Day 41: Living Daily in Reality: Your Maker or You?
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We’re talking about living each day in reality rather than in the
temporary world of topical events – or the media. But what is
reality? The only human being who has died, been buried for days, come
back to life and then left the planet so that his body has never been
found – is the man known as Jesus Christ. He said he was the only son
of our Creator and that his father was like him.

His life is documented in the most reliable records we possess of the
first century, and you can see the original manuscripts in national
museums like the one in London, England . He explained that you and I
are actually part of him and that we are here to enjoy the life that he
and his Father wish to live in each of us. Our Maker has allowed us to
ignore that reality and treat life as if it belonged to us ourselves – so
that we will be able see what life apart from him is like. The result is
this present world – and our own strain and stress as we pretend we are
self-existent beings. So we experience the nothingness that we choose
when we reject His life within us, and He himself experiences it also.
Only by thus facing the undesirable consequences of his own creation can
he justly destroy them outside time in eternity. And that is the cosmic
death and resurrection of each of our lives that was set forth in
Christ’s crucifixion in 29 A.D…

From our earliest preoccupation with ourselves and our own needs as
babies, we have developed attitudes and bonds that chain us to the things
and events and people in the world around us. We have become deeply and
inextricably bound to our environment for the security, self-esteem, and
happiness that we desperately need to replace the nothingness that we so
often feel. But our Maker has foreseen this corruption of our
personalities, and has graciously remade you outside time – but in
eternity – so that you could be delivered from your own perversion here
within time.

Most of us cannot begin to imagine any other life than the one we
live now. Of course, we say – if you need anything you get it from the
world around you. That’s why we earn money and why we worry about our
very survival when we lose our jobs. But this is not REAL life – this is
just the “prison” life that so many of us live because we are limited to
what we can get from the world around us. In thousands of ways we are
as dependent as the animals on our environment. This is why we don’t
seem to develop fully as the years go by. We change in some ways and
improve certain skills. But there are many areas of our lives that are
no different from what they were when we started living! Although we
seem to be able to develop certain talents and inter-personal skills,
there are many deeply-ingrained limitations that we seem unable to
overcome.

These are the only areas that really matter – because they are the
ones that only our Maker can change through his own life within us.
These radical short-comings or inherent failings and frustrations are the
symptoms God has mercifully permitted in order to bring us to the central
purpose of our life here on earth – to experience Him living in us so
that He can live the life which he has planned! Paradoxical though it
seems, the things we find hardest in our lives are the very things that
drive us deeper into the life we are meant to experience with our
Creator. As we delve deeper into this very heart of living, genuine
growth takes place as our own self-centered living is replaced by the
supernatural life of our God, who made us. This is the glorious
experience of real life for which we were put on this planet – it is a
life-time experience with two facets or two sides to it. Let’s talk
about it next time.