Noah's Ark 2012

This is a fun story I found on another blog and I wanted to share it with you:

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In the year 2012, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Australia and said: “Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans.” He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: “You have six months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.”

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard – but no Ark.“Noah!” He roared, “I’m about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?”

“Forgive me, Lord”, begged Noah, “but things have changed… I needed a Building Permit. I’ve been arguing with the Boat Inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbours claim that I’ve violated the Neighbourhood By-Laws by building the Ark in my back garden and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Local Planning Committee for a decision.”

“Then the Local Council and the Electricity Company demanded a shed load of money for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark’s move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.”

“Getting the wood was another problem. There’s a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the Greater Spotted Barn Owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls – but no go!”

“When I started gathering the animals the RSPCA took me to court. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodations were too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.”

“Then the Environmental Agency ruled that I couldn’t build the Ark until they’d conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.”

“I’m still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I’m supposed to hire for my building crew. Immigration are checking the Visa status of most of the people who want to work. The trades unions say I can’t use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.”

“To make matters worse, the Inland Revenue seized all my assets, claiming I’m trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.”

“So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least ten years for me to finish this Ark.”

Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, “You mean you’re not going to destroy the world?”

“No”, said the Lord. “The Government beat me to it.”

Kingdom Visitor (Story)

There was a king that loved all the people. Because he had such love for the people, he wanted them to be happy and to love each other as he loved them. One day, he called before him all the magistrates in the land and decreed that there be a way that best enabled all the people to love one another.

The magistrates gathered and spent much time in council determining the best methods to govern the people that would make them love each other so the king would be happy. They decided on a long list of rules that the people would have to memorize and adhere. They decided on celebration days that would, by their annual repetition, reinforce the rules they established. Further, they set up a system where there would be rewards for those who obeyed the rules and punishment for those who did not.

This, they surmised, was the best way to make the people love each other.

Over the years, the magistrates instructed the people in the rules, meted out the rewards and punishments, and watched the people carefully so they knew who to reward and who to punish. In response, some of the people would either vie with each other to do the most loving acts to gain the best of the rewards, or they followed the rules minimally when they knew they were being watched, lest they face the dreaded punishments. 

Then one day, a stranger arrived and set up a temporary home among the people of this kingdom. Within a few days, one of the magistrates presented to her a thick bound volume of the rules. But the stranger handed the book back unopened and, instead, took out her visa which indicated that because she was not a subject of the king, she had diplomatic immunity and thus was not subject to those rules. The magistrate tried to harass her, but she knew that the magistrate could not force their ways on her.

At that time, the king wondered how well the system his magistrates established was working. Were the people truly loving one another as he loved them? Was the system enabling their love for each other to flourish? Or were the people merely following the established set of rules because they sought individually to gain a reward or avoid a punishment? So the king decided to find out for himself. He disguised himself and went out among the people.

Where the magistrates were to be found, people performed all kinds of loving acts, helping one another and more. But where there were no magistrates watching, the poor were left hungry, the cold were left outside alone to fend for themselves, the sick were shoved apart from the healthy, and the outcasts were friendless. There was very little love here.

Then the king spied a young woman, a stranger in this land, and she was doing what the people were not, when the magistrates were not watching. She shared her supper with someone that had none, she helped carry someone's heavy load, and she welcomed the homeless into the rooms she rented so they would not have to suffer the freezing rain and falling snow. Who was this woman?
 

The king called court the next day and called this woman before him. "I am king of this realm," he told her, "and I have seen what you have done."

"I know of your rules may be different here, your majesty, but as I am not one of your subjects, so your rules do not apply to me."

"You do not act as you do fearing punishment?"

"No, sir."

"You do not act as you do expecting reward?"

"No, sir."

The king's cheeks started to glisten with tears and he stepped down from his throne and faced the woman eye-to-eye. "Then why do you do the things you do?"

The woman shrugged, "It's just the right thing to do. We're all part of this world, we should help each other."
 

The king stepped forward and embraced the woman fiercely!

When he stepped back he announced, "Let this be known across the land, this woman has acted with Love for her neighbor, not because of reward, not out of fear of punishment - for she clearly does not expect either. She acted simply out of the Love found in her heart. THIS! This is what I sought for my people. All I simply ask is that they love one another."

Love
thy
neighbor

~ESA

Not-so-Holy Words

In my studies, I've learned God is well beyond human understanding. While I will never know what thoughts and plans crosses God's mind from well beyond space and time, I still ponder things...

I am sure I am not the only one who reads through the bible and wonders how the God of the Hebrews, YHWH, be the same loving, forgiving Father of whom Christs speaks so devotedly. If God loves everyone, why did hundreds of thousands die in wars because God of the Israelites wanted it so? How could such a loving Father kill every first born child of the Egyptians? To make a point?

