“REALITYREALITY OR ILLUSION” by Pastor Charles C Elliott…..
Or, subtitled….Don’t believe everything you think you see and only part of what you hear……
Even though the slab of concrete and the hole are only painted on the flat surface of the walk way, they are so real looking, appearing to have virtual depth and width, people walk around them as though they are real….One of the things that most affects our experience of the world around us is our perception of how things are…or the way that we see things. In any given moment, we have choices about what and how we will perceive anything and everything around us, and we have choices about the conclusions we will draw from our perceptions and what we will then do with that information.
I think of the story of the Lone Ranger and Tonto who were camping outdoors, on the trail. They had crawled under their blankets and were lying there looking up at the sky. The Lone Ranger said, “Tonto, look up. What do you see?” “Kemo Sabi, I see thousands of stars,”…. “And what does that mean to you?” Tonto asked… “Well, it means we will have another nice day tomorrow. What does it mean to you, Tonto?”.. “Kemo Sabi, I believe it means that someone has stolen our tent.” In our lives we are constantly making judgments based on our perceptions, whether or not those perceptions are accurate. We can’t get around it—it’s a necessary part of being a human being. The challenge, however, is to be aware of our perceptions, to check them out, test them to see if they are a true glimpse of reality. Because if we don’t, then we might end up believing and accepting conclusions which result in bad choices and can even put ourselves and others at risk.
An illusion is to judge the size of an iceberg only by what you see above the water, reality is what you don’t see under the water…an illusion is what sank the Titanic…..
The hard part in all of this is to accept that we are limited creatures at best—we have limited vision, limited imagination, limited patience, limit after limit. Therefore, we often find ourselves perceiving only what is most obvious or what we really want to perceive. And even if we try to be more aware, more objective, acknowledging that there is always more than meets the eye in any situation, it is difficult to always remember or accept what is beyond our will, our emotions and beyond our feelings.
The definition of “Fear” is “False Evidence Appearing Real”… When your view is limited and the fog of uncertainty obscures your reality, then your conclusions are cloudy and unclear…..Somehow, we get swept up in the illusions of life, the smoke and mirrors, the petty dynamics of pride and resentment and greed and the need for control. Or we get seduced by the illusory comforts and securities that are promised by one thing or another in our world. And often, even if those things become self-destructive, we hold on to them, because of what we perceive we are getting from them. And we allow these things to cloud our vision…. and our perception of things becomes tainted as we forget that at the heart of every human person is a depth and purpose and potential that is not readily apparent on the surface.
Speaking of not understanding what we see…..An old man and his wife lived deep in the hills and seldom saw anyone. One day a peddler came by to sell his goods and asked the man if he or his wife wanted to buy something. "Well, my wife ain't home, she's gone down to the creek to wash clothes, but lemma see what you got," said the man. The peddler showed him pots and pans, tools and gadgets, but the old man wasn't interested. Then he spotted a mirror and said, "What's that?" Before the peddler could tell him, the old man picked it up looked at it close and said, "My God how'd you get a picture of my Pappy?" The old man was so happy, he bought it and before his wife came back he hid it in the barn behind some boxes of junk because he figured she would be mad at him for spending what little money they had. He would go out to the barn 2 or 3 times a day to look at the "picture" of his pappy and eventually the wife got suspicious. One day she got fed up and after he went to bed, she went out to the barn. She saw the mirror behind the boxes, picked it up, looked at it close and said, “I knew he was messing around and up to no good….so this is the woman he’s been messing around with”!!!
There is a wise and beneficial Native American expression, that says, “you don’t know someone until you’ve walked a mile in their moccasins”. . And so often we don’t always stop and recognize, that wherever, however and whenever Life is happening, God is there too, and He’s doing things far beyond what we can see or understand. We must not be so quick to judge or blame someone else….But we need to have our eyes washed with the word and our hearts opened by the Holy Spirit to perceive beyond our emotions, insecurities and intellect ….
Mark 9:2 “And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter, and James, and John, and led them up into an high mountain and He was transfigured before them. v3 And His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no soap on earth can whiten them. v4 And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. v5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Eljah. v6 For he knew not what to say; for they were greatly afraid. v7 And there was a cloud that overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear Him. v8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, except Jesus only.”
