Perception Is Powerful
 

We have been discussing this on another forum and I thought I would start the same thread here for your commentary.

Here is my opening post...

We heard this weekend about a brother who planted a garden.

What he planted was marked "Watermelon" and when he planted it he did so with that understanding.

As the "watermelons" began to grow he saw that little watermelons were starting to grow.

Some would come by and say "Brother... I don't think those are watermelons" and he would reply "Oh yeah... they are definitely watermelons.

More and more comments were made that these weren't watermelons but he never once harbored even a moment of doubt because he knew... absolutely... that these were watermelons.

The watermelons were, admittedly, growing kind of oddly for watermelons.

Finally one day he realized that these were cucumbers. Now that he looked at them they looked exactly like cucumbers. When you look at them you think... how could anybody ever think that they were anything but cucumbers?

But, in his mind, they were watermelons and what he saw each day was skewed by what his mind thought was there.

Perception, predisposition, prejudice and just blind faith...

Their power is mightier than we can imagine.

This is another post from this thread...

This realization has brought me to a place where I question myself as best I can.

Admittedly we are ill equipped for true self examination but a realization of a need for said self examination goes a long way. At least for myself.

I try to keep every doctrine open for evaluation and re-evaluation. The realization of the power of perception lets me know that my judgment of whether something is true or not is, often, nothing more than a comparison against my own experiences & perceptions... and that... my friend... is not a very true measure.

This brings me to continual prayer that God show me truth beyond my own realm of thinking and help me maintain an open mind and an ability to to and fairly weigh what, at any given moment in time, I might not really believe.

This all results in a brokenness before God concerning what I believe having hope only in His promise to lead me and guide me into all truth.

Hey.

That's actually helpful and mature.

Thanks!

Very good point and a very good thread.

Put all things to the test! Hold fast to that which is good!
(Which may not always be traditional.)

Any thoughts you may have on the subject will be greatly appreciated.

Yes sir... I am increasingly pleased to weigh, within the limits of my own level of self deception, any doctrine without fear... as a matter of fact... I weigh them with excitement for 2 reasons.

1. Sometimes God can show you some wonderful things when you study with an open mind.

2. What is truth is not afraid to be weighed.

We should never fear to weigh any belief again and re-evaluate it. What is truth is rock solid and will stand and one often comes out of the experience having seen something greater in what they had held as truth and ones appreciation for the truth is only made new once again.

Amen. And it would seem to be such an obvious thing except for the fact that tradition is such a powerful force, especially when laced with doctrine and fear that states it is wrong, rebellious, and akin to blaspheming the holy ghost and/or man of God to even question it.

This brings up some "discussions" that I am having with my Dad on some topics.... He holds some traditional views while I see what appears to be "obvious" to me. It really helps to look at scripture from time to time and imagine that you have fresh eyes and are seeing it for the first time.

Wow... you have called the recipe ingredient by ingredient.

What power tradition has... the scripture lets us know that through tradition we can make the Word of God of no effect. In so many words... tradition makes us miss the whole point and both the point and the promise are completely missed. I want to not only walk in right truth... but in spirit & understanding of that truth. Tradition can rob that of me if it is tradition men.

Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Good post and thread!

That's what I like about discussing ideas/issues on a Forum, there are many diverse views and they help you to see your comments for what they are and not only for what you want them to be perceived as.

As Keith4Him would probably point out here... we are a body and the whole is a blessing unto itself.

When we all come together with our own thoughts then we find that iron does indeed sharpen iron and we are blessed for having shared our thoughts one with the other.

Sometimes we are corrected... sometimes we are made stronger in our beliefs... but we are always blessed.

The scripture (albeit possibly misapplied) that always comes to my mind is...

Mar 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

When I read the bolded portion I think of study of doctrines as "drinking in" what is being presented. I study it with an open mind trusting that, should this turn out to be a deadly doctrine, it will not hurt me.

If I become dogmatic then I place myself in a position of being poisoned... but when I search putting my trust in His ability to lead me rather than my own ability to find truth then I find safety in His promises.

I've asked the rhetorical question.... "If you gave 50 people a bible who had NO preconceived idea's about Christianity, told them to read it and find out just who Jesus is and how to be saved, what would be the consensus?"

For one thing, I believe there would be at least 50 different answers to that question BUT would be some general similarities in belief as well. What would they be?

Amen! Well said!

So many different views I am sure... just as you alluded to.

But... I would really love to hear them. I would love to hear a pure and untarnished view of the word such as an experiment of this sort might produce.

I just want to know Him as completely and as purely as I can.

Good stuff to think about.

I don't know what else to say but what I've already said several times. This type of medium, along with email, is a "cool" medium. Inflections, double meanings, tone, and inference guided by facial expressions are all lost. You can be laughing while you type something and your audience will interpret your writing as angry, or sad, or rude, or all three. Even the use of the generic "you" can be misinterpreted.

You can write something with a certain mood, intention, or meaning. But your readers will color it with whatever mood they are in at the moment they read it. There are regional differences in word usage and slang that further confound true communication of full meaning.

Neutral words, passive voice, and avoiding the use of the generic 'you' are all helpful in this regard. One of the more frequent misunderstandings is the interpretation of the author's use of 'you' generically as a specific accusation. But this is still only half the battle. So much of the replies to replies of posts is about clarification of misunderstanding even when tempers aren't rising.

We engage in what amounts to amateur publishing, and never even think of hiring an editor. We must be our own editors, filtering what we write before we post it such that we give ourselves the best chance for being understood and not giving offense (unless, of course, offense is our goal).

