Kong: Skull Island- Skull Perspective

You probably thought this post was about the latest Kong movie – Kong: Skull Island. If you thought this then you were 50 percent correct, as an element of this post is about the film. However, I want to share another element with you of which is the unexpected, untainted and hidden message of PERSPECTIVE – ‘the state of one’s idea, a mental view’ (Dictionary.com). Walk with me…

*** THIS IS NOT A SPOILER ALERT. THIS IS NOT A SPOILER ALERT ***… I hope!

Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (played by Samuel L. Jackson) is part of a team of select individuals (including soldiers, scientists and explorers), who venture into the uncharted island of a new found world in the Pacific, finding the domain of Kong and other creatures. When first approaching Kong, Packard and his men attacked him. Kong; obviously, fought back and killed many of Packard’s men. Packard wanted to avenge the deaths of his men by aiming to kill Kong, and also saw Kong as a threat because he was something new; never seen before.

Now this is where the film striked me the most for two reasons:

1. Packard did not acknowledge his own actions (he and his men FIRST attacked Kong, and then Kong responded).
2. Packard did not discern: assess, judge, and conclude (accurately) Kong; the something new.

It’s interesting how a fictional scene can be used to reflect reality, a person’s nature and habits. What I want to pose to you is: HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO SOMETHING NEW? What do you do?

• Do you seek wisdom from God and/ or wise counsel in order to discern: assess, judge and conclude accurately before making a decision that enables you to move in the right direction?
• Do you act dependant upon what you see, think and/ or feel?
• Do you act or maybe not act at all?
• Do you investigate to try and find out more information?
• Do you revert to your default nature and habits by trusting in yourself and what you know/ think you know? Your own judgements and opinions.

Going back to Kong, he’s a massive ape and if real we would probably run for the hills if we are honest with ourselves. Some however, would run to meet the challenge, but some won’t. Kong was something never to have been seen before and sometimes we as humans can be fearful, unsure, or even jealous of things that are new. This could be a specific person or group of people, a situation or circumstance; etc, anything pertaining to or revolving in or around ourselves and life. There may be other reasons amongst these but these are a few to be named. Our perspective of these things is VERY IMPORTANT. What we see and how we see is very key as it leads to how we respond; life or death to us in many ways.

What I love about Kong is that if Packard and his men waited for just a moment; paused and applied the two key points earlier mentioned and challenged their perspectives before responding, then they would have seen that Kong was not the bad guy. They would have seen and knew that this something new was good and would protect them.

Not all new things are good which is why we must discern: assess, judge, and conclude accurately. We must seek wise counsel, ask and walk in wisdom and understanding, and then move in direction. We need to stop and think, ask the questions and get answers before moving forward in our decisions (controlling our actions). Don’t lean on your own understanding – Proverbs 3:5-6.

Kong’s heart was good and was to protect the island and all living things on it, he was protecting them from the real monsters. However, Packard and his men failed to see this because of their perspective of something new. They failed to challenge their perspective and let go of what they knew/ wanted; a failure to see their own actions and to discern: assess, judge and conclude accurately.

Let us challenge our perspectives today to the people and things around us:

• What is good and what is not?
• What do we need to be open to?
• What do we not need to be open to?
• What do we need to reconsider?

Ask questions and get the answers you need. Ask for wisdom and gain understanding before discerning, assessing, judging and concluding. Packard and his men failed to do this and died because of their perspective. Many times we fall short because of what we see and what we think we know. Don’t be like one who walks around in the wilderness and dies as some of the people of Israel did in the Bible (Numbers 26:65, Joshua 5:6, Numbers 32:13, Exodus 16:3, Hebrews 3:7-19,) or die because of lack of understanding (Hosea 4:6).

Choose to follow the necessary process before making decisions. Challenge perspective and walk in a freedom that can be given to you if you need it; just ask (James 1:5, Matthew 7:7-8). Don’t miss out on what could be a blessing in your life.

 

 

 

Title Without Character

WHO we are is a powerful statement. How we act, think and feel speak of who we are as a people. They narrate our character.

In life we are on our individual journeys of BECOMING who we are as people. Whether this be spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, in our careers and jobs, tastes of music, education, etc, we are in a process. Our characters are forming.

We can become in danger of wanting things but not developing the character that will allow us to sustain that which we want. Simba from The Lion King is a great example of this.

