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The Canvas

/ Chris / 3 Comments

There stood the white canvas on its easel, with a chair, all alone in a lush green meadow. Beyond the canvas in the distance towered a jagged blue range of mountains, and behind the canvas a dark forest was stretched out reaching for the great blue sky.

The Great Man approached the canvas, brush in hand. He sat down and began to paint. He painted and painted, loving every stroke. He painted His favorite things, which were from His heart. Once He had brushed out the setting, He added a new thing. He painted a figure resembling Himself, into the picture. He liked it and smiled as He sat back and stretched. He thought His picture a fine piece of art—and it was.

The Great Man’s servants came to look at the painting. They marveled at the new figure resembling the Great Man. With awestruck worship they began to sing for Him. The Great Man loved how they sung, and it made His joy greater.

But something strange began to happen on the canvas. The figure which the Great Man had painted started to drip off. The servants were shocked. Right there before their eyes, the painting’s most amazing figure was messing up the whole piece. The Great Man was devastated: He knew what had happened, and He knew what would need to be done in order to reverse it.

The Great Man sat down again and began to paint like never before. He painted with passion and love for His painting. He always painted what would ultimately make the picture more beautiful, but sometimes the figures in the painting did not understand. Sometimes the little figures thought that the Painter was making things worse—some even questioned whether the Great Man existed, or maybe He had forgotten about them and was letting the painting drip away into oblivion. The Great Man loved the painting and the figures, and He knew that if they would just trust His strokes, they would eventually understand His love for them, but they had become stubborn in their dripping.

The hardest strokes for the figures to understand were those which took other figures out of the picture. But the Great Man knew that sometimes figures had to be taken out in order to perfect His plan, and reveal His glory and love to them. If the figures had feared the Great Man while in the painting, He would breathe true life into them so that they could live in the Great Man’s world—the real world. But if they had not feared Him, they were forever separated from His guidance and presence—a most horrific thing.

Finally, all was ready for his plan to take affect. He gathered the servants around Him so that they could watch. And again He sat down, but this time He did not paint more figures resembling Himself. Instead, He painted Himself right into the picture.

The servants did not understand. What was going to happen? The Great Figure spent much time in the painting while the Great Man continued to paint. After much painting, the Great Figure dripped all over the canvas, just as the other figures did, and mixed up all the colors. But when the Great Man began to clean away the mixed colors, the servants saw that there were some figures that had stopped dripping. These new figures were beautiful.

“I love them!” the Great Man said.

The Great Man continued to paint. Fervently yet patiently He stroked out the figures, who sometimes dripped, but when they looked to the Great Figure who had been sent to save them, the Great Man forgave them.

He, the Great Man, did not intend for the dripping figures to remain this way forever—His plan was not finished. He decided that there would come a point on the canvas at which He would quit painting and discard it entirely. But first He would transpose all His beloved figures, who had been saved from dripping, into this awesome World wherein the Great Man painted. It was a much greater World than that with the drippings, and He knew the figures would love it there.

This was His plan and He was determined to continue painting beauty onto the canvas until He came to that one point. He loved each of His figures, and because He loved them He had given them the choice to look on the Great Figure for help, or to continue dripping. If they did look at the Great Figure, they were saved, if they did not—they were lost forever. It broke the Great Man’s heart to think that any of the figures would be forever lost and forgotten, but He restrained His passionate love in order that they might respond to His calling on their own accord.

If you were a figure, what would you chose? An eternal Heaven? Or a temporary painting?

C.D.

Redeemed

/ Chris / Leave a comment
It would probably be helpful to read Fallen: the Gospel part 2 before reading this post
A Biblical Fiction: the Gospel part 2

Call me Abahu, the teller of His story. We have heard of how the original parents of the world Tavi rebelled against the Creator and His commands by choosing to listen to the deception of Nahor, the greatest of all deceivers, by way of the shrewd Serpent.

This story starts many years after Avda and Martha tasted the death they brought into the world. When this story took place, the world of unknown possibilities had gone through dramatic change. After Avda and Martha lived and died, the world became very evil, the Devilish race of Draucthana arose—a hideous race of humans and demons—who walked about the land as powerful giants. Finally, grieved that He had ever created man, God sent a flood to destroy Tavi and start anew, annihilating all but eight of the humans—the only righteous people left. But our new story takes place even long after the flood, in a city called: Bustan.

