Perspective

When I woke up this morning, the idea for this post came into my thoughts even the title, which is why I think I am purposed to write this. Since I waited until near the end of the day, this might be a shorter post than usual for me, but who knows.... I just got started. :-)

There were also a couple of verses that came to mind as well, and so I will copy them both here now. The first is from Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

The second verse is from Revelation 11:12a  "And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither." 

In Hebrews God is speaking and says that His thoughts and His ways are so much higher than ours. As high as the heavens above the earth! So, we must ask our self why does He say that? What is He trying to prove? Is there any question in the mind of sane men that God's thoughts and ways are not higher than ours? I think He has a greater motivation instead. I think that God is telling us that, because it is an invitation to join Him. It is a call to crawl out of the lower realm, and to.... in the words of Revelation "Come up hither." Come UP higher, more correctly, and it is not talking about altitude, but rather attitude. Up rather than down. Higher rather than lower. And while it is not talking about altitude, at the same time our comparison of altitude can be made to help us get a clearer understanding; a clearer perspective.

Yesterday, I made my first dual cross country flight. It is a little bit of a misnomer, since we did not fly "across" the country, but rather about a 50 mile dog leg to another airport. The method I used to get there is what is called pilotage and dead reckoning. Mostly pilotage, which involves looking at a special pilot's map called a sectional which gives certain land marks that can be recognised from the air, to determine where you are in relation to where you are going. Dead reckoning is a term that uses direction speed and time to determine where you should be based on those factors.

I can make this comparison, because I am already familiar with the journey from the ground level. I drive a truck for a living and I have driven all around the area that I was to fly over. We even flew over the area where I live, and the building where I work, so I know my way around on the ground. I know the roads and the signs. From the air it is a little different perspective. I see the tops of buildings instead of the signs on the front. I see the tops of the cars on the tops of the roads, and I am not limited by the bend in the road to see what is up ahead from the aerial viewpoint. On a clear day I can see for miles. And the other fact is that the higher I go, the further ahead I can see, and the bigger the picture of what lies ahead, before anyone on the ground ever gets there. It is a different perspective.

Spiritually the same thing applies. So often our view is limited by our earthly viewpoint. We can't see what is up ahead. We can only imagine, and usually our imagination will steer us in the wrong direction. Our imagination will look at the present circumstance and judge God based on such short sighted information. The bend in the road concerns us because we don't know what is beyond where we can see. It is similar to the story told by J Preston Eby where he uses a parade as an example, with a man sitting on his little chair in front of a hardware store. On the ground you watch the parade as it goes by. On top of the store you can see the parade from beginning to end.

Such short sightedness reminds me of the story of the Asian family that were poor dirt farmers during a time of war. They barely made a living trying to farm. One day they were given a horse, and they blessed God for the gift that was given them; their son could ride the horse and use it for farming. Then before long, their son was thrown off the horse and broke his leg and could not work the farm. They cursed the day they got that horse that caused such tragedy to their family. Soon after, the soldiers came in the middle of the night to drag their son away to fight in the army, but he could not go because of his broken leg, and then the family blessed God for all that happened! Short sighted perspective.

Now, for anyone whomight try to take a literal approach to the quoted verse in Isaiah would have to explain how a thought is literally higher in altitude than another thought. You can use a literal meaning of the heavens above the earth in the Scripture verse I quoted, or you can also consider that it compares to a realm of existence. There is a plant kingdom, and an animal kingdom, and an earthly kingdom, and a heavenly kingdom. It is a comparison of existence.

There is the matter of the verse that I am using as a subtitle to this blog is "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 1 Corinthians 15:49 The ONLY qualification to bear the image of the heavenly is to have borne the image of the earthly. (more about that another time.)

The fact is that you can ascend in your thinking. You can ascend in your understanding. You can ascend in your Spiritual maturity, all without leaving Terra firma. Are we so stubborn so as to hang on to our preconceived notions about God, no matter how well intentioned the person was who taught us? Or are we willing to follow God where ever He leads? Can we listen to the still small voice that calls us? Will we follow when He says "This is the way, walk ye in it."? The funny thing is that quote is proceeded by the words "You shall hear a voice behind you saying..." The reason why I bring it up is that it occurred to me that if you hear a voice behind you, it might mean you went on ahead without the guide leading, and you have to go back to where you veered off the path. THIS is the way... not that way.

I guess I was wrong about this being a short post. I did want to use these thoughts to further add to my account of the journey I have been on as I intended. I have already written about some of the circumstances that lead to my spiritual awakening, and even to an empowerment by the spirit, what the Pentecostals refer to as the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The only difference is that I do not have what is referred to as the evidence of speaking in tongues. While I do support their doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit, I do not support their doctrine that speaking in tongues is the only initial evidence. The details of which is a whole other post.

So, I did go to a Pentecostal church for a number of years. I even felt a calling to study for the ministry, and began taking a ministerial correspondence course. Even after several years, I made it through 10 of the 20 subjects. In the mean time I did get to speak at some nursing homes, and bible studies. My intention was always to prepare, and let God be responsible for the outcome. That still holds true today. I studied what I was taught and mostly believed what they said as do most believers, after all, they knew the truth right?

Well, I met a friend, who in the course of time of knowing him, I discovered a different Theological understanding of interpreting Scripture. I later found out from him it is sometimes called Reformed Theology, or Calvinism. What I did not know till then was that there were two major Theological differences in Protestant churches, along with "sub sections" and variations so to speak. There is what is called Arminism, and there is Calvinism. Many evangelical churches teach an Arminian theology, and some Baptist and the like teach from a Calvinistic theology. It was because of my learning the differences between those two doctrines, that I stopped believing in Arminism theology, and began to study Calvinism.

It is at this point where I will close this post by adding that it is my belief, that God was leading me each step of the way, and using the influence of others to help steer the direction of the path He placed me on. Each step forward was also a step higher. And sometimes what felt like running into a wall, turned out to be a riser. A riser being that vertical part of the staircase. A step and a riser. A step and a riser. Each level taking you higher, thus giving you a different Perspective.

As these posts continue, I will explore further what the differences are between these two doctrines, and why I switched, but also why I think both doctrines fall short of the Truth! Lets go higher and get a different Perspective.