VISION OR FANTASY?

 

 

"The entrance of thy words giveth light,"

 

says Psalm 119.... light meaning vision. When we receive a word from God into our hearts our eyes open and we see something that we could not see before. But, if this vision we receive is not acted on, then the vision given to us by God becomes distorted into fantasy . . . and we live in that fantasy until we are jolted out of it by divine ,judgment.

 

As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was in the days of Lot . . . they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom fire and sulphur rained from heaven and destroyed them all . . . so will it be on the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Luke 17:26-30

 

In every crisis leading up to the last day the pattern is the same. There is a Noah warning of coming change . . . some call to repentance confirmed by signs which are clearly from God. Before the judgment falls, people are always faced with some vision. And once they have this vision they have to decide whether they are going to live in this vision or distort the vision into the fantasy of thinking things will remain stable.

 

This is what happened before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. It was obvious that the city was doomed.

It was surrounded by Caldean armies. Jeremiah kept call­ing for repentance and warning of what was coming. But while Jeremiah called for repentance he was vastly outnumbered by prophets who kept prophesying peace.

 

"Don't worry, God is with us."

 

One message was a message of vision which coincided with the reality of the nation's sin and of approaching judgment. The other message was a message of fantasy which coincided with the world as they would like to imagine it to be . . . but which was already crumbling before their eyes.

 

This principle can be applied on a worldwide scale today. Everybody knows things are in crisis. God is calling his children a thousand ways to get out of Sodom, and we keep turning the vision into fantasy. And every time we choose fantasy a clock starts tick­ing away the hours until the fantasy blows up.

 

Now the real choice between vision and fantasy lies much deeper than the economy, the election, or even World War III.

 

- Whether our city is still standing ten years from now or merely a radioactive hole in the earth,

 

- Whether we are on this side of death or the other ten years from now is not nearly as important as the choice we are making be­tween vision and fantasy in terms of our relationship with God himself.

 

Every time God speaks we have to choose whether we're going to live in the truth of what we heard . . . in the real world of the real God . . . or whether we're going to distort the truth into some fantasy and crawl into that fantasy until it blows up in our face.

 

But how do we hold on to the vision.....

       how do we keep from being lulled into a fantasy?

Often people start out walking in the light of the real God and end up dreaming in the garden of illusion.

 

- We will keep our vision if we do what the vision calls for.

 

- Our vision will become fantasy if we see and hear and shout "Amen", but never do.

 

Listen to the threefold ending of the Sermon on the Mount.

 

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits."

Matthew 7:15-20

 

You can tell the difference between a false prophet and a true one by what they do. The test is in the doing.

 

"Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'"    Matthew 7:21-23

 

There is a difference between saying, 'Lord, Lord,' and doing the will of the Father. Again the test is in the doing.

 

"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

Matthew 7:24-27

 

Again the difference is between hearing the words of Jesus and doing them and hearing and not doing them.

 

- Hearing and doing produces a vision.

 

- Hearing and not doing produces fantasy.

 

The vision and the fantasy will in time be tested by a storm. In each of our lives the storm will make clear whether we have built our house on rock or sand.

 

"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them....."

 

Jesus was referring to the words of his sermon. But that can apply to everything he ever said. The Father has seen fit to preserve to us a few very simple words of Jesus . . . doubtless only a fraction of the words he spoke during his ministry . . . yet all we need. And these words of Jesus all require doing.

 

As we do his words our vision increases. But if we hear his words, study them, discuss them,

teach them to others, but don't really do them, our vision gives way to fantasy.

 

All the words of Jesus which we find in scripture can be gathered up into three commands.

 

1. Come to me.

 

2. Follow me.

 

3. Make me known to the world.

 

Each of these three commands of Jesus becomes for us the doorway to vision or to fantasy, depending on what we do with it.

 

When Jesus says to us,

"Come to me. Come to my cross. Receive my forgiveness. Put your life in my hands. Join yourself to me. Eat my flesh, drink my blood. Get under my yoke,"

 

these words bring vision, when we answer his invitation with our lives . . .  when we do it . . . when we come to Jesus with our sins,

                               our problems,

                               our bodies,

                               our minds,

                               our past, present, and future,

                               our possessions.

 

When daily we get up in the morning and literally put our lives in his hands,

 

when the primary objective of our life is to know Jesus . . . really know him and walk with him,

 

.....then we receive vision.

 

And this vision of who Jesus is will increase all our lives, through and beyond death.

 

If, on the other hand, we answer this invitation to come to Jesus with our mouths, perhaps with our emotions or a few superficial trips to the altar . . . but we never really do it, never seriously draw near . . . then our re­lationship with Jesus is only a fantasy built on sand and it will last until the storm comes.

 

The second thing Jesus commands is, "Follow me," which means,

 

walk in my steps,

do mercy to others as I have done mercy to you,

lay down your life,

pour out your strength in my name for others.

 

This command brings vision of God: when we act on it, when we do mercy in concrete ways beginning with the people right where we are.

 

But when we say, "Lord, Lord," yet never get around to doing mercy to

our husband,

our wife,

our child,

our brother,

our neighbor,

our enemy,

our employer,

our employee, when we talk Jesus but never do mercy, then we are soon drifting in clouds of fantasy.       And we will go on eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building until the fire falls.

 

Our Lord's third command is, "Make me known. Proclaim My name to the world."

 

Vision increases when we seriously set out to do this . . . when we deny ourselves, take up our cross and proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified in the places where we are.

 

But when all we ever do is talk about it to each other or perhaps mouth platitudes about Jesus to the world while our lives are far from him, we again slip into fantasy.

 

"Lord, Lord, don't you remember us? We pro­phesied in your name, cast out demons in your name and did many mighty works in your name!"

 

"I never knew you. Depart from me."

 

"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

Matthew 7:24-27

 

There is today and will be in the coming days a tremen­dous resurgence of interest in the Christian gospel

. . . in Jesus. Some of this interest in Jesus will produce vision — much of it will produce fantasy —  hearing with­out doing.

 

While we can tell false prophets by their fruits, about many people's lives we may not be certain of what's inside until the storm comes that will test every per­son's work. But about our own lives we can know where we stand with God.... for it is we who decide, every day, every moment, whether we're building on rock or sand.