"Last Generation Forums" :: Christian Fiction :: One Thousand Years ::Genesage :: “Heavenly Minded” (Chap 1:3)

"Last Generation Forums" :: Christian Fiction :: One Thousand Years ::Genesage :: “Heavenly Minded” (Chap 1:3)   Author Topic: “Heavenly Minded” (Chap 1:3) (Read 4 times) Michael James Stone Administrator Site-Administrator member isonline   Joined: May 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 1,719 “Heavenly Minded” (Chap 1:3)  « Thread Started Today at 8:49pm »   Genesage “Heavenly Minded” (Chap 1:3)  Humming the words to the Song of Limmud Eben was happy with the memories he did recall. “What have you seen…, He remembered when he went to heaven. It seemed as though everywhere you went there was a song being sung. Somehow that first morning in heaven refrain was not even a drop in the ocean compared to the impact heaven had on all the senses, much less the auditory.  It just now occurred to him that singing was almost nonstop. No matter where you went, somehow, in the background, there was music going on. Music that seemed to resonate through and thru in resonance, as though it were one eternal harmonic. If music calmed the savage beast, maybe there was more to the music in heaven than met the eye, or the ear. Maybe music was food for the soul and life in the spirit. Even those who spoke to him seemed to phrase the way they talked with an almost lyrical flow. It wasn’t wordy but it seemed poetic or metered. The words by themselves would have been easy to understand, but in this musical way of speaking there was almost an autonomous understanding happening. Comprehension without thought by-passing the brain. It was though the “music of heaven” went straight to the heart of the matter. He recalled some people speaking in musicality in some venues back on earth with rap, or rhyme, iambic pentameter and cordial Elizabethan dialogue. Even some religious leaders seemed to talk singsongish. Yet this went far more and in many ways, and far less than that. It could be abrupt as well as courteous. There was an order to it. It was complete in itself. A style and flair when the words seemed spoken but were in fact crafted as though sung. Maybe they were an unknown key or form. Perhaps communication in heaven existed dimensionally extant on many levels. Calling it a song was…..almost to lessen it….it was….living. “What have you heard “ Eben remembered asking an angel a question in heaven that was explaining the heavenlies to him. Typical Eben, He blurted out of left field.  “Doesn’t anyone laugh here?”  As he recalled, the angel never answered him.  He did get a response but not the one He expected, which at the time, was to be expected. Heaven wasn’t paying attention to him, he was absorbed by Heaven.  Singing went on oblivious of those about it. Nothing in heaven was quite what one thought, though it did exceed all comparisons. There was always so much MORE to the Heavenlies. Responsiveness came from what he observed.  Experiencing it and not quantifying or questioning it. Absorbing what was occurring right before his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, being.  Heaven; as someone once said was indeed a state of being. That “state” being achieved by actually being there. It was…heavenly. The deeper in heaven you went, the deeper it got. The more you tried to explain or relate to it, the less it fit the understanding of it. Heaven was baffling. The fullness of it exceeded explanation or description.  Even in its constitutional makeup it was enigmatic as it was similar to solid, yet also not. Vaporous though solidified; existent, yet distant.  Shaking his head Eben chuckled thinking about it. Reality certainly had a greater detail in depth than anyone thought. It was easier to accept the reality of heaven than to figure it out. When that “acceptance” became a thought in Eben’s mind, he “felt” himself “sync” with heaven. It was as though heaven itself accepted and synchronized him into itself. As though the place of heaven was as living as the “being” of living. Could a location be as alive as the entity that visited it? The same was true in the physical plane Eben lived in. So often in living life as he knew it, much was taken for granted. The details of living were missed. The less important prioritized. Living was forgotten to mean living it. Experiencing it. Appreciating life in its entire splendor.  