We should check our writing for unintentional double entendre, ambiguous meaning, and the potential for being interpreted as accusatory.

It isn't easy. But as people gain experience with these types of forums, and observe how such simple things can be misinterpreted, not only do they become more studied in their writings, but more lenient in their interpretations of the writings of others.

Look at the pages of smilies available to help convey tone. The problem is recognized at some level, but smilies alone won't fix it.

If you read something here, and it makes you angry, I recommend that you respond to it just as you would respond the first time you hear your young child unknowingly repeat a curse word. Curb your anger, ask them what they said, ask them where they heard it and if they know what it means - you get the idea.

We should grant leniency to the writings of others, and look for opportunities for misinterpretation in which we can give grace, mercy, and the benefit of the doubt.

We should ease in to familiarity with others very slowly. Teasing and friendly insults can get out of hand much more quickly with people that you've never met in person.

Tell me if you think this is helpful, it all seems obvious stuff to me. I guess some people on here are inexperienced in the corporate world of email, where each email could be your last email. The careful cultivate their carefulness and the careless cultivate the 'help-wanted' section.

Many, many points of wisdom in this post.

Wisdom which seems obvious should always be taught because it only seems obvious to the wise and no one knows who it is that fits into that category on any particular subject.

In raising my children I have made it a point to not punish on first offense no matter how much the offense seems as though it should just be common sense. On first offense I stop and think... have I taught this to the kids. If I cannot answer yes then it is time to discuss and teach.

On forthcoming offenses then we know that this has been taught and they should know that this is wrong. I then have to judge whether we have intent to disobey or a simple failure to remember etc and judge each situation carefully.

But... I do my best to make it a practice that I not assume someone knows something even though it seems like common sense to me. It seems like common sense to me because this lesson was someplace in my past. It might not have been so for them.

Great words of wisdom... thanks for sharing.

That's interesting. I have been thinking of this thought for the past couple weeks....how there are many people, even Christians, who have wrong though patterns.

What they believe about God, themselves and others is just messed up...and because of this they never truely get victory over somethings or never truely grow in Christ. They constantly take 1 step forward and 1 step back.....

Strong holds of the mind...truely our biggest enemy is not our neighbor nor the devil....but often our own mind.

I really like what's written here. I've never been afraid of staying open to more truth or illumination/shedding of light on the truth I already have.

The truth is ... a closed mind isn't going to even be willing to consider another viewpoint. Insecurity doesn't allow much either for conscious scrutiny & examination of what we already know or think we know and believe. Actually, a secure confident position and attitude is much more able and willing to look at a different perspective and examine objectively a challenge to our own belief system.

Although I feel pretty darn confident in what I believe, how I believe and why I believe it I'm open to hearing other ideas. I'm eager in fact to hear how other people think about doctrine and other issues. I'm looking always for that new little nugget of truth that I never saw before. As a result I'm still having the occasional lightbulb moments when new insight is gleaned from reading what others read, write and say.

Love, kindness, and acceptance of where a person is at at a given point in their journey is more likely to engage people and make them more open to receive the truth you're trying to share. :)

I'm amazed at how things still occasionally pop out to me as "duh! that was obvious!" in something that I thought I knew forward and backward.
For instance there was an "Ah ha!" moment when reading and thinking about the well know parable of the workers who received their talents. We all know that the "villain" of the story is the worker who buried his. One thing that jumped out at me is when the master said -to paraphrase, "you could have at least put it in the bank to earn interest!". If simply putting it in the bank to earn a tiny bit of interest was not acceptable, would the master have said "You could have least put it in the bank!"?
You know what this SCREAMS to me? That God is looking for SOMETHING. Anything. The bar He wants us to reach is to see fruit. ANY fruit. In other words, don't let yourself be beat over the head by guilt for not measuring up! Just do SOMETHING. Once you take any performance criteria out of the picture you actually WILL do more.

The tale is that the Lord is very pleased when we do a lot for Him. But He "simply" requires us to do something, no matter what it is. It is not a story to be used as a tool to frighten the "flock" into more and more works.

To some perception is as powerful as truth...........to them perception is reality....

The disciples in the midst of a storm perceived that a Ghost was walking to them on the water....the reality was it was the God of the Storm, Jesus Christ.

Digging4Truth, I really appreciate what you have shared in this thread. Something that I often think of when discussing how preconceived ideas and misperceptions can taint our understanding of truth is the story of Saul. He was so convinced that he was right in what he believed and that he was actually serving God in persecuting and sending Christians to their death.

It took a powerful encounter with God in which Saul himself became an object lesson of spiritual blindness to break down his resistance. A blindness that could only be overcome by the light of revelatory truth. Only then did he receive the awesome experience of revealed truth that resulted in the understanding we have of the Body of Christ, the Church.

I pray that I will always be prepared to surrender my preconceived ideas and thoughts to whatever further knowledge God would have me to know about Him and His divine purpose for His people.

digging.......MUST YOU MAKE US THINK!!! :-)

Wow... what a powerful example of this concept. I never even thought about Paul...

Before & after his conversion on the Road to Damascus he was serving God in all the knowledge he possessed and doing so with all his might. What he had been taught would not allow him to see Jesus as the Messiah.

I intended this thread mainly as a soul searching of my own but when we meet people who don't believe what we believe then so many times people get angry with them or deem them as hard headed. It could very well be, like Paul, that they are held captive by their own preconceived notions and, again like Paul, only God can make them free from those notions. This reminds me that we battle not against flesh & blood but against principalities & powers.

Thanks so much for sharing this thought with us.

On occasion.... Yes ma'am... I must. :)

Excellent. Amen.