Bustan was a thriving city filled with hustle and bustle during the day, and the wickedness of man at night. Very sophisticated and advanced, the people of Bustan were content. In the city lived a prominent man named Kushi, who had three sons: Addei, Igal, and Paz. Now Kushi was one who yet feared the Great One, but only Igal, of His sons, worshipped the Creator.

This is a story about Igal.

Igal mingled among his peers at the city gates discussing the latest news of the great city Bustan. Bustan was at war with its rival, Ranan, a powerful city which controlled the southwestern lands. The two cities stood within a hundred miles of each other and constantly fell into battle. The men gathered at the gate had just received news that the Rananian army was within sight from the city, and many of the younger men were rushing to the battlements to see for themselves.

“O Great One, deliver us!” Igal prayed inwardly as he made his way to the battlement.

With sword at his side and hair cut half the length of his neck, Igal stood out among his peers as a brave warrior and one to be respected. He told no lies and listened to no lies. Most of all, he was known for his reverence for the Creator.

As he gazed out into the long stretch of mostly desert land, he could see far away a hue on the southern horizon. It looked like a sandstorm but Igal knew what it was: the mighty Rananian army.

The Bustanites were known for their skill in battle, but the Rananians were known for their mighty men and weaponry. If the Rananians approached within ten miles of the city, it would no doubt be conquered, pillaged, and burned. The tensions were high in the city, at the rate the Rananian army was moving, the Bustanian army had twenty-four hours to execute their plans. Igal knew that the Great One would protect him whether Bustan fell or not, but he could not shake the feeling that the Great One would have mercy upon his city.

Indeed, twenty-four hours passed, and the Bustanites completely destroyed the Rananian army and continued on to the small fortress city of Yogel, half-way between the two power cities. The elders of Bustan expected this victory would secure another five years of peace for their city and its outer villages, while Ranan recovered.

The atmosphere of the city changed over night. Everyone, even the children, came out into the streets and danced and celebrated long into the night. But Igal, his wife, and their servants remained inside their home praising the Great One for safety. Igal knew that the next several days, inside the city would be unsafe, for a completely different reason than before. The men of Bustan were not holy by any definition. Yet, the city was protected and Igal had a promising future ahead of him as a Bustanite leader. However, it was a future he was not to have.

“Igal! Come out! Come out from among these people, away from your father and brothers. Take your entire household and go to the land I, the Lord, will show you.”

Against the reasoning of the men in the city, Igal obeyed the voice of the Lord and left his father’s family, taking only his household and his nephew’s household with him.

He set out not knowing where to go, but waiting for the Great One to tell him in time. He lived a life as a wanderer relying on the Great One’s promise to make him a man with many descendants, despite Igal and his wife having no children.

“Igal, do you see the many stars I have made?” said the Creator. “I tell you, your children will be as numerous as these. The number of your descendants will compare to even the sand which you cannot count.”

Igal journeyed on throughout the land from north to south, even visiting the city Ranan, until one day three men visited him. They told him that in one year from that day Igal’s wife, Bithiah, would give birth to a son. But Bithiah only laughed because she and Igal were by now both over ninety years old.

True to His word, the Great One gave them a baby boy whom they named: Chaziel. He grew to be the second of three great ancestor’s of a large nation who were specially chosen by the Great One to proclaim His name unto the peoples of the earth.

Igal loved his special child, dearly: he had hung all his hopes—had given up so much—for the promise of Chaziel. Once when the boy was very young, Igal took him along to visit the shepherds. While Igal inspected the sheep, the boy wandered off up a hill out of sight. Igal did not realize his beloved son was missing until he heard the sound of a boy screaming and an animal growling up on the crest of the hill. The father immediately dashed away toward the sound and found Chaziel hiding in a thick bush while the wolf growled and paced back and forth, waiting for its prey to surrender. Shouting with all his might, Igal charged at the beast and tackled it to the ground before it even knew what was happening. With his dagger, Igal slit the wolf’s throat, but not before he had acquired several deep gashes from the claws and teeth of the beast. But the father hardly noticed the pain—he had saved his beloved child.

One day the Creator asked Igal to kill the child. The request devastated Igal, but how could he defy the Great One? In faith, he set out for the mountain appointed, ready for a holy sacrifice.

