Saturday, June 23, 2007
something to ponder...
Several excerpts from the book "Waking the Dead"…this is the same author who said in a different book that "In the heart of every man is a desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue." (I skipped around a lot and paraphrased the book in a few places, jus wanted to give you a taste of just a few of the things it talks about that reads like an action novel and wakes you up. Hope you go and get your own copy and read it my friends…)
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"Consider the tale told in the book of Daniel, chapter 10… Something has happened that Daniel doesn't understand. I think we can all relate to that. We don't understand about 90 percent of what happens to us, either. Daniel is troubled. He sets out to get an answer. But three weeks of prayer and fasting produce no results. What is he to conclude? If Daniel were like most people, by this point he'd probably be headed toward one of two conclusions: I'm blowing it or God is holding out on me. He might try confessing every sin and petty offense in hopes of opening up the lines of communication with God. Or he might withdraw into a sort of disappointed resignation, drop the fast, and turn on the television….. He might read a book on the "silence of God". That's the way the people I know handle this sort of thing. And he would be dead wrong. ....
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On the twenty-first day of the fast an angel shows up, out of breath. In sort of apology, the angel explains to Daniel that God had actually dispatched him in answer to Daniel's prayers the very first day he prayed – three weeks ago. (There goes the whole unanswered prayer thesis, right out the window.) Three weeks ago? What is Daniel to do with that? "The very first day? But.. I'e.. I mean, thank you so very much, and I don't want to seem ungrateful, but … where have you been?" You haven't blown it, Daniel, and God isn't holding out on you. The angel goes to explain that he was locked in hand to hand combat with a mighty fallen angel, a demonic power of dreadful strength, who kept him out o the Persian kingdom for three weeks, and he finally had to get Michael (the great archangel, the captain of the Lord's hosts) to come and help him break through enemy lines. "Now I am here to answer your prayer. Sorry it's taken so long".....
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There is eternal truth number two: this is a world at war. We live in a far more dramatic, far more dangerous story than we ever imagined. The reason we love The Chronicles of Narnia or Star Wars or the Matrix or Lord of the Rings is that they are telling us something about our lives that we never, ever get on the evening news. Or from most pulpits. ….Things are not what they seem. This is a world at war.....
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… You see this throughout scripture, a little boy will slay the giant, a loudmouthed fisherman who can't hold down a job will lead the church, and a whore with a golden heart is the one to perform the deed that Jesus asked us to tell wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world (Mark 14:9). Things are not what they seem. We are not what we seem…..You are not what you think you are. There is a glory to your life that your Enemy fears, and is hell-bent on destroying that glory before you can act on it. ....
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… Things happen to you. The car breaks down, you have a fight with your spouse, or you suddenly figure out how to fix a problem at work. What is really happening? David Whyte says that we live our lives under a pale sky, "the lost sense that we play out our lives as part of a greater story" What sort of tale have I fallen into? … Where is your heart? ....
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"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. – King Solomon (son of King David). (Prov. 4:23)....
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……. Next chapter Paraphrase:....
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The wizard of oz the movie left something out the book had. How the tin man became made of tin. He was in love with a beautiful maiden but could not marry her until he had enough money to build them a cottage in the woods. So he worked very hard to get the money, but the wicked witch hated his love for the maiden and cast a spell on him to have many injuries. His injuries caused parts of his body to replaced with tin, but at first it seemed to be to his advantage, his metal frame allowed him to work nearly as powerfully as a machine. Eventually so much of him had been replaced that he lost his heart, and his will to marry the maiden. "The greatest loss I had ever known was the lost of my heart". So we went to find the wizard to restore his heart. "While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has no heart, and so I am resolved to Oz to give me one. If he does, I will go back to the maiden and marry her." ....
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….. We, too, have suffered a series of blows over time. And we too, have seized efficiency, busyness, and productivity as the life we lead instead. Now we are lost. Dazed. Alert and oriented times zero. Sleepwalking through life. In order to find our way out of these woods, we must return to our heart. The heart is central.....
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Your enemy (satan) knows that if he can disable or deaden your heart, then he has effectively foiled the plan of God, which was to create a world where love reigns. By taking out your heart, the Enemy takes out you, and you are essential to the story. You'll notice he's been rather effective. ....
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Why do so many relationships fail? Because one or both partners no longer have a heart for making it work. On and on it goes. …. We gave our heart away and now we can't get it back. ....
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…. That's why those who live from their minds are detached from life. …. They conclude others are emotional and unstable. Meanwhile, those that live from the heart find those who live from the mind… unavailable. …. ....
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…. Equating the heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is a feeling. Surely, we know that love is more than a feeling.....
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….You'll notice that those who live from the mind shed few tears. I wonder if that isn't the real reason they choose to hide there. For when we're honest, we'll admit that there are our stated reasons for doing any of the things we do, and then there are our real reasons. We call the our motives.....
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….Their actions looked good but their motives were not. A person's character is determined by his motives, and motives are always a matte of the heart. ....
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.. It takes courage to love doesn't it? It takes courage to trust someone with your life. ....
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…. Success or failure (in relationships) can be pretty well predicated by the degree to which the heart is fully in it. ....
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… The heart is the connecting point, the meeting place between any two persons. The kind of deep soul intimacy we crave with God and with others can be experienced only from the heart. We don't want to be someone's project; we want to be the desire of their heart. … "By worshipping efficiency, the human race has achieved the highest level of efficiency in history, but how much have we grown in love?"....
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…. You can not be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life he meant you to live, unless you live from the heart.
....His plan (the enemy) from the beginning was to assault the heart, just as the Wicked Witch did to the Tin Woodman. Make them so busy, they ignore the heart. Wound them so deeply they won't want a heart. Twist their theology, so they despise their heart. Take away their courage.
.... Of course your heart would be the object of a great and fierce battle. It is your most precious possession. .... Without your heart you cannot have love. Without your heart you cannot have faith. Without heart you cannot find the work you were meant to do. In other words, without your heart you cannot have life.
.... We must fight for the life that God intends for us.
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