(What we believe to be ultimate reality will determine where our final loyalties and values lie.
Our primary question earlier was, "What is reality?" Our answer was that God was the ground of all reality and what we see and sense in the visible realm is temporary, while the unseen is eternal(2Cor. 4:18). Reality them is seen and sensed only through the capacity of faith. But the question for now, which seem more important as we come to the practical realms of living, is, "What is reality to you in your daily living?" I want to help you answer that question by asking you some others I have asked myself.)
(What turns you on? What turns you off? What saddens, sickens, or satisfies you? In what areas do your motivations live? Which affects your life the most, the seen or the unseen? Which has more influence on your life, your problems or God's power? In what or whom do you find your thrills? Whose approval do you most desire to have? Now, stop and look back at these questions and give yourself an answer. When you have finished, you will have answered the primary question of what reality is to you.)
(The true definition of reality has not changed, but your judgment of what it is has shaped your life. Let me ask you if you are satisfied with your answers. Have you been living in the realm of solid reality? Or do the things of this life- the physical, the mundane, the temporal- have you almost down for the count? The question I want to ask myself and you is this, "Have you seriously reckoned with reality and are you reckoning with it now?")
(I am prepared to say that I greatly fear that ninety percent of all Christians have never reckoned with reality. They have rather been arrested by nonrealities, run by nonrealities, or wrecked by nonrealities. Man's basic difficulty is that he has mistaken time for eternity, his body for his soul, and himself for God. Reality lies in the area of eternity, the soul, and God, while nonreality centers around time, man's body, and his self-interests.)
(The wreckage of nonreality is tragic. First, people are perishing. Man are lost because they have mistaken the identity of reality. They have concluded that the things of this life are to be given priority. Like the rich man in Luke(16:19-31) they are preoccupied with the nonrealities of material possessions. We have been arrested by the apparent and have forgotten the real.)
(Second, Christians are crippled. As in the parable of the sower(Luke8:5-15), the care of this world and the deceitfulness choke the Word, and a person becomes unfruitful. Believers forget that their lives are hid with Christ in God. They are unmindful of their citizenship in heaven. They lose sight of their position with Jesus in the heavenly places. The result is a crippled, paralyzed Christian.)
(Third, the church is chained. The church is the mystical body of Christ on earth. It is his means of expression and mobility. Just as the individual can be imprisoned by nonrealities, so can the church. The local, visible manifestation of the church is but a picture of the mystical body. The realities of that body are unseen, because the resources of that body are in God as he has revealed himself in Christ. If we are not careful, we will be dealing with nickels and noses instead of eternal verities. You say, "But we must have physical things, and numbers are inevitable, and committees seem to bi with us!" That is right, but these must never be allowed to dictate to the eternal realities or to overwhelm them. If that happens, we will be bound to the world's way of doing things, the world's plan of economy, and the world's power. The result will be that Christ will be shut out of his own church!)
(It is difficult to talk of reality without seeming vague and unreal. One reason for this is that we have dealt with the visible for so long that we consider anything invisible to be unreal. We view reality only when we are determined to do it. We must want to see in order to be able to see. We have been equipped with eyes of the soul to view reality, but we have so long kept those closed that it will take a while to get accustomed to the new view.)
(This chapter began with a dictionary definition of reality. It is that which is absolute, self-existent, not dependent on anything else. That simple statement rules out everything we can see as being reality. Everything that we can see is passing away. The world system is deteriorating. Built within the system of things is the aging process. We are in the midst of change, and frankly, I see none that is on the upward swing. I can't find much to encourage me on the earthly scene.
(If God and all that issues from him is reality, then we must not stop at defining reality - I must declare reality. Somehow, our confession at this point seems all-important. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved"(Rom.10:9-10). This is how confession brings reality. Faith is substance and evidence. State the fact that you refuse to build your existence on nonreality. Confess that you are choosing to make God the source of your supply. Declare yourself to reckon with reality!)
(The greatest showcase which exhibits reality's value is Hebrews 11. One has to admit that here is a list of folks who had it all together! They knew how to live. And the inspired writer said on thing that really startles me more than anything else. He stated that these were people of whom the world was not worthy(v. 38). Here were folks who took the worst and licked it. They lived life to the hilt. They rendered the future present. They were surely accused of living in nonreality, but they had a firm grip through faith on eternal realities. The one thing we must admit about this crowd of people: whatever they had really worked! We know what they had: the roots of their faith had gone down to bedrock and struck reality, and they would not be swayed by deprivation or death. They had gotten the report of faith, and nothing would deter them from their goal.)
