Recently a family was driving at night along the Pacific coast when without warning an inferno next to the highway sent flaming embers down around their vehicle. Police and fire trucks were nowhere to be seen as the automobile sped close by the Solimar fire. In the end, though the experience took only a short time, Mrs. Maks, one of the car’s occupants, said it felt like an hour.
It would be ludicrous to ask that family in their moment of terror, "How do you feel?” or “How is it going?"
When someone asks those same questions of a family after they finished a satisfying dinner, the answer to the first one might be, "I’m full or I’m satisfied." The second question might elicit a similar response, something like, “It’s going well. We had a great meal together."
Experience conditions our response. Our reference point determines our perspective.
When friends and I were hiking part of the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire, we ascended and descended, ascended and descended for hours. Several times I thought just maybe we had reached the peak only to discover we had to hike several more valleys before reaching the highest point of the range. I viewed my actions and effort in light of my destination.
The return was different, all downhill. I did not understand how time could speed by so quickly as we departed the mountain range back down to ground level. Though time itself had not changed, I felt like it had because of my frame of reference.
All of us are blind to certain realities beyond our limited experience. A popular business appears to spring up out of nowhere while actually it has been growing up for years. It simply never appeared on our radar. We look for something in the refrigerator and become convinced it isn’t there only to admit we missed it when someone else points to the item on a shelf in plain view.
In the true story Rocket Boys, Homer Hickham began carving a dream as a teenager. He chose to see hope in the apparent hopeless nature of obstacles. This is what God does in our lives through teshuvah (return to God). He completely changes our reference point. All our past becomes the fulfillment of God’s perfect will, and His will transforms our present into what He always meant it to be.
This is not a mind trick or imagination. Science confirms the truth of the experience.
Quantum mechanics proves that a person’s presence in the moment transforms entirety, so that all past moments and present reality become integral. In the two slit experiment, what is viewed responds by becoming. The act of observing makes something that was not true previously true objectively in the present moment. The fire mentioned above completely shifted how the family experienced time, and Mr. Hickham can look back and see how very difficult and challenging circumstances made him the man he became.
The experiences of the Old Testament prophet Abraham living in Egypt would have produced a very different outcome had the Lord God not promised that Abraham's descendants would number as the stars. Soon after the promise, Abraham descended in both circumstance and morality. Almost immediately, the Egyptian culture influenced Abraham’s thinking. He recognized his wife Sarah’s beauty to other men and lied about who she was to save his life.
The key point, however, is God’s promise above and beyond Abraham’s descent and moral shortcomings. Circumstances do not change reality from God’s perspective. He will transform our lives and, through us, the world around us if we recognize Him when He comes to us in the stillness of our heart and speaks our name.
We say a person is a descendent of George Washington if her or his bloodline traces back to the founding father of America. Likewise, but by faith, Abraham is the father of those who recognize Jesus as Messiah. Abraham rejoiced to see the Lord’s day.
God causes this same joy to come alive in a person’s heart as he or she becomes joined to God by the same faith as Abraham. By implication, all who believe become kings along the line of David. They are also made priests to serve God forever, 24/7 through the gift of Jesus, our High Priest, who is not a priest through natural bloodline but through the eternal priesthood of Melchizedek.
Recognizing Christ as Emmanuel, God with us, infuses meaning and purpose into present reality, the same way God’s purpose for Abraham transformed his life and made him the father of the faith. When Jesus looks toward us with His mercy, goodness, and love, and our eyes meet His, He changes us. God blesses us, not because we exalt ourselves in pride but because He loves us and wants to use us to bless others. He has the best plan involving only good for our lives.This brings total satisfaction in life, provides endless motivation for business, and becomes the unshakeable foundation for all enjoyment in the world.
Fire will both melt the elements and purify those who are called according to God’s purpose. As He called Abraham for His purpose, He is using every descent to bring about His final redemption. Through the shed blood of Jesus, who sacrificed Himself to transfer us into His kingdom, He will reign forever and cause the collapse of every other kingdom. This will happen similar to adding an observer to the two slit experiment in quantum mechanics, which causes one reality and ceases the other. This is how the Kingdom of God destroys all other governments. Everything that is not made new will not survive, and everyone who will not accept the reign of Christ and His unearned offer of forgiveness will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
The mountains we climb and the valleys we trek do not need to define life. They must be razed and lifted as happened before Christ came the first time. Similarly, the way must be prepared before His second appearing.
While we cannot stop earthquakes, fires, and other natural weather events, each of us can be free of the terror brought on by them and other terrifying events coming upon the nations. Christ, by hiding us under the shadow of God’s protection, has become our shield and defender. Strengthened daily in our connection to God through Christ and His word, He delivers us from the fear of what is coming upon the earth. His purpose transcends our circumstances.
God turns all the previous descents into uncut stones paving the way for His blessing upon our lives in business, in relationships, and in every other area. In the process, we need only to hear Him and trust what He says. Then when all other foundations around us crumble, we will continue to stand.