Recognizing that life was design with the sculpting of one’s choices to master its infinite detail, and Heaven really was in the recognition of the infinite minutiae all around. Heaven and Earth overlapped and was within and without. And yet…, still a location. It really had Ebens head spinning the short time he was there. Heaven had so much more occurring than just the aspect of it, there was scarcely time on such a short visit to take it all in. Heaven really could blow your mind. Chuckling Eben thought he needed eternity just to get a handle on it. Even then he thought he might not. Still it wasn’t a place he didn’t want to live, but rather a place he looked forward to returning, again and again and again. A destination every time you got there, it got better. Eben loved to laugh. It was a character trait of his and Eben certainly was a character. Fortunately he was a character with a sense of humor. Oddly He didn’t recall any laughter in heaven. Only once did he remember there was silence in heaven. The rest of the time it seemed to be music in the air. What have you handled with your own hands? Laughing quietly he knelt down, cupping one hand; He scooped water from the lake. Drinking deep it was refreshing. His morning shot of coffee. It woke him up just fine. No cost, no lines, no waiting for a double shot. If he wanted that he just double dipped himself a palm; palm of his hand that is. Somehow free tasted so… oh.., sooo…. good! Dawn was a different story here in the Kingdom.  That first morning in heaven had been something to see but while a nice place to visit, Eben wasn’t sure if he wanted to live there, yet. Someday maybe, but his first visit was like a stranger in a strange land. So much was different he had a hard time thinking of it as anything but foreign. And all that singing made you thirsty. And being in heaven you wouldn’t want to get so heavenly minded you were no earthly good, now would you? Or would you? Dawn in the new “here and now” simply meant from darkness to less dark. From lighter to light, but never to sunrise. No sun had been seen in sixty-nine years. Light in heaven emanated from everywhere and nowhere yet existed in every part.  Earth meanwhile was still recovering from a global holocausim. Still smiling at the lake, switching memories from heaven to earth, Eben remembered a famous comedian who commented on the weather. He said the weather was “dark” followed by occasional patches of “light” which as he recalled even now made him laugh.  Something about a hippy dippy weather man. This time of morning lightness, the dark was giving way to light. In this light his silhouette could be seen as an average man.  Average height man with an average beard, wearing an average robe. Not unlike others in the Kingdom, which in the kingdom was average. But anywhere else would have gotten you locked up in a strait jacket. Here in the Kingdom of God his attire did not stand out. No tight confining or provocative outer wear, at this time he was just robed in white.  The robes felt silky but sturdy. Light and durable with flow that conformed to the body’s actions. Seemingly silk but durable, not so satiny.  It was in fact comfortable and seemed custom fit for the times and the season. Like sandals from days of old that had not worn out, this material appeared to be unusually sound. Eben was robed but he didn’t have a halo nor act in some peculiar way. He was just an average guy. Average if you considered the old cartoon of the long haired man walking around town with a sign saying the end is near wearing a robe and beard. Thought Eben.  Thinking again of stereotypes, misconceptions, and the fact that the “crazies” weren’t so crazy after all, Eben smiled. « Last Edit: Today at 8:50pm by Michael James Stone » Report to Mod - Link to Post - Back to Top  Logged

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Last Generation Forums" :: Christian Fiction :: One Thousand Years ::Genesage :: “Meeting a Biblical Legend” (Chap 1:2)

"Last Generation Forums" :: Christian Fiction :: One Thousand Years ::Genesage :: “Meeting a Biblical Legend” (Chap 1:2)  Author Topic: “Meeting a Biblical Legend” (Chap 1:2) (Read 1 time) Michael James Stone Administrator Site-Administrator member isonline   Joined: May 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 1,718 “Meeting a Biblical Legend” (Chap 1:2) « Thread Started Today at 8:29pm »   Genesage “Meeting a Biblical Legend”  (Chap 1:2) Eben enjoyed the fact that water was finally returning to the barren places. In some places it was returning more quickly than others, like his lake. It had been filling up for quite awhile. Unlike the Old World which always seemed to have bodies of water drying up, this was filling. It even overflowed. He did recall when this lake was no more than a rock shelf without any water in it. Sixty years later he had a lake. Shallow lake to be sure, but still a body of water where once there had been none. Being that it was within walking distance, Eben was grateful. Not long till dawn, He thought with water dripping from him.  