You and I learned to appraise the value of the world around us by how it appears. Some look no deeper than the very surface, while others have dug themselves into a complex hole of reasoning. In the long run it makes absolutely no difference; for every opinion is bound by what makes sense to the one who holds it. No amount of reasoning, effort, or determination will ever free you from this dilemma, for only death will remove you from it’s grasp. This is what it means to “walk by sight”. So, did Jesus die on the cross just so that he could alter our destiny? Please know that I am NOT knocking the reality of our CONTINUED life in Christ after these bodies finally croak. For if being alive to God depends, in any way, upon our physical bodies, then we have been “saved” from nothing. I am instead asking you to consider the same things that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter and James were REALLY addressing. What do I think they were really addressing: that we were removed from the bondage of the world through the death of Christ, and that we were joined together with God by virtue of the fact that His Spirit came into us. And none of this has anything to do with anything we have done, but it was totally by his grace through the hearing of faith. It was a miracle accomplished by Jesus. We heard … and believed. His death and resurrection made no sense at all to any of our prior perceptions or to our reasonings. Instead, the good news of Jesus is the power of God to salvation. You are, at this moment, being tempted to view your life and the lives of those around you according to the perceptions you learned in this world. Why? Because the way it appears DEMANDS it! This is not an accident, but is by design. For if everything that appears to be so is not the stuff of our life, then we are left in the realm of the miraculous. One day, at the end of this time where nothing is as it seems, we will experience the flip-flopping of all things where EVERYTHING will appear as it really is! Jesus will appear to us exactly as He is in all His glory. We will instantly be aware that we look EXACTLY like Him simply because of the MIRACULOUS fact that we are seeing Him as He is … which could not be possible if we had not been born of the same Father! Now, before you go hanging on to the conclusion that John inserted this statement into his letter in order to put your thoughts on the time yet to come I want you to notice something. For what he wrote after that has nothing to do with what is GOING to happen, but with what has ALREADY happened! The “US” that is going to be seen is the same “US” that we cannot see now. And if you think that John has made some remarkable statements so far … just wait! And wait you must. hahaha! Sorry, it’s just too much to dish out at one time, and I don’t want to lose everybody here. :) Next time: What we shall be (part 3) Then: The Judgment Seat of Christ