1984 -- George Orwell... the spiritual point of view

If we look at this spiritually, we can see the same thing happened to the Pharisees who stood against Jesus in the councils and even after he rose from the dead.  They knew something had happened beyond their control and even though they saw the miracles and even had firsthand accounts from the soldiers who guarded his tomb, WOULD NOT believe in the face of unimaginable evidence (they of all people who quite possibly had the most of any single group).

And as the Bible said, it wasn't that they didn't want to believe..  They were the religious group.  They were the ones who wanted to turn Israel back from its secular leanings of the time.  They were the ones searching the hardest for the Messiah.  It wasn't that they didn't want to believe, they couldn't believe.  They'd attached their minds so strongly to a particular position and a particular world-view that there was no room for anything skewed from their standpoint.  As Isaiah 6:9 says:

"And He said, 'Go and say to this people:

'Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

keep on seeing, but do not percieve.''"

More and more my eyes have been opened to the importance of the Godly world-view.  A world-view isn't something that changes with laws and rules and decisions and thoughts.  It is that thing, even deeper than a thing.. it is the foundational basis, behind every law, rule, decision and thought we follow or do not follow.  It is what is there after every other thing is stripped away.  It is the device against which we as human beings have no power to fight.

More than ever, and I apologize for my lack of eloquence or coherence, I believe the Bible to be the blueprint from God, for man, containing the way to superimpose the correct world-view over the one we've come to follow without question.  It is a world-view rife with faith, love, hope, mercy against our self-driven world-view of narcissism and worry and self-doubt.

It's not a formula, please don't mistake what I'm saying as that.. but it's by committing ourselves to it in discipline and not requirement, we can begin to understand the true nature of things.  It's never a requirement. If we try to do something because "we have to do it" we'll never get the full benefit and for all we know, the benefit may be skewed in any case.  But if we do it out of the joy of knowing it is a good thing that profits much, whether we see it in the near or far, fruit will come.  And fruit that comes is not a fruit that is forced.  Perhaps for ten years you see nothing, but then suddenly, you look at the life that you live and notice ones alongside who have been fed by the fruit from the branches of your life for years without you knowing.

That is knowing your world-view has changed.  When things happen, good things (of which we know nothing good comes except from the Father), happen to change the life of those around you; Godly spoken words, or words of thanksgiving or praise, come from your mouth as easily as a singular, "Hello," emerges when passing someone in the hallway.  When you notice right thoughts flow out about something, not because you rehearsed and memorized them like some actor on stage, but because they flowed from a well deeper than that within you.  That is when you know the Word has changed you.