Supremacy: Reformation—Episode 1 is Here

My best friend Jason Craft has many things in common with me.  We both like to play video games, we like the same types of movies, and both of us are aspiring to become science fiction authors.  Something I have finely achieved in mid September 2011 with the first episode of Void Voyage.  He has finished his in November of the same year.

Supremacy is a fascinating universe in the style of two seemingly opposed genres.  It is high-brow space opera sci-fi mixed in with the fantasy of ancient gods.  His plan is to present a sprawling epic in episodic form.  You can read the first portion for only .99$.  Get it for your eReader at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or read it on your computer at Smashwords.

Synopsis:

With the rest of the galaxy shrouded in darkness, the Second Order stands as humanity’s last bastion of hope until the gods return. Its citizens cling to their emperor who rules with the divine mandate bequeathed him. However, many question his loyalty to the gods saying that he has supplanted them.

In this episode, a Priestess of the Communication Order leads a covert mission that heralds the beginning of a new era for the Second Order. For when the gods return, they will find a people ready to receive them instead of slaves to an emperor.

“Greater Love Hath no Man…

“Greater Love hath no man than to give up his life for a friend.”  Jesus spoke this to his disciples in John 15:13, foretelling his death upon the cross.  The verse before is quite potent as well, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

Can anybody really love someone as much as Christ?  Peter thought he could.  He even went so far as to say in John 13:37, “Lord, why can I not follow you right now?  I will lay down my life for you.”

Jesus’ response, “Will you lay down your life for Me?  Truly, truly I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.”

Peter denied Jesus outside the temple, again while warming himself by the fire… and still again right before the rooster crowed.  Turns out, Jesus was right all along… or was he?

Truth be told before the three denials, Peter was willing to give his life up to Jesus.  When soldiers came to take Jesus away at the garden, Peter drew his sword and cut off a slave’s right ear (John 10:18).  Jesus responds, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”

Why was Peter chastised for wanting to fight and possibly die for Jesus, loving him enough to die for him?  Jesus answers this in chapter 14 and the first part of chapter 15, directly after predicting Peter would fail him.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.  Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

“If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.  I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me,  but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

Chapter 15

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

And so we have reached the crux of our question.  Peter was willing to lay down his life for Jesus.  Jesus kept this from happening and instead laid down his own life for Peter.

On the outside Peter’s actions at the garden seem noble, saving the savior from death.  But it was not Jesus’ will to be saved.  It was his will to save us.

What Jesus explained in chapter 14 and 15 are the keys to Christianity.  If we try, as Peter did, to love out of our own strength based upon our own will, than we will always fail.  If we instead choose to receive Jesus’ peace and joy, to not let our hearts be troubled, to abide in Jesus’ love so that Jesus and the Father can make their home within us… then and only then can we learn how to love one another as Christ loved us.  And even then we will need the Holy Spirit to teach and remind us of all of this.

In a nutshell, Christian love is not based upon your works, it is based on Jesus.  You cannot do enough good to love another.  True Christianity is based upon Christ’s work within us, loving us, keeping us, and making us more like him.

He commanded us to love one another as He loved us.  Before that he commanded us to abide in his love so that his joy may be with us and that our joy may be full.  Before that he said, “apart from me you can do nothing”.  Before that he promised to give us his peace, not as the world gives.  Before that he asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to teach us and remind us of everything Jesus said.  Before that he reminded us not to let our hearts be troubled.… And before all of that, Peter promised Jesus he would lay down his own life by his own strength.

Jesus wants us to be full of him and not ourselves.  It is his work on the cross that saves us and not our own works of the flesh.  This is the true meaning of grace.  In John 15:14 Jesus continues:

You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other.

The Untouchables

I have grown up in church all of my life.  Every Sunday morning and evening, every Wednesday night, and any other times that my parents entered those doors, so did I.  All of my friends growing up were from the church, many of my childhood memories were made in the church.

My schooling was done at home until 6^th grade.  Because of this, my family has a very unusual strength to it.  We have spent so much time in homeschool we had no choice but to like each other.  This was my childhood.

In the midst of that strong love I learned to have and hold, was a life sheltered and protected from the outside world.

There are many wonderful things to learn from this lifestyle though.  Drugs and getting drunk on alcohol don’t really appeal to me.  My relationship with God has remained firm despite the difficulties of life.  I am who I am because of the strength of my family, and the relationship with God I found in church.  These two institutions, family and church, have played a crucial role in forming my positive outlook in life.

