January 27, 2007

If Jesus were from our time

Joel Akin

 If the scripture were to be written in this century who would Jesus be? Would he be you? Would he be me? Would he be someone we don't even know? How would you treat them? How would you help them. Especially if they were stranded on a desert island like earth?

 Lets think about this for a moment. We often think of ourselves as alone on this planet. When we think of that some of us get chills. We are supposed to be alone according to the scientist who says we stemmed from evolution. The odds of life are billions to one made up of chemical soup.

 Now chemical soup might produce life but it wouldn't be edible. It would be toxic because life on earth would have had to come from a billion recipes and those recipes would have come from a billion people trying to make life.

 Imagine Sin tried and tried and tried to make life and couldn't until he played with what God had made. He was a brilliant scientist and only went mad when the Scourge took his head and used it as a soccer ball. He didn't like that so he took their head and used it for a bowling ball. The Dark Star that hit earth was made up of black oil and it was a toxic soup of life from a billion worlds. It was the most toxic soup he could create. And Sin relished every head and every soup that people on earth had to eat. Because we were the people who had cherished his head and used it to stuff things with.

 Well, after all he was a Crocodile. And Crocodiles were the leviathan of the scripture. The neesings were the way they rolled over and over and over and over and over again trying to dislodge any dart you might put into their hide.

 Now of the edible parts of the croc was the eye. It was best boiled. Of the other parts the privates were good as well. Those were the private parts of the croc which were hidden inside. So everything inside was private.

 Now the croc hated people and hated things and hated all things people. He ate people until he was bursting but he never stopped until he burst open. And when he did he didn't die as a croc should. He just kept eating and food kept falling out. And it got so wild people avoided him like the plague.

 Now it was a spirit that was the Leviathan but the croc was the best character to play him in Peter Pan and in the movie to come because he was big. And when you have a monster croc people get used to it. This one they might like because it talks and it walks and it looks like an evil spirit on steroids.

 That is because this croc has muscles. And because this croc is like Arnold with steroid deficiency for his stomach is svelte and lean. And if he had a problem with his head it was fixed by time.

Now of course that is the way Sin sees himself. Lovely to behold and lovely to see but don't let it near you with or without glasses because you'll become the evening repast.

Of course Sin wanted that said. It was Sin this and Sin that until I got sick of hearing about Sin. Everywhere on earth I heard it. Everywhere I turned I heard it. I wondered if anyone was left who didn't want to talk about Sin. For Sin wasn't just in the name but in the blame. Everywhere there was sin and sin was in the food and sin was in the things I wore and sin was in the things I did and sin was in the choir and sin was in the preacher and sin was in the pew. But the greatest of all sins was in the stink. For the pew of the church was there to remind us that all of us stank and had come short of Gods love. Only Jesus could set us free.

 I don't get tired of them but I wonder if any other Christian ever gets tired of saying the same things day after day after day.

 So who then do I talk with? Do I tell you about love? What kind of love? Does it have to do with helping? Hmm, then it must have to do with helping people who are sinners. If not then people who are sick. If not then people who are poor. Well, that's a good subject. I'm poor. Oh, not that kind of love. You want to help the poor.

 All right. I'm poor but that must be sin. Lets just hope it wasn't prophecy that we have the poor with us always. If so then we may have sin ready to pounce because most of us don't like being poor.

 So we go on to other subjects. How about rocks. Now there is a safe subject. They have many uses such as scouring. Wait, that means dirt and dirt is bad and bad dirt is like sin. Why did God make dirt and why did he make us from the dirt? Maybe because were were sinners from the soil but purified by God because of the firing of clay in the oven of Gods furnace. It does sound good but it may not be true. Can't tell because God can't speak to reprobates.