Splashing water on his face was a great wakeup call. Eben did so every morning before dawn. He liked to take this time to walk the short distance to the lake. It was a good time to be alone with his thoughts. Walking and talking, singing and strolling, his morning jaunt seemed to set a pace for the day. Not unlike a “nature walk” where people used to “get in touch” with nature, this was natural for Eben. He “felt touched” by all of Creation. Morning routines were a lot different now in the Kingdom for Eben. No more “getting ready” to meet the day as in OLD DAYS before God rescued him. Now it was, ready or not, here I come. Each day a greeting of what experiences lay ahead. No dread, just looking ahead. It was a good day and alive to it. Eben met the days with anticipation. A morning “splashdown” helped refresh that thought. Shaking his face a little from the water, he combed his beard with his fingers. Stroking his facial growth he tossed his wet head of hair back smiling at the sky. He was a little bemused by the water running down his beard to the ground. Didn’t Aaron tell him he had oil run down his beard and that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be? Thinking of all that oil that would have been dumped on Aaron, Eben looked at the face of the waters of the lake and thought. That would have been olive oil. A lot of olive oil. A lot of olive oil poured over his head and running down his beard. Enough oil running down to form a pool at his feet. Eben shivered.  Hmmm, that would make it the first oil slick wouldn’t it? Fortunately Eben thoughts were private, more or less, but once started, you never knew where they would go. Still thinking along those lines as water rushed off his hair and beard he continued, Would that make Aaron the first greaser? How……, At the thought of the word “ironic” Eben paused. He recalled the time he had met “the Aaron”. He remembered his faux pas when he tried to ‘act’ less in awe of the man. He had tried to comment on how Aaronic it was playing on the word “ironic”…., and…, failed miserably. SO BAD was his comment he couldn’t recall what he said. Aaron had stared at him ‘not getting’ the humor of it. Eben realized saying nothing would have been better, blushed, and shut up. It wasn’t the first time Eben had “blown it” in meeting someone from the Bible.  It certainly wouldn’t be his last. Something about generational, cultural, even “faith” gaps were evident when one started talking without thinking first. Since so many people came from a different setting and mindset, communication was interesting. Not to mentions the “ages” differences.  Different also were the variety of personalities represented. At times what a person represented was dramatically different than the living, breathing, talking person in front of you. What you thought you knew about someone might not be the person you were speaking with. A lot of people, including Eben, had to learn to “choose” their words wisely since not every word meant the same thing to everyone involved. It wasn’t about interpretation but representation. How and what you spoke in the Kingdom, was you. Politically correct became less than that. It wasn’t about image here. But more along the lines of words meaning what words were saying. Your words were your own to choose. So choosing wisely what you said was important. Your words represented you. What the words were is what the words meant. No one in his day ever meant what they said, but in some places, words were all you meant. Now in the Kingdom of THE WORD…Well. It was certainly different. No innuendo’s or implied meaning. No subtleties or double meanings. If you said yes, it really did mean yes. No meant no also. No question about it. The rest was adaptive. Everyone had a different way of looking at things. This was about telling someone else how you looked at it from your point of view. Literal now was genuinely literal. If you said yes or no you better mean it. Your Word was your Word. At least that was what was being taught in the Kingdom. Of course the teachers were still learning that “truth” too. They like everyone else had to learn a new attitude. A new way to think; a better way to respond; a more accurate way to arrange your speech. It made for some interesting conversations. The learning curve had plenty of time to level the playing field out with a thousand years or so to go. For Ancients change came easy, for those born into the Kingdom it was all they knew. For everyone it was a matter of course and came as natural as learning to walk and talk. But the Survivors…,well…., that was a different story. They had a complete set of issues all their own. Learning communication and adapting to the Kingdom seemed to be challenging for them. Eben sometimes would rather talk to someone long dead, buried, then resurrected; than talk to those who had survived alive to enter the Kingdom of God by living through the Great Tribulation. They just seemed to have this wild idea, sixty years later, that they were the head of the class being the last generation. Depending on which “old world” country they came from also played a factor in this “stubbornness” to adapt to the “New World” they now inhabited. They seemed to think their way was best. They were too smart or “intelligent” to realize they were back of the bus when it came to learning how to communicate correctly. Almost all Survivors had presumed