There are other things though, things that have been very difficult for me, personal issues that I am still trying to overcome.  Homeschooling and church didn’t cause them directly.  Indirectly though, a mindset of protection and shelter was implied.  I have been struggling with this mindset even into my adulthood.  I don’t believe that church and homeschool are a wrong way to raise your kids, but nothing is perfect.

Thankfully, Jesus is.

In the early to late 90s there was a movement in the protestant churches to do away with dating.  Joshua Harris’ book I kissed Dating Goodbye was popular fair at the time.  Many youth pastors took up his flag of “don’t date but wait” and ran with it.  The concept was simple, beautiful, and fatefully romantic.  Do away with dating and pursue God. If the right girl enters your life, court her—that is, date her with the intent of marriage—and allow God to bring it to pass.

Sounds like the perfect movie premise.  A man does away with romance until fate brings along the perfect woman.

Despite the problems with this premise, my young mind ate it up.  It fit right along with the sheltered mindset I had.  Protect yourself from the wily ways of dating and give it over to God.  I treated God as a fateful cupid with an arrow of love waiting to pierce my bosom.

I have always been a hopeless romantic you see.  Even before the hormones hit, I dreamt of the perfect fairytale marriage to that certain special someone.  Watching love stories in movies was a window to these dreams, an archetype that spoke deeply to my longing romantic heart.

Disney’s Robin Hood was a favorite of mine.

Every time my family entered the video store I went to the children’s section and grabbed it.  My brother’s groaned as mother rented it yet again, hiding a smile.

After watching, countless times, the fox save the princess and then marry her, I remember wondering to myself, much like the rabbit in the beginning, what happens next?

As the carriage drove away with the sign “Just Married!” tied to the back, I saw the two newlyweds kissing in the window.  It seemed like something special and wonderful was in store for them.  I wanted it with all my heart.

Fast-forward through my awkward tween years and into high school, and you have a very nervous teenager who has finally “arrived” ready to make such romantic dreams a reality.

I was a sophomore when it happened…  not speaking of dreams fulfilled now, but rather delayed for more than then a decade (and hopefully no longer).  It was my brother who introduced me to the book, I kissed Dating Goodbye.  He was of that pious sort that stuck to an idea and ran with it to its very end, no matter what.  I was much the same and I strongly looked up to his simplistic ideals.  I had seen the pain dating had caused to my older brothers.  I didn’t want that.

When he spoke of a college group he attended called Bachelors ‘Till the Rapture, I was all ears.  It seemed so smart, so wise.  Chase after God and let him bring her into your life.  I made myself an unofficial member.

That night, I made a very solemn promise to Jesus, sealing the deal.  “I won’t date anyone until You show me the girl I’m supposed to marry.”

My brother eventually gave up these ideals.  Now he is married with three beautiful children.  I, on the other hand, was a bit more stubborn.

Fast-forward, once again, twelve years later.  I’m 28, unmarried, single, and have no idea how to relate to women in a dating situation.  It isn’t for lack of trying.  I’ve long since given up the stubborn promise I unwittingly made to Jesus.

There are several glaring problems to the premise of the book.  How can you kiss dating goodbye, after all, and still “date” in your courtship?  Perhaps the title should have been, Dating Responsibly. Even still, how do you find out who the “right one” is to court, how do you get to know her without dating her first?  With a mature mind I have realized my mistake in trusting my decisions to a brother and a book.  Still what is left is a mature adult with an adolescent understanding of relationships.

Any girl I meet is going to automatically assume that I’ve done this before countless times.  I’m 28 after all and rather handsome if I do say so myself.

When women see that a connection isn’t being made, they move on, secure in the knowledge that he’s a good guy but isn’t the right one. Little do they know, I haven’t been playing this game for very long and the reason any connections might be missing is because I have no idea what I’m doing.

A few frustrating days later it hits me though, my maturity catches up and smacks me square in the forehead.  I get it.  When she said she had no one to talk to about such and such, she was testing me.  She wanted to see if I would be that person the she could talk to. I could have given her that response in spades if given the time to figure it out and make it happen, but I’m 28 years old.  I should know better by now right?

