Fascination

Have you noticed how many vampire movies and television series there are in recent years? How many books? How many internet sites? Fan clubs?

There’s always been a fascination with the supernatural or unnatural, but it seems to have expanded, deepened and widened, with the coming of the digital age.

I have now watched Twilight (the first movie) twice, read all the Twilight books once and have re-started reading them. I also bought and have now watched the first season DVD’s of the Canadian television series “Blood Ties.” Two more TV series about vampires will be starting up in the fall, plus movie #2 of the Twilight saga.

I understand this fascination very, very well. I’ve loved science fiction and science fantasy since I learned to read.

There is an unseen spiritual dimension all around us, and a battle of good versus evil goes on in that dimension just as it does in the seen one. One day, perhaps sooner than we realize, there may be an unveiling of our normal vision and we will clearly see, however unwillingly, what is happening there.

In coming days, will we see actual vampires? Or werewolves? I don’t know. But supernatural and unnatural creatures certainly do exist, demonic beings who don’t like human beings. I’ve had brushes with creatures from that dimension in the past. I still feel the chill when I remember…

Occasionally people get a glimpse of their handiwork, the results of it anyway. Occasionally we feel or sense something “not quite right” in a place, or in the face of an individual and we wonder what the problem is. The problem in a nutshell is – the evil ones are killers, liars and murderers, and they don’t like human beings.

One thing I’m doing is keeping my spiritual eyes and ears open more and more these days, watching and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The times are changing. It would be wise for believers to discern the times.

Dominion of heaven, set in the earth

Job 38:31-33, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”

Dominion thereof, set in the earth… Now there’s a concept that bears some meditation. Dominion means government. Governing requires subjects, citizens to govern. Subjects, citizens, residents, in those far-flung corners of the galaxy. Interesting!

Here are a few notes on these places from www.Bible411.com.

About Orion…

“Canst thou…loose the bands of Orion?” Garrett P. Serviss, the noted astronomer, in his book CURIOSITIES OF THE SKY wrote about the bands of Orion.

“At the present time this band consists of an almost perfect straight line, a row of second-magnitude stars about equally spaced and of the most striking beauty. In the course of time, however, the two right-hand stars, Mintaka and Alnilam, will approach each other and form a naked-eye double; but the third, Alnitak, will drift away eastward so that the band will no longer exist.

“In other words, one star is traveling in a certain direction at a certain speed; a second one is traveling in a different direction at a second speed; and the third one is going in a third direction and at a still different speed. Actually every star in Orion is traveling its own course, independent of all the others. Thus these stars that we see forming one of the bands of Orion are like three ships out on the high seas that happen to be in line at the present moment, but in the future will be separated by thousands of miles of ocean. In fact, all the stars constituting the constellation of Orion are bound for different ports, and all are journeying to different corners of the universe, so that the bands are being dissolved.”

The Pleiades:

“Canst thou bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades…?” Notice the amazing astronomical contrast with the Pleiades. The seven stars of the Pleiades are in reality a grouping of 250 suns. Photographs now reveal that 250 blazing suns in this group are all traveling together in one common direction. Concerning this cluster, Isabel Lewis of the United States Naval Observatory tells us:

“Astronomers have identified 250 stars as actual members of this group, all sharing in a common motion and drifting through space in the same direction. Elsewhere Lewis speaks of them as “journeying onward together through the immensity of space.”

From Lick Observatory came this statement of Dr. Robert J. Trumpler:

“Over 25,000 individual measures of the Pleiades stars are now available, and their study led to the important discovery that the whole cluster is moving in a southeasterly direction. The Pleiades stars may thus be compared to a swarm of birds, flying together to a distant goal. This leaves no doubt that the Pleiades are not a temporary or accidental agglomeration of stars, but a system in which the stars are bound together by a close kinship.

“Dr. Trumpler said that all this led to an important discovery. Without any reference whatsoever to the Book of Job, he announced to the world that these discoveries prove that the stars in the Pleiades are all bound together and are flying together like a flock of birds as they journey to their distant goal.

