Robert Griffith | 14 September 2022
Robert Griffith
14 September 2022

 

Sometimes life seems unreal. All of us have had days where we felt like we were in a fog. We may have felt like we were in a dream world. At those times nothing seems real. How do we know what’s real anyway? How do we know that this is not all a dream? How do we know that we weren’t created five minutes ago with all of the memories of a lifetime? People have been asking these kinds of questions for years. Perhaps you have played these kind of mind games yourself. Everyone wants to believe that they know what is real, but often we doubt our own perception of reality. This is compounded by the fact that we live in an age of doubt. Scepticism, speculation and differing opinions all characterize our age. We live in a time where it’s hard to know what to believe. It’s hard to know what is true, what is real.

Now, this is nothing new. In every age there have been the sceptics, doubters, speculators, philosophers and debaters of opinions. Perhaps in our age we have refined it a bit with the appearance of the television talk show and social media where totally ignorant people can share their preposterous opinions and where gullible viewers and readers believe them! We should not be surprised that people have no idea what is real.

I have been reading the first letter of John this week and even though it was penned a very long time ago on the other side of the world, it was written in a very similar climate of uncertainty. Sceptics, then as now, had their theories about God. John wanted to share what he had experienced personally. He wanted to share what was real. John, and others like him, had experienced the ultimate reality of God. This was not just a theory to John. This was a certainty. He had encountered the eternal.

1 John 1:1-3  “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

Many people live their entire lives without thinking very much about unseen realities. A lot of people are more concerned with the material world than the spiritual world. And when they do begin to think about the spiritual realm they are often easily duped by those who seek to lead them into darkness, not light. Because most people have no knowledge and experience of the true eternal God, they are easy prey for many of the new age gurus who are ready and waiting to help them – help them out of their money, that is! We need to know what is really real. We need a personal encounter with the eternal and a personal experience of the life of God.

What about you? Have you encountered the eternal and experienced the life of God?

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