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

Repent for 2012 is Near

On New Year’s Eve our neighbors came over and we watched the movie 2012 about geological upheaval that destroyed most of the earth. 2012, the book, is a favorite of a friend of mine who is impressed by the science behind it and is convinced that global destruction described in the book will indeed occur in 2012. He says we must prepare. Admittedly, it is a little eerie that in the book the US president in 2012 is black, a fact that could hardly have been foreseen when the book was written.

It was odd to usher in a new year filled with potential and hope for all things good while being involved through spectatorship of such destruction of lives, and of the earth. Hope and evil make strange bedfellows. I could go along with the movie to the point of accepting the possibility that the world could come to an end as soon as 12-21-12, after all Jesus warned us to be ever-vigilant for His return during a celestial cataclysm. 

Still filled with dread from the movie, the next morning I went straight to the Bible for solace. Instead of reading snippets or a chapter, as I often do, I turned to Mark and noticed how short it is. So I read aloud the Gospel of Mark, the first gospel written and a source for Matthew and Luke.  This reading took only about two hours. It was a rich holy two hours. By reading aloud instead of to myself I was able to concentrate better. Three times when my mind wandered I reeled it back in by starting the chapter again. This punishment to my vocal cords helped keep me alert to what I was reading. Also, to read the book without stopping helped me to see the progression of it which surprised me many times. That doesn’t happen when I just read one chapter at a time. I want to read Mark aloud several more times to fully grasp all those fleeting thoughts that I had to pass over on New Year’s Day. 

The soufflé my soul concocted on January 1st with the ingredients of the gospel of Mark  folded into catastrophe of 2012  was nutritiously wise leading me to decide that the best way to begin this secular year is to repent because the Kingdom of God is surely at hand and this planet is probably doomed.  

The Greek word for repent is metanoia. The easy translation is to change the mind and heart. People seem to love the concept of change, but change is not always good. We need to be more specific if we’re going to venture away from our mental comfort zones. Metanoia can be translated as ‘to go beyond (after) the intellect (nous)’ to the place of sweet surrender to God’s will…which reigns supreme in His Kingdom.  Repent for the safe and secure Kingdom of God’s rule is here.

Over and over again in the Gospel of Mark, the reader is shown how different God’s ways are from man’s ways, His perspective from ours, and from most of the Pharisees and scribes.  Let’s reach beyond ourselves to find and obey the One in whose Kingdom we seek to dwell...where there will be no earthquakes to fear.

Together let’s approach 2011 as if 2012 will actually be the last year of life on earth as we know it. Just in case it is.  

Birth Days and Sun Rises

There are many things I will not miss about this old earth when I get to Kingdom Come. I won’t miss fear or anger or lies. And especially I won’t miss the way political parties addict people to the sensation of hatred from which they can conjure up a sick kind of loyalty and power. I suppose to be rid of every iota of evil is why God needs to wipe the slate clean and make a whole new world in the first place. I hope on my millionth birthday I don’t even remember all the bad stuff, not even a tiny bit.

But there are a few things I will miss very much. These are the things I should cherish the most while in this old skin because I’ll only have these swiftly flowing years to enjoy them. One is the sunrise on a clear morning over the ocean. I have spent many hours in cool darkness, watching and waiting for the exhilaration of the streaks of red in the night sky and for the bursting speck of light over the straight expansive horizon that illuminates only the east while the heavens around it lie still in deep darkness. Then within minutes this speck of light bursts forth into a coin of brightness rising steadily to give birth to a new day. Glorious sunrises over the ocean shower my soul with raindrops of bliss. I’ll miss sun rises when I am in the light-filled land where there is no use for them.

But most of all I will miss births and babies and little toddlers. I understand that in the happy land of immortality, where sickness, sorrow, and sighing have all fled away, where no anguish haunts us from the separation of death, where love reigns supreme, where there is no marriage because genders fade into the unity of God, babies will never be born.

Yet, how I will miss waiting for the birth of a new clean person into my world. How I will miss their energetic exuberance, their bright laughing eyes, their wonder and merriment. How I will miss playing and cuddling, and showing these little ones new and wonderful aspects of life.  If I am wise for my years, then I will cherish these days of flesh, and lock these beautiful memories safely away in a vault down deep in my heart. So on lazy days in the land of love, I can bring them out one by one, and gaze on them with a nostalgic smile here, and a giggle there. Then, if I can, I will go and fetch that one whose birth and early days I held in my vaulted heart, all grown up in glory, and together we will remember the striking beauty of birth days and sun rises on the earth of our birth, the land of mottled light and darkness.