(They were on their way to another world and were living in that world right in the middle of this world. Notice what is said of them: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises . . . "(Heb. 11:13). When we read that, we are prone to pity them because they didn't find what they were looking for. But let us see the rest. " . . . but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Hallelujah! Do you see what I see? These folks took the long view of faith, and with the reach of that faith embraced things that we are enjoying this very day, and went out in victory! Their faith connected them with realities that were not yet visible in history but were as real to them then as they are now. The closing statement of Hebrews 11 is interesting. "These also, one and all, are commemorated for their faith; and yet they did not enter upon the promised inheritance, because, with us in mind, God had made a better plan, that only in company with us should they reach perfection"(Heb. 11:39-40, NEB). Doubtlessly we will all conclude that it was worth the wait!)
(When we awaken to the value of reality, we will not mind facing the loss of what we cannot keep to gain, that which we cannot lose. In the light of reality's value, all other value systems will straighten out. When we see the "pearl of great price," we will not mind selling all in order to buy that pearl. There will be the expulsive power of a new affection. God in us by Christ, through the Holy Spirit, will simplify our living and singularize our commitments. Our confession then can be, "I have discovered such a reality that it has captured my whole being. It wakes me up and puts me to bed. He(God revealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit) is my pearl of great price. Since I have discovered him and he has discovered me, all else has taken its place as significant only as it is related to him.")
(I am going to deal with this later in the chapter on becoming a hilarious giver. But for now I will give you a solidly biblical formula for validating reality. We can know what reality is and value it highly, but unless we know how to validate it in life's circumstances , it will be to no avail. We have stated that true prosperity is the capacity to get God active with his supply in the needs of humanity.)
(The psalmist gives us perhaps the simplest statement on validating reality. He said in Psalm 37:5, "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." Let us examine that statement.
"Commit thy way unto the Lord." There can be no validation of reality without commitment. A man may have a million dollars in the bank, but if he does not make a commitment to believe that and launch out on the truth of it and draw on his account, he might as well be a pauper. The commitment of one's way is a total commitment of one's self. The whole affair of life is to be surrendered to the Lord. That is foundational, primary, and fundamental. There is no need for further discussion until this is done. I have had times, and some of them recently, when thousands of issues seem to scream for attention in my brain. Peace only comes when I say, "Lord, these are not mine, because I am not mine. I confess that I have committed myself and all these issues to you." The only things that we need worry about are those things which have not been committed to God. And when worry over something that we have committed to him attacks us again we simply need to say, "Lord, I have committed this matter to you and believe your Word.")
¨è "¶Ç Àú¸¦ ÀÇÁö(ëîò¨)Ç϶ó.(Trust also in him)"(½Ã37:5)
("Trust also in him." If we are not careful, we will find ourselves breaking down in faith after our commitment. Having committed our way to the Lord, we sometimes are prone to pray ourselves out of faith. The trust is as vital to continuation as the commitment is to commencement. Faith to commit must become faith to trust. If the answer does not come in visible terms it makes no difference. Our trust is in faith, not sight. We are satisfied with faith because faith is substance. Man often says, "Seeing is believing." The opposite is true. Believing is seeing. And when we see through the eyes of believing, those things we see are such solid stuff that this world can never take them away. Now, these two things are man's part: committing and trusting. You can be sure that if you have done this, something terrific is in the offing.)
¨é "Àú(Çϳª´Ô)°¡ ÀÌ·ç½Ã¸®¶ó.(He shall bring it to pass.)"
("He shall bring it to pass." The original implies simply, "He works!" He does it! Now we see one thing clearly. It is that man's activity has one peculiar significance . . . to move God into activity. There is nothing sacramental about man's commitment or man's trust, but they trust right through to reality and the result is that GOD WORKS! All man's work for God is simply that God might work. Notice this in the Bible. Noah's ark was built that God might work in the judgment of the flood. Moses' work in delivering the people, building the tabernacle, and leading them toward the promised land was that God might work in their behalf. Elijah's work on the altar and subsequent prayer were for the purpose of getting God back into the nations's history. These men validated reality and visualized reality!)
(Would you dare to validate reality in your own life? You will never come to reckon with reality until you are welling to release your grip on all the nonrealities. That is what it means when we "commit our way." We are to commit all our going and all that goes with it. Our trust keeps the commitment current. The result: GOD WILL DO IT! Whatever needs to be done, God will do it!
Our commitment and trust will have thrown into operation all the resources of divine reality into our circumstances. That will continue as long as we dare to validate eternal realities by continued commitment and trust.)
["For the invisible things of him from Creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"(Rom.1:20)]
["Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."(Heb. 11:3)]
["While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."(2Cor. 4:18)]