Simba was the son of King Mufasa, and was the next rightful heir to the throne.  He was very sure of himself knowing that he was born into royalty, he knew who his father was, and he knew that one day he would be king and rule over the other lions and the lands.

At this point in time Simba was only a child, maturity had not yet kindled itself within him. He acted how he thought.

Simba had what we would call in today’s society, an under-developed character. Due to what he knew, he thought that his present tense character was enough to sustain him as king.

Even though he was destined to be king, he had not yet formed the character necessary to be a good king. He wanted the title but didn’t have the character.

A title is something descriptive or distinctive that belongs to someone. Simba’s title was king, but for us it could be marriage, business, a relationship, car, house, job/ new job, head of a department, career, education, money, etc.

When we put character to title within this context, it changes everything.

Definition of character: The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

Simba was always destined to be king, that was never going to change. However, he had to go through a process to develop his character.

He had to change his mind so that his true character could be formed. We have to move from a knowing, into being.

The rest of the film shows how Simba’s character changed before he finally became the king he was meant to be.

If he did not go through the necessary process then he never would of developed the character that allowed him to be a good king.

We, as a people, are no different to Simba. No matter who we are or what we do, we MUST develop good character. We must go through training that will shape our characters, so that no matter where we are WE KNOW WHO WE ARE.

We must always be developing our characters. These traits and features we have will then sustain us in what we do. Our values, standards, attitude, and vision cannot be tinted because our character has been forged in the fire.

Character development cannot be cheated. Your external will always show your internal. If good character is not there then it will eventually show.

Having a title or being given a title, in the context stated earlier,  and developing good character alongside it is fine. The problem is being given or wanting titles and not developing good character.

Do not cheat yourself out of the character process. When you go through things, see the process of character through it.

There is no use in having a great future if your character does not match it.

Do not forfeit your character or take on a title with a premature character. We must check ourselves, our characters to see what we are being made of. Development is key.

An Untouchable Nature

‘The Untouchables‘ is a four time nominated Academy Award film from 1987 based upon the autobiography memoirs of Eliot Ness, published in 1957 about the capture of crime boss Al Capone.

In the film, government agent Eliot Ness (actor Kevin Costner) alongside a hand selected team including officer Jimmy Malone (actor Sean Connery), later to be called ‘The Untouchables‘, set out to stop gangster leader Al Capone (actor Robert De Niro) because of his seven year reign of corruption during the prohibition.

In the film Al Capone is seen as invincible. Through the power of persuasion and influence, any crime that could be connected to him quickly dissolved. He had informants and inside men in different fields of work that allowed him to become like the federal agent group after him, untouchable. 

Robert De Niro as Al Capone

Even though the film title refers to the group of law enforcement agents, the thing that strikes me is the untouchability of Al Capone. Untouchable means that the nature of something cannot be touched, it cannot be moved. Al Capone had this nature.

Do you know that men (universally speaking) can have untouchable natures? The very essence of who they are cannot be touched. For a person to be untouchable it means that an area of their life, mind, emotions, will and hearts cannot be penetrated.

Exodus 32:9 I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.” (NIV)

Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! (NIV)

The Bible, in the Old Testament (days before Christ, Jewish history) God and those he spoke through always talked about proud people and the turning away of God. It was also spoken of in the New Testament (days of and after Christ, birth of the church, etc). To be stiff-necked is to be proud.

Are you untouchable like this? Is there a part of you that cannot be moved?

• Can people speak to you about issues in your life without you taking offence?
• Are you a know-it-all or can you listen to what others say without shutting them or yourself down?
• Are you in a delusion of humility but really oozing of pride?
• Are you open to be wrong about something or someone?

We can ask ourselves many rhetorically questions to find out whether or not we have an untouchable nature within ourselves and lives. Natures can be formed and re-formed.

In my last blog post I wrote about your character speaking for you. What you choose to do in action will speak before you in words. The nature of a person is very important, your lifestyle and character show people who you are.

Al Capone’s lifestyle was an example of this, he allowed crime, violence and corruption to form his untouchable nature.

Not all is lost in this nature as it can take on two forms, good or bad, proud or humble. Humility is having the quality or condition of a modest opinion or a knowing of one’s own importance, rank, etc. Even Jesus knew he was more than that which he chose to take on (Philippians 2). Al Calpone represents the negative but Paul from the Bible is an example of an untouchable nature in the positive.

