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Challenging conventional assumptions - Finding reality! |
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Foundations... |
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Determining Truth!
Now that is an awesome title! It is awesome in that it presumes that we can determine what is ultimately real, truthful and objective. The problem is, no one is totally objective about reality. We are each the product of our childhood, our influences through life and the genetics that combine to define us. And, we are all different. As miraculous and wonderful as that may seem under the microscope of biology, it is fearsome in the larger picture of national conflicts, cross cultural rivalries and religious comparisons. Wars are fought over those differences, real or perceived and national and world directions are determined based on our view of reality.
Of course, it is easy to discount the intelligence and sanity of those who disagree with us, but it is often not easy to change their mind and world view. So we see those who live in different worlds, cultures, mind sets and wonder how it is that they got where they are, just as they are doing the same contemplation about us. I am not arguing here, that all truth is relative and equal. I am simply observing that those differences account for certain assumptions, actions and results that are objectively measurable. That is, our world view determines our direction and results in life and what we achieve is largely the end result of what we believe to be true. Our assumption of reality is the basis of our action and our actions are the means of our movement and progress through life.
If that is a valid observation, then personal growth and success in life is largely a matter of, first of all, defining what is and what is not success, then of moving toward it. Accompanying this premise must also be the assumption that we do have the power to control our lives and that we are not the mere victims of blind circumstances. So many cultures on the planet in history have lived under the assumption that life is like floating on the seas, subject to the storms and currents of life and that blind fate determines ones destiny. Much of human history is contexted in the assumption that government is all wise and all powerful and will determine my welfare or lack of it. Life, after all, happens to us rather than being determined by us, in that kind of thought process.
But if we do have the courage to exercise ourselves and observe with any small degree of objectivity and to make determinations about what we observe, then we have the power to change. That is the basic premise of the emergence of Western Civilization and of our American way of life. It is a political acknowledgment that government cannot solve all the problems that people have and that it should not. Our Bill of Rights is a stated presumption that people, allowed to act on their own behalf will solve their own problems and enhance their own lives and become better in the process. The limitations of government in that great document, is foundational to our premise of individual rights, responsibilities and of the possibility of self determination. It is quite a philosophical leap from the historic victimization roles that have historically plagued the human race. This is freedom; not just that we can come and go as we please, nor that we have protection from illegal search and seizure, or any of the other items spelled out as our rights. Freedom is the revelation that we can make personal choices to become what we determine we want to be. It is breaking with the age old sense of being the victim of life and the understanding that we are destined to become what we are called to and empowered to do.
This whole phenomenon of revelation empowers us to understand that creativity, understanding and wealth is not a matter of |
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lightening striking randomly on our head, but of our conceiving of its availability, of planning for its release and of acting in ways that actualize the altered vision of reality. Change your world view and you change your life, and in the course of doing so, you change the world.
Ø Change your view of God and you release God to move in you and through you! Ø Change your economic view and you reposition yourself in the flow of money! Ø Change your view of relationships and you alter the future of your marriage! Ø Change your view of political policy and you release the natural flow of a nation! Ø Change your view of the future and the future will change with you! Ø You can change yourself and your world. You can determine the truth! “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:32. Here, in the words of Jesus is the definitive view of truth. It is not always apparent, and because of that we are in bondage. We are bound physically, financially, emotionally, relationally and spiritually because of our illusions as to what is true. Release from that bondage comes by understanding the truth.
Revelation is the great emotional “AH HA!” of perceiving something that we did not know before and of changing our view of reality.
We humans are so terribly insecure that we tend to spend most of our time justifying ourselves and arguing our position. So much of religious life is consumed in arguing our position in opposition to other religious positions in such a way as to show we are right. Faith is a different matter. Faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That is, it is the ability and willingness to walk into arenas of reality that we do not yet see, but of which we are willing to conceive. It is the open quest to go beyond where we are and what we know and to understand that which is seen in the evidence but not understood in our current world view. Such is the case of the person who views those who are wealthy and rather than resenting them or coveting their success, is willing to learn how they think and act and to be willing to change. Such is the case of those who view the faithful saint of spiritual significance and rather than remain distant or fear their presence, presses in upon them for understanding.
This is the premise of Dimensions of Grace. This is also the quest of Pastor David Fritsche; to understand the way in which God made creation to operate and more, to understand the God who created it. For in doing so, we are released, not only from the error we have accumulated in life and the bondage it holds over us, but from ourselves and our insecurities and fear. At the end of the road, just beyond the bend ahead, is a place that no one knows, but me and God. It is the place where I can take off my fears, shed my self righteousness, challenge my insecurities and challenge my knowledge of God and myself. It is there that I need nothing to protect me and no protection to cover me, for it is there that I find reality in finding God!
Come walk with us through this great adventure of determining who God is and how life works. Come along and reshape your view of life.
Pastor Dave
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