We read the story of Jesus journeying up a mountain with three of His closest friends and disciples and we learn just how limited the disciples’ perception of Jesus has been. At the top of the mountain we are told simply that Jesus “was transfigured before them.” Exactly what does this mean?
The word which Mark uses here is the Greek word, metamorphos. It is the word that we use to describe what happens in the process of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. So to see a person transfigured, is to have a vision of who that person really is from the inside out, to be able to see the person in their fullness, their wholeness, their glorious possibility realized in a flash. At the top of that mountain, Peter, James and John were given, as one poet has put it, “a glimpse from God’s eyes.” They saw for a moment what was most true; they perceived in words so clear they couldn’t deny them, that Jesus was more, much more. They became metamorphosed by the truth that Jesus stands alone as the fullness of God’s glory, as the Son, the Beloved, the One we are to listen to. Any illusion is dispelled and reality takes it’s place…..
Mark 8:27 “And Jesus went out, and His disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi and on the way, He asked His disciples, saying unto them, Who do men say that I am? v28 And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elijah and others say, You’re one of the prophets. v29 And He said unto them, But whom do you say that I am?....
Just before going up the mountain, Jesus knows that the disciples are concerned about what other people say about him, how others have perceived him and in their caterpillar stage they were only concerned about how that reflected upon them, so they were wanting to protect His reputation and be his P.R. people in Israel….
Their perceptions are nice, good, flattering (and of course, through the eyes of others!) But he doesn’t listen to everyone else’s perceptions of who He was. He was able to stay so connected to who He was at His core, that He wasn’t distracted by others’ expectations….maybe this clear sense of “who He was and what His mission was” is what allowed Him to be so effective in ministering to the needs of those around him…
On the mountaintop, we see what God sees, the fullness of Jesus’ glory even in the face of His looming journey to Jerusalem, rejection, abandonment and death. We see in this story that Jesus is living according to what God sees…..according to God’s way. If He had listened to the perceptions of others, His life would have taken a very different path than the one He took.
You and I have choices about how we perceive and respond to our world, about how we perceive each other, and how we perceive ourselves. Do we seek to see with the eyes of our Christian faith, a faith which by it’s nature knows that there is more than meets the eye? Do we follow God’s command to “listen to Christ!” or do we choose instead to listen to other voices whose perceptions may have little to do with reality? Often, our limited perceptions lead us to waste our time and energy on being angry or resentful, hateful or negative, hurt or offended…. If we were to catch a glimpse of this person, or this situation from God’s eyes, what would we see and would our response be different when we did?”
I was challenged by a video I came across….which was about the need to present Christ and the difference which the power of the cross can make, to ISIS, to HAMAS, to those terrorist in power in IRAN, IRAQ, SYRIA, YEMEN, PALESTINE and northern AFRICA….and what about China, Japan, and Russia …. and my challenge was, have I cursed them or have I truly prayed that they would find Christ and be transformed by the power of the cross? I must admit, I had to do some repenting….
When we find ourselves bored, dissatisfied or disillusioned, we should ask ourselves “What does God see?” When we judge others harshly or assume the worst about another person, we should always stop and ask ourselves “What is it that is not revealed to me, but completely obvious to God?” When you find yourself beating yourself up for this weakness or that mistake, just stop and ask, “Who am I in God’s eyes?”
Stop and check your perceptions, and recognize that in every life and in every moment of life, God is there, desiring to bring it all into proper focus.
In every moment of life there is the present possibility of metamorphosis and transfiguration, in every situation and relationship. In the life of every human person is the promise of new life, growth and breaking free of the cocoon of our limited vision, to spread the wings of God’s higher perspective and mount up to a higher place. The path of this change may be through suffering, vulnerability, even death to the old ways of living, but the promise is that on the other side of death is resurrection, instead of loss we experience the greatest gain of all….and we enter into the ultimate transfiguration.
Often, when we talk about the story of Jesus being transfigured on the mountaintop, we think of those “mountaintop” experiences we have had in the past—those moments of life when the space between ourselves and God seemed to grow very thin and we felt alive and clear-minded as never before. In these moments, we can see what is real and what matters most of all. And we can understand Peter’s nervous impulse to want to set up camp and stay in that mountaintop place. But here’s the thing…. Jesus didn’t stay up on that mountain.
