Taylor-Made Religion or Relationship?

 

Please don’t ask me how many religions there are in the world? I bet there as many as there are opinions of who God is and how to we can get our ticket to Heaven. Religion really is technically a man-made enterprise so, consider that before you put your whole faith in one.

It reminds me of a skit called The Religion Store by a Christian comedy group called Isaac Airfreight. The shady owner of the store boasted of how easy it was to convince his costumers into creating their own religions. It was too easy to design a religion that is tailor made for anyone looking for their own piece of Heaven.

What’s funny is what doesn’t work with religion does work with a relationship with God. I love the fact that no two people on earth are the same, ever. Chalk that up to their Creator who is the author of everything including how to do relationships right. The Lord does wish to meet us where we are and build a life that is meant just for you. He knows the personal struggles we all have and how sin has corrupted us individually. Jesus also knows our gifting, our likes, and the unique details we have down to our very genes. I am thinking that if He knows all that about each person then how He relates to us is very one-of-kind as well. Ask the violinist, the mathematician, the teacher, the spy, the clown, the officer, the man who makes pies, how they express their love for their savior and king. Each one would communicate that love as their own special thing.

Are you ready for a perfect relationship that this imperfect world can’t make? Talk to Jesus who lived a perfect life that you can’t live on your own, yet, He is willing to give to you a tailor-made one for the asking. God knows how to speak your heart language so why not let Him speak to you right now?

 

 

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The Back 40

 

 

“We are the clay, you are the potter; we are the work of your hand.”

                                                                        Isaiah 64:8

“Somebody sure took a lot of time and care to get this golf course looking good.” He said. “It’s almost picture perfect.”

She squinted past the manicured lawns and the smooth surface of the man-made lake. Her eyes fell towards the line of trees bordering the course.

“So, what’s out there,” she wondered.

He shuddered. “That’s no man’s land. It’s the wild; the back 40.”

“So, it sounds like a place I don’t want to my ball to land in.”

“Right. That’s what you call way out beyond the safety zone.” He removed his hat and held it to his chest. “That’s the graveyard of golf balls that never will see play again.”

She laughed.

He frowned. “I’m serious.”

“I can tell.”

He set himself ready to swing as she continued her train of thought.

“So, it could be a really wonderful place it someone took the time and made the effort to keep it maintenance?” She began.

He nodded with one eye closed. The man held his breath and shot. “Why are you so interested in that wild place?” He watched his ball land near the green. “Yes.”

“I just had a word picture pop in my head.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re always thinking of a spiritual aspect to everything you see, Dear.”

“I can’t help it, Sweety, that’s how the Lord speaks to me.”

He leaned on his iron. “So,”

“What?” she responded back.

“So, go ahead and tell me what God told you. You’re going to tell me anyway. I was just saving some time.”

She smiled. Her husband was still new to this Christian life. He still had many questions and wanted to understand how this whole walk of faith worked.

“I thought about the unkempt places in my life.”

He guffawed this time.

“What’s so funny?”

“You are the neat freak in our family. What mess are you talking about?”

She pointed to her heart. “I think that I give God my best but, He wants the worst things in here too.”

“Really?” He sounded truly interested.

“Yes. God can take our wild places and make them what they should be. He is the gardener that can reclaim land that others have given up for lost.”

“God can even do something with places in my heart that I have given up any hope of changing?”

“If I understand the Bible correctly, then yes.” She looked out toward the belt of trees. “With God all things are possible; nothing is impossible.”

“That really does give me something to think about.” He switched gears. “Are you going to hit you ball or just contemplate the rest of the day.”

“Right.” She lined up her shot, sticking her tongue out to one side. “Let’s see where you end up.”

 

A6 Time Traveler Case File #1: Levy Roarke

Greetings Fellow Time Travelers,

Welcome to the world of Chronolocity and the Department of Time Management. As you may or may not know, history is changing. A time war has sparked and we have been sent to investigate the outcomes. To understand the finer points of monitoring and protecting the integrity of history you will need to know about some of the people involved in this battle.

Meet Levy Mozes Roarke. He is a twelve-year-old inventor who has the feeling his Fizz-E-Drive engine that will change the world. Levy’s family has been reduced to poverty and they struggle to make ends meet. There is a lot at stake for him to win the National Inventor Award and finally get his ideas discovered. Maybe it is his destiny to help his family get back on their feet and make history in the process.

Somehow Levy’s destiny changes in a moment. He is captured by a team of time travelers whose intent is to set history right by correcting injustices throughout time. Levy finds himself caught up into a reboot of history and a time war is unleashed from which none one on earth is able to escape.

The truth is matter how this story turns out, no one will ever look at history the same again. Want to know more?

A warning from the A6 for all time travelers:

https://youtu.be/aEf_OWLBGqg

Sample the experimental soundtrack on Band Camp:

  https://theclockopera.bandcamp.com/track/the-reluctant-hero 

 

And get a free first chapter of Chronolocity Vol I: A Fistful of Chronotons at my website:

http://www.chronolocityhq.com/ 

Hope you will join us on the journey. Strap in, hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

Your friend in time,

 G. P. Avants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finding Fragile’s Strength.

“For when I am weak, then I am strong”

2 Corinthians 12:10

 

It is week two with one of the worst colds I have had in a while. Other than my head pounding, having what feels like a smoker’s cough, and can’t hear with plugged ears, I feel fine. Nobody likes being sick, feeling foolish, or just plain “blah” all over. It’s not part of our nature to feel great when our life is weak and out of control. The fact is before we understand how life really works, we have to see how fragile we really are.