Saul of Tarsus (his name before his encounter with God) persecuted followers of Christ until  his encounter with God on the Damascus road, which completely changed Paul’s nature (his name after his encounter of the risen Christ).

In the Bible, Paul in the New Testament records;

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39– NLT).

After Paul was changed from his encounter, he became untouchable in the things of God, speaking up for what he believed in and sharing it with people, even when it put him in prison. He still had his issues, like we all do, but he chose to become moved by God only.

We have the choice of which side of untouchability we become.   We become incorruptible and unmoved in good or we become corruptible and unmoved in wrong.

Never under-estimate the power of an untouchable nature. Look within yourself to see what type of untouchable you are.

Don’t Frustrate Another Man’s Grace

Grace is defined as ‘the freely given, unmerited favour and love of God’. Another definition coined by Pastor James for grace whilst I attended FGC-UK 2015 was “a steady current of God’s power. Undeserved, unearned and unmerited.”

Grace has two faces; forgiveness and correction. We tend to consume ourselves in reverence and awe of God’s unlimited forgiveness and eternal mercies through his love for us. We say confess, repent (turn from) your old ways and God will forgive you, which he will (1 John 1:9).

However we tend to forget that our actions have consequences. Yes Jesus Christ came to take away our sins, many scriptures throughout the Bible support this. We can continually admit our wrongs and God gives us grace to outwork the sin habits we have endured since the beginning (Psalm 51:5). We do not want to be seen as frustrating the grace of God (Galatians 2:11-21). God WILL deal with the behaviours and attitudes within us that do not reflect him.

Throughout the history of man, from creation we have turned from God to look another way. Time and time again we read stories seeing God’s love and forgiveness but we never look beyond it. We somehow miss the part where God dealt with mans corrupt nature even though he forgave them.

Genesis 2:15-17 is God’s instruction to Adam to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3 speaks of Adam and Eve disobeying this instruction and sin (doing wrong against God) entering into all humanity. Verses 7-19 speak of the CONSEQUENCES of disobeying what God had said. Verses 21-24 show that God put them out of the original place where he dwelt with them.

God forgave man, he loved man, he was gracious towards man but God still corrected man. God is a just God, a God of order and justice. He disciplines those he loves (Proverbs 3:12).

After Moses led the people out of Egypt, they complained and eventually worshipped a golden calf. Exodus 32 tells of this story and yet again, even after Moses pleaded with God on behalf of the people, God still punished their behaviour (verses 33-35).

I could go back and forth with this from the Bible. Noah and the flood, Jonah and the people of Nineveh, Sodom and Gomorrah; the list is endless. God always sent someone to warn people of what would happen if they did not truly repent when you look through the Old Testament.

Nehemiah 9:28-31 (NLT);

“But as soon as they were at peace, your people again committed evil in your sight, and once more you let their enemies conquer them. Yet whenever your people turned and cried to you again for help, you listened once more from heaven. In your wonderful mercy, you rescued them many times! “You warned them to return to your Law, but they became proud and obstinate and disobeyed your commands. They did not follow your regulations, by which people will find life if only they obey. They stubbornly turned their backs on you and refused to listen. In your love, you were patient with them for many years. You sent your Spirit, who warned them through the prophets. But still they wouldn’t listen! So once again you allowed the peoples of the land to conquer them. 31 But in your great mercy, you did not destroy them completely or abandon them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are!

God continually forgives and loves man but he never condones sin. He never accepts the wrong behaviour of people. It is not his nature. When people do wrong, he addresses it and then moves on.

My question to you is WHY DO WE CONDONE RATHER THAN CHALLENGE PEOPLE’S WRONG BEHAVIOURS AND ATTITUDES WHEN GOD DOESN’T? Whether you follow Christianity or not, this question can still be asked in society.

Not only did God warn people in the Old Testament about changing, this theme carried through to Jesus in the New Testament.

John 8:1-11 is the story where Jesus saves the prostitute from being stoned. In verse 11 Jesus tells the woman to go but SIN NO MORE. Again just like the Old Testament, he doesn’t condone her actions.

