God's Reality Program

Philosophers and scientists have struggled for centuries to define reality--what really exists, and why we perceive it the way we do. The questions that arise naturally from these discussions, such as "Why does anything exists at all? and What is our purpose in the scheme of things?", have often been dismissed as being too difficult to explain and understand. Christians, on the other hand, have known the answers to these questions from the beginning.
Secular arguments concerning this subject continue until today without agreement. The philosophers Immanuel Kant and David Hume, for example, disagreed in their conceptions of how reality is perceived and constructed within the human mind. Hume believed that our minds start out as "blank slates--tabula rosa" that are written upon by our experiences of the natural world, the data conveyed by our senses actually constructing within our brains concepts such as what it means to be alive. Kant, conversely, thought that we come into the world with what he called "a priori" knowledge, a pre-intellectual awareness or intuition that enables mankind to understand abstract concepts such as time and space, ideas that sometimes change with experience, a subjective rather than objective dynamic.
A similar conflict arose between the famous physicist Albert Einstein and a later field of study developed from his Theory of Relativity called Quantum Physics. Quantum scientists sought to explain away the experimental mysteries they encountered at the subatomic level by stating that "nothing exists until we observe it." Einstein rejected this completely subjective version of reality, responding that the laws of physics are irrefutable and exist outside our sphere of influence, that "God does not play dice with the universe." Hagel, another famous philosopher's wonderful idea, "The Absolute Mind," the source of everything, was preceded by a few thousand years in the pages of the Bible.
Christians have always known that it doesn't matter what our imaginations come up with to understand reality and our place in it; God has explained it all in His Holy Word. Scripture tells us that the Lord created everything with His spoken Word for His own honor and glory (Gen. 1; Job 38:39; Psalms 8) Everything is contained within Him, including ourselves, to honor and glorify Him with all that we think, say, and do (Duet. 5:5, Mat. 22:37, Luke 10:27, Mich. 6-9, I John 5:2-3), to love others the way He loves us, and to serve them (Lev. 19:18, Matt. 19:19, 22, 22: 39-40, Rom. 13:9, Gal. 5:13-14, Matt. 20:26-28).
No matter how we try to complicate it, God's version of reality is the simplest and easiest to understand. His purpose and our purposes have been clearly defined.

Creational Art

Art is one important aspect of the fact that mankind was made in God's image. It is an expression and evidence of the creative process that brought us into being, a manifestation of the Divine spark left over in everyone that enables an artist to manifest in his heart and hands the very power of creation; to bring into reality a thing of beauty from raw materials and inspiration alone. The evocative nature of art is just a continuation if this process, to ellicit from the universe a realization of the angst and desire that birthed the artistic experience, each time a reiteration and reincarnation of Genesis.

The field of Psychological Science illustrated this indefinable essence of the artistic creative process with an experiment. A group of participants, made up of traditional classical artists, craftsmen, and engineers, and people who just professed an ability to draw were asked to draw a portrait of a stranger. While these subjects drew these portraits, they were given CAT scans that mapped the areas of their brains that were experiencing the most electrical activity during this assignment. The results were examined and analyzed and the resulting CAT scan data separated the group of subjects into two distinct camps. As you would expect, the draftsmen, engineers, and amateur drawers processed most of the information they received and utilized through hand-eye coordination to render their portraits in the area of their brains called the visual cortex, an area at the back of the cerebral cortex that processes visual stimuli. These participants in the experiment were merely duplicating as accurately as possible what they saw, no more than a facsimile of what their eyes perceived.

The classical artists, on the other hand, were found to experience the most electrical activity and hence process the most information during this portrait creating activity, in the area of their brains called the Frontal Lobe. This area is generally believed to be the seat of human consciousness, where the thoughts occur, through various idea creating and analytical processes, responsible for every advancement in the field of human intellectual development strongly influenced by emotional content, the basis for inspiration. It has been theorized that what the artists are doing is bringing into existence through the creative endeavor their "idea" of the portrait, not a mere processing of visual information, but a utilization of a quality of consciousness expressed in symbolic forms that other people can recognize, interpret, and respond to, bringing forth into our physical reality a concrete representation of what it means to be human.

