INTERESTING TIMES....STRANGE DAYS INDEED...MAMA

Greetings Strangers In A Strange Place. How ya doin' in these interesting times and strange days? Have you become so acclimated to the craziness of this world...that you think this is normal? Have you become like Brooks and the other prisoners in the movie the SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION...where they have been in prison so long...that they had become institutionalized...that the normal now seems abnormal and the abnormal is your normal...so you just accept life "AS IS"?

Watchman Nee in his book THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE ponders..."What is the normal Christian life? We do well at the outset to ponder this question. The object of these studies is to show that it is something very different from the life of the average Christian." We get into the rut of walking out our faith... and and we begin to accept the STATUS QUO...and trade in our living faith in Jesus Christ for DORIS DAY FAITH...Que Sera Sera...whatever will be will be... the future's not ours to see...Que Sera Sera.

On Larry Norman's album (ONLY VISITING THIS PLANET)...the fade out on the last song (Reader's Digest)...you hear Larry saying..."this world is not my home....I'm just passing thorough." Well in these interesting times...and strange days...we do have HOPE (confident expectation).

An ancient Chinese CURSE...that was actually in three parts...goes like this:

1. May you live in INTERESTING TIMES.
2. May you come to the attention of those in authority.
3. May you find what you are looking for.

In the words of Bob Dylan... THE TIMES...THEY ARE A CHANGING.

A cursory look around...reveals that these are INTERESTING TIMES indeed! From a Biblical perspective...we are living in a CURSED and FALLEN world. Jesus came to REDEEM us from the CURSE...by BECOMING a CURSE... by hanging on a TREE (D.B.R...NOTHING MORE...NOTHING LESS). The BLOODY (a curse word to some)...mess on the cross was for the remission of our sins and the atonement, the substitute...the propitiation for our sins. The RESURRECTION sealed the deal...so that because Jesus was raised from the dead...SO WILL WE BE. Until then...we walk as a collective colony on earth as representatives of the CHRIST.

On December 8th 1980 at 10:49 P.M...the INTERESTING TIMES were manifested in New York City when Mark David Chapman...assassinated John Lennon. I remember where I was...and how shocked I was when the news came on the T.V...at Courtsouth Racquetball Club where I was mopping a floor. John had a resurgence with his career with a new album... DOUBLE FANTASY...and had been recording that night. He had autographed an album hours earlier for his killer. That's how it is with INTERESTING TIMES...when you least expected...do like BRUCE COCKBURN sings about...and leaves us hanging by the "TATTERS OF OUR FAITH."

In 1984...a posthumous release of Lennon's last album appeared...called MILK AND HONEY (a mixture of the Caucasian/Lennon... and the Oriental/Yoko).

One song is called NOBODY TOLD ME. The line that grabs me...is "NOBODY TOLD ME THERE'D BE DAYS LIKE THESE...STRANGE DAYS INDEED...MOST PECULIAR MAMA...OOOOOHHH".

The song was originally written for Ringo's new album STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES...but Lennon's death CHANGED THINGS. Death usually does that. Think how your life changes when someone you know or love dies. Things shift...times become interesting...strange days indeed.

I think of how things shifted and changed when ASLAN (the Lion in The Chronicles of Narnia)...allowed the witch to mock Him, shear His mane, tie Him down on a stone altar...and then ultimately allow the witch to kill Him...in place of someone else). All hope was lost...as the children...saw the lifeless Lion on the altar...and the apparent victory of the witch. INTERESTING TIMES...STRANGE DAYS INDEED. As the children turned away...they did not observe the mice...coming up to the altar...and begin to nibble away at the bounds. Suddenly they heard a crack...and turned to see the altar split in half (much like a veil in a temple torn from the top to the bottom Jesus was crucified)...and standing on the altar with the glory of his restored mane...was ASLAN. They then climbed on His back...broke in the gates of the witches fortress...and breath His breath on those who were turned into stone by the witch. INTERESTING TIMES...STRANGE DAYS INDEED. Things changed with His death... and life.

John Lennon died...he was buried. Many people in this world have died...many people were buried. They all have that in common... the DEATH...the BURIAL...but one thing they don't have in common...is THE RESURRECTION. Aslan...who is kind...but NOT A TAME LION...is "ON THE MOVE".

Sometimes...when someone comes to Jesus...they were given the idea...that now that they have become a Christian...life will become EASY...but really...you are now a threat to the devil...and life becomes a challenge. The line...nobody told me there'd be days like these... is a play on the old saying..."My mother told me there'd be days like these." Well...be forwarned...there WILL BE DAYS LIKE THESE in these INTERESTING TIMES...but you DON'T have to be bound by the CURSE of INTERESTING TIMES...but walk in these STRANGE DAYS...with confidence...that JESUS IS LORD...and you have a MISSION...with PURPOSE and AUTHORITY (exousia:delegated authority/power)...and POWER (dunamis: dynamic ability to back up the authority).

Jesus is a kind Saviour...but He is not a TAME Saviour...Jesus IS ON THE MOVE...and He will move through...not necessarily STRANGE people...but definitely will move through PECULIAR PEOPLE (I Peter 2:9,10)

"You are a chosen generation generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a PECULIAR PEOPLE...for God's own possession, that you may PROCLAIM the excellencies of Him who has called you out of DARKNESS (interesting/strange days indeed)...into HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT...for you once were NOT A PEOPLE...but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD...you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (I Peter 2:9,10)

Love and Peculiar Kisses
Rodney "Jesus Told Me There'd Be Days Like These" Boyd