Jesus always corrected people wherever he went. He would teach in the synagogues and throughout the lands whilst also performing miracles. When he did not agree with people’s behaviours he challenged them, in particular the Pharisees. When people’s natures turned the temple into something it was never meant to be, Jesus became angry and yet again did not condone their actions (John 2:13-16).

Again I ask you WHY DO WE CONDONE RATHER THAN CHALLENGE PEOPLE’S WRONG BEHAVIOURS AND ATTITUDES WHEN GOD DOESN’T? Jesus did not condone it either.

Luke 17:1-4 (The Message);

He said to his disciples, “Hard trials and temptations are bound to come, but too bad for whoever brings them on! Better to wear a millstone necklace and take a swim in the deep blue sea than give even one of these dear little ones a hard time! “Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.”

 Matthew 7:12 says that we should do things to people what we want done to ourselves. Did you know that you could also frustrate one man’s grace to another?

In order to frustrate a person you must make their plans or efforts to become worthless or of no avail. To disappoint or thwart them. Other words for ‘thwart’ are baffle, confuse, cramp, double cross, obstruct, prevent, restrain, hold up, and upset.

If we can frustrate God’s grace by never truly repenting, letting the Holy Spirit change us then how can we not frustrate man’s grace? We are partakers in God’s grace (Philippians 1:7).

God does not put up with our bad behaviours and attitudes. He says he will hand us over to them if we do not change (Romans 1:28).

So why should we accept it? Why should we use the fruits of the spirit out of context in order to be nice and super-spiritual when the Bible clearly says that we should address it? Paul was one of the people in the New Testament that would write letters to the churches and individuals, not only encouraging them but also correcting them where needed.

We are to have the fruits of the Spirit but still operate in the dimension of love when correcting others or being corrected ourselves (Galatians 6:1). The Holy Spirit helps us by giving us the strength we need. He helps us when we are to make allowances for one another (Colossians 3:13). The Holy Spirit does not condone it. This does not mean we will not grow weary or tired of purposeful or ignorant unchanged behaviours and attitudes within each other.

Jesus tells us to be in the world, not of it (Romans 12:2), we are not like the world because he is not like the world (John 17:16). So why do we allow it?

This does not mean that we go around exploiting, judging and speaking out of term people’s business; there is a time and place for how we are to deal with things (Ecclesiastes 3). We need wisdom (James 1:5) for how to deal with situations, knowing if we are to say something and if so, when and where. Prayer and timing is key. I do not believe that we are supposed to stay silent and accept what God does not accept.

Matthew 18:12-17 & James 5:13-18 gives us tips on how to deal with these situations. It is important that we carry the nature of God inside of us. We forgive but never condone sin habits from an unchanged internal nature.

Lets think about how we respond to one another, in love but also correcting each other to continue in the life God truly has for us.

People who accept discipline are on the pathway to life,
    but those who ignore correction will go astray. (Proverbs 10:17)

Internally Shutter-boxed

Man can sometimes mirror machine. Not only has he the ability to function all day and night; sub-sectioning a vast intake whilst constantly re-charging but he also has the capacity to ‘break down’. Human nature has a way of dismissing that which it does not wish to face. Anything that causes internal conflict or outer uncomfortability can cause us to run like prey as if it were conscious of its predator.

Our life is the arena and we are the centre stage of it. All activity concerning us is present in the centre whilst spectators have their active or passive input. Our mind, will and emotions (soul), heart, spirit and physical being are all part of this centre which is affected by the activities of everyday life.

Situations and circumstances (activities of life) trailed alongside their outcomes form us as a people. Their affects shape and help build us into the people who we become and are today. These outcomes can have vibrant or fatal affects on us. We manifest the outcomes our situations and circumstances internally have on us. How we handle the outcomes begin to flow from us. They manifest behaviours and attitudes.

Our arenas; education, religion, work, economy and finance, politics, relationships- love/ family/ friends, culture and other avenues become infected . The exterior gives insight into the interior. How we handle decisions and choices, confusion, beliefs and doubts, unmet desires, frustrations and anger, discouragement, violence and abuse, etc is key to our internal selves.

At any given time or age these impacts on our heart, soul and physical selves still make us prone to the ability to shut ‘ones-self’ down. Today’s society is no better than the ancestors that have lived  before us and those yet to be birthed in a distant future. Even Adam and Eve hid once they had disobeyed God’s instructions (Genesis 3). Life and its hand dealings still have their impact on us.