That is exactly what God said. “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?” In other words, Canst thou keep them bound together so that they remain as a family of suns?

INCREDIBLE! God’s laws of cosmology are loosing or dissolving the constellation Orion. Sometime in the far distant future, Orion will be no more. Conversely, wonder of wonders, every last one of the 250 blazing suns in the Pleiades are ordained of God to orbit together in their symmetrical beauty throughout eternity.”

Arcturus:

“Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?” Garrett P. Serviss wrote:

“Arcturus, one of the greatest suns in the universe, is a runaway whose speed of flight is 257 miles per second. Arcturus, we have every reason to believe, possesses thousands of times the mass of our sun. Think of it! Our sun is traveling only 12½ miles a second, but Arcturus is traveling 257 miles a second. Think then of the prodigious momentum this motion implies.”

A further observation of Arcturus by Serviss:

“It could be turned into a new course by a close approach to a great sun, but it could only be stopped by collision head on with a body of enormous mass. Barring such accidents, it must, as far as we can see, keep on until it has traversed our stellar system, whence it may escape and pass out into space beyond to join perhaps one of those other island universes of which we have spoken.”

Charles Burckhalter, of the Chabot Observatory, added an interesting note regarding this great sun:

“This high velocity places Arcturus in that very small class of stars that apparently are a law unto themselves. He is an outsider, a visitor, a stranger within the gates; to speak plainly, Arcturus is a runaway. Newton gives the velocity of a star under control as not more than 25 miles a second, and Arcturus is going 257 miles a second. Therefore, combined attraction of all the stars we know cannot stop him or even turn him in his path.”

When Mr. Burckhalter had his attention called to this text in the book of Job, he studied it in the light of modern discovery and made a statement that has attracted worldwide attention:

“The study of the Book of Job and its comparison with the latest scientific discoveries has brought me to the matured conviction that the Bible is an inspired book and was written by the One who made the stars.”

The wonders of God’s universe never cease to amaze us. Arcturus and his sons are individual runaway suns that seem to be out of orbit in our galaxy. Traveling at such immense speeds, why don’t they crash with other suns or planets? Where are they headed? Only God knows. Indeed they are not runaways. They will not crash. Why? God is guiding them.”

I love God’s sense of humor. He inspired these few verses, towards the end of the book of Job, thousands of years ago. And now with our modern telescopes, he lets us see just where he was talking about. Possibly see where we are going…? Amazing to contemplate, and exciting.

One minute after midnight

I’m thinking about writing a fictional story titled, One Minute After Midnight.

Whether or not people believe in the rapture, or the 7-years of tribulation (some do, some don’t) — if they believe in the 1000 year reign of Jesus immediately after all that – what will the planet look like? who will be here? what will there be to do?

What will the planet look like? Like it did in Genesis chapter 1 – without form and void, as a result of war, natural and unnatural and manmade disaster, sort of like the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan after WWII, only much, much worse and widespread.

Who will be here? Supernatural (Jesus plus changed Christian) human beings; natural non-Christian human beings; natural non-changed Christian human beings; and the same old unseen beings, angels and demons.

What will there be to do? The command God gave Adam in Genesis 1:28 has never been rescinded: replenish the planet, subdue it, take control – reestablish a hierarchy of government, then rebuild and restore, like Japan and everywhere else destroyed by warfare and disasters in the past have been – only with a new supernatural set of builders and tools.

Ephesians 2:10 mentions work that God planned for humans to do, even before he created them – I don’t think just being nice to people and trying not to sin is it.

I think real physical / mental / emotional / spiritual labor is included: directing, conceptualizing, designing, building, managing, supervising, inventing, adapting, and improving.

I think muscle and brain and supernatural ability will be involved in the future reconstruction of this planet, just as it has been in parts of it in the past, this time on a global scale.

Perhaps extension of space programs. Exploration of other galaxies and dimensions – what are they for, if not to explore and investigate and settle – either during that thousand years, or afterward.

And at the end of the 1000 years, we’ll have to fight and win another war, after which the dimension of heaven and the planet earth will be recombined and a massive headquarters for them will be located here.