“What will we sacrifice today, Father?” asked the young boy.

“Son, the Lord will provide a sacrifice for us,” said the father in faith.

When they reached the top of the mountain, Igal proceeded to bind Chaziel and placed him on the altar. All of a sudden, there was a great flash and a great voice shouted: “Stop Igal, Man of Faith! Now I know that you love me more than anything on the earth because you did not withhold even your most beloved son from me!” And Igal saw caught in the bushes a helpless lamb, which he used as a sacrifice in place of Chaziel’s life.

Igal went on to live a life of extreme faith, and the Great One never failed him. The Great One provided that lamb which serves as a symbol for His great plan to undo what was done in the Garden. With hope ends the story of Igal the father of the Redeemed.

THE END

C.D.

We Are Fallen

/ Chris / Leave a comment
A Follow Up to the Biblical Fiction, ‘Fallen’

Recently, I posted a piece entitled ‘Fallen.’ You may have seen it. It is a story depicting Adam and Eve’s creation, temptation, and fall in the Garden of Eden. I love to read and imagine about the Garden of Eden: partly because I believe it is an extremely pivotal point in human history, but also because it is such a foreign environment to us. What was the Garden like? What was the serpent like? Why did it not surprise Eve that the serpent could talk? Why did Adam not say anything?

In writing it, I wanted to bring some realism to the story. Not that the Bible is not realistic, but it does not always give the detail of emotion and thought, it just simply narrates the fall of humanity. Yet so much can get lost unless you use your imagination.

I believe it was a normal temptation, just like any temptation we would have today. I imagine that Adam and Eve were on their regular stroll through the Garden and Satan happened to be there as a serpent and started talking to them. He started twisting God’s words and Eve’s thoughts and placed in her mind new ideas. Eve does not seem to have been actively rebelling against God; in fact, I believe she truly loved God. Think about it. How does Satan tempt you? He gets you to think about the sin, twists your thoughts to make it look desirable, and you begin to think that you need it in order to be happy, soon you are rationalizing away the act saying, “I can get away with it this time—just this once.” Satan used a similar strategy unsuccessfully against the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, in the desert, and still today he uses it against every one of us.

I believe it is good to put ourselves into history to imagine what it was like then and there. What was the culture like? How would the culture affect their thinking? Would I respond any different? These questions open a whole new world of insight into the story, and when we do this, we can also see what needs to be done today.

Because Adam and Eve fell, all of creation was cursed, not just the humans and the serpent. Are we then hopeless? No, because God gave us hope when He cursed the serpent saying that the woman’s offspring would crush the serpent and the serpent would strike the offspring’s heal. Of course, we know this as God’s prophecy of Jesus Christ. It is a wonderful prophecy. God was telling the humans that, “Yes, you failed. You failed miserably, but there is hope. Somebody needs to pay for this mess, but there is hope. Satan will be crushed and it will take some pain on our part, but there is hope.”

But did Jesus come simply to crush Satan?

God gave the humans a free will, the power to do whatever they jolly well pleased in and to the world. When Satan came along, they were given a choice: to listen to the serpent, or to listen to God Almighty. They chose to listen to the serpent, and thereby surrendered their authority over to Satan and Satan then became the “Prince of the World.” When Satan said he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth if only Jesus would bow down and worship him, he was not bluffing: he had the authority to do so, given directly from the humans themselves.

That is the very reason Jesus came to earth. We had lost control. We were given authority over the earth and our destiny, but we had blundered and given it all away to Satan. We are losers. But Jesus—God—came as a man (he had to come as a man) to take that authority back. He was the Second Adam, but he did what Adam had failed to do: he defeated Satan, for everybody. He died even though he did not deserve death; He paid the price that we should have paid! With His great victory over Satan came a victory over death. Jesus did not just pay the price and remain dead: NO! He rose again and lives on to this day! Jesus is ALIVE! And we can be alive through Him! The great tragedy of the Garden is not the end, it only the prequel to the greatest story ever told: the story of GOD coming and paying OUR debt. We are wretches! We blundered, we fell, but God wants to pay the price. If we will only say “Yes” to God, He will show us His marvelous work.

God created, we rebelled, but God punished Himself for our rebellion.

