OPORD #2

What is the joy of story telling? Stories are what speak to a fundamental and deep aspect our hearts. We tell stories to one another as a means of being understood and conveying a wide range of thoughts and emotions. With stories we are able to transcend individual human experience and move to a realm of possibilities and creativity. Each story is unique and stands on its own, but all have essential elements that capture our hearts from the beginning, “Once upon a time...” These words still ring true. It is by the vehicle of stories that we learn and grow. Our own personal stories we share with others. Sometimes for a good laugh and others as a warning. The truest nature of my heart lies in this aspect of life. Stories have captured every part of being since I can remember. I love hearing them, reading them, or seeing them take place. Watching as the drama unfolds before me as the hero gets ready to face off against the Villain.

Stories present questions to our mind that we other wise would not have been exposed to. What does a mermaid who wants to be a human do when confronted by her father, who is none less than the king of all the mer folk. Aladdin, finds himself trapped in the cave of wonders, betrayed and alone, but three rubs of a dirty old lamp and his entire life is changed forever. These are the kinds of things that allow us to escape from our dreary realities and begin to imagine a different life. Not a life that is impossible, but a life that we were promised and never received. How many stories have we read that deal with a “paradise lost”? It's not just another story, it's THE story. It starts off with something good and right, like the relationship King Mufasa, has with his son Simba, but right in the middle of when a boy needs his father most their relationship is destroyed by Simba's, evil uncle, Scar. What makes this betrayal much like our own is that we are made to carry its burden. Scar, deceives Simba, into believing that it was his fault that Mufasa, died. Confused and removed from the protection of his father, Simba, runs as far away as he can believing that this is the only thing he can do. Is this not were most of us have been?

Called to carry the burden of our pasts and runaways of who we were meant to be. Once befriended by an easy going duo of a Meerkat and a warthog young Simba learns how to live in the moment with little or no care at all for the past or the future. This allows him to continue all the way to adulthood without once having to confront what happened in his past. It's at this point in the story that we begin to see the toll that this is taking on Simba and he returns to pride rock after being mentored into the truth of his pain by an old baboon. A story is meant to be a lot more than words on paper. People come to watch all sorts of movies, why? How many Peter Parkers of the world just wish for once they could save the day AND get the girl? How many young girls long to be the princess of their own stories and rescued by a prince. I can not tell you how many young men truly want to be heroes and how many young women long to be worth rescuing. It is important to both genders. A man needs to know in the core of his being that he has what it takes to succeed and save the day if that's what it comes to. A women is most satisfied when she is desired and made to feel like she is worth fighting for. There is a story in each of hearts that needs to be satisfied and so we head out on the journey of life looking for ways to make our “dreams come true”.

However, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10. Christ is making a clear statement that He is the hero of every story because He has come to restore that which we have had stolen from us. How many people come to you everyday and say, “ Hello, I have come to give you life. Would you like some?.” This is the simplicity and glory of the gospel. I believe C.S. Lewis said it best when he said, “ A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

The day is saved and we have our happily ever afters the only question remaining is, who will you tell?

OPORD #1

We all face many trials of varying degrees and levels, but the predictability of our enemy has given us many decisive advantages. The first thing to understand is that the nature of our war is not based in the physical, but in the supernatural or spiritual. As Ephesians 6:12 says,"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

This battle against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms requires the use of some WMDs (Weapons of Mass Discipleship). The truest strength and greatest weapon is that we rely on a relationship so powerful and so unbreakable between ourselves and our creator. To say that God is my friend, my lover, my salvation, and my father is to express only a fraction of what my relationship with Him means to me. As we dive deeper into the spiritual world there are a few ROEs (Rules Of Engagement) to go over,

#1 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind

#2 Love your neighbor as yourself.

The second ROE is to recognize the importance of each other. We show others the love that God has first established within each of us that shines like the stars. As a person I will continue to remain flawed and imperfect, but God's power is made perfect in weakness. What we should strive for everyday is not just remembering, but put into practice this phrase, "Hate the sin and not the sinner." The enemy will attempt to do two things that will almost always result in a fatal or kill shot. The first is to separate us from each other and not just from other believers, but from everyone. Matthew 18:20 has this to say, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." It is true that Christ is present when a fellowship of believers exists. However, the difficulty that our enemy faces in this respect is with the instability of the lost ones. Our enemy knows better than to leave someone with any sort of positive relationship. While the short term benefits of a few bad influences may entice their cause enough it will not last.

The ultimate goal is to sever all active relationships in order to suffocate a person to the point of either physical or spiritual death. The second goal of hating the sinner instead of the sin is to stir up hatred. One might say that this is also the partial objective of the first goal however that opinion would only be partially correct. Hatred is a very different beast than the kind of slow submission caused through apathy and depression. And make no mistake hatred is much more hidden, dangerous, and even deadly. Instead of a belief that denies God, hatred believes in the power of one's self over God.

Everything in the spiritual world functions off of belief. It was the false beliefs of Lucifer and the Fallen that resulted in their condemnation. It is the pure beliefs of children that allows them to so freely and honestly love God as was originally intended. All of these points to simply explore the importance of the first weapon, friendship.

In the story by Charles Dicken's, A Christmas Carol, the main character Scrooge is forever changed when he renews his faith in his fellow man. The importance of relationships wasn't lost even on the Almighty. In the Genesis account God describes all of the events that took place in creating the Earth and the only time that He was ever unsatisfied with His work was when He realized that man was alone. We were made for fellowship. Fellowship with other people and with God, but more than fellowship is friendship. Friends are those who along with God and in the Spirit stand with you, laugh with you, play with you, and FIGHT with you. They are your battle buddies, your shipmates, your wingmen. The enemy knows that those bonds of strong fellowship rooted in Christ can lead to a type of love that is not easily shaken let alone broken. The reason* why this poses such a problem for the enemy and subsequently continues to remain one of our great weapons is found in 1 John 4:16 "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

* As a small disclaimer to clarify the point, the marriage between a man and a woman is the greatest representation of God's love for us and our love for Him. "Brotherly love" is only one of the many loves where God is present.

The Call To Arms

The call to each of us that have been given salvation and new life through Christ Jesus is to partake in the greatest war the universe has ever known. This glorious war is not on some foreign front or in a far off land. It takes place everyday within each of us and shapes the very reality that we live in. The truth is that every soul is on the line and no one will be spared in the approaching final battle. We as followers of The Way, "God's Warriors", can't afford to be ignorant or neglectful of our duties. Too often have even our own spirits been crushed without even so much as a whisper of resistance to the enemy. Individuals are saved, but few are sanctified. Congregations stand up in church, but they do not stand up and do what is right. The modern church has done away with the inconveniences of being a follower of Christ and have opted to adopt the derogatory terminology given to the early believers, "Christian". The word itself has numbed masses into forgetting what words like "disciple", "apostle" and "believer" mean. This is a wake up call for anyone and everyone to rekindle the passions of their heart and the fire of their soul. Now, the only question is, "Will you take the blue pill or will you take the red pill..."