Day 10: Living Daily in Reality: The Basis of our Life
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We’re talking about living each day in reality and in the first six
days of these five-minute presentations we talked about the human being
called Jesus and the intellectual evidence for regarding him as a
historical person. We then dealt with some of the reasons for believing
that he really is the only son of the creator of the universe; and on the
basis of that we leaped into his own explanation of reality – that his
father, the creator of the universe, had made you and me inside him. This
is why an eye-witness of his life wrote “he is the first-born of all
creation and in him all things were created and in him all things hold
togetherâ€(cid:157).

Obviously each of us first appeared on earth when we were born in our
mother but he himself said “before Abraham was, I amâ€(cid:157) and even he
appeared in his own body at the beginning of our era. However, the
implication of his own words and those of his followers is that “we are
God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that he has
prepared beforehand that we should walk in themâ€(cid:157). In other words, our
maker planned for his only son to come to this earth and through his life
in us to complete it for his father, the creator. Since our maker’s
infinite mind conceives of everything in a moment in eternity, he has
already walked through the life he planned to lead in his son through us,
so all our works are prepared beforehand for us to walk in.

It’s plain to all of us that we have been given freedom to walk in
those works or not to walk in them, but in some profound way our creator
continues to work in us, through us, and despite us to bring about his
original design. The agony of his son’s death in Jerusalem is his
plainest expression to us of the strain our autonomy causes him
personally and of his readiness to put himself at risk to draw us towards
his will.

But the most obvious fact that his explanation of reality establishes is
that your life and mine have a significance far beyond our own little
abilities and talents. We are not what we thought we were – little bits
of flotsam and jetsam being buffeted from one place to another by forces
of economy and our own little desires and ambitions. We are far more than
that – actual beings that are known personally by the Creator of the
universe – created in his son even before the world began. Our lives
are not only already planned but have been already lived – in the sense
that the infinite being who originated everything sees it all in a moment
– far better than our most advanced computer will ever work out the
future economy of the world. The statement is startling and complex but
“every one of our days has been written in his book before there were
any of themâ€(cid:157). In other words, our maker has seen not only the plan he
has for us but also the choices we will make and the counter-moves that
he will also bring about. Our life is a planned adventure – created by

a father who loves us!

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?
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My life flows on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentation;
I hear the real though distant hymn
That hails a new creation

No storm can shake my calm repose
While to this rock I’m clinging:
If Christ is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

What though my joys and comforts die!
I know my Savior liveth;
What though the darkness round me lie!
Songs in the night he giveth

I lift my eyes – the cloud grows thin,
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smoothes
Since first I learned to love it.

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart
A fountain ever springing
All things are mine since I am His
How can I keep from singing?