LAST FLIGHT



I hope that I have not had my last fight and I hope my next flight is not my last, in the sense that I buy the farm. Pilots like to use euphemisms to cover the pain of personal fear or the gut retching pain of losing a friend.
It is more likely one of us will leave this reality from a car accident, health issues, or a fall in the washroom (an almost for John Glenn).
Jesus came to the Earth to show us the way OF the future and the way TO the future: AND to TAKE US to be WITH HIM. He taught us hope by a new code of living, based upon love and forgiveness.
He faced the dark forces of the earth, the universe even, and paid the ultimate price to ransom us from the black angel terrorists. He is more than a martyr, he is the Savior, returning from the grave He left evidence of his authority. Proving He is the mission control we can trust; if you look through history and the rest of the world nobody else has the credentials.
He does not play our silly games and much of what we are given is on a need to know basis; but if you ask Him to rescue you from this crazy world He will not disappoint you.
Ask Him what?
Ask Him to keep you safe now and into the next dimension (spiritual safety).

I was not seeking Him, actually He found me. The unspeakable peace and joy is something that defies translation; its at a strangely different level. A level beyond my human life which does not always live in peace.
He said, “Come on to me all you who labour and don’t have peace and I will give you rest.”
He said, “He that comes on to me I will not cast away.”
He said, to the thief on the cross, “This day you will be with me in paradise”. (I wonder if the thief was one of the five hundred or so souls who came out of the grave and freaked people out in Jerusalem?)
He said, that if one returned from the dead (a sign) many would not believe anyway, its an individual thing. He will not fail you guaranteed.
Unfortunately, as soon as we try and institutionalize or legislate faith it becomes part of the “system” and if there is a conspiracy theory, “the system” is one you can take to the bank.
“Love your enemies.” Paul says, “As much as it is possible live at peace with all men.” (Does that mean with myself?)
I once heard the late Richard Wurmbrand say he met a man who had had his life transformed forever and all he knew in his politically dark, dangerous communist state was the name, “JESUS”! Presumably over his life he grew in grace and knowledge in Christ.
C.S. Lewis after his transformation from atheism to faith, wrote that Jesus was either a “liar, a lunatic or Lord of all” that we cannot take him for just a huge historic figure and moral teacher.
Paul said, we work out our salvation with “fear and trembling”, tough task, its a nice thing JC gives us a sweet invitation and a promise to be with us always
Paul also says, salvation is ALL of God and not of ourselves lest any person should boast. Just as we trust an ATC. Hurts our pride eh? Or like freefall for some of us.
Paul was a proud, brainy academic. His world got shaken when the Lord invaded it on the road to Damascus. Sometimes Jesus invades lives, often He waits for us to seek him, “Seek and you shall find”. If He seeks you, it could be for a mission and it could mean your life. This world system does not like counter thesis.
I love Jesus parable of the one sheep and the ninety-nine, not because its the number of Wayne Gretsky a sports hero, rather, I was one of those out there sheep. He loved me enough to come to the planet and die for me, like a SAR (search and rescue) -the best day of my life. (My pain as a kid was my pain and many have had much worse; just the same it was my pain and He cared. In many ways I am still the “little kid!”).

If you want today to be your “day of salvation”?… What is salvation and why is it necessary?: I was a fairly good journeyman swimmer (lifeguard and instructor – I thought I could teach a rock to swim); my dad was a terrific swimmer and won medals at the Canadian National Exhibition; Mark Spitz won FIVE gold Olympic medals: If Dave, Harvey and Mark jumped off a dock in LA to swim to Hawaii guess which one would make it? >>>Same deal catching a ride to Paradise. You need a friend who has been there done that !