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Real and Good?

What is real? And what is good? Those two questions, according to Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles can help us think about what is at stake for us personally in this amazing journey we call life.

In an interview for an future Day of Discovery program on “The Search for Meaning”, the professor went on to say that when we reflect on the meaning of what is real we are asking, “What can I count on? Or, what will I run into if I’m wrong? That’s not a bad definition of reality”, he suggests. ” It’s what you run into when you’re wrong.”

Interestingly, when I recently went to a Dallas Willard webpage, I found a quote in the upper right hand corner of the page says, “In Him was Life and that Life is the Light of the World.”

Someone who didn’t know where that quote came from might wonder if this was supposed to be a characterization of the professor. If so, imagine how philosophically or spiritually outrageous it would sound.

Yet, when John’s Gospel talks about One who is Life, Light, and the Light of the world (John 1:1-4),  we find ourselves confronted with One who seems to deserve a second look.

John goes on to describe a day when Jesus said such amazing things about himself that many of his followers walked away in confusion and disbelief. At that point, according to John, the Teacher turned to the Twelve and said, “Are you going to leave too?” To this Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life.” (John 6:67-68).

In a day when we are so apt to be disillusioned with others, and in those moments when we realize that it is the height of self-delusion to think that we ourselves are “the light of the world”, can we do better than to turn our eyes back to the only One seems to be at the end and beginning of an honest search for  “what is real” and “what is good”… ?

Who else could say with so much evidence to believe him:  “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.Jesus


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32 Responses to “Real and Good?”

  1. SFDBWV says:

    “Reality is what we run into when we are wrong.” You have to like that statement, kid of like “where the rubber meets the road.”

    Many people look for castles in the sky with rose colored glasses all the while complaining as to why they have to live in a tent in the wilderness.

    The intellectual study of life is exhausting, but when compared to what the people of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have to contend with right now, that study has to wait until they have put their lives back together. And for many even have a place to live.

    Though for many they will be asking “why” for others they will be thanking God that they escaped from death and at least have their loved ones alive. That being their reality for now.

    There is a vast difference between creating a reality we want and then having to attend to the harshness and disappointments of life.

    The reality of Christians placing their hopes above the stark cold facts of life and looking beyond this reality for the one promised by Christ and in so making it possible for any of us to endure the failures and disappointments of this one, for that one.

    Steve

  2. SFDBWV says:

    I am old enough to have heard many arguments between Christian apologists and atheists over the course of my life. In continuing the thread of Marts post, I am reminded of the closer for many a Christian arguing for an eternal reward or damnation against the idea of death being just eternal unconsciousness.

    Well, said the Christian, if I am wrong what does it matter? But if you, the unsaved, are wrong you will have an eternity to reconsider your position and no one to blame but yourself.

    What is “Good”? Wow! That question can have a long list of relative differing opinions, but Jesus said that only Jehovah the Father is good, which implies that all else fails to be good in comparison to Him.

    We are having “good” weather this morning, blue skies 34 degrees after the “sun” comes up we will warm up some but not be too hot. So our weather outlook for today is relatively “good”.

    Steve

  3. Bob in Cornwall England says:

    Right or Wrong?

    We all know that life or reality is really an illusion brought about by tiny particals that fly around each other in complex formations and that there is more space in a solid object than betewwen the stars, relatively speaking.
    So where do we begin to even start on this debate.

    Like you said Mart, Jesus at one point made such claims about Himself that most of His followers were shocked and dismade.
    So I guess Jesus is the only basis for reality in this whole universe.
    Cling to Him and He will take from this “reality” into HIS REALITY.
    Jesus has many names, but Real and Good sum Him up very well!

    Bob

  4. oneg2dblu says:

    What is real? What is good? What is reality?
    Where do life and death cross, or how are they defined as reality for us,(particles of dust)?
    God’s gift of Breath, His Breath of Life!
    It is God who “breathed us” into Creation, and our reality “IS” in His Life Giving Hands, Alone!
    Our reality continues to exist, only in our next breath.
    So, we Praise Him, who allowed our last breath, and allows our next! We live because he made “each particle”
    and left enough room between them, for us to be able to BREATH! Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow! Gary

  5. SFDBWV says:

    Interesting Gary how when I read your comments about breath, it reminded me of ancient peoples who believed that the spirit of man was in his breath and how in the cold it could be seen.

