“I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways; according to the fruit of his doings.”
Jeremiah 17:10
The Word of God is ‘a-matter-of-factly,” all encompassing, and entirely set apart as the one and only, incomparable standard with which we have to measure the fruit of our lives. It’s literally the only straight-edge in existence; and we need straight. If our foundation, the thing we stand on in life; our belief system, is laid at just a fraction of an amount off — any amount! — then the path for us, will inevitably lead us away from truth.
Proverbs 14 aaand 16 have verses that tell us where we’re going, when we think we are going straight, but we are not. They are very similar, but here is verse 25 of the latter;
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
I’m trying to avoid death so; to me, it’s all too important — it’s vital — to ensure, on a daily, continual basis, that my vision is lined up with Christ’s. I cannot afford to drift. It’s a matter of life and death.
As a youth, when I worked for my uncle as a general contractor, I was allowed to lay my first ever, tile floor — all alone. I was in the basement closet of a wealthy woman’s laundry room, somewhere in the state of Illinois. My uncle just let me go at it, and in hindsight, I kept hearing him say, “Every few feet, get up, step back, and check your plumb.” But I never stood up; I just got into a groove and worked my way backward, out of the walk-in closet. Every twenty minutes or so, I’d hear my uncle shout from the other room; “Don’t forget to check your plumb!”
Upon standing up, far too late to make any adjustments, the embarrassing mess of a newly installed, tile floor, laid before me — running terribly askew. The inconspicuous enough, tile floor ended up curving very conspicuously to the right. It was a mistake I got away with at the time, due to the trivial location, being in a basement closet, but I didn’t walk away from the experience and forget the importance of checking my measurements.
I don’t remember where I went wrong, though. I suppose I was just assuming that I was still in sync. And I did measure. I always measure; like, seventeen times, but, because the measurements were only very, very close and not exact, the eyeball saw what the mind did not see coming; a trainwreck.
There is an old Indian tale out there, that tells us about six blind monks who find their way upon an elephant, something of which, they had never encountered before. They were asked to describe what it was they were experiencing, and after a quick initial inspection, done by each man, they all came to a wholly, different conclusion. You see, the man who approached the animal from the front, felt its tusks. Another felt its trunk, like a firehose. The gentleman near the rear felt something like a wire brush, while the fellow caressing the ear, thought it was a bit more like a light blanket. Each man, though blind, saw the elephant from a different perspective, and because they only relied, solely on that one perspective, they all got it wrong.
My brain hurts right now. It’s not a headache, more of a haze — mental lethargy. I’ve been using a lot of brainpower lately — nuclear amounts. I wake up and get straight to reading, writing, and learning. I begin manipulating words and writing, in many different ways. The Bible, daily texts, white boards, email, blogs and HTML code… Words, letters, commas… it’s all on the bottom of a lot of lists for me. I really like ideas, wisdom, and thought, but this diligence in writing takes some work!
What I haven’t been using a lot lately, are my, “lazy eyes.” You know, the eyes you watch TV with — when we turn our brains off and, ‘veg out.’ I honestly don’t think we’re supposed to do that. Ever.
1 Peter 5 says to “be alert,” because something is trying to kill us.
Remember that life lived in the inner bathroom of a building, that I spoke of in past posts? The one never seeing the sky or grass or rain? Say something told that person, that walls are ten thousand feet thick at any point. Those born into a life in this sad room, who may have had never seen the other side of any other wall, would be very susceptible to being duped into believing that this is the truth about all walls — that they are a thousand feet thick. The pessimist would see it as an impasse entirely, like there is no other side, and most would eventually give up hope that anything else exists, at all; or, if it does exist, reaching it would be an impossibility. This is how satan lies to us: he says; “what you see, is all there is, give up.”
One evening, in the ministry home, I told a guy a clever story — a parable, if you will. He was out back, smoking a cigarette, fuming from an absolutely, elementary argument. It was something so dumb and so very miniscule that, to even give you actual details would take away from this post. The fact was though, the two gentlemen were heated by what they saw in the other man, and from the outside, it was really difficult to understand their actions and frustrations.
I said “Devin! You remember that verse in the Bible that says that “we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood?” I paused, shortly, “It’s the spirits; it’s not what we see, right?” (Ephesians 6)
He nodded, sorely expecting a sermon. I continued;
“Imagine a bear that really hates light. He’s in the woods, and he comes across a flashlight, lying on a stump, shining across the forest floor, onto nearby shrubbery. Upon his discovery, the bear goes bonkers! He begins to scratch and whack at a bush in front of the light, but he only finds more bush, lit up, and bright. Behind the bush is a tree, so once the bear ripped all the bushes out and tossed them aside, there was more light. The bear then, attacked the tree.”
Dave sat beside him, both really confused.
“The bear doesn’t like the light!” I continued — as a man estranged from his family for the last 4 months and angry at him about it — “so if the bear would stop attacking what it sees and start attacking the flashlight, he would solve the problem!”
I could hear audible revelation, sinking into a beautiful spot in their spirits. Something in that moment, clicked. God gave them a new perspective. Not a new position, or location, but a new vision. It wasn’t something that changed their line-of-site, it was something that changed what they saw, from the inside — it changed how they saw it.
You know the story in Matthew 14, where Jesus walks on water? Jesus is out there walking directly on the water — which, is “not possible,”– and Peter wanted in. Peter wanted to do what Jesus was doing, so he asked Him, in the middle of the raging storm; “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
Jesus called to him and he climbed out of the boat. He got out there and walked toward Jesus, on the water.
But then! — there’s verse 30;
“…when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
How do you “see,” wind?
It wasn’t about Peter’s sight. Peter didn’t, all of the sudden, just notice that there were waves. Come on, it was 3 in the morning. They had just served, possibly, twelve thousand people, they were tired; it was raining, and I’d imagine they just wanted a good night’s sleep.
Jesus came out to save them. It was a terrible storm, He knew the seas were rough so, He stepped out onto the water. That’s how He chose to save them that night; by doing something that’s, “impossible.” And at first, that’s what Peter saw, through his spirit. In the moment, Peter understood that Jesus was His Savior, and He was there, saving Him. Peter was elated. He was so caught up in seeing Jesus, that the obstacles around him, mainly; gravity, buoyancy, and all of physics, didn’t really… exist. And as the Bible reads, for a moment, to Peter and Jesus, they really, didn’t exist.
Then Peter saw the wind.
In the glance of an eye, Peter switched from the truth of Jesus’ words, to the ‘facts’ that he could see around him. His eyes and ears, and equalibrium, all gathered that, Peter was gonna die. We all know now that, that was a lie. The truth was, that Jesus was already there to save him.
He set out straight, in faith, but he quickly forgot Jesus’ words; they’re the only straight edge we have.
Remember;
What you see is only part of the whole scene, don’t respond to the “facts,” remember the truth. And make sure you’ve laid your foundation right, and haven’t strayed. It’s easier than you think to get lost so,
“Don’t forget to check your plumb!”
Peter just, got into a groove, he forgot to check for plumb — he forgot that he was checking for plumb.
Keep going, guys,
I’m out here, too…
– God Exists –
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