In your pursuit of happiness, please don’t reject the authentic because of the well-crafted counterfeit.

Last night I finished reading The Shack (You can read my review over at flannelgraph).

Currently (September 2009), The Shack is #2 on the NY Times bestselling paperbacks list. It debuted at #1 in mid 2008 and stayed at the top spot for 36 weeks. It has sold over 7 million copies and counting, and people are ranking it among Christan literary masterpieces like Pilgrim’s Progress.

Wow.

What not many people realise, is how the book became popular…

William P. Young wrote a story about his journey with God for his children. He gave it to his close friends to read, who all thought that the story was too significant not to publish. Problem was that no Christian publisher would take it on, saying it was ‘too controversial’, and no secular company would publish it due to it being ‘too Christian’. What did Young’s friends do? They started their own publishing company of course! Windblown Media was launched and $300 was spent marketing the book. Over 7 million copies later, the rest is now history.

Imagine the joy of Young and his friends (and their wonder of God). Imagine the tears of every publisher that turned down the rights to the book. Imagine the millions of lives this book has impacted.

If you haven’t already read this book (whether you have a faith in God or not), please do… it could quite possibly change your perspective of life.

(If you want to read more of the story behind The Shack, please visit William P. Young’s blog.) ]]> http://www.symondrake.com/behind-the-shack/feed/ 7 http://www.symondrake.com/b1509-the-hand-of-god/ http://www.symondrake.com/b1509-the-hand-of-god/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:53:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=189 The ‘Hand of God’ taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Satellite.

A 13 mile wide pulsar known as PSR B1509-58 (B1509) is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years.

B1509 makes one full rotation every 1/7 of a second. Think about that for a second. An immensely heavy star neutron star, 15 miles wide, spinning 7 times a second. Crazy. It’s magnetic field is estimated to be 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth’s. Double Crazy.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. (Romans 1:20 NLT)

To astronomers, NGC 7293 is a Helix Nebula. To us normal people, it is “a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases” caused by a dying star.

Pretty awe-inspiring if you ask me.

It will forever confound me as to how some of us will ponder this image, and see it as further evidence of a Creator, and how others will view the same image and harden their hearts to even considering the notion that such a Creator could exist.

In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back… Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered with eyes, inside and out…

After some cyber-digging I discover that the creature in question just happens to be the Angel of Death. Hmmm. I’m not intending on ever seeing the movie, but it makes me wonder…

1. Who, or what is influencing Hollywood’s creature creators to imagine such morbid beings?

2. Are these creatures perhaps closer to the truth than we realise?

Food for thought… Comments welcome.

This morning I stumbled upon a very interesting website called: http://www.globalrichlist.com/.

The site calculates your rank in the world’s ‘rich-list’. Suffice to say that we are incredibly more wealthy than we realise when compared to the rest of the world.

More from the site:

- $8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

- $30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.

- $73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

- $2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.

It makes you think doesn’t it.
]]> http://www.symondrake.com/rich/feed/ 5 http://www.symondrake.com/my-close-encounter-with-a-ufo-cult/ http://www.symondrake.com/my-close-encounter-with-a-ufo-cult/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 07:18:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=153 It was a fateful night in 1997 when the Aetherius Society came to town to promote their religion. For those who don’t know what the Aetherius Society is (I’m guessing about 99.9% of the people reading this post), it is a UFO cult.

I was a zealous (and somewhat tactless) Bible College student at the time, and had just finished writing a study on Aliens from a Christian Worldview. So armed with my Bible… (yes, I took my NIV Study Bible to a UFO cult meeting – told you I was tactless ;-), a wad of my UFO studies, and my 6’4″ friend (you can never be too careful), I made my way into the venue, past the freaky door greeter (who had a crystal the size of a tennis ball around his neck) and sat down with about ten other people.

For the next hour, two Atherius reps spoke about what they believe in. This is it in a nutshell…

George King was born in England in 1919. He dedicated his life to the practice of Eastern Mysticism. One day he he heard a loud voice saying…

“Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament.”

Apparently, the voice belonged to one of the ‘Cosmic Masters of the Solar System’ and George King became their ‘Primary Terrestrial Mental Channel’, bringing their message to Earth.

At this point I would like to include an except from the UFO study (soon to be posted on this site)…

Some people claim that by putting themselves into a hypnotic trance they are acting as a channelling device in which extra-terrestrial beings speak through them. The same general message permeates over 90% of the words received by millions of people over the world while they are channelling. The following is an actual example:

We come from the Interplanetary Configuration of solar systems, and our purpose is to aid our brother man on the earth as the new age dawns. The teacher that was known to you as Jesus was able to use many more of the abilities than the people of this planet. Unfortunately, man upon planet earth has misinterpreted the meaning of this mans life. He was no different than any of you; he was simply able to remember certain principles. These principles may be realised by any one of you at any time, it is only necessary that you avail yourself to our contact through meditation in order to begin to realise that which is rightfully yours, the truth of the creation and the truth of your position in it. Know ye not that ye are gods? We have been puzzled at times by the inability of the people in general of this planet to be awakened to this truth. We find the state of hypnoses, brought about by the evolution of thought by the people of this planet is so great, that it is necessary for him to maintain a constant awareness of his spiritual nature by meditation.

I might add that there are absolutely no reports of any alien ever proclaiming that Jesus is the only way to find salvation.