    It reminded me of how other cultures so believed that the spirit man was in that breath that they purposely refrained from kissing on the mouth as a result.

    Whereas we read in the scripture that the life in is the blood, yet without that breath of life the blood is of no use and how quickly death comes as a result.

    How in the scripture and by way of Jesus Himself, He called Himself the bread of life. Without substance to feed the body, there is no life either.

    We read in 1 John chapter 5 beginning at verse 5 we learn that it is he who overcomes this world that believes that Jesus is the Son of God. That Jesus came by water and blood and the Spirit. That there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. That these three are one. That there are three that bear witness in the earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood and that these three agree as one.

    Maybe the ancients knew more than we give them credit for. Maybe that breath has more significance than, as Bob stated, just atoms and molecules of matter in an endless orbit around themselves.

    I can see this topic as having an equal and endless continuance of going round and round, with a lot of space in between.

    Steve

  6. oneg2dblu says:

    Steve… even if we do not see the blood, the breath is a very noticable evidence. I have an aging cat, who resides much of his time on the back porch. When, I first come home at the end of the day, and he is lying flat and lifeless at a glance, I watch ever so closely for the rising of his abdomin to assure myself, that he is only sleeping. Sometimes it takes a while, and that waiting, gives one that sense of will he take another!
    Being Born Again, our spitual awakening, our new life is in the Spirit that lives within us.
    As much as I desire my next breath, I desire the Presence of His Spirit even more, for without that evidence, I truly am, a Dead Man Walking! Gary

  7. oneg2dblu says:

    PS… my cat has life, but he does not have that,
    Born Again Eternal Life, coursing through his veins. He only has the temporal blood, type “B”, and he has breath as well,though sometimes I find it to be quite fishey! LOL

  8. poohpity says:

    What you run into when you are wrong. That brought to mind several times that Jesus confronted wrong, one was when they had brought a women caught in adultery and Jesus asked the accusers, “But only he who never sinned may throw the first stone”. those in the wrong laid down their stones and walked away.

    I know for myself the way I act when confronted with being wrong sometimes I admit it and ask for forgiveness, sometimes I get very defensive and attack only to find that what someone said was true then I have to go and ask forgiveness not only for the first wrong but also for the way I reacted. Another way is to think of myself as less than because I was wrong when in all reality it is impossible to be right all the time because only God is.

    In the light of Christ we see ourselves for who we truly are sinners saved by His grace then and only then can we be humble enough to admit we are wrong it is Christ who lights our paths in the darkness.

  9. royalpalm says:

    Loving greetings to all… Thanks for this topic, Matt; it is truly worth thinking about…

    Man has the freedom to choose how to spend his days here on earth but soon the reality of death – (It’s what you
    run into when you’re wrong) because of his sin confronts him. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, we learn about God – ” Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to
    end.”Like Solomon, we can ponder on the brevity of life and what really matters (good) or ignore the inevitable and die as we choose.

    What is REAL?- Real is defined as “being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence”. In
    essence real also means Truth. There are things that we “know” are real, and some that we “think” are real. The first group involves certainty and conviction while the second involves conjecture and speculation.

    The Bible considers only 2 that are true – (1)God – John 14:6 ( I am the way, the truth…)and (2)His word (Psalm 119:160 -The entirety of Your word is truth,And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.)

    Because of sin and its effects we have problems discerning truth from deception. However, for those who really want to know the truth, God has a wonderful promise. In Jeremiah 29:11-14, He says,

    “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD…”

    The same God who said these to nation of Israel after He sent them to captivity because of their sins, also speaks to us who are captives because of our sins. But it takes initiative in our part – we have to call, pray, seek, search, with all our heart and He promises to listen, and be found…

    Regarding GOOD – In Mark 10, there is an account of a rich man who wanted to know what “good” things he needed to do to enter heaven. (Isn’t this what we long for to escape death?) Jesus gives us a glimpse of what he thinks relative to “good” in Mark 10:18 -So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”

    This, then is reality and truth about what is good – nothing can be called good unless it is godly.

  10. poohpity says:

    royalpalm, Mart not Matt!!:-)

  11. bratimus says:

    To be or not to be, is that the question.

    with all this talk of particles and electrons and protons circling each other. Dust and breath it is starting to sound like a science class.