Have you ever heard the song by Sting called “How Fragile We Are”? It really puts things into perspective because tomorrow is guaranteed to no person. If your eyes are reading this then it means you have today. This is the time to make the most of the life you have been given.

We are told from childhood to “toughen up”, “suck it up”, “big boys (and girls) don’t cry. It instills in us the notion that we are to ignore our fragility and not work through it. Our brokenness is something that we either avoid or get so consumed by it that we never move through it.

But I see our fragile times as an open door for the Lord to do great things. The barriers that we have erected are down and God can get to the real person cowering behind the facade of self-sufficiency. When we surrender to what we want and who we are, the door to salvation is opened.

In my own life, the Lord ignored the sign that said “fragile” around the white washed part of my home called my heart. What I had erected as my walk with the Lord was build out of worldly things. It wasn’t build on eternity, but my own hands. The Lord crushed what I had built and showed me what my life was really like without the illusions.

I gave up my whole struggle to run my own life. It’s a job none of us can really do and truly be happy. Life’s got to be broken open before it can be made truly whole. Understanding your own weaknesses and fragility is a real sign of strength. Giving up all your rights to Jesus and making Him your all and all is a sign of true freedom. This is how it works in the economy of God’s grace.

Yes, it’s totally the opposite of what the world would have you believe. It’s “get all you can and be number one.”  But we’ll lose it all in the end if we depend on ourselves to make it all happen. My advice is to give up now while you still have today. Give your life away to the only one who knows what they are doing. Remember, the one who brakes fragile things also knows how to re-make these precious items into eternal treasures worth keeping.

How you have you found your strength when things are greater than you are?

Enjoy the song.

 

Yoke

“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11: 30

 

Got it.
The work ahead

Is plain to see;

Some tell me:
“If it’s meant to be, It’s up to me.”

I grab the plow.

My back I bow,

Flex and bent,

All day;

From beginning to end.

As sunset falls,

 

It’s then I view

 
The fruit of my labor;

 
My field looks no different

 

Then the unworked one

 
Of my neighbor.

 
Not a dent did I make

 
From the sweat of my brow.

 

Yet tomorrow’s the same;

 

Though I know this will grow,

 

Somehow,

 

Right?

Then I remember

I am not alone;

This isn’t a one-man job.

No, in fact it’s one made

For man and his God

Pulling together,

Not grasping at odds.

 

That silly idea

Doesn’t sound so bad

Right now.

So, I take Him

At His word:

Pull and strain,

Sun or rain,

Rocky path,

Grassy hills,

or painstakingly course,

Flat and  mundane.

Yet,

The fellowship is sweet,

The labor is halved,

At the least,

While the outcome

Fundamentally increased;

Alongside the Lord.

A heavy load

Looking behind,

When all is done,

The field is plowed,

Ready for what’s next;

This part is complete and

This work of God

Is done.

Who I Call Friend

 

“But I have called you friends…”

 John 15:15 

 

This short poem was written years ago after I learned that friendships come in all shapes and sizes. I had often seen friendships come and go and it wore on my heart. However, something my mom said stuck with me that day. She said, “If you have one true friend in your lifetime you have more than most people.”

So true.

 

There are Sunday friends,

Neverending friends,

Some saved for “one day’s “ page;

Others last a twinkling of an eye.

There are friendships  that live

Until you die.

Rare and great are those you find,

Who call you friend until the end.

One sticks closer than a brother;
Crisis reveals one from the shadows.

Friends for a season;

Tastes bitter, adds sweetening;

Binds the wounds,

One step in my healing.

A confidant that keeps pace beside;
When you fall stands you tall.

The length of a weekend,

A sentence, a song;

Different times,

Various reasons,
But still they bear the same name.

A conversation on a journey long,

Tough and tender, weak and strong;
A companion, a comfort
A smile all the while,

A friend.

As You Wish

This was a fun post that I had from a high school course I did on film and how to get the most out of a movie. This is where the ideas come from for our blogs.

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“For there is no fear in love; but perfect love cast out fear.”

                                                           1John 4:18

 

Our final feature in our Film Culture class was The Princess Bride. Do you remember this classic film from the 80’s? There were so many memorable scenes that I could quote, but I am only choosing a few to talk about. We looked at how comedy and tragedy have to live in harmony. As Vizzini said,

“That’s inconceivable.”

Maybe that word doesn’t mean what he thinks it mean.

Wesley and Buttercup found something that doesn’t happen everyday, True Love. What makes their relationship work, I think, is Wesley’s words,

“As you wish.”

He would always come if they were ever separated. Wesley would be that white knight even if the world made him wear black and be a pirate. Buttercup was innocent to the ways of the world like her namesake. However, she learned how to keep love alive when she let it die. Crazy, right? These two wished for True Love but little did they know what struggle life would through them into.

“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.”

As Wesley and Buttercup are torn apart and randomly thrown back together, they meet an odd variety of people. One of them, Indigo, sought revenge for the love of his dead father. Again, love can push ordinary people into places that they never thought they would go. Struggles in life can make you better or biter. I guess it’s the condition of the heart that makes all the difference.

When people try to understand what real love they can miss the point all together. They may even attempt to thwart love or even destroy it. Prince Humperdinck had a sick way of having a relationship.

“I would not say such things if I were you.”

He said this when Buttercup, now confident in her true love, defied him. That simple flower stood up to a cruel hateful world. When things got darkest and the sun refused to shine, True Love showed how strong its roots were.

If you ever doubt that True Love exists in the world think again. The real test of it is the trials and troubles it endures. The very things designed to destroy real love can actually make it stronger between two people. May I be as bold to say that real love is from God and that tells you time can never shake eternity.

“Love, true love is what brings us together today.”

I couldn’t of said it better it myself.