CLOSE ENCOUNTER of the GOD KIND

During the 80's and 90's I remember going to the movies to watch the latest sci-fi adventure.  Like Star Wars..."A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away."  Then the music would start and a large paragraph of words would roll up the screen like a space ship.  How cool was that?  I would pretend to be a Jedi Knight and use a stick as my lightsaber.  I mean, who didn't want to be a Jedi?!?  Unless of course you were a girl.....then you wanted to be Princess Lea. 

I must admit though when I was a kid I dressed up like Darth Vader one Halloween.  I know what you're thinking, "Wasn't he the bad guy?"  Yeah but I really liked the red lightsaber better than the green one.

Then there was Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Everyone was humming that tune...DA DA DA DA DA DO...or something like that.

And who can forget the little cute and lovable alien....E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, with his glowing finger and illuminating red heart.....running around on a strange planet getting into trouble.  And his famous line, "E.T. PHONE HOME!"  All he wanted to do was go home.  Remember at the end how his body turned all gray from being on a strange planet. 

These were just a few of  the many Sci-Fi/Alien movies that have been produced over the years. 

Then there's the mysterious Area 51.  Some say it's a cover up for a top-secret military intelligence project.  For others it's an intergalactic face-to-face encounter with alien life forms.  Scores of alleged UFO sightings and alien abductions have cropped up. 

There are many that truly believe there are aliens among us.  What do you believe?

Whether you believe in aliens or not, these stories are very intriguing to say the least.  Just for a moment, close your eyes and visualize a night sky with thousands of stars. 

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.  Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Psalms 19: 1-3"

I would like you to take a journey with me into a world where the things seen become unseen and the things unseen become reality.  A place where our faith is established upon a truth that will set us free from the world as we know it.  Imagine if today you left this world to live on another inhabited planet.  Your life would most undoubtedly never be the same.  You would be alien to everyone around you.  You would probably get quite a few strange stares, and some would probably even run away from you because you are so different.  Then others would probably be intrigued by you.  But some would probably even want to kill or torture you because you don't fit into their normal way of life.  This is exactly the way believers in Christ were and are treated today.  Hebrews 11: 36-38 says; Some faced jeers and floggings, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword . They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated....the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.  Who were these people?  The Bible says in Hebrews 11: 13-16...All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country...a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

These people of old considered themselves aliens, strangers to this world.  In our American World we have created a life that revolves around things, and doing things, and being entertained, and even doing church and family activities that totally consume our lives.....so much that our spiritual vision is all but blind to any other world but our own.  What drove these people with such passion and determination that they would endure shame and torture and even death?  First of all, they caught a vision of a better world.....a Heavenly World and they desired it and went after it.  Secondly, they left their old lives and confessed and lived their lives as aliens and strangers on earth.  In the movie the Matrix, the world had become a wasteland and machines had taken over.  The machines created a world in peoples' minds that seemed real, called the Matrix.  Everything looked and felt the same, but it wasn't reality.  So Morpheus and a band of his followers would go inside this Matrix computer-world to offer people the truth.  What was the truth?  That the Matrix was not real.  So if you chose to explore the truth your mind was freed from the Matrix and driven into reality.  One particular man named Neo was freed from the Matrix and soon discovered that he could do incredible things inside the Matrix.  Once he discovered the truth, he could do things that were miraculous. He could fly, move faster than humanly possible and defy all the natural laws.  But he was only able to defy all these laws because he was not bound to them anymore. 

When we have an encounter with God Almighty and discover the Truth, we are free from the law of sin and death, and we are free to live in heavenly places with God.  The world no longer has a hold on us, therefore we are free from it's laws.  We live under a new law in Christ, where all things are possible to them that believe.  Jesus was free from all of the laws of this world.  He defied the natural law of gravity by walking on water.  He could control the atmosphere with just a word and the winds and rain would cease their raging.  He raised the dead to life.  When was the last time you have seen someone raised from the dead?

Then there was his power over the flesh!  He lived a sinless life and conquered every obstacle the evil one threw at him.  And finally he demolished death by rising from the grave.  Does that sound alien to you?

Yeah it does to me too. 

What we deem normal, Jesus calls temporal and fading. What we deem strange or alien, Jesus calls eternal and lasting.

Listen to what Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 17:19 & 20 after they tried to cast out a demon and failed. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and nothing will be impossible for you."  Did Jesus just say nothing will be impossible?  But how is that possible?  I have no doubt that Christians don't doubt that God can do the impossible.  But I have no doubt that Christians doubt that God can use them to do the impossible.  The only thing that limits the impossible from becoming possible is our doubt.  But where do we begin?  Is salvation the beginning of the end, or is there more?

Some of you may know the comic book story of Superman. And how he had to leave his planet Krypton that was destroyed to seek life on another planet.  On Krypton he was just a mortal, but when he came to earth he gain great powers through the energy of the Sun.  You remember how the theme song goes.  "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, it's a bird, it's a plain, no it's Superman!!!"  He was the man of steel, nothing was impossible for him.  Oh but remember he did have one weakness, Kryptonite.  Kryptonite was a green rock from his old planet Krypton, that he had left behind.  If he were to come into contact with the rock it would make him weak like a normal man, and if exposed to it too long he could die.  We have a power in Christ if we live in His World. If we desire anything of our past life it will weaken our faith and make us of no effect on this planet.  If you are a believer in Christ, you are an alien, you are not of this world.  You are a new creation, old things have passed away.  Listen to the words of Jesus again in John 17:16: "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."  God wants us to move in a way that is not natural to this world.  But we have to set our hearts on things above and not on things of this earth. 

We need a Close Encounter of the God Kind!!!

LIVING RADICALLY THROUGH CHRIST

Dean