Biblical Definition of Illusion and Reality

"By faith [Moses] forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." (Hebrews 11:27)

All the people of faith mentioned in Hebrews, "endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (12:2).  If we only "see" that which is visible, we will not endure.

The cynic says that people who, "endure[] as seeing Him who is invisible," are living uneducated nonsense, living in illusion.  "Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress.  Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation.  It is the opium of the people.  The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness.  The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions" (Karl Marx).  Western Civilization, once dominated by the Christian Faith, is now dominated by, "The demand to give up the illusion...."  The American educational system used to start the day with the, "Words of God," and the Prayer of Jesus.  Now the vast majority of American children start their day with the "words" of Darwin and Marx.

Today, you and I will "see" and hear a whole lot of things which seem to be the reality, but are really "the illusion."  Only what we cannot see and "hear" is the reality.  If what I see and hear with the physical senses dominate my reaction to life today, I will embrace the illusion of cynical academia, i.e., give up on Jesus Christ, leaning to my, "own understanding."  I quote the following passage in opposition to Karl Marx, Darwin, and their "Occupy Wall Street" disciples: "Therefore we do not lose heart.  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are...not seen are eternal."

Father, in Jesus' Name, bless all Christian/Kingdom and Christ-centered Home Schools today.  Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2

"He Has Prepared a City For Them" (Us)

"But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:16)

The word for, "country," means "fatherland, native place."  Humanity has a simple choice.  They can cling to and dwell in the "fatherland" into which they were born, or they can cling to and dwell in the "Fatherland," which, "God...has prepared...for them," the, "city," of their second birth.  People of faith always desire the, "better...fatherland, native place," His, "city," over anything they or those whom they admire can, "prepare[]." 

The first thing man did after the rebellion was to build (prepare) something.  We read in Genesis 4, "Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.  And Cain....built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son...."  Man rejected God's City and started building his own; Babel reveals the end of such building.  "Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." 

Are you building a city?  Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us a way to test who is doing the building and what is being built by the effect of the labor.  Notice the contrast between man's work and Jesus' work, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me...,and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  Or, "....You...labor and are heavy laden.... I...give...rest...." 

Cain built the first city and named it after his son.  You can always tell whose city it is by whose name is attached to it.  Cain preferred his city to God's.  People who are of the same "lineage" as the People of Faith in Hebrews 11, however, "desire a better, that is, a heavenly," which, "God...has prepared...for them."  The reward of such, "desire"?---------"God is not ashamed to be called their God"!

Father, in Jesus' Name, I embrace your, "city," and reject any of mine.  Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2

"They Desire a Better Country"

"For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.  And truly if they had called to mind ('been mindful of') that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:14-16)

When a person once challenged me for working behind the Iron Curtain, I told them that I was closer to a Believer in Jesus Christ who lived in Eastern Europe than I was to an American neighbor who rejected Jesus Christ.  You may be surprised how many Christians do not think this way.  Their primary allegiance is to their people group "homeland." 

The people described in Hebrews 11 lived in a "repentance" life style, viz., they left everything behind and headed in a new direction, "for He has prepared a city for them."  You will recall that Abraham sent his servant to receive a wife for Isaac, and just before he left, the servant said, "Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land.  Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?"  Abraham would have none of such thinking, "Beware that you do not take my son back there."  The wife for Isaac was the secondary issue.  The Lord Jesus Christ, the One Whom Abraham, "rejoiced to see [His] day," was Abraham's King.  He called Abraham from Ur to build a family, a nation, a country, if you will.  For the Believer in Jesus Christ there is the enduring command, "Beware that you do not take my son back there."

There are many opportunities to yield to what Bob Mumford used to call "the go- back syndrome."  If repentance is a change of mind and direction, when we come to Christ there is the warning, "Beware that you do not take my son back there."  Why?  Because God's people have, "a better country, that is, an heavenly,"  

Father, in Jesus' Name, there is just nothing better to go back to.  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2

"They Desire a Better Country"

"For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.  And truly if they had called to mind ('been mindful of') that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:14-16)

When a person once challenged me for working behind the Iron Curtain, I told them that I was closer to a Believer in Jesus Christ who lived in Eastern Europe than I was to an American neighbor who rejected Jesus Christ.  You may be surprised how many Christians do not think this way.  Their primary allegiance is to their people group "homeland." 