But our duty does not stop here. Yes we fell, and yes, God has redeemed us, but the curse extended beyond ourselves and our souls. The whole universe was cursed because of what we have done—therefore should not Christ’s redemption extend to the whole universe as well? So often we focus on the soul and saving the soul—and that is the most important part—but our redemption goes way beyond that. We should be taking Jesus everywhere we go. Instead of just taking Him to souls, why not go farther and take him to our neighborhoods, to our schools, to our governments, to our parks. Christ deserves to be in our entertainment: he should be in our sports, in our movie industry, in our music. He should be everywhere. But how does He get there? Who takes God to the world?

We do.

We have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us! In order to take God TO the world we must be IN the world. We should be taking God’s presence (His Spirit in us) to our schools (including colleges) as teachers, janitors, and students; to our sports as coaches and trainers; to the music and movie industries as musicians, producers, directors, actors, and writers; to our government as aids and secretaries—maybe even officials. We need to be in these places influencing them with the Gospel. We do not necessarily need to vocally witness to everyone, but we MUST witness through our lives. If we want to undo the curse in our cultures we must shine the Light into the darkest places and take Truth to the most ignorant people. Christians should be the salt and light of the world, otherwise our cultures will spiral downward and be lost.

The curse is very evident in the world. We all see it. Jesus died to undo it—to defeat Satan and save our souls. But now we must take that Redemption farther, we must take Christ’s redeeming blood to the most lost of places.

So why are we waiting?

C.D.

Fallen

/ Chris / 1 Comment
A Biblical Fiction: the Gospel part 1

My name is Abahu, and the Master is my Father. So you want a story, do you? If you let me, I will take you away to a world of unknown possibilities—but be careful! My Father has enemies who wish to destroy you and me. But I am His son, and He is a King with unknown power. I will tell you, His story.

The world I will take you to is an old world. Many ages have come and gone since its beginning, but it started out quite simply. Well, kind of, my Father created it simply perfect. He spent days perfecting the world, making all kinds of varieties of animals and trees, fish and birds, mountains and rivers, and with one grand finale He made men—His most prized creation. His masterpiece, as it were, and He loved it. He loved everything, and called the world Tavi. To you and I it would have looked very strange, but remember now, He is a King of unfathomable power, and therefore His world had unfathomable possibilities. He placed His masterpiece in a special garden He had created for them, and gave them one rule. You see, He wanted to test their love. Can you imagine being a creature that had no choice but to love their creator? Where is the romance in that? Where is the commitment? If my Father had simply placed them there with no restrictions, there would be no story!

My Father loved this first couple; He took countless strolls in the Garden with them, but one of my Father’s highest ranked servants grew jealous. He revolted against the Creator and filled the Heavens with his pride. Since my Father is a justly jealous God, He can share His glory with none other because none other deserves His glory. The humans were most satisfied when they dwelt in His glory, and He was not about to give it away. My Father banished His servant and a third of the angels that had followed in the jealousy. They fell from Heaven to the new world.

Now this highly ranked servant, whose name was Nahor, was cursed to roam back and forth upon Tavi. One day, the lady human, Martha, was walking through the Garden with her husband, Avda. Being the newest creation she was naturally curious and full of talk—a trait well kept among the more fine featured of her descendants.

“Husband,” said the lady, “where is the Master today?”

“He has not yet come, my Love,” replied the man. “But He is watching from afar, as usual.”

“Let us walk down this path,” she suggested when they had come to a junction.

“Dearest Martha, flesh of my flesh,” replied her husband, “you know that path leads to the center of the Garden, where stands the one thing we must not partake of. Let us keep walking upon this path which leads to the most delicious of our Father’s tree, called Life.”

“O, husband, how could we ever disobey our Father? Of course we will not do that one thing He commanded against! But there are many other lovely things in that area that are fair to look upon!”

“And none fairer than you, my love. Very well, let us go and look upon that which He hath made.”

And so they went taking the path which led to the center of the Garden fully conscious of the presence of that thing which was restricted of them to partake of. But the unsuspecting humans knew not that Nahor was there, the great deceiver, newly cast out of Heaven, full of hate for that which still obeyed and loved the Master. He indwelt the slithery serpent, wisest of all creatures, in order to disguise himself. Understand that it was not unusual for the humans to have interaction and conversation with the creatures my Father had made. After all, the possibilities of that world are unknown to us.

