"Reality Or Delusion?"

Reality Or Delusion?

   

    Reality vs. Delusion.  One is.  The other seems, or feels, or appears.

    "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).

    God identified His name to Moses as I AM.  The Lord Jesus Christ also referred to Himself in the same terms - "Before Abraham was, I AM" (Exodus 3:14; John 8:58).  Thus, the Spirit of God reveals the essence and heart of reality in the pages of Scripture, namely, the being of God.  All things either accurately and obviously reflect this truth, or they seem, feel, and appear to the contrary.  Our choice as God's trusting children in Christ involves the determination to walk in the light of God's I AM, or to grope in the darkness as if God did not exist in the dynamic presence and involvement declared by His very name.  "I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself" (Isaiah 44:24).

    During a violent storm at sea, the Lord's disciples thought they saw a ghost walking on the waters.  Terror filled their hearts, the fear of the storm and of the spirit.  Calling out to them through the winds, waves, and appearance of the frightful apparition, however, sounded the voice of the Savior - "It is I.  Be not afraid!" (Matthew 14:25-27).  The I AM of the moment transcended all.  That Being and that Voice dwells and resounds in all things, whether in troubled seas, or on blessed mountaintops, or along the plains of every day life.  "The whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6:3).  Our Heavenly Father offers us the privileged responsibility of living in the "is", or more literally, the "I AM" of His presence, life, and being.  Conversely, the world, the devil, and the flesh tempt us with delusion that often feels more comfortable and even desired than reality.  Choices continually lie before us, choices of Reality vs. Delusion.  Righteous judgment, or appearance?  The storm and the ghost, or the Presence and the Voice?  The "I AM" of the living and true God, or the seems, feels, and appears of devilish and fleshly deception?  What will we believe?  Who will we believe about this moment, this day, this lifetime, this forever?  "It is I…"

"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."

(II Corinthians 4:18)

Weekly Memory Verse

    But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

(Hebrews 2:9)