Flights of Fancy

I have always wanted to raise my arm, shoot off the ground and soar into outer space like Superman. 

On clear nights it looks like if I reached the first star, I could touch a hundred nearby.  It used to really irate me that I would never be able to physically do that.  Pictures are beautiful but it’s not the same thing as up close and personal.

Then I started studying about the Millennium (1,000 year reign of Jesus on the earth; Rev. 20:6).  We are going to have glorified bodies just like Jesus (1 Cor. 15:25).  He walked through walls (John 20:19).  He also seemed to appear and disappear at will (Luke 24:15, 31).   During the Millennium, we will be with Jesus on earth but God the Father will still be in heaven (Rev. 21:1-3).  Surely we will be traveling back and forth as we carry out our assignments. 

How are we going to travel?  Maybe it will be by spaceship.  Maybe it will be by stargate.  Maybe it will be by a transporter beam.  Maybe we’ll just picture it in our head and be there.  But maybe (my hope) we’ll get to fly like Superman; zoom in and out of the stars, buzz other planets, spend some time on the moon admiring the beauty of the earth below.  Lack of oxygen, extreme cold and massive pressure won’t be a problem.  We won’t have to worry about burning up on re-entry or crash landing. Our new bodies will be able to handle anything.  (All excited just thinking about it.)

Sound fanciful?  You’re talking to the woman who’s also waiting to swim with the sharks, hitch a ride on a whale, wrestle an alligator and lie down with the lions and lambs (Isaiah 11:6, 65:25).  Be able to stand on Mt. Everest without needing extra oxygen, a coat or climbing gear.  Leisurely walk the Marianas Trench.  Ride the Gulf Stream.

Then, there will be the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21:1).  No telling what it will look like or what will be on it (besides New Jerusalem).  I’ll get to start all over again.

Don’t think that will be a problem.

Stories

It was a dark and stormy night…  I started one of my first stories like that.  Of course I followed it with…I know it sounds like a B movie but it really was.  There was a hurricane blowing in and the electricity was out...

I love a good story, always have.  By the time I was in junior high, I was checking books out of the high school library.  I have a book with me almost everywhere I go.  I'm a little old fashioned, I still like the feel of a book in my hand.  I like browsing the aisles.  Reading the blurbs.  Getting to know the book (and author) before I take it to the counter.

Being a writer, I unashamedly admit I often eavesdrop on conversations around me.  (You just never know where that next great plot twist might come from.)  And as I’ve gotten wiser (no laughing), I try my best to stop all forward thought and pay close attention when someone I’m with begins a personal story.  (I have a friend who unexpectedly throws them into a conversation so it’s great practice.)   I can learn so much good stuff if I just listen.  But I know I have missed a lot over the years because of youth, self-centeredness or plain stupidity.    

I had a great uncle that hoboed during the great depression.  He was a big man who played a mean harmonica and danced a lively jig.  A truck farmer until cancer made him too weak to push a hand plow, he was in his 70’s when he died.  I know he told me stories but I don’t remember them.  What a waste.

His wife was the family keeper.  She knew everybody, who they married, where they came from, how many kids they had, who they married…you get the picture.  Did we get any of that down on paper?  No.  Shame of us.

My sister gave Mom a notebook and some pens and asked her to write down stories from her youth.  She started and quit.  Said it was too hard on her to remember all the rough times they had.  Months before she died, she pulled it out and read what she had written.  Her comment:  ‘I wish I had kept writing.  Now, I don’t remember.’   We lost so much.

Yes, it’s hard to focus (and not roll your eyes) when someone starts in on the same story you’ve heard at least a thousand times.  Yes, it hard to pay attention when the story doesn’t seem relevant to today.  But it can be so worth it.  As a person gets older, their memories about their youth often becomes clearer and they just might add things you’ve never heard before.  So listen:  with both ears, with all your heart.  It’s well worth it.

Who Defines Me?

A lot of things have happened in the past several years that have up-rooted some long held beliefs I had about myself.  Some of them I have blogged about.  My first blog, Am I Ready, talked about letting go of the iron control I tried to have over my life.  Then there was Never Too Old to Start and The Mouth Speaks. 

I was (FB) chatting with a friend and he said ‘we are to tear down every perception of ourselves that doesn’t agree with God’ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  I have often quoted that scripture but never in connection with what I thought about myself.  Hence the question, who defines me?

