The Life Flick

The Life Flick

I received the following reply within a week of sending my letter to Theophilus in which I described being transported to what appeared to be the center of a diamond where I was shown that Truth is best perceived from within God rather than looking upon Him. Unity expresses reality as does nothing else.

My dear sister-in-Christ and fellow aspiring immortal,

It was so good to hear from you after all this time. My wife had just inquired about you the day before your letter arrived!  

I believe that now that you have had this most interesting experience you understand why it is so wrong to criticize and condemn others. It is not just that criticizing others arbitrarily displeases God; it is because such opinions can only reflect a false understanding of the subject. It is one dimensional. Truth matters; to know something fully and to be known fully are impossible from the human perspective. We must always defer with full awareness of our ignorance to the One who sees from within. The Creator of reality is vigorously protective of it!

I can’t say that I have ever been transported to the inside of the Spirit of God as you were, you lucky creature! Your adventures simply amaze me. I wish I could offer you a similar tale but the only adventures I seem to have are found in the pages of the books I read and in the films I see. Filmmakers are certainly showing a lot of creativity these days. It seems to me that they are making it easier for a person to imagine that this life is a film which too will be over after a series of thrills, and dangers, love scenes and near death experiences, and then another reality will replace this one, just as another film instantly sends us to another world.

Yes, I think filmmakers are readying humankind for the transition to new earth. I only grieve because their plots are so shallow and Godless. The real story is so much more fascinating than tales of dreams inside dreams, or iron men that save the world by transforming themselves into jets and weapons, and what was that story in Avatar? I don’t even remember it now. Yes, the truth of Christ’s return and the creation of the new planet earth are just as thrilling but with depth and substance. 

Sometimes I think about how much easier it will be for us than for our early ancestors to find ourselves in that new world of light, of perfect government without divisiveness, and even of new geography because of books and films. Yes God is certainly preparing mankind for the Great Transformation. Sometimes I wish that I could read that book of it or see that film. We have snippets in the book of Revelation and the Gospels but I want more!

I must go off to feed the sheep now, I hear them calling. Please write to me again soon. Zelda sends her love.

Your true blue friend,

Theophilus

When Death is Good

I don’t mean to scare you or to engage in sensationalism when I talk about the end of the world as by earthquakes in 2012 or by the return of Christ, but for aspiring immortals the whole point is to finally have the scales removed from our eyes that blind us here on this old earth to what is truly important and what is deserving of our concentration and our might --in contrast to that which is fleeting (such as money or power) or will detract us from our quest for eternal life with God (as when we miss the mark way too much).

One thing we know is that our flesh will certainly die, it happens every day to someone else.  To avoid the shock of sudden change, whether after nature’s death or during wholesale cataclysm, it doesn’t matter, the result is the same so let’s consciously and with full awareness live under the reign of God here and now. This way when nature or violence gives us the bite, less difference and more happiness will ensue. It’s the most practical approach to living and the best way to sass that adorable fool, nature.

For example, I have a client who is being unreasonable, manipulative, and exploitative. Basically it wants to steal from my company and there is no end in sight. We sell time and it grabs more than it is willing to pay for. Sometimes it is mean about it to force me to give, like a robber. Human nature beguiles me to become angry and protective. But since the Word lives in me, It keeps reminding me to turn the other cheek and to let him who takes my cloak have my coat also. I am compelled by my King to allow this to continue. I can’t accept the reign of God and of mammon at the same time. After all this time living in the Kingdom, I happen to know that I will be reimbursed somehow, somewhere, so it isn’t really much of a sacrifice. I wonder if it matters whether the client knows that my response is not from weakness but from strength in obeying God’s rule.

Odd to think about how so many problems I have, God has already had. I was very upset when a few people who I had been most generous with, did not acknowledge my gift or express any gratitude. Then I understood that once again I was being shown God’s problems to unite me with He. Does He beg for gratitude as I craved to get rid of the pain? No, He silently waits and hopes. I suppose the American feast of Thanksgiving was proclaimed to give God a little relief.

When I was younger, I studied the list of fruit of the Holy Spirit. (i.e. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Longsuffering, Mildness, Fidelity, Modesty, Continence, and Chastity). It seemed to me that there was a rock in that fruit-basket. How could longsuffering be considered fruit?  I couldn’t imagine that the Power of the Universe could suffer. Don’t we want power and wealth to avoid suffering?

God’s ways are so very different from nature’s ways. God made man in His image and likeness, but He surely didn’t do that for nature! To live under the reign of God is certainly to have the natural mind and heart die, like the grain of wheat that falls to the ground to grow a new mind and heart. Nature’s death is devastating to the natural man, but not to the immortal man. The good death then is the death of what is called human nature; it is not relief from pain and suffering from cancer or aids as you may have thought. Good death is the kind of death that learning makes which transforms. Look ma, no fear!

The Dark Side of God

Being an aspiring immortal is a full time job! It is to become a master athlete, a top soldier, a nurse, a parent and a best friend; probably a lot of other things too numerous to mention here.