Imagine New York City with all its technology, arts, science, commerce, without the need for police, jails, soldiers, hospitals, or insurance companies…

That’s the idea for the story. I’m still thinking about it.

Don’t eat the seed corn

Seed corn: don’t eat it, plant it.

Back when most people grew their own food, that didn’t have to be explained.

When I was a little girl spending my summers on my grandparents’ farm, I learned that you didn’t eat the seed corn. I helped my grandmother pick over a big basket of seed corn that was being put aside for the next year, cleaning the trash and dead bugs out of it.

A seed has life built in, no matter whether it’s corn, or butterbeans, or sunflowers. It doesn’t have to wonder what to do, it “knows” to grow. The faith for growing is entertwined in the life…

But there is something else about seeds. They need stuff. Like soil, food, water, fertilizer, and protection from pests. Today, vegetable and flower seeds are sold in stores with a coating of plant food and/or bug killer surrounding them, so you have a head start on getting a good crop. Smart idea.

Jesus told his disciples, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can tell this mountain to be removed and be cast into the sea, and it would obey you. (See Matt. 17:20)

Now, a mustard seed is really small. And Jesus was saying they didn’t have even that miniscule amount of faith.

They could have, though. It was offered to them as a gift when Jesus said, “Have the faith of God.” It took Jesus making a gift of it to get it back then, and it still does. That’s how we get saved, born again, in the first place (Eph. 2:8).

And that seed of faith Jesus gives us contains life, just as seed corn contains life.

But some people leave it like that, tiny, encapsulated and dormant, and then they wonder why no mountain ever moves for them.

Mark 4:14-20 explains part of it. Seeds have to be nurtured and cultivated. No self-respecting farmer would plant corn in an uncultivated field full of rocks and briars.

Seeds have to be planted in good soil, soil deep enough to allow for roots to get a good start. And weeds need to be weeded, rocks removed, and critters prevented from getting in.

When my children were small we lived on a mini-farm outside of town, and one summer we planted lots of field peas and corn at a distance from the house. When it was time to pick them, we discovered the raccoons had taken a bite – just one bite – out of every ear of corn. And the deer had made a good meal out of the field peas! The critters won that round and we learned a good lesson. Electric fencing solved that problem the next year.

II Peter 1:5-8 continues the explanation. Faith seeds also need to be fed, watered, and fertilized with virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, kindness and love.

Well, all that takes work. And you have to deal with “critters” like fear and doubt, fatigue or depression, and ordinary every-day distractions from a lot of different sources.

Faith has all the life it needs built right in, just like a seed of corn or field peas. And the nature of life is to grow, mature, and eventually replicate itself.

It takes work to get to that place, but the one who gave us the faith in the first place is still present to instruct us and help us grow it, if we’re willing to do the work.

The Apostle Paul commended the church of the Thessalonians, because “your faith groweth exceedingly…” (II Thess. 1:3)

I would love to receive that compliment some day, wouldn’t you?

Noah, what IS that

A boat.
What’s a boat?
It floats.
What’s that?

What did Noah do for a living before that? How did he support his family while building the ark? Where’d he get so much wood? How did he explain to his neighbors?

Here’s a trivia question… how many of each animal did he put onboard? Bet 99 out of 100 people get that wrong! (See Genesis 7:1-3)

Electric chair, hangman’s noose

As I looked at the beautiful stylized gold-colored cross on the back wall of our church sanctuary this morning, I thought how clean, how neat, how spotless, how sanitized, how painless it looked. Blood-free.

The Holy Spirit began speaking to me, as he often does when I’m meditating on something.

“Try seeing an electric chair fastened to that wall,” he said, “a hangman’s noose or a guillotine blade.”

I thought about those things for a moment, visualizing them clean and empty.

“Now try seeing one of those being used, smell the odor of burning flesh or the gush of bright red blood.”

It took a while for me to get those images out of my mind, as the praise team sang “At the foot of the cross.”

We don’t mind standing at the foot of a pristine, blood-less cross affixed to the sanctuary wall. I’m not sure we would have been able to stand at the foot of the real one, knowing the only reason he was there was us.