My Father had told the humans not to eat a certain fruit. He gave no explanation, and they did not need one. They had plenty of fruit to eat, their favorite being that which grows on the tree called Life. “Hello there!” said the serpent from the tree.

“Well hello darling!” cried Martha. She was fascinated by the shrewd serpents and loved conversing with them since they were so intelligent.

“Are you coming to eat from this center tree?”

“Of course not, what ever made you think that? The Master said not to even touch it! Far be it from us or you to disobey the Master!” she scolded the serpent.

“But don’t you know that this fruit will open your eyes to the truth. You will be as the Master Himself!”

Martha hesitated, surprised at the unusual behavior of the serpent, “But God said that if we eat this fruit, we will die right away.”

“Oh, you won’t die. God knows what the fruit can do for you! He is keeping you from eating it, but it is ever so delicious!”

Martha eyed the tree suspiciously. It did look beautiful and she could smell the sweet aroma wafting toward her from the tree. She thought of the wisdom of the serpent, and how he said it would make her know things that God knew. She reached for the tree and plucked a fruit, just to have a closer look, she told herself. The lady lifted the fruit to her nose and smelled it. Oh, it smelled so pleasing. She looked at it, her heart thumping.

Avda was silent.

She brought the apple to her mouth and before she knew what she was doing, took a bite.

It was as if time came to a halt, as if the new stars my Father had made quit swirling through the heavens; one could almost hear the turning of the planets upon their axis.

Martha smiled, a thrill of excitement flashing through her whole body. She gave the fruit to Avda, who took it and pondered something before he too, ate the fruit.

Immediately shame filled the man and woman, and they fled. They ran from that place with hearts full of guilt. They knew that somehow everything would be different.

Something else had changed outwardly, as well. They realized their nakedness. They had always been naked but never before had they the guilt to shame them for their nakedness. Not knowing exactly why, they were driven to cover up by sewing fig leaves together.

Grief and shame weld up in their hearts. They became angry with each other and squabbled like school children, when suddenly they heard a voice. A voice which they vaguely recognized as God’s, but now seemed much different—they did not know how different.

“Avda! Where are you?”

Immediately they hid. What did they hide from? They hid from the Master, expecting Him to be angry. Expecting Him to come down with a great shout and cast them away as He had done to Nahor. Of course they realized now that it had been Nahor that deceived them through the serpent.

“Where are you, Avda?” he called.

“I heard your voice calling and I hid myself because I was naked,” Avda replied.

“Naked? Who told you that you were naked?” the Creator asked. “Did you eat the fruit which I forbade you to eat?”

“Martha, that woman you gave me, she made me eat it! It wasn’t my fault!”

“Avda!” God scolded solemnly.

Turning to the woman the Master asked, “What have you done, Martha?”

But she replied, “The serpent tricked me and I ate it!”

God then cursed the serpent saying, “Because of what you did, you are cursed above all the creatures I have made and shall be restricted to slither upon your belly, made to eat dust—you and your descendants. No longer will there be good relations between you and the woman’s seed, and her Child shall tread upon you, and you shall strike His heel.

“And you, woman, will have excruciating pain through childbirth and shall long for your husband, and He will be your master.”

But to Avda He said, “The ground is cursed because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit, which I had commanded you not to eat; you will toil all the days of your life to grow food, because thorns and weeds will trouble your efforts and make you sweat and bleed in order to provide for your family. In the end you will die and because I made you out of dust, to the dust you will return.”

Then my Father caste the humans out of the Garden and sent a mighty warrior angel to guard its entrance.

So ends the story of the origin of the humans of Tavi, a wretched story, one of broken love and fellowship. This is not just a fictional story; it is, for the most part, a true story, the original of which can be found in the Great Book of God. But it does not completely end here. It continues on to be the greatest story ever told: a story of how God reaches down—well, you will just have to wait and read it some other time.

THE END

C.D.

What Would Jesus Do?

/ Chris / Leave a comment

Wow, imagine this, Christopher Witmer is actually updating his WordPress! SURPRISE! Life has been good and God has been good, as always. That is the interesting thing about life, it can be either negative or positive, but when God is walking alongside, one can usually look back and say it was good.

I just recently ate my first full Chick-Fil-A meal on August 1st. (I wonder how many people remember the date of the first time they ate at a fast food restaurant . . .) I and the group I was with did it mainly to show support for the organization and its employees in light of the attacks they have come under from many who support gay rights.