their way was the “right” way. Some not only thought their way was the right way but almost acted as if it was the only way. Never mind the obvious, they had their way and of course, it was the only way. Regardless of the challenges, they were learning to adapt, just slower than all the rest. Those who thought to be so wise were allowed to keep thinking that even if no one else agreed with them. Survivors were an obstinate lot, some said stiff necked. So far, for the most part, they were tolerated as often time had a way of changing things. Opposite to that were the Elders from the Scriptures. It was pretty amazing looking at an ancient ancestor. Anyone of those thousands of heroes of the faith, or characters from the Bible, long dead before, was now alive in the Kingdom. Not all people from Scripture were there, but more than most people expected. This was Inspiring till some of the illusions of imagining what they were like in real life wore off. They were different than what one wanted them to be or imagined how they would act. Imagination was often greater than observation of a person in day to day living. Most ideas were like that. Idealistically they were great men and women come from Bible Times. In your imagination they could appear to be bigger than life. After all they were Heroes of the Faith. Stories were told about them. Myths and legends had grown up around them. They were bigger than normal life after all. They were “ALL CHRIST-LIKE HEROES”. “Yeah right” Thought Eben combing his beard with his fingers. The one to one interaction of everyday life in the everyday world was often left out of the “stories”. Sometimes they were included, but no one paid that close attention to that. It was obvious everyone had been a sinner at one time…..everyone. The reality was the image of the person in one’s mind was easier to believe in than the person in flesh and blood. The idea of who that person was might be a lot greater than the person could actually be in person. Sometimes it was hard to believe that these “saints” were just people too. It was too easy to have attached hopes of creating them into an image rather than a fact. A fact that they were people with feelings and emotions. They had successes and failures like everyone else. That was hard to swallow. It was easier to want them to be bigger than life. At least till you met with them a few times. When you got to know them better it was easier to accept them as they are. Begin to meet with them personally and see how they dealt with this New Life. Share with them common experiences. Then it was good to enjoy them for who they really were. Appreciate the person that they were and see the being they were becoming. Everyone was learning something. Trying to relive their past life or past experiences as you interpreted it; as compared to the life the person remembered, well, that was like trying to put the baby back in the womb, it just didn’t fit grown up. That was when the heroic came out of the fantasy. Dealing with that taught Eben to watch his tongue and keep his “hero worship” in check. Eben learned the hard way to keep quiet, sort of. It was challenging to keep the admiration down at times. Inspiration was where you found it, or He found you. Eben was easily inspired by the drop of a famous name or the song of a seagull, even the whispering in the breeze. Singing often inspired him. When Aaron had led the singing with the Song of Moses back “in the Day”. Eben was immediately awe struck, temporarily. He just stood there with his mouth open till some of those marching through Jerusalem almost trampled him. He quickly got in step and sang too. When it came time to sing the Song of Limmud, Aaron was first in line to sing with Eben picking up the words on the second time through. Songs were sung three times when led by the 144,000. In order to familiarize, four more times were often sung by others with styles and variances mixed in. It made for quite a choir as somehow even the variations harmonized in the Kingdom. There were a lot of singers here. Elvis certainly was in the building and singing was a national past time here. Everyone liked to sing, harmony came natural. At times it was Heaven on Earth when singing led the way. Apparently Aaron liked to sing, so did Eben.  Eben had thought to comment to Aaron once on the golden calf incident making a joke about loving to party, but having already made one dumb mistake, he wasn’t about to confound it with two. Much later he told others of his thoughts and attempts at humor. They didn’t laugh either. Of course this didn’t slow Eben down, he laughed loud enough, long enough, and deep enough for three people, maybe four. When it came to the hero worship, he never told the people he met what he had previously thought about them. It was a little embarrassing to admit how elevated an idea could ruin a good friendship with them. For Eben it was a good idea not to bring up the past too much.

