When We Die… by Pablo Giacopelli
http://www.identitynetwork.net/Articles-?blogid=2093&view=post&articleid=169931&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
By Pablo Giacopelli
I was listening a short while ago at an Evangelist share the Gospel according to his perspective. He spoke for a while and towards the end of his time he started to share about this movie that God is going to show to everyone. He spoke how everyone would get to see all the bad things we did both in public and in private. I must admit that as I listened to him I felt a blanket of shame attempt to cover the whole of my being. So strong was the feeling that it made me shift my position on my seat. As I turned off the TV I began to contemplate what I had just heard. I began to recall how I once long ago subscribed to this very heavenly movie theatre experience and perspective. Yet today what I once vociferously supported, didn't quite sit the right way within me.
E-Book PDF Download
By Pablo Giacopelli
Price: $17.99
Sale! $10.99
I was listening a short while ago at an Evangelist share the Gospel according to his perspective. He spoke for a while and towards the end of his time he started to share about this movie that God is going to show to everyone. He spoke how everyone would get to see all the bad things we did both in public and in private.
I must admit that as I listened to him I felt a blanket of shame attempt to cover the whole of my being. So strong was the feeling that it made me shift my position on my seat. As I turned off the TV I began to contemplate what I had just heard. I began to recall how I once long ago subscribed to this very heavenly movie theatre experience and perspective. Yet today what I once vociferously supported, didn't quite sit the right way within me.
Please understand that I get where the Evangelist was coming from and what He was trying to communicate however the more I listened to him the less I wanted to know about this God that seemed more interested in burning me up and shaming me than in loving me and telling me how precious I was.
He'll Sit Beside Us
You see today, if there is going to be this so called movie at the end of our lives, I believe that instead of God watching it from his throne seat and me from the sea of glass before it He will instead sit next to me like a Father sits with his child. He will put his arm around me and He will say here take a look at this I have a surprise for you. Suddenly the tape of my life will begin to roll right in front of us and He will begin by saying "Oh this was an amazing moment remember it Pablo?" followed by "Oh what about this moment, remember how you trusted Me and I came through for you. It was so good when you chose to listen to My voice through the sunset and not the voice of others that told you it would not happen. What a moment that was hey son?" or "That was a hard moment remember how much that hurt and how lonely you felt, but look now what I was doing within you while you were crying" or perhaps "Oh and here check this one out. Look what was happening while you kept writing those blogs that you thought were making no difference. Here check out Harry. Take a look at the life transforming moment I had with him after he finished reading that blog you struggled to write that sunny day in Israel"
As the flick comes to an end I am sure I will look at him and I will ask "Dad that was amazing! Those were all amazing moments I had with you. So many I realized and so many well I just didn't. Thank you for also showing me the difficult and painful moments where yes I felt lonely and rejected. But whatever happened to all those moments when I was sinning and falling short. Those times I chose other things and others to try and satisfy what only you could. Where did those go? And today more than ever I believe the reply will come and He will say, "Oh those? Yeah well My grace took care of those. My blood edited (blotted) them out of the tape…"
Remember, the cross was meant to show us all along how ferociously loved we are instead of protecting us from a deranged God that enjoys destroying what He lovingly created.
Pablo Giacopelli
http://www.identitynetwork.net/Articles-?blogid=2093&url=10&view=post&articleid=235793&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
"God is on my side" I heard someone say the other day as they shared about a dispute they were having with someone else. As I sat there listening to this person give me all the details about why they thought God was on their side and not on the other party's side I began to wonder. So many of us are so quick to say that God must be on our side because of what we have read and others have told us. Clearly when it comes to the way he feels towards us as our father this is indisputable – He always has and always will be on our side. However, can this be also said when we fight and argue with each other about what after all often only amounts to egotistical pettiness?
http://www.identitynetwork.net/Articles-?blogid=2093&url=10&view=post&articleid=234366&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
I have driven on many third world countries in my time. South Africa is one of these which I happen to often visit. Without fault every time I have been in a car at some stage of my visit, I have had to experience the impact that the regular power cuts have on the traffic signals in this nation. I remember last time I was there when once again while having to endure along with everyone else another blackout, I noticed something that I had never seen before when I came to a non-working traffic light. There is never an accident when the lights are not working whereas when they are working correctly there are plenty. How can this be? Well here is what my heart showed me.
http://www.identitynetwork.net/Articles-?blogid=2093&url=10&view=post&articleid=233389&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
When we choose to live a life where controlling and watching everything we say and do is king, the impact of our involvement is automatically limited as our heart and mind begin to fight between them for the supremacy of our beings. Consider an archer. If he is free to shoot his arrows anywhere he wants he will have the whole of his talent (heart) available to him. He will have no future results in his mind and will therefore almost always hit whatever he desires. Now take the same archer and ask him to hit the apple above your head and you immediately put him in a space where the potential of being divided is available to him.