By Liaf
I don't always sound like it, but I am a dreamer. That may come as a shock to readers of this site who are familiar with my ways of mathematically calculating Scripture, logically analyzing everything, and organizing the complete biblical story into one big cosmic "why". But if I had my way, I'd wear rose-colored glasses. I suppose that is not a contradiction to want to understand why everything works the way it does, and then enter paradise to enjoy it. I made mention in other messages about a "praise reaction" when one understands the meaning behind something without blindly just accepting it for the enjoyment of it. I believe understanding just makes the enjoyment all the more worthwhile. It is that delicate balance between the mind (intellect) and the soul (the emotions of our being).
This dreamer's message is the sum total of what the site is about. And as we enter 2003, we can look forward knowing that in spite of the rotten year that past us, we have every right to dream about the future. And this is not only a dream, but also reality! Soon the Kingdom of God will be here on this Earth under the glorious reign of Christ. We will rule and reign with him. This will be the Garden of Eden again. "What if there are more kings (believers) than remaining people of the Kingdom to rule over?" you may ask. No problem. We are the body of Christ, and as such become Christ Himself--- yet we retain our separate being if that makes any sense. Our rank in the Kingdom based on our rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ will determine if we rule big, or small. We become part of Christ--- I suppose we could compare that to sectors in a computer hard drive. One hard drive, many sectors. Big rulers take up most of the drive. Little rulers make up only a few bytes of data. Make sense? And as I taught, the 144,000 and King David and other martyrs, etc. will be in our crowd with Christ. (King David must make up about 20 GIG in a 40 GIG drive :-) ) Here I go again, getting analytical again. How about some romance, especially for the ladies out there?
OK, but Liaf here is getting a little old. I'll be 44 soon and almost qualify for the "hippy generation". Actually, I call myself the "hippy's kid brother" (sorry, Morfessa. Don't mean to give away your age :-) ). So any good memories I had then were about this crowd. Actually, Morfessa was not one; he was just in that generation. But the recollections I have about those folks in spite of the turbulent times intrigued me. I basically gravitated to the hippy generation girls which is why I suppose in my younger days I dated women in that generation who were ten years my senior. There was some sort of communication I had with them. I'd always be writing something poetic perhaps that expressed the inner depths of our being. Or again, I'd come up with a conversation about life and the "meaning of it all". Again, there was a need for a generation receptive to that. Nowadays, it's amazing how mundane many people are and they basically do not like to talk much about utopia.
If we turn to the Bible, however, there is room for a person to look forward to utopia here on Earth. The millennium assures it. That reminds me of the heavy metal rock song In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida from the late 60's in the height of the counter-culture days. In spite of the generation that may have indulged in sex and drugs and rock-and-roll amidst their spiritual journey, I must admit the words to this song have a ring of truth. The writer of the Lyrics (and also the keyboard player) had a father who was a church organist. I suppose you can hear that in their music when they played this song. By the way, if you ever wandered what In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida meant, the story told was that the writer played it for one of the other members after a little too much wine. He slurred out "In the Garden of Eden" which sounded like In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. He wrote it down the way it sounded, the name was catchy, and so it stayed. Here are the lyrics from this group Iron Butterfly (all copyrights honored and respected, this is for illustrative purposes):
As you can see, I replaced the name of the song with its actual translation--- so these are not the literal lyrics from the song, but they are the meaning. I find them insightful. My gratitude to the group Iron Butterfly for these words.
"So what's your point, Liaf?" Just like the words in the song--- that's what will be! We will not be young or old there. We will have new and glorious everlasting bodies while enjoying the reign with Christ in the Garden of Eden. There's no need to sing such a song with a melancholy recollection as if to say, "If only things really were that way--- Oh to be young again!" Well, wish no more! It will happen as you wished. Don't let the past year and the likes of the naysayers pull you down to their defeatist level. As tempting as it is to gripe, let's realize there is something much better! We will live again in the Garden of Eden! Let's launch out the New Year with that thought in mind!