    Humans tend to act like electrons and protroons circling and froming groups, religions, clubs, unions and political parties. the atracing factor is beliefs and ideals. and all this forms the realities we live in. and sometimes these realities collide like galaxies to an explosive enviroment. Sometimes that is why humans in groups look more like a pack of wild dogs running around the community knocking over gargage cans.

    One can say we are in the battle of realities, and the strongest will prevail. And as far as the human condition goes this is the beginning of anarchy.

    According to God’s conditions, this is the time of sorrows or the tribulations.

    with all these realities colliding, it is the prime condition for the false one to be revealed as the false god.

    So what is Good, humans keep makeing the case that The One True God is only good.

    I really dont like Philosophy, it is just people using big words to try to justify their own life as something that actually matters. and all those that make it into heaven will not remember any of this life humans have tirned into a rat race, not realising they are caught in a maze of confusion and self dellusion.

    What i wrote here everyone is probable ready to give me one of those white jackets that lets me hug myself.

  12. royalpalm says:

    Hello, poohpity,

    Thanks! I appreciate you and your kindness in correcting me…Hello, Mart, – I meant you…

  13. davids says:

    A young child believes that they are the center of reality. Nothing matters but their own selfish desires. Growing up means that we come to understnad that what is real and what is good are not determined by ourselves.

    Yet this world invites us to be self-centered. There are many that feel that what they believe is real is true, and what they believe is true is right.

    As Paul says, “I put away childish things”. But as much as we learn about the physics of the universe, we only understand reality as if it were reflected in a bad mirror.

    Hopefully as we mature in the faith, we learn more and more that what is real and what is good lie outside ourselves and our desires.

  14. saled says:

    Just a week past Easter, this topic reminds me of this scene from the story of the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.

    “What is REAL?” asked the rabbit one day . . . “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

    “Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real.”

    “Does it hurt?” asked the rabbit.

    “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are real, you don’t mind being hurt.”

    “Does it happen all at once,” he asked, “like being wound up, or bit by bit?”

    “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. . .”

    Sometimes I think this is what the purpose of our present existence is all about. Maybe it is where we become real. I am just about at the loose in the joints and shabby stage, so hope REAL isn’t far off.

  15. florida7sun says:

    I always love Julie Ackerman Link’s contributions to “Our Daily Bread.” This morning she took me to Job 12:10.

    “In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

    We live and breathe through His Word. He formed us and carried us through the canal of our birth. He orchestrates the events of our lives to allow us to grow in the knowledge of His grace. He builds within our hearts His glorious peace… a peace that radiates through the countenance of all He indwells through His Holy Spirit.

    “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” – Isaiah 64:4

    Julie prays today, “Help us to wait patiently for You to bring us Home.” She has been nurtured through the trials and joys of her life in Christ.

    Yes, as believers, He gives us the breath of God, His eternal breath: all whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are living and breathing in Jesus.

    As we were wondrously formed in our mother’s wombs prior to our birth, He now forms those who love Him to enter a new canal that will lead to His eternal presence in glory. That is the power of His Word.

    His Word is real. His Word is good. His Word is truth. His Word is love.

    Love to all, Ray

  16. SFDBWV says:

    One of the reasons we have advanced from a primitive people to a highly technical people is because we possess an imagination.

    We can imagine something we don’t yet see for “real” and through a series of efforts make it become a reality.

    What once was not real became so, by a combination of imagination and faith in a dream.

    Some would say that our imagination and faith in God is our ultimate belief in something we can not yet see for real.

    As Thomas had to see and touch Jesus before he would believe in the resurrection, many a person still has that kind of weak faith in the unseen God.

    Others would say that all we see in existence around is plenty of physical evidence in God.

    Some might say it is good for poor sick and destitute people to believe that after death they will live again in the splendor they were denied in this life, but doubt that there is any reality to it. Allowing imagination to become delusion.

    Jesus said if we had the faith of a mustard seed that we could move mountains. I can attest to the fact that I have seen mountains removed. It may have taken dynamite and heavy equipment but the fact remains that someone had the faith that they could move that mountain and did so.

    I read many years ago that truth is connected to time. That what is true now may not be at another time.

    So faith in God belief in the resurrection and in the written Word becomes a conscience effort on our part. Though we are besieged by the intellectuals of our world to prove our faith and ridiculed and beleaguered for it, we must be strong in our faith sometimes without anything that the world calls “real”

    Believing that what we see isn’t real at all but only a temporary illusion that one day will fade away and the ultimate reality of death will bring us face to face with an eternal reality.