According to God when I became a Christian, old things passed away and I became a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).  I must admit that I haven’t viewed myself that way.  I have always seen myself as the old me trying to become a better me to please God.  Per 2 Cor. 10:5, that doesn’t line up with God’s view of me so I am supposed to cast it down and accept that I am a new creature.

According to God when I became a Christian, He made Jesus sin and me the righteousness of God.  Yeah, right!  But…per 2 Cor. 10:5, that doesn’t line up with God’s view of me so I am supposed to cast it down and accept that He has made me the righteousness of God.

According to God when I became a Christian, I became a conqueror (Romans 8:37).  You have GOT to be kidding, right?  Yet…per 2 Cor. 10:5, that doesn’t line up with God’s view of me so I am supposed to cast it down and accept that I am a conqueror.

According to God when I became a Christian, I gained the ability to do all things through Christ (the anointing) that strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).  I hate to say it but I have definitely not seen myself this way.  Years of don’t know enough, not good enough, not-not-not-not-NOT…you get the picture.  But…per 2 Cor. 10:5, that doesn’t line up with God’s view of me so I am supposed to cast it down and accept that through Him, I can do all things.

Remember last week I said that being humble before God simply means agreeing with Him?  Does that mean that all this time I have been seeing myself as something different from what the Word says I am I have been walking in pride and arrogance?  (Ouch!) 

When my friend said that, I realized I have been letting all manner of things (past hurts, people’s opinions, disappointments, etc.) define me.  I can’t do that anymore.  That one statement demanded that I pursue a serious study of who the Word says that I am and take an active role in lining up with it.  How? by allowing the Word to work to renew my mind (Romans 12:2).

Time to get started.  

How Many?

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

This is probably one of the most often quoted scriptures in the Bible.  Yet, it seems to be one of the least believed in.  Why would I say that?  Let’s examine it.

If my people...  Not the whole country, state, region, county, city or even church; just my people called by my name.  For some reason we have it in our head that revival must come before God moves.  Isn’t God moving the revival? 

shall humble themselves…  Notice this is something the people do; not God; yet time and time again, I hear people asking God to humble them.  To humble yourself simply means to agree with God.  We picture a humble person as someone who cowers, head down groveling in the dirt.  The biblical picture of a humble person is one who agrees with God’s way of doing and being and is bold as a lion to stand for Him. 

and pray …  It seems we have decided to camp out on begging for forgiveness.  We are so consumed with our own short-comings that we can’t get past them.  We keep hunting things to repent over so we can make sure we are good enough for God to hold up His part of the bargain.  Won’t happen—ever.  We need to just accept forgiveness and move on.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  Philippians 3:13

and seek my face…  We have a problem.  It’s hard to seek His face when we are consumed with guilt but we will never actually get past the guilt until we seek His face, learn who He is and who we are in Him.  It’s the seeking that humbles us and makes us bold as a lion. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness…Matthew 6:33a.

and turn from their wicked ways…  Wicked ways are simply those ways that are not like God.  Notice turning from comes after humbling, praying, and seeking; not before.  It is the very act of turning to humble, pray and seek that turns us away from our wicked ways.  What we focus on, we do.

then will I hear from heaven…  God has to be deaf!  Why else do we think that He won’t hear our prayer or our church’s prayer or several churches’ prayer?  We have become focused on the numbers; if we just get enough people to pray maybe… 

and will forgive their sin…  Are we ever going to accept this at face value and move on?  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.

and will heal their land…  It is God that does the healing; not legislation, not elections, not our rights because the healing has to come from the inside out.

So the question is:  how many of us will it take for this scripture to come to pass in our nation, state, region, county, city or church?  There are several instances in the Bible where it only took 1. 

A city—The woman at the well. John 4:39

A region—The Gadarene demonic.  Luke 8:38-40

A nation—Elijah on Mount Carmel. 1 Kings 18:17-39

A world—Paul. Acts

There are several scriptures that tell us the unity we need for things to change.

Leviticus 26:8;  5 chase 100…100 chase10,000

Matthew 18:19;  2 of you shall agree…

Matthew 18:20;  2 or 3 are gathered…I am in there

Acts 1:15;  the number of names together were about 120

So instead of looking for the 1,000s or 100,000s, why don’t we start with our 2 or 3 and change the world.