wings again, to--to burst his head against the side of the--of the cage, flopping his wings up-and-down, trying to get out of the cage, and beating the feathers off. But he was captured. He fell back on the floor and laid there, and his eyes rolled around, he looked up and seen the blue skies which he was born for. He is a heavenly bird, you know. But, you see, some wise achievement of man had put him in a cage.

L-19   I stood there looking at it. I thought, "I'd give anything if I could buy him. If I could buy him, I'd turn him loose, say, 'Go ahead, old fellow, you'll--you'll like that. I do too. Be free and go on up there. You belong up there. You were born for that.'" I thought, "That's the most pitiful sight I ever seen."

L-20 I picked up Sarah, held her on my arm. I said, "Honey, there is one of the worse sights your eyes will ever look at."

L-21 I stood there, thinking. I thought, "No, I--I know a worse sight than that. Look up on the hill there; them man with a can of beer in their hand, women with shorts on, a cigarette." When they were actually born to be sons and daughters of God, and there they are in a cage of sin that Satan has put them in. Pitiful, spiritually blind, caged up; maybe belong to some church, sing in a choir, but yet caged in sin.


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