Jesus knew that He belonged and was needed most, at the bottom of the mountain, in the midst of the real lives and real situations of the people He was called to touch and minister to. We are given this story, to encourage us to explore our own mountaintop experiences, to learn that it is not only in church buildings or the quite sacred, secluded meeting places with Him that we are needed. But we are needed most as ambassadors, in our normal, everyday places of life, as we encounter, interact, and connect with the lives of others.
Jesus wants a place in our seeing and in our hearing, and in all the ups and downs of our journey….that we might see with the eyes of Christ, hear with the ears of Christ and love with the heart of Christ. Jesus doesn’t belong up on some mountain at our sacred monuments but in the monuments of our speech, of our thinking and of our behavior.
Jesus belongs right down in the middle of our lives—so that we can become transformed to be and see… and to bring forth others to become transformed into who they are created be and to see…
Psalms 1:1 “Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. v2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. v3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in every season, his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper.” We are often led to believe that our happiness is dependent on the circumstances of our lives, or our happenings. If things are going well, then we are happy but if things don’t go according to our plans, then we are doomed to despair and suffering. Happiness according to Psalms is about living in the ways and choosings of God. What truly makes us happy is living in God’s presence and the flow of God’s grace and mercy every day in this world.
Doing justice, loving mercy and acting with compassion and humility, are not just nice things to do when we have time for them. They are at the heart and essence of who we are as a people, created in the image of God.
Psalm 1 offers us a view of life that is God-centered instead of self-centered. If we are looking for true happiness in life, the wisdom of Psalm 1, tells us that we can only find it in getting rid of all our illusions of happiness by orienting our lives to God’s presence. We always have the choice to follow the path of God or to be lured into believing that there are other ways to happiness. Of course in this psalm the language is set in a clear contrast between the two paths.
The real problem comes when we substitute the illusions for what is real. Our emotional programs which we use to find happiness often revolve around three areas….
1. Power and control, 2. self-esteem and affection, and 3. our need for security and the survival instinct.
There is also a 4. the twin illusions of “prominence and permanence”. “We have the illusion that we can build a bank account, a home, a business, or a legacy that makes us secure.” In reality, prominence and permanence are fleeting and temporary at best….
If you can’t be a pencil to write someone’s happiness, then try to be a nice eraser to remove their illusions about it…..We must rewrite our emotional programs for happiness because, the biggest illusion of all is that happiness is an end in itself, when the reality is, that happiness is the result of other things which we do…..and what we do, is the results of the presence of God in our lives and experiencing that presence, everywhere in the world around us.
The good news for us today, is that sickness, lack, failure, and even death are only illusions… our health, our supply, our success, our happiness, and our life in Christ are eternal realities which were all paid for in full and established in blood, the moment we invited Him into our lives…. This is our reality. Sin and the curse which came from of it, were cancelled and taken out of the way….it’s not going to be done, It is done!
Colossians 2:13 “When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. But God brought you to new life - right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, v14 the slate was wiped clean, that old warrant of judgment that was posted against you, has been canceled and nailed to the Cross of Christ. v15 He has stripped all the spiritual terrorists in the universe of their illusion of authority and marched them naked in a triumphant processional, through the cosmos”.
The reality of faith is the ability to see the spiritual realm of life as the true, genuine substance and not just an intellectual or religious concept and obligation.
I remember the story about the fisherman who went out early in the morning before the sun came up and he came across a bag of pebbles. And to occupy himself, he started throwing them in the sea. As the dawn approached, however, he discovered that his three remaining “pebbles” were actually three priceless, uncut diamonds! But since the sunlight had not shined upon the stones, to bring out their true beauty and worth, he mistook them for common stones, until it was too late!
We need God’s light to bring out the true worth, and value of the people and things in our life.
The Brazilian amphibian fish lives partly on land and partly in the water, so it has two pair of lenses, one for seeing under the water and one for seeing above the water. It is the same way with us, as Christians in this world, we are spirit beings who live in a carnal, physical world. So, we need dual lenses, but most of us have developed cataracts on our spiritual lens. We often fail to perceive the world of the Spirit, because we have become preoccupied with the carnal emotions, the carnal appetites, and our carnal circumstances and environment of the earth realm, instead of operating the vast dimensions of the heavenly .
Someone has said that “Most people don’t really want the truth, they just want the constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth”… These illusions keep us stuck in our false, counterfeit self, by trying to persuade us away from whatever our spiritual development and growth require… All too often we conclude that something is valuable simply because so many people are chasing after it to get it. I've got to get me a pair of those boots. I've got to get me one of those electronic devices, because everybody's getting it. I've got to have a new body, and you get it and you’re still not happy because there was no change in character, outlook, personality and standards.
