Star Wars – As I was saying…

Worlds Apart

June 4, 2017June 4, 2017 Dr. J.D. Wilkins2 Comments

Daily Post: Distant

Any Star Wars fan worth their salt knows the phrase, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”

George Lucas, and John Williams are creative geniuses, each in their own field of work. Lucas captured our minds with outrageous new creatures and the use of computer generated imagery (CGI), while Williams captured our emotions and visceral imaginations with the sound track. From the evil Imperial March track associated with the dark side of the Empire, and Darth Vader’s breathing apparatus, to the CGI hyper-speed jumps of the Millennium Falcon, this original 1977 movie took us to places we could not conjure in our own imaginations.

I have always loved science fiction, does anyone out there remember “Danger! Will Robinson!”? Today’s offerings in the genre of science fiction, now 40 years removed from the Jedi Master and the Force, continue to capture our thoughts about the reality of space travel, and what lies beyond our world. As of March 27 of this years, NASA continues on it’s plan to send humans to the Red Planet sometime in the 2030’s. That’s 13 years from now folks. Is this reality? Could this actually happen?

My thoughts are mixed from a spiritual standpoint. Nothing about my 1960’s faith allowed for the concept of traveling through space. That said, I’m now 63 years old, and I’ve witnessed the evolution of technologies that not only could I not have envisioned as a child, I was an actual part of the early pioneer work of establishing the capability of data communication over cellular devices. (Translation: Texting, emailing, tweeting, etc on the cell phone) What a ride!

Will the Creator allow humanity to make this great voyage into the unknown of space? There is nothing Biblically that either allows or forbids this possibility. In fact, it is pure speculation on the part of any biblical scholar who takes a dogmatic stand one way or the other. In the area of predicting the future, God gives us the plan for the end of human history. But what’s missing in the information is when this might occur, and God hasn’t enlightened us or hinted to us anything in terms of concrete, hard-and-fast time tables. He doesn’t tell us year, month, day, hour, or minute… so ANYONE who tells you they know, is a false prophet. Trust me, they don’t know.

That said, it is just as easy for me to believe that space travel is in the very near future for many people. If you are 20 years old and dreaming of flying in a real live spaceship, your odds are pretty good, if God allows us to exist another 100 years. The ancients, the Old Testament authors, could only see the stars and marvel at the existence. The New Testament authors, wrote of the Magi being led by a star to the place where the Son of God was born, in Bethlehem. Outside of these references, what would ever cause us to think that these men understood our world today, from 2,000 years in the past? Enter John the apostle.

Not only did John see things he simply couldn’t explain or describe adequately, some of the things he saw, Jesus specifically said not to write down in his book called The Revelation. We can’t possibly know all that will happen in our world, or this galaxy before God says “enough is enough.” Perhaps that won’t even happen until we’ve explored other worlds within our galaxy, or beyond. The longer it takes for God to fulfill the words of His prophets, the more people on this planet will continue to say, “Why hasn’t God come back for us yet? What is He waiting on? If there really is a God!”

So I leave you with these distant thought from the past. The passage of time does not negate their truthfulness, so be careful about measuring prophecy against the element of time. If God says it will happen, then it will happen.

2 Peter 3:9
The LORD is not slow about His promise, as some esteem slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Isaiah 55:11
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

John 14:2
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

So… go be light and salt today, bringing God great glory, experiencing His grace in everything you do! Live in the reality of these yet distant promises.

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Jibber Jabber Jungle

May 12, 2017May 12, 2017 Dr. J.D. WilkinsLeave a comment

Daily Post: Maze

Listening to the yammering jibber jabber of Yoda’s backward-upside-down logic is much like wandering through a maze blindfolded. Not much of it really makes sense to someone who has seen Star Wars, much less to the millions who haven’t. Don’t get me wrong, I stood in the line for the first two of these movies, like many other sci-fi lovers. That said, I’m not a die-hard fan of Yoda wisdom. There they are in the jungle, and Yoda says to Luke Skywalker, “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” Is this supposed to be some new thought process on success? My junior high football coach, long before there was a Star Wars or Yoda, told me to get up off my butt and do it. It wasn’t a matter of if I could or not. I grew up on the wisdom of William Edward Hickson (1803-1870), credited with popularizing the following ditty:

‘Tis a lesson you should heed: Try, try, try again.
If at first you don’t succeed: Try, try, try again.

