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Ex Pat's living on the Costa Del Christ. |
| (Monday, 19 February 2007) Written by Administrator |
I wonder if any of us remember a televisual feast known as "Eldorado" ? For those who never had the rather dubious pleasure, the premise of the programme was that it followed the daily lives of a community of Ex-Pat's (predominately English foreign nationals, who growing tired of the English way of life, had exchanged their lives In England for a new life in Spain). These lucky few now found themselves living in a veritable "Utopia", the pristine white buildings, the golden coast line, and the weather ! Oh how the sun shines in Spain ! However, far from leaving their lives in England behind, essentially all they had done was to re create England in Spain. Their children attended English schools , they drank in English pubs and perhaps most sickening of all, they all spoke English ! Then again, why would you learn to speak Spanish when you're living in "Little England"?
John 6:21 - Then they willingly received Him into the boat and immediately they were at the land where they were going.
It is clear from scripture that the defining shift in our journey from death to life is our acceptance of Jesus Christ. As soon as we receive Him into the boat we arrive at this new land. We have in a sense arrived as Ex Pats in this land, and I can think of no better name for the King's residence than ......... Grace Land - Thankyouverimuch !!!
There are three main cultural barriers to be addressed by anyone newly arriving in Grace Land:
i) a New language
ii) a New currency
iii) a New system of government
This new culture far from being obstructive, in fact facilitates our journey into a life of super abundancy (zoe), however we must embrace this new culture, and perhaps more importantly we must allow this culture to embrace us!
i) a New language
The English have an interesting way of communicating when confronted by language barriers. Rather than attempt to learn said language, we instead tend to rely on "Johnny foreigner" speaking English, or a method of very deliberate slow shouting. If neither of these are successful in communicating our intentions then we seem to favour losing patience and going off to converse with the other English, believing in our minds that "Johnny Foreigner" is in some way stupid. This seems to be the methodology we have employed here in Grace Land, when confronted by a language which is as alien to us as Alf, namely Love. We find the nature of agape completely ridiculous, and therefore after careful consideration we tend to opt out off dealing with the Grace natives and simply converse with the other English, as we begin construction of "Little England".
ii) a New currency
It seems that here in Grace Land that those favoured are not those who perform amazing feats of self engineered financial wizardry. Far from the jet set highflyers of the London stock exchange, the grace natives have become fully dependent on the ultimate welfare state. The last statement made by Jesus (who is that welfare state) from the cross was: "Teterestai" (paid in full), sorry bout the dodgy spelling. The blood of Jesus has paid all the bills, cancelled all the debts, and left us with little to do but enjoy the sunshine and concentrate on the serious buisness of abiding in the vine. We are called not to strive in earnest, but to earnestly enter into the rest which Christ Himself has already entered into. This inactivity seems to be so incorrect that we cannot adjust and so we go back to a system which makes much more sense and we begin dealing our own black market currency (works) inside "Little England".
iii) a New system of government
Perhaps this is the hardest aspect of the Grace Land paradigm for us to accept! Rather than living in a constant fear of the old bill breaking down your door, and dragging you off to Pentonville every time you transgress the law, here in Grace Land there is a radically different system of government in operation, you guessed it, it's .......GRACE. We now live in land free from the law, but this is clearly a mistake, surely this must be our cue to begin a process of political reform. The absence of the law has driven us to band together into vigilante terror groups. We appoint ourselves as judge, jury and executioners, holding court session and condemning the unrighteous to death! May the Lord have mercy on your soul backslider. We have built a new "old bailey" right in the heart of "Little England", and have church there every sunday, and we wonder why church attendance is falling off?
The question here is obviously concerning identity. Who are we ? Are we English or are we Grace Landers? The question must be settled before we can attempt to make any in road into the life of abundancy that the travel brochure (bible) makes on offer. We have all that is necessary for our new life here, the question is do we know where we are ? Do we know what is on offer ? Romans 12:2 tells us we must be transformed by the renewal of our minds, it is a matter of learning the lesson that Neo learned, in essence before we can live the Zoe life, we have to die the matrix death.
Agape <><
Jaymz
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paul franklin
