ILLUSIONS
The world that greets our eyes & mind has interesting things. One being illusions. Some similar words are mirage, falseness, delusion, optical slip, etc. A dictionary would define illusion as “a false idea or conception – an unreal, deceptive, or misleading appearance or image. A false perception, conception, or interpretation of what one sees (or thinks).” A magician knows how to create illusions for entertainment. The following are some common illusions.
-- Love & emotions are sometimes illusions.
-- Fears can be illusions because most don’t happen.
-- False confidence on any subject is an illusion of power.
-- Confidence in man – friends, associates, politicians, etc., can be an illusion because we don’t really know them. We only know their facial expressions, traits, name, etc., but the REAL person is that VAST PROGRAM of memories, values, education, talents, secret desires, (demons?), etc. that are all hidden somewhere 2-3 inches behind the eyeballs.
-- Paper money is a kind of illusion because it has no intrinsic value.
-- “What is legal is right,” is an illusion. A clergyman with 2 doctorates opened my eyes to this problem in this world. No amount of political correctness can make wrong things right, and it’s another illusion to think folks can be coerced to think a certain way in a land where freedom and truth is (or was) king.
Well, are money, pride, power, status, wisdom, beauty, fame, and prestige illusions?? Maybe not, but according to the Book they may not be as important as many folks think. At a time of national decline a character named Jeremiah spoke for God, “Thus says the Lord; “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, . . .” Jeremiah 9:23-24 A few hundred years later Christ himself said, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39 On the illusion of riches J.C. said, “what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Matthew 16:26
Is FAITH itself just another illusion? Is Christ an illusion of history and the church? Is Christianity just another religion, and on equal footing with other faiths?? Actually, the others don’t come close because Jesus rose from the dead, unlike Confucius, Mohammed, Buddha, all of them who rotted in their graves. And the resurrection was not a magic trick or an illusion. I know this because He touched ME Feb 20, 1972 and changed my life dramatically. I had the typical unbelief & sin in my life, but wanted answers. The Christmas story, Easter, and the A.D. calendar told me that Christ was no “illusion.” I reached out to Him & have experienced that new life the apostle Paul wrote about. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 I was so impressed with the spiritual awakening & “Divine Presence” that I began reading scripture with an appetite. Then for several years I memorized hundreds of texts so as to not lose or forget the experience of that other dimension that had touched me. Then in 1977 I started writing gospel notes – “The Take Off” #1, partly as another way to remind myself of “the experience.” I re-read them to myself frequently.
Jesus Christ is not an illusion -- He is the answer. The Christian life is not a gimmick -- it is an adventure. The promise of blissful life beyond the grave is a gift way beyond compare. Choose Jesus, He is alive. “Seek and you will find . . .” Matthew 7:7
Many other Titles: www.gospelnotes.org * * Fred J. Stone * *
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