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to David's Exhortations
The
Force!
The movies, Star Wars, presented science fiction entertainment including a fictitious force. There is a cultist philosophy hanging out in these films much like the creatures hanging out in the bar scene of the first film. It is timely to ask, "What or who is the Force?"
Humans begin life dependant on others to care for, nurture, and train them. They are bonded and related to the care givers. They develop relationships based on what they need and how their needs are met. Humans sense in youth and early adulthood that there are some needs not met. Humans seek and search for three things. These three are LOVE, JOY and PEACE. As they search, humans mostly get counterfeits and substitutes. The world sells sex, fun and freedom. Humans have long studied the matter and devised various fixes to try. There are religions, cults, secret societies, addictions, compulsions, abuses, delusions, neuroses and vain philosophies without end. None work.
How can a child grow into a whole healthy person, filled with LOVE, JOY and PEACE? The first task is to become every whit whole: spirit, soul and body. Humans exist in this physical world with a physical body and a psyche or soul which constitutes the functions of mind, will and emotion. These functions are like software. They operate the hardware or body. There is another realm in which the human was designed to function. That is the spirit realm. This realm has multiple dimensions, but no space or time dimensions. From this realm, the human can obtain LOVE, JOY and PEACE. This realm is the kingdom of the Creator and designer of both the heavenlies and the world. The human is a person designed to function as spirit, soul and body, but is essentially dead in spirit. There is a deep gnawing need for LOVE, JOY and PEACE. In all cultures, all nations and continents through all languages and all philosophies, there is the search for and the lack of LOVE, JOY and PEACE. The answer is the Creator. He designed and made the world and the human. He provided a way in which the human could choose to be whole. The Creator himself came to earth in human flesh, and provided the payment for connecting and restoring wholeness to humans. All they have to do is choose it and receive it. It is a gracious gift.
The Creator is Jesus of Nazareth, who two thousand
years ago walked and ministered on earth to give humans reconciliation
to God. He made them ministers of reconciliation to all other humans who
would so choose.
Jesus was the Messiah or savior that the Jews expected.
Some of the Jews recognized him and received him. What Jesus did
for them and for all humans is the supreme defining act of LOVE and
it proclaims Him as the source.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and
the Word was God. He was God in the beginning.
Through him all things
were made; without him nothing was made that
has been made. In him was
life, and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, but
the darkness has not understood it."
John 1:1-5
The scripture describes the Force or essence of God as it shines in the darkness. Humans who choose to accept Jesus and experience His LOVE are made alive in spirit. The Holy Spirit of God enters their new living spirit and pours out LOVE.
"And hope does not disappoint us, because
God has poured out his love
into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom
he has given us. You see at just the
right time, when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly."
Romans 5:5-6
Intelligent humans have learned to study various forces by observing their effects on physical material even though the force is not detectable by the senses. For example in physics, the force of gravity, electromagnetic force, the small and the large nuclear forces are identified and studied. There are physicists working to find the relationships of all forces to a single ultimate force. The scripture says that ultimate force is Jesus in whom all things consist and are held together.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation.
For by him all things were created: things
in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him. He is before
all things, and in him all things
hold together." Colossians
1:15-17
Jesus is the Force and his salvation for humans is of the [spirit] kingdom as well as this world. Intelligent humans get caught up in their mental activity and often disdain to experience the light from the kingdom of God. The scripture teaches that Jesus is LOVE and this Force is manifest as His LOVE.
"He who does not love has not become acquainted
with God--does
not and never did know Him; for God is love.
In this the love of God was
made manifest (displayed), where we are concerned,
in that God sent His
Son, the only begotten or unique [Son], into
the world so that we might live
through Him. In this is love, not that
we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation
(the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.
Beloved if God loved us so [very much], we
also ought to love one another."
1 John 4:8-11
LOVE as the Force is agape in Greek. It is unconditional Love and is set out in 1 Corinthians.
"If I speak with the eloquence of men and
of angels, but have no love,
I become no more than blaring brass or crashing
cymbal. If I have the gift of
foretelling the future and hold in my mind
not only all human knowledge but
the very secrets of God, and if I also have
that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love,
I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that
I possess, yes, even if I give my own body
to be burned, but have no love,
I achieve precisely nothing.
This love of which I speak is slow to lose
patience--it looks for a way
of being constructive. It is not possessive:
it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas
of its own importance.
Love has good manners and does not pursue
selfish advantage. It is
not touchy. It does not keep account
of evil or gloat over the wickedness of
other people. On the contrary, it shares
the joy of those who live by the truth.
Love knows no limit to its endurance,
no end to its trust, no fading
of its hope; it can outlast anything.
Love never fails." I Corinthians 13
In the first paragraph of 1 Corinthians 13, the scripture clearly states that without LOVE whatever a human does, becomes, or gives amounts to zero. This is revelation that the things and doings of the world are transient and significant only in what they will achieve in the kingdom of God. His eternal design will be achieved. Jesus advises,
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness"
and "lay up
eternal treasures where neither rust corrodes
nor thieves break in and steal'
Matthew 6:33
If a human does not take this advice, his work will amount to absolutely nothing. The productive life requires being alive in spirit and being empowered by LOVE. Again Jesus describes it;
"If you keep my commandments-if you continue
to obey My
instructions-you will abide in My love and
live on in it; just as I have
obeyed My Father's commandments and live
on in His love. I have told
you these things that My joy and delight
may be in you, and that your joy
and gladness may be full measure and complete
and overflowing."
John 15: 10-11
Entering communion with Jesus and experiencing His LOVE produces the spiritual delight of JOY in the human spirit. Joy then overflows into the emotions. This supernatural experience of LOVE and JOY leads to the PEACE which is spirit rest, soul contentment and bodily quiet.
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
you. I do not give to
you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts
be troubled and do not be
afraid." John 14:7
This wholeness and restoration has been available to man since Jesus Came in the flesh and shed his blood that man might be restored. Many have chosen to become fully alive in the Spirit. They turned the world upside down and lived in LOVE, JOY, and PEACE. They lived in all of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. They have been every kind of human on the face of the earth. One was a German artist named Albrecht Durer who lived and worked in Nuremberg about five hundred years ago. He prepared many woodcuts and prints that were put in small booklets to tell the story of Jesus and to proclaim the good news of how man can get his spiritual needs met including eternal life. One of his woodcuts pictured the Force as described in Revelation, Chapter 1. It looks like this.
The book of Revelation tells how this Force is coming
again. He will have that same double edged sword to cut down the unrighteous
nations. It is significant that LOVE from the kingdom and truth about
availability of the Force comes from those who choose to live in it.
The darkness still doesn't understand.