The people described in Hebrews 11 lived in a "repentance" life style, viz., they left everything behind and headed in a new direction, "for He has prepared a city for them."  You will recall that Abraham sent his servant to receive a wife for Isaac, and just before he left, the servant said, "Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land.  Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?"  Abraham would have none of such thinking, "Beware that you do not take my son back there."  The wife for Isaac was the secondary issue.  The Lord Jesus Christ, the One Whom Abraham, "rejoiced to see [His] day," was Abraham's King.  He called Abraham from Ur to build a family, a nation, a country, if you will.  For the Believer in Jesus Christ there is the enduring command, "Beware that you do not take my son back there."

There are many opportunities to yield to what Bob Mumford used to call "the go- back syndrome."  If repentance is a change of mind and direction, when we come to Christ there is the warning, "Beware that you do not take my son back there."  Why?  Because God's people have, "a better country, that is, an heavenly,"  

Father, in Jesus' Name, there is just nothing better to go back to.  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2

"They...Saw Them...From A Distance...."

"All these people were still living by faith when they they died ('died in faith').  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth." (Hebrews 11:13, NIV)

Too many in Christendom today are not, "foreigners and strangers on earth."  They are all too familiar with the earth and are more citizens, "on earth," and embrace the earth's various cultures and life styles than the, "distance," promises.  The people of Hebrews 11 had, "from a distance," kind of faith.  As Philippians 3 says, "Our citizenship is in Heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."  Contrary to the cynics' accusation of escapism, such people are the only ones in touch with reality.

Most people today are only interested in promises which they can receive now, not the ones, "they...[see]...from a distance...."  For them, our text speaks of the old "pie in the sky by and by," and they want nothing to do with that.  The philosophy of the world and too many Christians is, "I want it now, and if I can't have it now from Christianity, I'll find something or someone who will give it to me----- now."  Tragically, what they are really saying is that they will follow those who at least teach, preach, and promise now stuff.  Well then, they are left out of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11.

So many people are laboring for the here and now "promises" that they are going to miss out on are eternal promises.  Jesus said, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, (and all those other things which are perishing) but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because the Father has set His seal on Him."  The number one "labor" of humanity is for, "food on the table and a roof over our head."  Well, the Day is coming when no one will need that "food" and that "roof," in fact there will not even be a, "need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminates it.  The Lamb is its light."  Dear, "foreigner[] and stranger[] on earth," your eternal destiny depends on what and whom you are "seeing" and "welcoming."
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, sometimes I wonder about my "vision."  Thank You for Your Words which constantly make course adjustments.  Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2

They Were No Different From What You and I Can Be

"By faith Abel..., By faith Enoch..., By faith Noah..., By faith Abraham..., these all...confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (From Heb. 11)

"....strangers and pilgrims on the earth."  Keep this in mind and you will never know defeat.  Remember what the Holy Spirit said earlier in the Epistle, "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil...."  If a person's "hope" and "anchor" is only, "on the earth," they are, "of all men most miserable." 

In Hebrews 11 we meet quite "ordinary" people, people who are now beatified by historic Christianity, but who in their sojourn upon earth were nothing more than you and I can be, only if it can be said of us, "who by faith," because that, my friend is the only common denominator of the Covenant People, Followers of Jesus Christ-------------- "who by faith."  

Some get all "theological" about trying to understand the meaning of, "faith."  It is obedience, obedience to the Person and Words of Him Whom Revelation 19 calls, "The Word of God."  What we read in Hebrews 11 is the best definition of faith because it doesn't belabor concepts and extensive hermeneutics.  Here we have living examples of people who walked, "as strangers and pilgrims on the earth," sometimes jubilant, sometimes depress, sometimes healthy, sometimes sick, sometimes with abundance, sometimes with just enough, but none without participation in the cosmic struggle, "Then he said, 'do you know why I have come to you?  And now I must return to fight the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince pf Greece will come.'"  Prior to this it was Egypt and Babylon, then later it would be such as the prince of Rome, of the Ottomans, and so it continues, right to our day.  And through the battle with such princes, the faithful have won their victories.

We will look more at our brothers and sisters, those who have gone before us and won their battle, but for now I just want to say with the hymn writer:

"For all the saints who from their labors rest,

Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, 

Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blest.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

"Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;

Thou Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;

Thou in the darkness drear, their one true light.

Alleluia, Alleluia! 

"O blest communion, fellowship divine!

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine 

Alleluia, Alleluia!

"From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast

  Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, 

And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Alleluia, Alleluia!"

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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2