My English literature degree helps me see that EVERYTHING is written by an author's perspective. None of the holy books are a word-by-word quote from God. In fact, the only item possibly written directly by God (see Exodus) are the two tablets upon which the 10 commandments are written. Everything else was written by the hands of mankind, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Have you ever read the "history" of the American Revolution from both the British and American sides? They are two different stories, even if the facts are the same. If you look close enough, you will see those American colonists were - quite literally - TERRORISTS! Yet, in the American history books, they were heroes... 

In the Old Testament, we only see the events from the Jewish perspective. The testimony is skewed to favor them. What would a different perspective reveal?

Take for example the major events leading to the Passover exodus. To the Jews, they wanted to see God punish their oppressors in Egypt, thus the events were recorded from this perspective. What if we stand the event on its head and take a look from a new perspective. The river waters had run red (contaminated), frogs escaping the river died on the land, locus and flies followed... In the natural order of things, disaster-followed-disaster. Ancient people did not understand health, bacteria and viruses to the degree we understand today. We do know of fast moving illnesses that take only a section of our population (ie, young, elderly, or - in the case of the 1918 flu - only people in their prime). What if the prior disasters led to an outbreak of illness or contamination in the water supply? 

What if if the true miracle was that God protected the Jews from that which, in natural course of events, attacked the others residing in Egypt? That, at least, would show Love and Mercy of which Christ speaks.

Perhaps the illness the hit Egypt that night was food-borne. The Israelites were instructed to slaughter lambs, sprinkle the blood and eat the meat (not any other). Through this, God could have led them away from the disaster that hit the region.

Again, I don't know anything for certain, but it leads me to wonder what else I may see though a different perspective. One thing I've found for certain, story after story... No matter how many times the Isrealites have turned from God, God has been ever-faithful to His side of the covenant made with Abraham. And God does forgive past transgressions...

Christ presented a new Covenant in His teachings. Two rules - not several books of them, both Old Testament and religious dogma of today. Love God; Love each other. In the covenent, we are called to forgive each other's mistakes ("sins") and own own transgressions will be forgiven. Simple and pure. If God is ever-faithful to promises in the Old Testament, I have no doubt Christ is too.

Kingdom Visitor (Story)

Once upon a time, in a not too distant land there was a king that loved all the people. Because he had such love for the people, he wanted them to be happy and to love each other as he loved them. One day, he called before him all the magistrates in the land and commanded of them to design a way that would best enable all the people to love one another.

The magistrates gathered and spent much time in council determining the best methods to govern the people that would make them love each other so the king would be happy. They decided on a long list of rules that the people would have to memorize and adhere. They decided on celebration days that would, by their annual repetition, reinforce the rules they established. Further, they set up a system where there would be rewards for those who obeyed the rules and punishment for those who did not.

This, they surmised, was the best way to make the people love each other.

Over the years, the magistrates instructed the people in the rules, meted out the rewards and punishments, and watched the people carefully so they knew who to reward and who to punish. In response, some of the people would either vie with each other to do the most loving acts to gain the best of the rewards, or they followed the rules minimally when they knew they were being watched, lest they face the dreaded punishments.

Then one day, a stranger arrived and set up a temporary home among the people of this kingdom. Within a few days, one of the magistrates presented to her a thick bound volume of the rules. But the stranger handed the book back unopened and, instead, took out her visa which indicated that because she was not a subject of the king, she had diplomatic immunity and thus was not subject to those rules. The magistrate tried to harass her, but she knew that the magistrate could not force their ways on her.

At that time, the king wondered how well the system his magistrates established was working. Were the people truly loving one another as he loved them? Was the system enabling their love for each other to flourish? Or were the people merely following the established set of rules because they sought individually to gain a reward or avoid a punishment? So the king decided to find out for himself. He disguised himself and went out among the people.

Where the magistrates were to be found, people performed all kinds of loving acts, helping one another and more. But where there were no magistrates watching, the poor were left hungry, the cold were left outside alone to fend for themselves, the sick were shoved apart from the healthy, and the outcasts were friendless. There was very little love here.

Then the king spied a young woman, a stranger in this land, and she was doing what the people were not, when the magistrates were not watching. She shared her supper with someone that had none, she helped carry someone's heavy load, and she welcomed the homeless into the rooms she rented so they would not have to suffer the freezing rain and falling snow. Who was this woman?

The king called court the next day and called this woman before him. "I am king of this realm," he told her, "and I have seen what you have done."

"I know of your rules may be different here, your majesty, but as I am not one of your subjects, so your rules do not apply to me."

"So you do not act as you do fearing punishment?"

"No, sir."

"So you do not act as you do expecting reward?"

"No, sir."

The king's cheeks started to glisten with tears and he stepped down from his throne and faced the woman eye-to-eye. "Then why do you do the things you do?"

The woman shrugged, "It's just the right thing to do. We're all part of this world, we should help each other."

The king stepped forward and embraced the woman fiercely!

When he stepped back he announced, "Let this be known across the land, this woman has acted with Love for her neighbor, not because of reward, not out of fear of punishment - for she clearly does not expect either. She acted simply out of the Love found in her heart. THIS! This is what I sought for my people. All I simply ask is that they love one another."

Love
thy
neighbor