I am intrigued by the modern discussion of homosexuality and the stark difference between the two worldviews. Unfortunately, both sides of the argument can sometimes come through very hostile to each other. As a Christian, I hope that I am known as a safe and accepting person to be around, even though I believe homosexuality is a sin, just as I believe adultery, period, is a sin (adultery including: sex before or outside of marriage, lust, et cetera). Many times the very thing these people are longing for is love and acceptance and the only place they can find that is in a perverted way of relating to each other. I find this very sad because what they truly long for is Jesus and His powerful love, but many Christians have turned them into a spiritual and political enemy, which is not giving them the love they need and desire.

We all want love. Love is an amazingly powerful force. When a person feels loved, he has a sense of worth and dignity; and he  can begin to see from the lovers point of view, and will listen to what the one showing the love has to say. God is not a heavy-handed old man sitting in a booth upstairs just waiting for us to make mistakes so He can call us out and punish us. Rather, He is compassionate and extremely long-suffering. He loves us with an everlasting love. Not a cheesy love, no, but a love that will change one’s life. It changed and is still changing–transforming–my life.

I wonder if maybe the reason it is so hard for Christians to demonstrate love is because we often do not fully realize the extent to which God loves us! How can one give what one does not have? The reality is that He loves us so much that He died to live inside of us! – Do not resist it! – But He is a holy and jealous God and we are completely sinful–there is no way for us to have fellowship with God and receive His love and blessing: except through Jesus Christ, glory hallelujah! God sent His own son, Jesus, to make a way for us to be connected to the Father who loves us.

Realize, Christian, that there is nothing that can separate you from God’s love, yet there is nothing “lovable” about you, and yet He loves you passionately. It’s called grace. It’s called amazing. Now live it. Show some love to your homosexual neighbor–it will probably change their life. . .and yours.

C. D.

Beauty Deceived

/ Chris / Leave a comment

In the beginning,

God, Creator, Supreme Spirit,

Formed a perfect world,

Stood back and smiled.

–

Such beauty and perfection

Could not be matched.

It was lovely, it was gorgeous,

And He was delighted.

–

Laughter was heard throughout Heaven.

The angels rejoiced,

And danced among the fresh stars;

Even the solemn and beautiful Lucifer Played his harp.

–

But as he played,

The desire to be praised

Sprouted within his restless heart.

Was he not a beauty among the angels?

–

So it began:

–

Angels were deceived,

And feet were stilled,

Yes, even those feet Which had danced the hardest.

–

And Heaven’s peace

Was split by the cries of war.

Lucifer and his legions;

Took up sword against the mighty Michael.

–

And from His throne,

God watched the battle below.

He knew what was to result.

His army would win,

But only then, the real war would begin.

–

The battle ended,

And Satan fled with his demons.

Michael trembled watching his friend rebel.

How could it happen?

Beauty was now deceiving.

–

The enemy had gone,

But God was the more disturbed,

For He knew what was to come,

And Heaven fell silent.

–

Perfection was yet among the stars,

But no voices were heard now,

No angels danced,

Something was taking place on Earth.

–

To the beautiful Eden,

Where God had placed his prize,

Satan had gone first.

The humans were too innocent.

–

Not knowing fully what had happened,

The angels gaped,

As the human’s souls

Turned suddenly red.

–

Beauty had deceived.

–

Those powerful white creatures

Knew not what to do,

So they turned to God,

And there they saw love, unravel.

–

The Great One came down from His throne,

Hurting and lamenting.

He wailed in sorrow:

His loved ones had died.

–

He shouted to heaven,

And rattled the planets.

The angels stood,

shocked,

How could this have happened?

–

All of Heaven cried,

And God went below to the humans;

So torn, so loving, so angry.

He knew what would happen.

———

As the ages went by,

Perfection left completely.

The earth was reformed,

The heavens were dead.

–

The souls of the humans,

Stayed very red.

But God did not seethe

He only received.

–

Things were different,

Never to be the same.

Hell had been formed.

(At which the angels shuttered.)

–

God had not hardened,

No He was the same.

It was they who were different:

The people on Earth.

–

God’s spirit was white,

Pure and alive.

Theirs were dead.

And their souls were red.

–

Yes God was still giddy,

But not as often,

For His prize still would not soften.