It was all for romance that I made such a harmful promise of waiting instead of dating.  I wanted the best that God had for me, the only one girl worthy to receive my affections.  I also had an extreme fear of being hurt.  Skip the whole dating thing and get on to the courtship part seemed an easy way to also skip my fear of rejection.  Ironically, this one little promise has caused me worlds of pain, more so, I wager, then simply opening my heart to a good girl.

Instead of giving me that romance I desperately long for, the ideals of my lofty promise has squandered it, making me a dunce on the subject.  Women from affair may see me in a rather handsome way, but up close they find a distant man.  I’ve been protecting my heart for so long, it’s very hard to open up to them in that way.

What was I protecting my hear form though?  What monsters where out to get me?  It was all an illusion, fabricated by Joshua Harris and those youth pastors who themselves dated in order to marry.  I heard so many stories by them, stories of men that had fallen victim to their lusts.  I didn’t trust myself to make it, so I abstained from dating entirely.  I protected and sheltered myself from it.  Out of fear I said no!

To put it bluntly what I had really meant with the promise was, “God I am afraid that if I date I will have sex with women.  So instead of dating I’m going to pursue after you.”

The result?  I have been coming to God out of fear for twelve years, putting his views of romance in a box of my own creation.  Only when he pointed and said, “Pursue her” would I then go and pursue her.  But what if God wished for me to meet a girl through different means, like perhaps actually dating some?

There were many great young women that came across my path, many wonderful matches that I turned my heart from because it didn’t fit the fearful promise I had made to God.

Instead of making me a godly person, these ideals made me picky and hard to please.  Instead of helping me love others, it made me selfish in an “I want” mentality.  Instead of drawing me closer to God it drew me further away.  When he didn’t answer my prayers in the way that I wanted them, I became frighteningly angry at him.  Behind my pious outlook and façade of godliness was a demanding brutal resolve, “I want a women exactly like this God.  This way and no other.”

I am eating my own words now.  Even after being free from that strange sheltered mindset, there are women I have met with the same ideals I had entertained for so long.  Instead of giving me a chance to love, they turn their backs when I don’t meet up to their picky standards.  I want to shake them out of it, tell them and warn them, that they will regret this.  I too walked the fearful path they now tread.

I can’t tell them though, and I can’t take those twelve lonesome years back.  It’s gone like the wind, past memories of regret.  All I can do is blog about it in the fervent hope that someone out there will listen and take my warnings to heart.

Even today there are teenagers who see things as I did, they protect and shelter their hearts and minds too closely, running away from any chance of a relationship.  You should be protective of what God has blessed you with, but not so much that you never take any chances, not so much that you live in fear.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.   2Timothy 1:7

Come to Jesus out of love not fear.  Trust him to help you grow.  Be free to live your lives in pursuit of the opposite sex.  Be touchable and open to commitment, you never know what can happen.

Check out I Have Two Question’s for Romance.

I Have Two Questions for Romance

A strong handsome boy meets the most beautiful girl in all the land.  Sounds like your standard American love story.  They hit it right off of course, until the plot comes and ruins their perfect heaven.  The rest of the movie is how they struggle to make it back to that heaven.  This usually doesn’t happen by honestly working through their differences.  Such true-to-life discussions on how kids should be raised, or whether they should have separate bank accounts are strangely vacant.   And who could blame the script-writers, would you want to watch a bland documentary about a married couple, or a romantic movie set in an ideally perfect world?

Despite how horrible the couple’s separation may be, they always make it in the end.  When the love interests are about to go their separate ways BAM! Here comes the plot again, this time under the guise of fate, neatly bringing the lovebirds back together.  Swelling music plays as the two chosen ones kiss.  Roll the credits.

Romantic love, in all of its glory, is one of the most intense feelings a human being can have.  It’s no wonder so many songs, books, and movies have been created with it in mind.  Sometimes it’s nice to read the modern equivalent of Romeo and Juliet with a “happily ever after” tagged at the end.  Just be sure to wake up afterward.

Romance is only one side of the coin invested in a good relationship.  Patient grace is the other.  It’s so enticing though, that lovely scent of romance, the lighting and mood are perfect.  Everything works just right to make your heart start a thump’n.  Patient grace is for those other times.  Because let’s face it, no one is perfect, and we could all use a little grace in our lives.  Being patient with your significant other leads to forgiveness, a do-over, which creates something that will last through the years.