God forbid

“God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if you shall still do wickedly, you shall be consumed, both you and your king.” (I Samuel 12:23-25, the prophet Samuel speaking to the nation of Israel after anointing Saul as their first king.)

I watched the inauguration the other day and some of the festivities surrounding it. All the media hoopla reminded me of a coronation rather than an inauguration, sort of like the old footage I’ve seen of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation.

It was pretty, but I was a little sad as I watched. I remember being on that Mall when I joined hundreds of thousands of people for the first March for Jesus in the early 1980’s. We were there praying for our nation, not trashing the place. One hundred tons of trash were left on the Mall the other day, did you know that?

The people of Israel were having problems, social, religious, economic and military problems. They wanted a king instead of only religious leaders, some of whom had been scandalous. They were tired of being different, being “holy.” They wanted to be like their neighbor nations, and they especially wanted a leader who would “fight our battles.” (I Sam. 8:20).

They were warned that a strictly human head of government was a bad idea, but God let them have what they wanted.

I Samuel 8:10-18, the prophet Samuel’s warnings, are a real eye opener.

The new king would put lots and lots of people to work – not for themselves, but in the government. Then of course he would increase taxes to pay all those new workers. Um, um, um.

Israel got a tall, handsome man, experienced in his family business of raising animals but not experienced in politics. And before long the people would be wishing they’d never heard of him. “And you shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” (I Sam. 8:18). They would be stuck, because they gave the king the authority to be king and do all that in the first place.

That’s sort of where I see America these days. God is letting the people have what they wanted. I’m grateful we don’t have a king; that might be worse.

And I’m glad that when we pray, God does listen to our prayers, and if we pray His will in the first place, we give him permission to do what He wants in our lives and our country.

God forbid that we cease to pray for our new President and all the elected officials. Pray that God will “fix their thinking” wherever it’s wrong, and give them whatever they need to do a good job.

Having done all, stand

Stand tall
Stand firm
Stand forth
Stand your ground
Make a stand
Take a stand
Remain standing
Stand watch
Stand for something
Stand for it
Where do you stand?
Ephesians 6:13-14

Magnify the Lord… how

Psalm 34:3 says, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me…”

How? How can you make the Lord bigger than he already is? That question popped into my head the other day for some reason, when I was thinking about the little chorus based on that verse.

The creator of the universe and everything in it, and everything outside of it – how big is he?

Not very big in some minds. Not big enough to care about little things. Like a parking space. A cell phone signal. A sale on groceries.

Or caring enough about the bigger things. Like a job. Or a heart attack. Dishonest banker. Crooked politician.

God doesn’t need magnifying in his person, he needs magnifying in our thinking.

He is big enough to design the most beautiful artwork in the galaxies, in a starfish, in a baby’s smile, and caring enough to listen to any believer’s prayer. I believe that, but some folks don’t.

We need to magnify his grace, his mercy, his compassion, his power, his patience, to the world.

It would be good to magnify him in the hearts and minds of his own people, too, who sometimes think he’s not paying attention to our hurts and lacks.

Today is a good day to start.

In the beginning

… was the Word, says John 1:1. Why? Why not say, In the beginning was the power? Or the love? Or the truth?

My meditations sometimes run in odd directions and this was one. I wasn’t studying John’s gospel or epistles, I was actually thinking about communications and relationships, the way we connect with each another.

I was in a theater when this train of thought began. A preview for an upcoming movie was on the screen, with one woman lamenting to another, Now I can be rejected in seven different technologies! You know, phone calls, voice mail, email, instant messaging, texting, facebook, myspace, etc.

Her point was that to have a relationship, communication is required. Two-way communication.

When John calls our attention to his writing, he points out that God communicates. He says things, and desires a reply.

Not all communication is verbal, of course. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and God’s most important and essential communication with us, his Word to us, was Jesus.

Jesus: the image of God and God himself in a form compatible with earth. The communicator of God’s thoughts, power, love, truth, holiness, humor, creativity, imagination, determination, plans, all contained in that one Word.

Fascinating way for John to begin his own communication of the gospel, don’t you think?