Time to Get Real 2

[HKHaugan]

Time to Get Real 2

Right now I’m going to ask us to take a walk through the field of meaning. Our minds are always at work anyway, every step actively on the path of interpretation, to clarify what is taking place before us. We stroll the pastures of speculation looking for what is true and false, right and wrong, trustworthy and
untrustworthy. We climb the hills of unresolved questions only to find ourselves coming down into the valley of choice and decision. It is there we face what is really real reality from our human perspective, which is finally finding ourselves at the crossroads of every next moment.

For each of us what we have chosen as ultimate reality determines the choices we make at that point and the consequent decisions we act upon. It is here that what we see becomes subject to what we can’t see. It is this basic human process that demands a reality that supercedes and precedes what is visible. The very process of humanity itself is already an invisible movement of ideas, choices, reasoning and action
determining behavior.

The simple word for describing that which we cannot see is spiritual. For us who see invisible reality as well as physical reality sourced in God it is spiritual reality upon which we base the way we climb the mountain of unresolved questions and stride through the valley of decision. Sequentially we look to spiritual reality first for our answers since it is from spiritual reality that all else emerges. When we look at the Bible what its words mean to us sets the course on what we consider to be real or unreal at any moment and,
in the larger context of existence, reality and unreality.

We have been talking about reality and the need to face it and get real. Reality is not something we see but a word we use to describe what we believe it to be. It is really un-seeable. When we use the word reality
it is the invisible impression it prints on our mind that we make into a concept. It’s crystallizing a thought
into a principle by which we interpret personal experience. The hardest thing that we have to face about
reality is its invisibility. Even if we talk about what we can see, that is physical ‘reality,’ as being real it is the
unseen way we decide to categorize it that is so subjective. What one person may conclude as real is not
so to another. Ask a jury deliberating on the guilt or innocence of a defendant. What is real or not real in testimony? How do they perceive that testimony?

There is one final reality about what is real and that is belief. It is what we believe to be real that determines the conclusions we make and act upon. Believing is the ultimate human reality. It is the final statement on
and about reality for each of us. Every human being’s bottom line is what they decide to believe reality is.

We believe in Jesus Christ as the way to understand ultimate reality because He became human, lived and died as a human and rose from the dead. He is reality personified. What He does is to reveal and define spiritual reality as the source of all that is visible. He is reality and to accept Him,---who He is, what He did, why He did it, His teachings, His presence and our place in Him---is to fulfill in and for us the truth of what Scripture says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2Cor.4:18 NIV).”

In each of us is the unseen image of God expressed through our bodies. What we do with that image in us is our personal spiritual reality at work. It will either be dominated by the negative power of sin apart from God or by the Holy Spirit bringing Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Belief, trust and faith make every human being what they are and determine where they will end up in eternity. Jesus came from eternity to bring His eternity into our hearts. There is no other name under Heaven by which men may be spiritually recovered and restored for eternity. He’s there in the mountains and waiting in the valleys.

I like the way The Message Bible puts it, “So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever (2Cor.4:16-18).”
The Lord Jesus is really, real reality realized!