Very few American love stories depict this fact, movies least of all.  It’s always that perfect setting the two meet in.  Nothing goes completely wrong, and anything wrong is made right, as if it were meant to be.  Everything is said just like she wants it heard.  She is flawless in his eyes with perfect lighting and makeup.  It’s almost as if there was a whole crew of people working on the setup and words.  Patience grace is necessary in the real world.  He’s not always going to say those lines that make you swoon just the way you want it.  She’s not always going to look like that perfect beauty.

As much as I want to meet a woman that satisfies my every sensual craving, I also want a relationship that lasts.  Romance, as intriguing as it is, is a roller coaster of emotions that question love and compare it to the ideal.  The patient love of grace endures all things until the end.  It teaches you how to be content with what you have.  Despite what you’ve heard from Disney, this is not a bad thing.  Joy and happiness are at the end of a road paved by contented thoughts.

Americans often overlook this, pushed by the media to reach high for the stars, wishing for perfection in an imperfect world.  This is where the problems creep up.  Couples expecting their lives to be a fairytale story often find the opposite.

So what do you do when your prince charming becomes a couch potato?  Dump the loser and go find another prince charming.  Search after that elusive ideal of love.  And what if that princess becomes a little too wide around the edges?  Drop the old bag, and find that elusive beauty.  Good luck with that by the way!  The road to bitterness and regret is paved by impossible dreams.  In fact, the only prefect person you will find in this world is Jesus and you can’t find him by running away from reality.

The solution to all this is simple: be more patient with your significant other.  Love them for who they are.  Stop trying to change them.  Be content.

Simple concepts really, yet getting there is far from easy.  This is because romantic love immediately answers a fundamental question we all have buried within the heart.  Two questions actually, one for the man and another for the woman.

“Am I strong?”  Ponders the boy.

“Do I look beautiful?” Wonders the girl.

Romantic love is the culmination of this question.  It is the climax of a friendship transformed into something much more.  The problem is, once the question of beauty and strength is answered, it doesn’t just go away.  Romance ebbs and flows.  When it is on the downside, that nagging question remains.  “Am I strong?”  “Am I beautiful?”

With patient love, your significant other will stick around to remind you of how strong or beautiful you are.

This is the problem I see in romantic movies.  They focus on the sex more than anything else.  People see how wonderful it is on the silver screen.  Whenever this type of scripted romance is lacking, they change partners, thinking it was because he or she wasn’t the right one.  Fate hasn’t guided them towards their perfect other.  They become romance chasers, never satisfied or content with what they have.  Long-lasting relationships are built on something deeper than this.

Before romance even begins, we should answer the question of strength or beauty for ourselves.  For a long time I struggled with my own answer.  I’d get angry and short with others.  Life didn’t seem to be going my way.  I didn’t seem strong enough to overcome my issues.  Rather than stand up and do something about it, I would sit and mope.  Very recently, I started doing a daily workout routine.  Nothing special really, just something that pushes me to the end of my strength.

It was amazing to see how the ten-minute workouts affected my self-esteem.  There was something other than muscles growing inside me.  I became less stressful, more focused on work, and all around happy.  I felt like a lion on the prowl, ready to conquer any obstacle in my way.  In short, I felt like a man.  This is because the ten minutes of exercise answered that question so dear to my heart: “am I strong?”

“Yes” my sweating body replied, “now go and seize the day!”

With the woman, it’s much the same.  They spend hours fixing their hair, 40$ to get those nails done, shopping in every store for that perfect outfit.  They do this to answer that question of beauty lingering inside them.

Many people search this answer from another’s lips.  Our romance-induced media isn’t helping.  For the longest time I was under the impression that only my significant other could tell me if I was strong.  This made my question of manhood directly tied to any girl I liked.  If I didn’t win her heart, I felt like less of a man, which made me appear needy, and therefore less likely for me to find a girlfriend.  This would have never changed had I received that perfect love back then.  She can only answer this question if I answer it for myself first.

Men of confidence are very attractive to women.  In the same way, women who are confident in their appearance are more attractive to men.  We are wired to think this way.  Someone who appears needy is not going to find an answer to that elusive question.

“Are you strong?”

“Are you beautiful?”

The answer is always yes.  The trick is defining what you are strong and beautiful in.

Read how these questions can be manipulated into a vicious cycle of self-hatred in, I Have Three Questions for Living.