 Reprobates are a little like late rebates. They both clog up the system with people who want some of their money back and sometimes all of your money. So as I learned lately the best deal of all is to send you a rebate check late. When it arrives the only thing is you have to mail it back because you missed the deadline. Well, not the mail in deadline. I got that one on time. The deadline was getting it from Ontario. Seems they must have traveled by snail mail because it didn't come until after it was voided. So I think it was voided. I didn't know because I waited about five days to go in to cash it and that's when I discovered it was voided. So my check was invalid for my money which I was promised back if I purchased their product. Talk about warranty. I was ticked off but who do I turn to but the company itself who issued the basically worthless check. Now if I had them as friends I would have to be on the ball because it would be as if I were bearing them down into the sea of time. I would have to be aware that they sent out checks but they were only valid if you got them before they issued them to be voided. So if they mailed the check on the 15th of January it had to reach me by the 18th because that was the void date.

 So bearing this in mind if I wish to have banks invalidate my checks I can put them as only being good if I like the purchases I made. If they are no good then the check bounces. Well, I don't bounce checks and when a major company like Corel does my first thought is they were going out of business. Who knows. I just know that when you promise someone a rebate on your box it is like a promise. A promise that you stick to no matter what. Now when you send them a check that is valid for hours or at most a day then you are bearing them an unfaithful check. Now perhaps it was a mistake but perhaps it was a valid point. And if that check is invalid then does that point to the root of the company? That somewhere there is someone who makes valid decisions by sending out barely valid checks? For my part I did exactly what was required. On their part I wait in vain for the email they promised to fix it. Maybe I'm too impatient. Maybe I should try again and again until they correct it. Lets hope so.

In some ways we are like the clock in the stomach of the crocodile which ticks away day by day. We don't know who is in their winding it. Maybe its a magical clock that works on rebates from Corel. Or maybe its a clock that is designed to find out if Corel is real. Or maybe its just a clock that represents time.

 Time is the issue with my check. I mailed it in before the deadline and met all the dots and points of requirement. I know $45 isn't much for some but for me it was the difference between a hard month and an easy month financially. I wanted it because it helped me out. I wanted it because it made me happy. I wanted it because it was a promise.

 Yet when I went to the bank and stood waiting for a teller I was the one who saw the invalid point. I realized I could have voided that line but it was their check and it was my money. So who then is responsible for fixing it? My bank? There are arbitrators and don't have the right to fix it. Me? I did what was asked. The bank in charge? Corel? They were the ones who issued me an invalid check because I had no chance to carry it to the bank based on their deadline. It reached me the day of the deadline or the day after. And if it came after then Corel becomes the arbitrator for this problem.

 Lets say as the arbitrator they are the key to this entire story. Lets say they are the reason why I write because I haven't been able to write clearly for months. Lets say they represent the photo I was promised. The picture of things that were meant to come. I bought the software and I sent in the form. I did what was asked but they failed to see the little dot called invalid after January 18th. They were the one who failed to live up to their commitment because of one tiny little thing. One thing I noticed because otherwise if my bank had missed it somewhere down the line someone would have seen it. Invalid. And I would have had to pay down the line after the check was issued. And I would have failed to get anything. But a pay back of that money.

The fact is Corel failed to live up to their side of the bargain. They failed to give me a check which was promised. Its not the first. I've filled out those rebate forms and gotten back things like "Not valid in Canada." Yet the product was mailed from a product sold in Canada and from a rebate form direct from the company which was given out by established companies in Canada. And yet they never arrived. Why? Because people don't obey the rules. Or because being a Canadian resident I am always wrong. Or because no one cares about rebates.

 The fact is I've grown tired of them and said "Why not just reduce the price." Some do but most keep offering rebates and some companies keep looking for the little dot so they can refuse payment.

 Now if Corel is truly negligent nothing will come of this. Their arbitration will fail. They as a company will keep going but eventually that one little dot will be their downfall. Its not as if I am the dot but just one who fell between the cracks. I fell because I had a way of trying to lift myself out with a phone call and the guy at the end promised to take care of it. Its been only five days and still no email as promised. So should I pursue? Yes and I'll keep pursuing until I reach someone who says yes or no. And if they say no then I'll really take it to someone who does care. My father.

 Now God doesn't seem like the kind of person you'd take such a small problem to. But God isn't what we think. He is a friend and as a friend he cares for my personal welfare. He knows $45 is a lot of money for me. He knows the company did come through and I failed to see the small print. And it was probably there for me if I had taken it it immediately. Yet if life were like that and we had only one chance then who of us would get it right? We all delay the cashing of checks if there are more important things at stake.

