July 15, 2015

Overlooking

I couldn’t find my coffee cup so I made multiple trips up and down the stairs retracing my steps.  I finally found it right in front of my face on the kitchen counter. It’s no wonder it was so easily overlooked, I’d been looking for a black cup rather than the white cup I’d been drinking from. When Jesus was taken up to heaven in front of the disciples, it was right before their eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. Two men (angels) who stood beside them and said, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11 NIV).  We know that Jesus will come back in the same way he left. However, many will be surprised when the Jesus they think they are looking for to return is not the same Jesus who is described in Revelation.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----Everyone has their own reality. The only reality a person knows is what he has concluded it to be. And no two people conclude the same about anything, let alone about Jesus Christ, since everything is so incredibly complicated. So none of our realities exactly match each other. Some people think this is life’s great excuse to think whatever you want to think. And they go around saying that everyone has their own truth. Your experience with the coffee cups proves them wrong.
-----Reality is one thing; truth is another. Reality is what it is, and anyone can only have a minuscule amount of it, being the stuff they own and the situations they’re stitched into. These are realities. What is called “your reality” is a misnomer. Your conclusions are not at all realities, but are mere perceptions of realities. Neither can we even call those perceptions truths, because truth is the exact match of a perception to its reality. No man exactly matches any reality with his perceptions, except Jesus Christ, who did. This is why Paul said, “Let God be true though every man be false.” God is not only able to exactly match reality with His perceptions, He makes and shapes all reality to His beck and call.
-----This is a giant call to humility. Is Jesus the white cup or the black cup? If you do not know for sure, Jesus probably should be no more to you than “a cup” with a perception of a lot more to know. There are many things about Jesus “beyond what is written”, where Paul says we should not go. We should never perceive beyond available evidence, experience, or revelation. It begs for trouble.
-----So. Nobody has their own reality. Nobody has their own truth. Everyone is called to discover realities and come to know truths, including most importantly, Jesus Christ. But in answering this call, being sure you don’t know what you really don’t know is critically important to really discovering what you can know. The Bible calls it humility, eyes to see, ears to hear. And humility continually irons wrinkles from your perceptions, while God, who knows all reality, matches what we’ve misperceived with His forgiveness.

Love you all,
Steve Corey