Chapter One
Reality vs. Unreality

At a distant point in my past, only vaguely remembered, I suddenly came to the realization that the solid things around me were not "real." It may have been on one of those hot, sticky, summer Sundays, when I sat uncomfortably beside my devout mother in a frame church building, hearing the verbal droning of the preacher competing with the mechanical hum of several oscillating electric fans hanging on the walls, or it may have been some time later, when I was a little older, and sat in cool splendor in the modern, brick air-conditioned building that succeeded that first one, listening to the successor of that other preacher. Yet, though I cannot pinpoint the time, nor identify the preacher of the hour, I do recall the odd sensation of learning that reality was only to be discovered in the spiritual realm in which God dwelt.
The word which triggered this discovery was "eternal." Simple child-like faith embraced that word, and led me to a whole new experience. Once the discovery was made, I began to hear and read familiar passages of Scripture in that new light. When Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:50 that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption," he meant for me to realize that the corruptible body I live in is not the one with "staying power." It will slowly decay in life and, when dead, will never be restored from its dissolution in the dust. I read in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 that the new body of my resurrection which replaces it will never corrupt, and so becomes the "real" body, the new, the enduring, the spiritual body. Again, the "eternal tabernacles" of Luke 16:9 shall replace the aging, disintegrating structures of this world. The "eternal inheritance" of Hebrews 9:15 shall exceed to the Nth dimension the "earnest of our inheritance" spoken of in Ephesians 1:14. The "eternal kingdom" of 2 Peter 1:11 will survive beyond the existence of the strongest, most durable government of men, as the prophet said in Daniel 2:44. I firmly accepted the truth that the "life eternal," promised in scores of Bible references, was the "real" life; not this vulnerable, physical, ailing, frustrating life we experience here.
It would be a marvelous transformation of modern Christianity, if the disciples of the Lord would look at these things in the same way the harassed, harried, hounded, apostle Paul did. He said, in a moment when his frustrations were at their peak, "Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Instead, we are faced with the undeniable fact that the church is filled with people who have settled comfortably into the feeling that they are earthbound, rather than heaven-bound. They seek the comforts of this life, rather than the future bliss of life eternal. Instead of embracing the altruistic nature of Christianity, they nurture the most common and yet most perverse of human characteristics-- selfishness. This trait blights all attempts to "become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). It is the selfish person who listens most readily to the sophistry of "conventional wisdom," and afterward stops his ears, lest he hear a biblical "reality check" that contradicts what he has already determined to do.
There is nothing wrong in pursuing our "enlightened self-interest," if the "light" which "enlightens" has a divine source. Failure lies along the path of a self-gratification, when it persists unhindered in the face of the eternal truths preserved for us in the Bible. These truths contain "reality checks" for those who may be inclined to be ruled by "conventional wisdom."
Selfish self-serving self-centeredness is at the root of many spiritual failures. It is, to adopt a common exclamation, "Unreal!" It is the ultimate unreality. But every fault that plagues the Christian is met and rebuked by a divine "reality check." Here is a "checklist."

(a) "Rugged Individualism," a dogma so prevalent among freedom-obsessed Americans, is rebuked by the wisdom of Altruism.
(b) Indulgence is rebuked by the doctrine of Self-control.
(c) Greed is rebuked by commands to be liberal, even sacrificial, in Benevolence.
(d) Opinion is rebuked by calls to practice The Faith.
(e) Pride is rebuked by demands for Humility.
(f) Complacency is rebuked by calls for Self-criticism.
(g) Adultery is rebuked by a divine prescription for Marital Faithfulness.
(h) Divorce is rebuked as rebellion against God's design for Marital perma- nence.
(I) Promiscuous and perverted sex is rebuked by the call for personal, physical Sanctification.
(j) Strife is rebuked by divine commendations of Peacemakers.
(k) Controversy is rebuked by appeals for Unity.
(l) Criticism of others is rebuked by the command to exercise Loving Edification.
(m)Partyism is rebuked by the consistent depiction of "One Body In Christ."
(n) Experimentation in sin is rebuked by the wisdom of profiting from Vicarious Experience.
(o) Tolerance, so popular in the midst of so much religious diversity, is rebuked by the evidence of Divine Intolerance.
(p) Worldliness is rebuked by the call for Godliness.
(q) Love expressed only in words is rebuked by the principle of Love Shown Through Deeds.
(r) Hate, Jealousy, and Envy are rebuked by commands for Brotherly Love.
In each of these things that identify Christians attempting to live by the tenets of Conventional Wisdom, divine revelation arrays an impressive body of Reality Checks.
As a writer of books, I realize that the use of transitory terms, such as "conventional wisdom," and "reality checks," can quickly render this treatise "dated," if not "obsolete." But, these phrases are simply current faddish ways of saying "the wisdom of the world" (1 Corinthians 1:20), and "the wisdom that is from above" (James 3:17). "Conventional Wisdom" can be defined as the consensus reached by the majority of persons who follow the normal paths of human wisdom. This is manifested by a contemporary trust in relative truth. In contrast, absolute truth is to be discovered in the pages of divine revelation, the Bible. Here we will find our "Reality Checks," those sobering facts and gems of divine wisdom carelessly over-looked or ignored by those who selfishly reject true wisdom.
A cadre of worldly wise men have filled the shelves of libraries and book stores with frothy "how to" books that offer advice on the way Christians should live. Each year sees new offers by these men, beautifully bound and illustrated. The rationale that drives such new ventures is undoubtedly derived from the assumption that people are no longer impressed with the plain words found in the Bible, even though they may confess verbally that it is the inspired word of God. They turn away from divine revelation to search through the myriad pages of human rhetoric and novel literary devices, hoping to find profitable (and perhaps, entertaining) spiritual instruction. New authors trying to enter this field of lucrative writing must inevitably think, "What unique contribution to wisdom can I make by writing yet another book on the subject?" The untried adventurer attempting to gain some influence in this field usually decides that he can only attract a loyal clientele of readers by jazzing up the old themes with new ways of saying the same things.
I humbly admit that I hope to gain readers for my words, just as much as any other author. The only difference between myself and other writers is that my purpose will be to enhance the appeal of another author, God. I want to help my readers discover or perhaps resurrect their confidence in the plain but forceful Word of God. The "reality checks" to be found there, I hope, will serve to be mental choke-chains like those used in training dogs, jerking us back in restraint, and conditioning us to accept the force of what is revealed in the Word. Perhaps this tactic will renew the reader's interest in deep study of the Bible, unencumbered by human sophistry and the literary devices of writers of modern "wisdom literature," whose credentials are less than divine.

"And now, Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God require of thee, but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of Jehovah, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).