They were separated by a great veil.

–

They had lost all understanding

Of the God they had known,

While in the garden to roam.

They saw Him as angry and harsh.

–

No, He was the same.

It was they who had changed.

They were sinners,

And they were dead.

–

They saw His wrath, yes.

And why not?

They had rejected His perfection.

They had left, they had changed.

They had agreed with Satan.

–

God had created them all

To worship Him.

Yet they set up temples to worship the devil.

And Lucifer smiled, satisfied.

–

But no one knew

That God had a plan.

His love would, in the end, be shown

To even the rebellious ones.

–

Yes, He would go down one last time,

And show them Himself.

He would appear as a human.

And few would know.

–

His plan was clear and His mind set.

He was born of a virgin.

He lived as a carpenter.

And no one, except a few who believed,

Knew who He really was.

–

Yes, God was walking on earth,

And yet He was in Heaven.

–

God was convicted and tried,

And condemned to death.

–

Truth be told,

Their own folly would kill God.

It was Adam who had sinned,

And it was Adam who would kill Him.

–

So the red souls bound Him and stripped Him.

And took Him to death.

It shouldn’t make sense,

And it doesn’t.

–

The Creator created.

The Creation rebelled.

Now the Creation was killing the Creator,

And yet He would save the Creation.

–

And all of Heaven stood still.

Not an angel moved.

Even Hell was oddly silent

Above its screams.

–

Not a star fluttered in space;

It was so calm,

One could almost hear

The planets rotate on their axes.

–

And far down,

On the earth below,

With only a handful of humans observing,

God died.

–

And therein lays the paradox.

How could God die?

Especially after all they had done?

It was the humans who should have died,

Only now, if they repented, they never would.

–

But God could not remain dead.

For in Heaven He was ecstatic.

In one, two, three days,

He would rise, and prove to all

Who really was to be praised.

–

So now to all men, women, and children,

There is a choice.

A choice of worship,

Of agreement.

–

In Heaven the angels dance once again.

God’s joy is overflowing,

His passion revealed,

His love demonstrated.

–

There is a great battle,

Satan continues his struggle,

But we know the end of the story.

God wins.

–

Yet there will be casualties, my friend.

Will you be one?

We are caught between this great battle;

On one side stands Hell, on the other is Heaven.

–

Each of us is given a choice of allegiance.

Who will you choose?

C.D.

Spilled Blood

/ Chris / 2 Comments

Recently something made me think about how we have all been hurt. It is a fact of life. The world has been cursed. People are not perfect, it is natural to get lost in the busyness of life, and tread upon someone’s life and feelings. It is not right, it is not nice. God hates to see us hurt; he knows what it feels like. But it happens, and hopefully we can learn from it. I have been hurt sometimes in my life, and I know that I will be hurt even more and probably much worse, but there are some people who are deeply wounded–wounded to an extent that it is all but impossible to forgive. Grudges can be held, bitterness is formed and the hurt never fully heals… they live the rest of their life out of their pain. They show everyone their wound. They expose it, and parade it about in order to gain sympathy. . . . . .

– – – – – – – – – –

There are some pains no amount of time can mend, some pains that reoccur like a childhood dream. We try to stuff our hearts with distractions and fantasies so distant that we fade into a quiet existence of delusional realities. We can forgive and forget, love and learn, and yet not escape the ever reoccurring dream.

It is the devil’s great pleasure to grab us with his bloody claws, and penetrate our hearts with his fangs. Our lives are devastated. We rush to the closest alternative of reality in a desperate attempt to forget our throbbing heart that remains lying at the feet of the enemy. The open hole in our chest repeatedly reveals to our dearest comrades that we have experienced great trauma. Out of a desire to show them how badly we have been wounded, we rip open the bandage, tearing off the scabs of healing–creating fresh pain and larger scars. Disgusted, our friends turn away; leaving us no excuse but to blame the past for what has happened in the present.

Longing to see ourselves changed–longing to see our heart restored to our body we start life anew. We tell ourselves that all will be better. Nobody knows our past, no one knows of the wound that even now affects our life’s walk. We stoop over from the pain as if our very backbone has been ripped out as well. It is obvious to all around us that something is wrong, and again, desiring sympathy and attention we rip off the bandages exposing our bodies to new pain.