Highwaymen watch us cynically for moments of frustration, elated when they think they are catching us being hypocrites. They assume that to be an aspiring immortal is to be consistently placid and sweet, like a popsicle but not so cold. “And I thought you were a Christian!”is a phrase that sends chills down my spine.

Has anyone read the Bible lately? God the Father and His Only Begotten Son got angry however, a problem with emulating God’s anger is that it is hard to know when the moment is just right. I am sure that a study of every single passage when God, the Father, or Christ Jesus were angry, to understand exactly why, would be a worthwhile endeavor for an aspiring immortal who likes being angry or who has a genetic tendency to fight. But since Jesus’ commands us to be mild and kind then it’s probably better for us to take a pass on emulating God in anger …whenever possible.

I remember during some pretty hot moments of my life, begging God to remove the anger. He asked me if I really wanted it removed because most people don’t. When I assured Him that I did, poof it was gone! I could barely remember why I had been angry. That was a miracle!

This takes me back to the uncanny relationship between disciple and discipline. Maybe the discipline of a good disciple is needed to flip the mild switch when the anger one is closer. In Greek the word for disciple is mathitis which is not a mathematician but a student. Probably math was what Greeks wanted most to learn because of its power. Being a student of Christ, takes study. We need to learn what it is, why, and how to be Christ-like.

Disciples get tutored. Last night I woke up at two am to go to the bathroom and couldn’t fall back to sleep. By 3:30 I gave up and turned on the light to read my Bible. When I opened right to the page where Jesus was describing what it takes to be his disciple, I thought how patient He had been watching me toss and turn before I finally gave up and came over to read what He wanted to remind me. Jesus said in Luke 14:26 that unless anyone comes to Him and does not hate his parents, children, and siblings he cannot be His disciple! Then He added that if we aren’t willing to suffer, we can’t be His disciples either. 

The willingness to abandon the sweet joys of family bliss when they take us away from Christ’s hairline narrow path is the cost, the forehead-mark of a disciple. This is an all volunteer army. No one should join unless (s)he is willing to die in battle. Being an aspiring immortal is not always happy-happy, nice-nice, cozy, warm and fuzzy. God gets jealous. He demands total commitment, no two-timers, no fence walkers, no pleasure-addicts. He can be angry; you shouldn’t be. Count the cost. Are you still in?

Why I Write this Blog – A New Year Mission Statement

The Journal of an Aspiring Immortal is written to inspire and encourage committed Christians, or those whom I call Aspiring Immortals. It is written to remind us in fanciful ways that this fast and furious life offers our immortal souls the opportunity to become Sons and Daughters of the most high God.

Let us be vigilant to keep in mind that Christianity is more about entering the next life where we will live forever than it is about ensuring our comfort in this fleeting phase of life. It is to become a sheep rather than a goat, to keep oil in our lamps, to avoid being one of those who throughout their lives said, Lord, Lord” and yet He never knew them. It is to be able to hear the voice of Christ so we can recognize it when He calls us to Him on the last day. It is to become brave enough, by practice, to flee the flames and fly up to meet Him in the air.

In light of the real eternal life of our destination so much that would cause our demise is unimportant. 

Whether we are rich or poor doesn’t matter because we can’t buy God’s favor. We can’t buy character.

Hatred, lies, thievery or other painful darts aimed as us from our neighbors, relatives or on a political level from other countries and from terrorists do not matter because we are ultimately only responsible for our own attitudes not theirs. Let us protect ourselves, but never hate the enemy. Hatred is wasteful. Fear is also wasteful.  Since neither my love nor my pity can elevate the enemy, certainly my resentment or judgment won’t heal the enemy or myself.

To live the immortal life here on this planet and now is to pick up magical binoculars that focus on what is important, and blind us to what is not important.

My mission is to serve as those magical binoculars for my fellow Aspiring Immortals, with God’s guidance and help. I wonder if Christ will return in 2010?

Living in a Mustard Seed

I didn’t have any special adventures to tell you about this week so instead, I’d like to give you a teaspoon of honey-thought to suck on until next Sunday.

The kingdom of God is where we aspire to live forever. It is the planet we will fly to when Jesus comes back for us, and it is the place deep within our heart where He lives and steers us. But there’s even more to it than that!

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."Matthew 13:31.

We aspiring immortals live in two worlds. The fleshy world morphs ever so subtly till one day the young child becomes elderly, gaunt and wrinkly. In the fleshy world it matters a whole lot who is king or president, what he does with all that power, and what armies are doing with their time. This is the soil, sun, water and air.

The other world is life inside the mustard seed where God is our very best friend and counselor, and Boss. Where we sometimes have to fight with ourselves to think His way and to love His way while no one on earth is making us do it, and so many people make it harder to love, and so many circumstances try to blind us. This is the plant.

We aspiring immortals, whether Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox, inasmuch as we reflect Christ, who reflects God, we form the one holy universal life of a growing Mustard Seed. Let’s live in unity, blind to our differences, blind as the leaf is blind to the difference of the flower or to the difference of the branch or the trunk. Together we form the kingdom of heaven Tree on earth. Welcome the birds.

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35

Assignment: Go to a very different kind of church next Sunday and worship the same God there. Tell me about it.