    Jesus has taught us about that eternal reality; it is up to us which reality to choose. The reality of now or the reality of eternity.

    Which is better? Is the reality of now good or bad for you? Which will you opt for?

    Steve

  17. tracey5tgbtg says:

    In reading the lines quoted above:

    when we reflect on the meaning of what is real we are asking, “What can I count on? Or, what will I run into if I’m wrong? That’s not a bad definition of reality”, he suggests. ” It’s what you run into when you’re wrong.”

    It seems like that is a good definition of Truth, but not exactly for reality. Truth is a reality, yes, but what about the evil in this world – isn’t that a reality too? When we realize we are wrong, it’s because we’ve run into the Truth.

    After all, we might tell an unbeliever about God and heaven and hell, and they might reply, “you need to get back to reality.”

    Also, quoted was Scripture from John 6:67-68. I had just been thinking about that particular passage, except farther up in John 6:63.(this goes back to the blog on people predicting the day of judgment)

    Jesus said that His body is real food and His blood is real drink and that they must eat and drink His body and blood. Many who heard these words had trouble with them.

    Jesus tells them: “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”

    What I was thinking was that what Jesus says in that verse always seemed to me the way we are supposed to read Revelation. It is a spiritual book and we can’t read it in the flesh (literally) although every word is true and every word is life.

    Just my uneducated opinion which is open to debate. :)
    Tracey

  18. refump says:

    Isn’t REAL for each of us what we know now & what we believe in now. It may or may not be truth but for us it is real until something or someone comes along & changes our thinking & we then have a newer concept of real. What is real for each of us is somewhat of a floating island accept if we lock into something & become dogmatic about it, often as a defense mechanism to protect our sanity. This topic made me think back to the one basic philosophy course I took in college in which we dealt with Rene Descartes journey from proof that he really existed “I think therefore I am” to proof there is a God. (our prof shared that after one class he had a student that was so shook up that they were afraid to go out to the parking lot to drive their car for fear that it didn’t really exist!)
    Truth on the other hand is real at its perfection. Know the truth & the truth shall set you free. Jesus said the He was the way the truth & the life which is why I have put my trust in him as the perfect form of real, TRUTH.

  19. oneg2dblu says:

    Here’s a word given to a very smart Dad, from his brilliant daughter, when he was dropping her off at MIT one day,she said, “Don’t let reality ruin your day!”
    I though it was a great way to say, “Be Blessed in all you encounter today!”
    Like the lesson of the Veletian Rabbit, sometimes being real, rubs your hair the wrong way, loosenes your joints, tears a little here and there, but remember, being loved is not being left on the self of life, it is getting down and playing in the dirt with others, and then dusting yourself off when you fall, and only returning to the shelf again, if one who loves you puts you there,so you can rest for a little while!
    Life for some, even knowing their hungered state, they will refuse to eat again today! Some would rather starve themselves of His Word, then allow the Bread of Life to feed them! For they do not know what they REALLY need! They need to find their “rest” Under His Yoke, but they do not want to be led!
    “Be Yoked, and Be Blessed!” Gary

  20. Toml5169 says:

    Steve
    Your last post really blessed me today. I to have seen mountains moved during my life. Lies I believed as truth, burdens no amount of machinery could touch, fears to deep for me to conquer and mountains of pain in myself and others bo man made device was ever invented to remove. However through all of what life can sometimes be a truth that endured them all and removed many was we seek a home whose foundation and builder is God. The sad part of that truth is many consider it to be a lie and/or an illusion.

  21. xrgarza says:

    Mart, your last two paragraphs, have really hit home this morning, simply because that’s sort of where I find myself today.

    I’m so disillusioned with our government and with tears in my eyes as I type this, the church.

    Often times I feel like the lone ranger, where are those that are passionate for the Lord, I’m not talking about those that stand out in street corners or on private property’s reading the Bible and forcing others to hear what they have been taught.

    I was taught that If I believe in something or in someone, truly believe I wouldn’t even have to mention a single word about what I believe, my lifestyle alone would demonstrate what I believe in all by itself.

    When I hear messages that clearly are scriptural but appear to have an ulterior motive for example personal gain, or to force others to believe a value or a principle that cannot or will not being rolled modeled, can be a bit disheartening.