 We don't rush to the bank unless it is critical. Its important but not critical. Critical is how I feel with life right now. Critical is how important this article is to me.

 I write it because I can but also because I need a word from God. I don't just want it. I'm not searching for a way to condemn Corel. They made a mistake as far as I can tell and Lord willing it will work out.

 I'm more concerned with the time. I'm concerned with the page of history which is being written. I'm concerned because I believe God said I would receive a blessing a day. And this day has gone by without one.

 A blessing isn't just of word or of money or of people being nice but of love. I took a friend out yesterday for lunch and God gave me the ability to speak. I wrote down I was blessed. And I was because speaking is hard for me. I have dysphonia.

 Now there are things God does each day to help and to aid and to comfort. Those things are based on time. But today was a war unlike other days. I fought for hours with a spirit we will call Leviathan. It was the worst experience and it was one I refused to back down from. It got so bad I could hardly rationalize life and I had to go for a walk. That was good but I didn't get over it and that was the fight.

 It isn't stopping and it hasn't ended with this spirit for more then a year. I fought others and they came and went but Leviathan is not your normal spirit. It is the worst evil I've ever had to deal with. It is so evil I can't tell my family. So if they read this they might see a little of it.

 Leviathan is a spirit of evil that came up out of hate. It was part of the story of a woman but it wasn't her hate. It was his. He was part of a tree named the Son of Perdition. It was outside the gate of the Lord because no one else wanted it. They were afraid it would be evil and it was. But who kills a child? No one. Yet this was a child of a tree and that meant it had a nature of wood, like Pinochio, and like the Puppet it blinked in cue and on cue and did evil to everyone. No one wanted it and not even the mom who bore him.

 He was the worst radical child. Not Hitler but evil. Hitler was of Sin and evil in that respect. This child was evil from the get go. It didn't hesitate to be evil.

 So why talk about it? There are three reasons. One I fight it every day. Two I fight with it. And three I hate it.

 Now the third is the worst because I know God hates it. For it is the son of the lying spirit named Satan. Satan is the spirit of evil on earth but Sin is the spirit that overrode creation and made it groan.

 It was and is so evil no one could handle it.

The problem is now that it is evil but I am fighting. And I realize that only God can help me. How? By fighting with me against it day by day. We have it as part of the history of the story that God fought it and I fought it. I did my part in prayer and in groaning which could not be uttered. That kind is by prayer and that cometh out by prayer but don't try to deal with this one unless you know what you are doing.

 Lets go into another area so I can write something encouraging. I wish people to understand that I am basically content. I love God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus and I am writing which is what I long to do. I have little in the way of material things but I asked God a question.

 It seemed it came up over the matter of books. God promised that I would have a library in Heaven and so I wondered what would happen to my books?

 The answer was they would be carried up by faith. Think of there being two options. One is to burn everything on earth. The other is to pray about things. That is what faith is. The prayer for things. Everything is a thing. Even faith is part of hope and hope is part of life. And life is what we here on earth do. We pray and we seek God.

 So if things were to be part of the rapture then what does it mean? To answer it requires careful desire. Careful desire is the hope that things will not all be lost. I have tried to explain this in other writings but it went like this. We lost part of scripture because men who hated God burned those works. They were tossed into fires by good people who were afraid. They lost it when they turned everyone loose on libraries but that was another story.

 The fact is we are people who toss out our history. History isn't evil its history. Our story of our life. Some of our stories are very inspiring because God was involved. The Bible is based on this. And so are millions of books.

 For God to toss them out means along with them is scripture. You say "Well, we'll have it in Heaven but what if those men burned everything they owned because of what Jesus said about things?"

 Well, we then get upset because I speak against him but he didn't ask us to burn things but not to love things. And it is true he had nothing and no where to lay his head. And it is true people use faith to try and get money and I've spent a good part of this article talking about money.

 So what I want isn't you to see but God to help. Because I can't go on. I am wore out and the thought of watching tv all night isn't an answer. The answer is trust. And so I close to all.