The problem occurs when we internalise the problems by not handling them well or maybe not at all. We section off the parts we do not want to face. They become little stacker boxes or locked up crates with keys that can only be found in a treasure hunt. Some shut whilst others open. Internally we can hide in every corner or dark valley available to us that allows us to find shade rather than the light we need. We become masters of masquerading rather than transparent beings.

When we begin to shut down internally rather than be honest and face our Goliath’s (giants or mountains) we have a major problem. Not only will we become distant from our real selves but we begin to die inside.

Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee” (King James Version).

Regardless of religion or culture the above scriptural principle applies. Whatever you think you are, you become. The only way of outgrowing what we become is in changing our thoughts and emotions through our decisions from the impacts of life. We become better or worse people based on the internal attitude and what we have been told of who we are and who we internally choose to be, leading to our external manifested self.

Life is different for every person, some worse than others but all still damaging in a way to that particular individual, which I think we all can agree on. The best advice is that regardless of what has happened, seek help. Whether it be through religion or counsel; never internally shut down or get addicted to something that will numb the pain of an internal bleed. Do not internally box yourself up into compartments and write on them the wounds of what happened. Dealing with every box is beneficial, hard but beneficial to you being ALIVE internally.

We think that because everything looks ok on the outside that all is fine but if the inside of a man is not living then he is walking dead.

Proverbs 4:23 reading from the New Living Translation version of the Bible reads “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life”.

Your heart is central to who you are. When you stop living from it you begin to feel its affects. Life throws some wicked curve balls at us but we can choose to face them and their percussions or internally shutter box; functioning with the lights off. Find a way to not shut down internally but face who you are becoming or have become internally.

 

 

Let Your Wound Speak

This thought came to me a while back and I wanted to share it with you…

Can you really sew yourself up and expect it to be a good job?

I am not talking about DIY as a specialist work profession, I am talking about spiritual DIY. Trying to fix yourself and in a harmful way.

We all go through things that hurt us; whether it be something someone has said, something a person did or did not do, a disaster or whatever it may be; the problem we have is that we tend to DIY our own patchwork on our wounds. All of a sudden we become these professional surgeons; we see the severity of the wound and suddenly begin operating on ourselves immediately and think that we can do a good job. We forget that different types of wounds require different types of help… more severe wounds needing a stronger touch.

Why do we do this? Is it because it is easier? Do we not trust help if we need it? Are we ashamed? Are we too proud or have become blinded?. There are many reasons why we do what we do but the result becomes dangerous if it is a DIY job. We seem to live in a culture where this has become acceptable. We have put a silent ‘I’ in team. We always think we deal with things but really we do not, the evidence being in the manifestation of our behaviour and attitude. What is on the inside will become visible on the outside, it is just a matter of time.

Sometimes we have to face our wounds and sit with them. Notice I say sit and not stay. We are allowed to acknowledge what people, events and circumstances; what life has done to us and how we are to deal with it. Why is there always a need to acknowledge and DIY straight-away? Why are we not allowed to acknowledge the truth of what has happened; the pain, trauma, the basic collateral damage that has impacted and possibly even infected us?

It is important to acknowledge where you are at rather than patch it up. Deception allows you to be ignorant for a moment but if you have per say become enlightened and choose to act ignorant for whatever reasons, the effects of your DIY will eventually lead to destruction. Sometimes it is hard to face reality because it sucks but is it not better to see a wound for what it is than see it covered up because the cover up is not real and if left untreated could become infected and worse than its original state?

I am not saying you have to go around telling everyone everything that is going on or should just do what you want. We have to learn how to handle what we have been dealt. This is often the hard and tricky part; living it out. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong during this process but it is important to let your wound be opened, cleaned and healed rather than DIY’d; let your wound speak. We all need time to heal and heal differently.

I just want to leave you with this; Have you done a DIY work on yourself? You are known by what you become. Do you see a good fruit or a bad one? If so I suggest you un-wrap that wound, let it bleed and let it heal. Go through a correct process by get it treated before it becomes too late. It will seep out in the end. The heart, soul and mind is much more detrimental to what you become than a self certified DIY and “I got over myself” when really you haven’t. Look after yourself and do not let a bad DIY job be your portion. Choose to become someone different, someone better.