The 5D stereogram "Jesus Is Love" is created by Stephen Schutz, PhD. Copyright © 1994 by Stephen Schutz and Susan Polis Schutz. Reprinted by permission of Blue Mountain Arts, Inc. All rights reserved.
My sons are perplexed by the fact that I have an interest in ancient writing in languages they don't know (and I don't know well), and the history that gave birth to it all. Why don't I just spend my time like they do - watching fake wrestling on TV, keeping track of sports or music? Why can't I just be normal - like they are?
Prompted to give explanation, the answer came to me the other day in a way that even a child might understand. Here it is...
I see things. Yes, a little like Haley Joel Osment - the kid who said to Bruce Willis, "I see dead people" in the movie Sixth Sense. Only what I see isn't dead people. It's just stuff most other people don't see.
That isn't the whole reason. The other part is that what I see is something I realize other people would benefit by if they also could see it. In fact, some of the things I see I find to be altogether urgent. And if it weren't for an underlying belief I have that God is in control, and doesn't really need me, I would consider it a crisis. Seeing the gravity of the matter my old (prior to recovery) nature wants to panic but I am prompted by wisdom to remind myself to (please indulge a cliche as it is what I live by daily) "let go and let God."
Still - what I see is what I see. For me there is no question about what I see, just more detail to fill in the gaps as the picture gets ever-clearer.
The dilemma for me is that in order to show people what I see I need to first show people that I am not just seeing things. This requires fact checking for those who like to know I've checked facts. And it requires simple explanations for those who for some reason just don't see what I see. And that includes my children. But the same idea applies with just about everybody.
I will illustrate using two pictures. The first appears at the top of this blog-post. It is a 5-D Stereogram. A 5-D image is similar to a 3-D image but instead of using 3-D glasses to see it you use two gifts from God - faith and paitience. Possessed with these, the first thing you will see is many colorful doves. But inside the image is something that only those who have the ability to see things a certain way will see. The hidden image shows up fine on most computer monitors but to see it requires patience and relaxation of the eyes. You will need faith, as well. Otherwise you will lose patience. So follow these steps ...
- This may be very bright and hurt your eyes slightly but come to within six or eight inches of your computer monitor and look at the screen's many colors.
- Allow things to get blurry. They may already be blurry if you are far-sighted. That's OK.
- Don't look at the screen. Look beyond the screen as if there was something inside of it. What you will see will be three dimensional. Pretend your screen is a box, rather than a flat screen and there is something inside of it.
- Allow yourself to see something inside. If the image doesn't appear at first be patient. It is there and anyone with eyes to see can see it. It is not just doves. Doves will be in the background. And doves will make up the form in the foreground resting on Him. You will see Him. He is showing you something with his hands. Can you see what He is showing you?
- Once your eyes have focused on Him you will notice that the vision is clear like in a polished mirror as compared to the blurry doves that you first saw even before you started to relax.
- You will eventually take your eyes off of Him. When you do so you will see blurry doves again - exactly what you saw before you saw Him.
- Don't worry. You will be able to see Him again. Just let go and let ____
Many people still can't see anything in this image, in fact most can't and won't. There are two general reasons. The first reason is they don't believe there is really an image and they think I just want them to stare at a picture to eat up their time as some cruel joke. (You won't find me clowning around like that too often: genre of this blog - very serious material relating to the support of 247scrolls.org ). The second reason is lack of patience. You are not seeing anything but doves in this picture because you have not sought the One who Is in the picture with sufficient patience. You have given up. And every time you try you give up too soon, perhaps just seconds too soon. Give it five minutes if you must. Take a break and come back and try it again if it doesn't work the first time. It really is there. And it is really quite amazing. No joke. The rest of this blog-post is written to those of you who have seen ...
So you see you really can see things that other people can't see - just like me. Now imagine living a lifetime seeing things that other people can't see and then just saying nothing about it - going on as if life was all blurry - the way that other people see it. There is really no way you would want to do that.
But I also mentioned urgency, gravity and crisis. It's not just some - hey, how kewl is that -experience like this 5-D StereoGram. The He that I see has told me what is about to happen in the future and how important it is that people open their eyes to some of the things that I have seen. I cannot share with the general public what that is at this time because - well, like this picture, it needs to be presented by way of Illustration, rather than a few simple words. It needs to be experienced. And I know that not everybody is going to be able to see it, even if they all have eyes to see. I accept that. I accept it with a little bit of sadness when I can't share a cool thing. I accept it with some amount of mourning when I can't share an urgent message
And so I pray.
Illustration #2: Below and to the left is a photograph of my son's baptism. Many people say that they can see an angel in the photograph. Not everyone can. And probably more will disbelieve rather than believe when I tell them that before we ever saw this photograph a woman who attended the Church came up telling us that the waters of the baptismal pool had been "stirred up" and that she had seen a vision of the Archangel Michael that night. This was before she saw this photo. She was comparing it to the Pool of Siloam.