This is from the Aetherius site…

At this significant point in the history of mankind, the Cosmic Masters have chosen to release a new level of understanding and wisdom to those who are ready on Earth. This wisdom in no way invalidates or replaces the wisdom given to mankind in the past by the great teachers such as Shri Krishna, Lord Buddha and the Master Jesus. These beings and several more, were also Cosmic Masters from advanced worlds sent to Earth to help mankind in the best way possible when they came.

I always find it amusing how so many New Age religions claim that Jesus Christ is ‘a way’, when Jesus Christ Himself said that He was ‘The Way’ (John 14:6). There’s a very big difference between ‘a’ and ‘the’.

Anyway, back to the story… At the conclusion of the night the well-meaning reps asked if anyone had any questions. It was then that I stood up and asked them to explain what the Bible meant when it talked about end-time deception and doctrines of demons (I even read out the relevant verses). As you can imagine, it didn’t go down too well. One of them said that it was easily explained in Revelation chapter 23 and asked me to turn there. Problem was, there is no Revelation chapter 23. And so the evening ended, much to the relief of the hosts, and I handed out the studies to the folk leaving the building ;-)

I sometimes think back to that time and wonder what on earth I was thinking. Did I do the right thing in my challenging confrontation? Did I exhibit the love of Jesus or push the people further away from Him? Would I do the same today? Lord, help me to be zealous… with knowledge.

To visit Wikipedia’s page on UFO cults click here. ]]> http://www.symondrake.com/my-close-encounter-with-a-ufo-cult/feed/ 4 http://www.symondrake.com/tomb-of-the-seven-sleepers/ http://www.symondrake.com/tomb-of-the-seven-sleepers/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:23:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=142 I came across an extremely interesting account while researching the city of Ephesus last week. The legend goes like this…

Around 250AD, when Christians were being fiercely persecuted, seven young men refusing to recant their faith, gave their worldly goods to the poor and retreated to a mountain cave to pray (and await capture, followed by execution I presume), where they fell asleep. The emperor, seeing that their attitude towards Christ had not improved, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed, and effectively sealed their fate.

Two centuries passed and the landowner decided to re-open the cave, thinking to use it as a cattle pen. He did so, and to his astonishment, found seven men sleeping inside. They awoke and believed they had only slept one day. They wandered into the city of Ephesus, and were utterly bewildered at the many churches and the freedom of worship for Christians. The Sleepers later died naturally (and this time permanently) and were buried in the cave in which they had slept.

The ‘Cave of the Seven Sleepers’ became a major place of pilgrimage from the 5th to 15th centuries, and as often happened with venerated sites, a church was built above the seven original tombs. The site was excavated in 1927, and brought to light many hundreds of graves which were dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. Inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers were found on the walls of the church and in the graves.

And so ends my history lesson for today.

The story reminds me of the Templar Knight in Indiana Jones 3. The Last Crusade was a fictional story… The Seven Sleepers possibly isn’t. Although seemingly impossible, early Christian documents are strewn with this legend (a similar story even appears in the Quaran), and may I remind you, that stranger things than this have been known to have happened…

Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. Matthew 27:50-53 Holy Bible (NLT)

Once again, the truth is quite possibly stranger than fiction.

The Seven Sleepers at Wikipedia here. ]]> http://www.symondrake.com/tomb-of-the-seven-sleepers/feed/ 10 http://www.symondrake.com/you-can-take-this-job-and/ http://www.symondrake.com/you-can-take-this-job-and/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:05:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=139 Some people think being a full-time youth pastor (or any pastor for that matter) is very easy money. You can see it in their eyes when they ask “What do you do all week?” (if I had a dollar for every time…). Agreed, I don’t have to perform endless hours of manual labour, but believe you me… pastoring does have its huge challenges, and yes, even pastors come home sometimes dreaming of another occupation.

A long time ago when I sanded car doors, when I packed kiwifruit, when I milked cows, when I washed hair, when I flipped burgers… I could forget about work at the end of the day. Work ceased to exist from the time I clocked out to the time I clocked in. My non-work hours were spent thinking about everything else but work. For a pastor, ‘work’ never stops (except maybe for holidays, and even that’s debatable). Pastors don’t really have a private life. Unlike certain politicians, what we may choose to do or not do in our spare time could very easily destroy our lives… and the lives of many others. It’s a big deal.

Just this morning I was staring at the ceiling at 4:30am thinking, praying, worrying, then stopping myself and praying again… for people. People. Jesus lived and died (and lived again) for people. So that people could know God. Pastors are pastors because they feel called to spend their lives helping people know God.

It’s hard when people I pastor experience tragedy, trials, conflict. It’s especially hard when people are offended at me, but it hurts most when people walk away from God… I wonder how God feels? I can’t clock out and forget about that.

Please don’t think I’m asking for sympathy. On the contrary… I doubt if I would be fulfilled doing anything else. I’m built for this, and do it gladly (most of the time ;-).

For the pastors reading this, be encouraged. Pastoring is a high calling. When you feel like throwing in the towel and doing something easier, don’t. Think about how the person in the Chinese sweatshop feels right now… assembling Barbie ripoffs for 80 hours a week so that their children can eat.

For everyone else reading this… your pastors (if they are genuine and unfortunately there are some who aren’t) love you and want the very best for you. They work not for ‘easy money’ but for your well being.

I thank God for my pastors. I thank God that I’m a pastor, and I thank God for the opportunity to help people know God (and get paid for it ;-).