    Since I really believe what the scriptures say I use scripture to live my life with by applying the principles literally to virtually every situation in my daily life, although, I too often fall short, many Christians see my life as rigid, yet those that are not Christians ask me questions like How do you do it Rocky? I’m sure it could be easier to become full of myself and say because I am the light of the world as oppose to saying because the light of the world lives within me.

    Rocky

  22. poohpity says:

    Please pray for my oldest son he is consumed by anger. He needs a closer walk with the Lord and the influence of a Godly man in his life. Thank you! :-(

  23. SFDBWV says:

    So much sadness in the world so much heart ache. This for me is the one thing that Jesus offers to me and any who find themselves at the end of themselves, “hope”.

    Yes Tom there are mountains in our lives that only could have been removed by that faith that transcends the reality of this world. And that power only comes through the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

    So much pain in the world and so much anger, the two seem always to come together.

    How many of us wake in the morning as tired as when we went to bed? Or awake to a living nightmare that seems endless and inconsolable. If it weren’t for the hope that Jesus offers we would go mad.

    The only real thing that exists is that glimmer of hope and promise from a man who was beaten to a pulp, nailed to a cross and hung up to die for all to see.

    So yes that becomes our reality, our suffering and pain and the hopes and promises of one by whom “His” stripes we are healed.

    Steve

  24. davids says:

    Your son will be in my prayers, Deb.

    Kindly, David

  25. poohpity says:

    Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Love Deb

  26. Regina says:

    Good Evening All,

    Hope you all had an opportunity to fellowship with other believers in the house of the LORD today.

    Read Mart’s intro comment, and this Bible passage came to mind… Matt. 5:14-16, NIV

    “14) You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15) Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16) In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

    “Unusually” cool and rainy in Texas today (47 degrees right now).

  27. Regina says:

    Forgot to add that this comment brought to mind the Bible passage that I just shared:

    “…and in those moments when we realize that *it is the height of self-delusion to think that we ourselves are “the light of the world”,* can we do better than to turn our eyes back to the only One seems to be at the end and beginning of an honest search for “what is real” and “what is good”… ?”

  28. Regina says:

    I will also pray for your son, Pooh.

    Blessings to all

  29. poohpity says:

    UBL has been killed.

  30. Bob in Cornwall England says:

    Let’s keep calm about The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
    I remember those scenes of cheering in the middle east when the Twin Towers fell.
    People are already gathering at the White House.
    If we celebrate his death then we are as bad, if not worse, than those who celebrate 9/11.
    There will be serious repercussions to his killing by US forces.
    We are different, we are to LOVE our Enemies!

    Bob

    Deb, I will be praying for your son.
    Our worship leaders son has been away with Team Challenge in Wales, first he gave his heart to Jesus then he was baptised in the Holy Spirit.
    The next day he phoned his mum and said “Mum, all the anger has gone!”

    Knowing him as I do that is a mirracle and Jesus will do the same for your son.
    Love You!

  31. oneg2dblu says:

    Bob…what do you think about this America, for giving their worst enemy, a full respect for his religion, Muslim burial? It seems to me, when things are reversed, our fighters dead bodies are then hung from bridges, to show how much total religious dis-respect they have for us! Even if it is directed by God,
    War is still a cruel act of man, and if any dignity exists for the dead enemy, it seems it would come from a Christian Nation, that has had to kill others, because of an act of war, that was forced upon them!
    Who threw the first stone?
    I hope and pray, that your country will never suffer, a well planned Twin Tower attack, because it would then be your countries turn, to love and forgive them, by saying, “They know not what they do!”

  32. jayou says:

    I wonder how a conversation about the real and good can wander off to where we are trying to discuss the death of OBL. Getting off track is so easy to do. Years ago the take on the Coke commercial was “Jesus…He’s the Real Thing!” The real life is found in knowing the Real Savior. I recently was invited to spend the afternoon in a beautiful home on the water. I’d say they have the good life. I had access to that home because I know the owners. If they didn’t know me I wouldn’t have been invited to be there. The only access to the Real Good is having Jesus know us and invite us into Himself. When I spent time in that beautiful home I realized again what is important, real and good. Jesus invites us to live a different life in Him. Our lives now involve all sorts of struggle and pain, but knowing the “Real Thing” in Jesus makes our life good. Mark 10 talks about the Rich Young Ruler. Jesus makes it clear that only God is good and everything in our life needs to be bound up in Him. The next questions involve how all this changes your life.

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