The Evangelist, John, explains that the word "Siloam" means "sent" (John 9). The idea of being "sent" is indicative, in John, that something is from heaven. As such it can be counted on. It is not of this world. John the baptist was "sent" (John 1). The disciples were "sent" (John 17), as was also Jesus Himself "sent" (John 5). And in John, unless a person is born again from heaven, generated from above, He cannot see the Father (John 3).
Now let me digress and say - from all of this one thing is clear. You can't see unless you are sent. In order to see, then, it is important to ask to see. But you have to be willing to be sent. Otherwise you will not be able to see. This little tid-bit must be added to the faith and patience that you already possess. Willingness to be sent will be the lenses in the 5-D glasses of your life. You have not because you ask not. You remain blind because you refuse to see. And no matter how much faith you have, no matter how much patience, you will see what you choose to see so long as you refuse to be sent. Whoever will cling to his life will lose it. Whoever is willing to give up their life will gain it. To be "sent" requires not going where you want to go, but where you are sent. You have to let go and let ____.
Now my son does not yet appreciate what his father sees. Neither do skeptics of any sort. But I do see an angel in this picture, as have many others. And I take comfort in the fact that there are others who do my battling for me. They fill in where I, as one human being, cannot.
My son is a skateboarder and has not yet fully realized what this baptismal photo reminds me of. The Psalmist gave me comfort ...
He will give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. With
their palms they will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.
(Psalm 90/91:11-12)
So that is why I do what I do. But until a person really gets it, seeing for themself, I sound pretty dull. I focus on detail they don't care about because they aren't ready for it. What they don't need because they never saw the image to begin with, I need in order to see the image more clearly. And I have to give them the steps to see it.
So let me bore and perplex as I discuss such detail. Here is an interesting Psalm that is literally "pivotal" - as are many things, when it comes to my seeing things more clearly. The Psalms found by the Dead Sea were numbered as they currently are by the Hebrews and just one off by the count of the Greeks - so that the quote above is from Psalm 91 in Protestant Bibles and Psalm 90 from Greek translations according to the Greek counting. For those of you who don't know, there are 151 Psalms in some Bibles and only 150 in others.
Why should I care about the numbering of the Psalms? Well, sometime in the first few centuries just before Jesus was born, came this community of people out in the desert of Judea, not too far from Jerusalem, next to the Jordan River. Some people have thought that John the Baptist was there. Others have said that a group of prophets was there. Some have said this group of people were Jewish monks. Some have said they were zealots who wanted to overthrow the Romans. Some have said Jesus and his family was among them. And there are hundreds of opinions about it.
My own concerns go well beyond minute details. I don't rejoice in the hard work of scholars. My eyes are on what I already see - a big, very urgent, picture. At the heart of it is prophecy. Some say that prophecy ended with Malachi. Then the Jews suffeered a 400 year period of silence - not once hearing from God.
Such a notion does not stack up when considering the many prophecies that were found in the scrolls in the caves at the northwest shoreline of the Dead Sea. However, the fact that prophecies were found, does not mean that those prophecies were written during that period, or of those which may have been written then, that they were truly of God. For every true prophet there has ever been, there have been any number of false prophets speaking things contrary to what they've said.
The clear picture I seek is the authentic Voice of God. I know that I am far from alone in wanting to know this Voice.
At the Dead Sea were found Psalms 1-89 in good order. But the ordering of the Psalms after this, beginning with this very "pivotal" Psalm 90/91 begins the rather complex endeavor of figuring out which set of texts came first, and what God may have been saying by having more than one set, so that we might understand something very 3-dimensional about Him. Who added Psalms 91-151? Who made that decision? Were some written that this particular set of Jews just hadn't received yet? Had the others not yet been written? How does God use man to speak?
If it weren't for the fact that I had already seen something in the midst of it all I might say I had no idea. And I might consider these questions a mere exercise in sophistry. And one might think - "oh, he just likes to sound smart, to use big words. He can't stop showing off" - all the while the scholarly community mocks me for my lack of knowledge. But I'm not doing this to impress anyone.
It is a matter of seeing things. Seeing for yourself. And it is also a matter of seeking to see more clearly. This is not very complex. I will tell you what I have seen. I see that the Lord is coming soon to judge. I have seen that the time is very near. That much is very clear to me. This is good news for those who look forward to His coming. It is an urgent warning to those who don't. I have some books to write because that is what is required to explain what I have seen. It is in very clear detail, much like the detail that one can see once one sees what others cannot see in the two images above.
If you cannot see this, please ask to see it. And remember that to see it you must put on your 5-D glasses. What are those? You must ask genuinely to be sent. Are you willing?
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