We feel hopeless. We are hopeless. No one seems to care. Nobody is wallowing at our door begging to comfort! So we return to that place of horror, ready to give into the old venomous devil. We see him on his hellish throne–eager to consume our souls. But first, in a grudge of submission he turns to the heavens, as if for permission. And in stark wonder, we see a bright light, so bright to our sore eyes that we fall to the ground, overcome with even worse pain.

We see, in all His glory, the King standing at the threshold of Hell–blood gushing from His hands. He holds our hearts, but the blood comes not from that–now black, crusty thing–but from His hands, and His side, and His feet. And to the wonder of the whole world, our heart begins pumping, anew, His blood.

– – – – – – – – – –

Forgiveness is not a thing we can manage on our own. It is a miracle of God. Only GOD can forgive on such high levels of trespass. Jesus Christ never proved His divinity more than when He requested on the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

As humans since it is so difficult for us to forgive, our immediate tendency is to fill our minds and lives with distractions and such in order that we do not have to sit and think about our pain. But we constantly live with this subconscious fear, and memory of what happened to us. We go through our lives “stooped over” as it were with this wound–or burden, so much so, sometimes, that we look at life upside down. And we live a life of constant failure, and hate, and fear–we live a wretched life.

But we must remember that all these distractions…whether it’s movies, books, music, work, alcohol, drugs, spirituality, friends, romance—whatever it may be, none of this can replace our “missing” heart. Only God can replace and fill that hole with what it truly needs. Only God, can truly make amends, take revenge, and ultimately forgive. So we must lean on Him and trust in His strength. Then we can truly live a “happy” life.

C.D.

“Those Guys”—Happen to be God’s Kids

/ Chris / Leave a comment

As I caught the rebound of my basketball, a whiff of tobacco came my way from the picnic tables. I looked over and saw that it was those guys. Yeah, the stereotypical 16-year-old cigarette smokin’ guys–you know the kind.

But what about those guys. Doesn’t God love them too? How can I reject these guys because of their lifestyle, when no one has ever showed them a different one? I have a good family. They probably have multiple bad families.

Jesus is standing in Heaven, telling His people, “LOOK! I have children down there! Can’t you see them? I died for these kids! They’re lost and all alone. They’re lives are broken! DO something!”

Can we just stand back and say, “Hey, I serve a powerful God. If He wants these guys to change, He’ll make it happen.” The problem is, He is making it happen. If you are a Christian and you see “the least of these”, He is making it happen. If we ignore “the least of these”, we are ignoring Christ.

I am no longer content to just look on and criticize with clean and unscathed hands. I have clean hands now, but they better be dirty when I stand before Jesus–who’s hand’s were pierced for these kids.

C.D.

He Did it For You

/ Chris / Leave a comment

I wonder how often I have read the gospels, and more specifically the Crucifixion story, and merely stored it up in the old brain as simple information?

I think this is a common mistake. It seems hard to transfer the severity of the situation from mere facts and apologetics to an actual belief and conviction of the heart. From a story, to a way of life.

But it just struck me–or maybe I should say He struck me.

As Jesus was dying on the cross, it was not that He just thought: “I am doing this for the world.” But as they drove those nails into his wrists, He was thinking, “That one is for Christopher.” He did it for me.

And He wasn’t just thinking of me, He was thinking of everybody! He was thinking of my neighbor, the President, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, even the dude I passed on the street and the homeless guy under the bridge.

People, this is phenomenal! As the Creator of the universe was “dying” at the hands of His creation, He was thinking of His creation. He was thinking of US!

Imagine it. Basically, when we sin (whatever it may be, no matter how big), we are re-driving the nails through His wrist, we are killing Him all over again. And He says, “That was for you.”

If that isn’t love…

C.D.

Foundation of Light

/ Chris / Leave a comment

Forward, backward, up and down,

My soul longs for stability.

But where in this vast world could be found,

A firm foundation so profound?

Here, there–nowhere!

But wait!

Could it be? Is it possible

For you and for me to stand upon a rock?

A rock that sets free?

I see a shining light, like a glimmering diamond,

As hard as could be!

Firm and set, not willing to move,

The Lord of the ages comes like as the moon!

Here at last–come what may!

I long for the ages to vanish away,

Away, and forever not able to stay!

No longer to haunt me, no longer to taunt,

No longer to tell me–I’m not what he sought.

4-14-2011