The artistic experience, perceiving the world in unique perspectives and recognizing its potential, through the creative process, appears each time, in every artist's own way, to be a repetition of the original act of creation, bringing forth from the humble earth truth and beauty. Though artists have often been under-appreciated in our greed-driven , Western culture, in this sense they are like priests, possessing an innate ability to perceive and conceive the divine and infinite, and to express and communicate these qualities in a tangible way to world-weary souls. J. Wallace

Writing for Literacy Club

A FAVORITE THING

My favorite thing is plural--actually things, or favorite memories, memorable times in my life that have made it worth living. The births of my children, significant family gatherings, my first big job just out of college, and a moped adventure with my wife-to-be, through the backyards of Palm Beach mansions are just a few examples. One memory stands out for different reasons.

Viva Zapata! is a Mexican-themed bar open on one side to the street, veranda style, in Key West. At one point after my divorce, I sat in the "eye of the hurricane" of my life in Viva's cool interior, taking a rest from the storm. One song says, "Freedon's just another word for nothing left to lose." Everything that I had loved had been swept away, or I had walked away from, and, in a strange way, it was freeing. A cute, little eighteen-year-old redhead had taken a liking to me. She considered herself a "post-modern hippy" and found me attractive for some reason, burned out, disillusioned drop-out from two previous professional careers hiding out in Margaritaville. Go figure! Almost every afternoon we would get semi-intoxicated and sing old Eagles' tunes with the jukebox: "Take It to the Limit," "Take It Easy," "Desperado," etc. Those old songs then somehow spoke to my situation. She found them nostalgic (!). We sang them with all our heart and soul; she even cried a little during "Desperado."

Like all foolish dreams, this one did not last long. Soon, I would have to wake up and face reality, the wreckage of my life, and the danger I was surrounded by. But, for a moment, I lived a romanticized version of suspended animation, a vagabond with no responsibilities, the tragedy of my circumstances put on hold as that Eagles' CD spun into place. Someone bought another round of drinks, a young woman snuggled up to me, teary-eyed, and the world stopped to let me get off.
J. Wallace

The True Nature of Faith

The True Nature of Faith

Faith, as it is often practiced today, seems less the supernatural phenomenon described in scripture, in the “substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen,” a perspective and confidence that supercedes our physical reality. Rather, it seems more of a type of “hope, wish, and a prayer” often ridiculed in our popular culture. Unless the Biblical truth concerning what is required to actually begin to approach God and, more importantly, to please Him, is explained and made evident by our Christian teaching and example, it will be lost forever to a generation of young people Biblically unschooled and befuddled by guided misconceptions.
Faith, as it is explained in scripture, is not hoping, but it is knowing that the Lord will intercede for us as born-again Christians (Mark 11:22-24, Matt. 21:21-22, 1 Peter 3:12, Heb. 4:14-16). It is a belief not based on personal cause and effect observations or life experiences in the physical world; faith does not rely on scientific laws or physical realities at all (2 Cor. 4:13-18). It is the confidence placed in the Word and assurances of the Maker and Sustainer of everything, the One who gave us life and mercifully revealed Himself to us. It is an understanding born of scriptural study (Rom. 10-17) and countless intercessions on our behalf in times of need and crisis. It is a shifting of the mind from the bondage of fear and doubt--plagued thinking, to a free realm of positive expectations and results (Mark 4: 37-41, I John 4:17-18, Heb. 10:35). It is an active choice made daily, moment by moment, in its purest form, absolutely essential for victorious living.
The main reason faith exists is to please God, and it is impossible to please Him without it (Heb. 11:16). This truth is such a main tenet of Christian belief that it almost goes without saying. But, if the true faith described by scripture, a belief constant and certain despite all worldly reason, often goes unrecognized, does that mean God is seldom pleased with our endeavors, and if not pleased, is He disappointed, even displeased? If so, it would then follow that the often unproductive nature of the modern Christian life is not so mysterious. It is to be expected, if the modern mind is fully immersed in the cares, the delusions of some sciences, the mistruths and outright lies of secular civilization meant to misdirect and hamper naive believers.
Therefore, it is our Christian duty to display in our words and deeds, not “hope, a wish, and a prayer,” but true faith, with knowledge and sometimes grim diligence, despite all hindrances, obstacles, temporary hardships, and arguments to the contrary, with assurance and determination, set our course and see it through to the end to the Lord’s honor and glory without waiver. This is true faith in thought and action. It is what we owe to Him who gave His all for us, to all the unsaved souls who observe and measure our faith, and to all the Christian generations that look to us for wisdom and guidance.

J. Wallace