Yoda would have a field day with so much trying. Yoda would call Hickson a loser, because in Yoda’s book there is no “trying” there is only “doing, or not doing.” This summarizes what’s wrong with much of the world today. We’ve lost our way in the maze of the jibber jabber jungle. Here’s a few of the more popular Yoda quotes I found:

You must unlearn what you have learned
When you look at the dark side, careful you must be… for the dark side looks back.
If no mistake you have made, losing you are. A different game you should play.
Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size do you?
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.

And on and on deeper into the jibber jabber jungle we could go, but again, like the mouse searching for the proverbial cheese wandering through the maze by his sensitive nose, our minds would only lead us to the inevitable truth… Star Wars is not the definitive wisdom by which one should lead their life.

The unfortunate thing is, many people in this ole world see the Man – Jesus – as a sort of front-runner of Yoda, and that’s all. They see the Force as real, and the Bible as fiction. They hear the heavy breathing anger of Darth Vader, rather than the all too real voice of Jesus crying out from the cross “It is finished!” It’s all about what they can “do” rather than what Christ has already “done.” Yoda is not the savior of the world, in truth, or in fiction. There is only one Savior, His name is Jesus.

Jesus said some things that are hard to understand. This was by design. He did it on purpose. He told the disciples ahead of time that He must “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Then He turned around, looked at Peter, and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” [Mark 8:31-33]. He said things like, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.” [Luke 6:35] Many today think Jesus was a madman who just talked jibber jabber.

So again, it comes down to choice. You must choose your own maze. While certainly those who follow the wisdom of Yoda seem like mindless mice to me, I too must seem as such to them. If they are right, I’ve lost nothing. If I am right, they have lost everything. Which maze are you wandering in?

1 Corinthians 14:33
“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace…”

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Genesis, Patriarchs, and Eternity Past

April 26, 2017 Dr. J.D. Wilkins2 Comments

Daily Post: Roots

Which came first the chicken or the egg? It’s really a question about causality. And this particular question can make your head spin. Riddle’s are like that. Luna Lovegood (the dotty witch from Harry Potter) when asked a riddle replied, “A circle has no beginning.” The famous chicken/egg debate is circular riddle from any perspective. In an article from MNN (Mother Nature Network), written in early 2013, Melissa Breyer answers the question by pointing to a video that for most atheist and agnostics works well. It’s interesting, informative, scientific, visually engaging, and totally ignores the root of the problem. Breyer alludes to the problem in her article. The causality dilemma is really only a riddle, or problem, for those who don’t already know the answer. The Genesis creation story solves the riddle with clarity, giving us the root or causation answer. This answer is unsatisfactory for anyone who does not know God. God created animals, not eggs.

Genesis 1:24-25
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

It’s the same question really as, “What came first, the Patriarchs or the Nation?” Even in our wonderful USA culture we have originators who held the roots of an idea for freedom of religious expression. We were not a nation at the time, yet became a nation when men chose to follow the Creator, rather than men, The king didn’t like it, but there you go. It was the egg (idea of religious freedom) that produced the chicken (the Republic), not the other way around.

Israel was not a Nation before God said to Abram, way back in Ur…
Genesis 12:1-3
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The root of this nation is Abram, when God changed his name to Abraham.

So we have to go back even further into Eternity Past and ask the question, “Who came first, God or Satan?” Have God and Satan always just coexisted? Are they equals, like two sides of the force in Star Wars? Science fiction leaps in at this point and cries “yes!” Only those who know the truth can answer this riddle, and the answer is no. Satan, was Lucifer, one of God’s archangels who rebelled against God’s LORDSHIP. He is pure evil, he is out to destroy God’s creation and rob God’s glory.

The ULTIMATE riddle is one that comes out of this understanding of causation. The question is, “Why did God create a CREATURE (satan) who would ultimately attempt to rob God of this glory, and allow satan to corrupt mankind, allow satan to attempt to destroy the planet, or even exist in the first place?” You see, that is a good question. The reason it is so good is that while I have a theory about the answer, it is unprovable until the Creator answers it in person.

I’m going to ask Him one day, just so I can know if I’m right or not.

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