Shoot for just anything and you’ll hit it every time…The crowd should not set your values. Lasting values are set by a higher standard that comes out of heaven, not from earth. How often do people wake up one day and realize that all the things they thought they owned, actually own them!!! Ashes to ashes, dust to dust doesn’t sound so desirable when you just come right out and say it that way…and it’s a good description of what we also know as the rat race… A proper sense of value will insist that you choose things, not because of their popularity, emotional appeal, or acceptance of others, but because of their true worth.
Let’s be sure to follow the Shepherd, not just the crowd that’s following the Shepherd…. Someone once described our inability to be happy like going to a concert and realizing that you forgot to lock the car. And so there you sit. You’re stuck, you can’t leave, and you can’t enjoy the music, because you’re thinking about the car. This, is life for most of us. We’re preoccupied with other things and unable to enjoy the show. Most of the time we are unable to center our lives on God because we are preoccupied with illusions that seem real, which are constantly distracting us.
Greg Anderson in his book, “22 laws of wellness” writes about what he calls “the Law of Present Moment Living”. He writes, that "once we begin to appreciate the present moment, we start to realize what a wonderful place life is, no matter what the circumstances. Remember the Psalmist said, “this is the day the Lord has made, so rejoice, and be glad in it”. If you are immersed in life-enhancing activities and enjoying them with positive enthusiasm, then you are living in the moment," Greg continues. "This is a dimension of wellness that we are never going to know unless and until we cultivate a consciousness of living in the now. Commit yourself to life....Now, I don't mean commit yourself to living a certain number of years. I mean commit yourself to living each day, fully, productively, and joyfully. Commit yourself to wellness, not as a distant dream, but as a here-and-now reality. Put first things first. Do today what you've always wanted to do. Start enjoying each moment NOW! Gregg goes on… "Purpose, is your life's mission, your reason for existing. This law asks us to consider our great aim -- the work we have been brought on this earth to do. Everyone has a unique life mission," he goes on. There is for each and every person a perfect self-expression. This consists of the role he or she is to fill. Finding this self-expression is a task no one else can accomplish, it is something special to you and to me.... If we intend to experience total wellness, discovering and following our unique purpose is mandatory. Virtually every individual, should be driven by this deep and abiding sense of purpose.... This role is their life's true work, and there is no turning back.."
Picture yourself floating along in a river –God knows that we really enjoy being in the river, in fact we have committed ourselves to squeezing all the fun we can from that river. Now this river reaches a point where it flows under a bridge, and just before that bridge stands Jesus. And for some reason He’s pulling people out of the river. And these people are saying, "I don’t want to be taken out. I want to be with the rest of them, getting my kicks and having fun. I want to enjoy life". And now Jesus is lifting you. Despite your protests He hangs onto you and sets you on the shore where He is. Ignoring your protests, He points down the river, beyond the bridge, and when you look, you see that just beyond the bridge is a huge waterfall. You couldn’t see it from where you were because of the crowds going down the river. Only after you are given the Lord’s perspective of the situation do you realize what the Lord has done.
Your illusion has given way to reality the river has lulled you into enjoying everything it has to offer and trying everything the river had to offer, while it was steadily pulling you towards the falls. The shore, where Jesus is rescuing those caught in the illusions, becomes the focus and it all becomes about His mercy, His forgiveness, His grace and His love to all who will listen to His voice and obey.
This is my prayer today. Let the cross of Jesus open our eyes to enable us to build on a solid foundation, which cannot be influenced and distorted by the river of illusion. The cross is the place of forgiveness. The cross is the place of redemptive love. The cross is the greatest reality we all need and offers the security and an accurate view of life which we’re really needing and looking for. The world doesn’t need most of the things which they think will satisfy them, fulfill them, and bring them happiness…. God is pulling at my heart, for us to come together and join in prayer for the very folks who are dedicated to killing Christians….They’re caught in the river of illusions….they desperately need to get a new perspective…. On the cross, Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”…. There are many amazing reports of Christ appearing to terrorst and transforming their perspective and world view......We need to pray that the power of the cross, would transform their hearts and minds, even as it has done to ours, and transformed our way of seeing everything.!
