Truth behind the image

At first glance this looks like an amazing architectural feat... How did they do that? When you walk in the house are the rooms level? Is this some kind of Disney land fun house? Why are the curtains hanging at such an odd angle? Why aren´t the lamps in the windows falling?

Whoever made this picture actually rotated their camera to make it appear as if it is the street that is level and  straight. This can be noticed as the street signs on the right are unusually tilted, the trees are bent too, the pink building in the back is also curved, and there's a strange pressure being placed on the left side of each car, implying that gravity is pulling them to the left and downward. It's noticed especially so on the far right silver car. The house isn't tilted, the street is, and it's actually a very typical scene for anyone who has ever lived or traveled to San Francisco.

How about this one?

What about this one? Is the girl really flying? Levitating? Is she suspended from the ceiling by a cable which is later removed? Is this a clever copy/paste photoshop job? We have a lot of doubts that this photo is real and not manipulated in some way. Actually, her name is Natsumi Hayashi and there are no special camera effects involved at all. She sets up her camera on automatic and literally jumps hundreds of times until she gets just the shot she wants. This photo is veritable representation of truth. A literal moment captured in a split second of time (we just don't see her come back down to the ground because it is a single image).

With current technology and a limitless imagination, people getting even better at using images and special effects to trick our minds into believing something to be true that is really just a prestidigitation (slight of hand). On the flip side, we have become so dulled to these manipulations of truth, that when we see the real deal we often doubt what we're seeing and want to know what the trick is. No matter how much you want to believe that the house is tilted, that´s not the truth. The photo has been manipulated. No matter how much you was to believe the girl is held up by an invisible cable, that´s not the truth. She is a true image.

How often is this now becoming true of our every day spiritual lives? All day long we are presented with situations, decisions, and choices. And the enemy longs to trip us up in how we respond to them. He loves to use truth and twist it just a bit, to "tilt the image" as it were, to make you believe in a false version of reality. He also loves to take the truth and make you believe it could not possibly be authentic through doubt or fear. It´s what he did with Eve in the garden (Genesis 3) and what he attempted to do with Jesus (Matthew 4). What we need is an increased level of discernment to recognize the truth. The Bible puts it this way:

Proverbs 23:23
Buy truth, and do not sell it, 

Get wisdom and instruction and understanding. (NASB, NIV)

Buy the truth and sell it not; 

not only that, but also get discernment and judgment, instruction and understanding. (Amplified Bible)

I find it interesting that truth is represented as a commodity here. It is something we need to value enough to invest in it, to seek it out, to go looking for it...and never sell it. It's an active process. Truth has companions, though. Wisdom (the Amplified Bible translates it as discernment and judgment: The correct ability to discern something for what it is and judge what you need to do with that information in a Godly manner), instruction (being in a position of a learning student), and understanding (incorporating information and processing it appropriately). These are the tools we need to be able to see truth for what it is and see when the enemy is manipulating what is in our eye sight.

As you go about your day, I pray you buy truth from the Lord. I pray you seek God for discernment, judgement, instruction, and understanding. I pray that you would stand strong in recognizing truth and standing up for it, even when everyone else can only see and believe in the manipulated version.

Oh, and one more test to see what you've learned...Truth or manipulation ;)