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"Last Generation Forums" :: Christian Fiction :: One Thousand Years ::Genesage :: "Song of Limmud" (Chp 1:1)

"Last Generation Forums" :: Christian Fiction :: One Thousand Years ::Genesage :: "Song of Limmud" (Chp 1:1)  Author Topic: "Song of Limmud" (Chp 1:1) (Read 9 times) Michael James Stone Administrator Site-Administrator member isonline   Joined: May 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 1,717 "Song of Limmud" (Chp 1:1) « Thread Started Today at 8:07pm »   Genesage “Song of Limmud” (Chap 1:1) Eben was humming. It wasn’t his normal habit to hum, but this morning he was. He was happy. Though He wasn’t happy every day, he liked to think he was happy most of the time. Days like today he was happy. Humming showed it. Some days were just real hummers. The tune he was humming was familiar; familiar like trying to name that tune. The melody of a song you thought you knew. Recalled but just couldn’t remember the words. A silly song. Like a song that once you did remember the tune the words you couldn’t get out of your head.  It stuck with you. Lyrics that would keep repeating themselves, over and over again, replaying in your mind. It just so happened, Eben liked this song. But the words were more for him. It was a song of joy. “All I have seen, all I have heard…,” Eben hummed the words to himself. If you hadn’t heard the song, it might have been strange. An odd kind of melody with unique words attached. But nearly everyone had heard the Song of Limmud; At least nearly everyone alive and well and living in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth that is. It was one of the Songs of the 144,000. While in this part of the land, they had sung this song more than once. Other songs not so often. It didn’t mean everyone remembered it, but at least to most it was familiar.  While once was not enough to remember, twice was a better chance to retain; Eben chanted a familiar refrain, but three times sung it will remain. Catchy line and a fact in the Kingdom. Songs of the 144,000 were always sung three times. There was a reason why, and like most things in the Kingdom, there was a reason and purpose for everything being done the way they were. Some said the reason why would be revealed at the end of the thousand years. They had said the same thing about getting to heaven and when you did you would know why.  That hadn’t worked the way people said.  Getting to heaven seemed to open up doors for more learning to discover. The same was true in the Kingdom. You learned as you went. You didn’t suddenly wake up and know it all. Three times was like a lucky charm. Only luck had nothing to do with it. Once was sung as unto the Father; Twice was sung as unto the Son; Thrice was sung as unto the Spirit.  No song undone till all three were sung. Never was song sung blue, but song sung in the Kingdom was worth repeating. Repeating to the Father; the Son; and the Spirit that is; always good to cover your bases. This particular song was one of Eben’s favorites. He could recall lots of songs the 144,000 had sung so far, but he liked this one the best. Ever since the first time he heard it he thought it had great meaning for his life. Somehow it just fit. Seemingly attaching itself to him; the song was a part of him. He recalled sixty nine years ago when he came to Jerusalem. It was quite a day back then.  That was the first time he heard the song sung; today though he was just humming it. Getting ready for his meeting with the other members of his community Eben was happy his recall was as though it were just yesterday.  But Sixty-nine years after the fact, he was still singing that song, the Song of Limmud. Who would have thought that heaven was all about singing and so little about speaking? Eben mused as he walked from his house to the lake to freshen up. Thinking about his visit to heaven sixty-nine years ago reminded him that no matter where you went, there you were, in heaven. There you were in the midst of song and there you are music going on. Where ever you were, it was heaven. Non-stop it was the language of the heavenlies; singing that is.  At that Eben smiled for a moment recalling the Old World Ideas about a “heavenly language”. Everything from groaning and moaning to telepathy and empathy. What were ears for if not for hearing? So many wanted it to be a tongue, others wanted it to be a language, some ancients had said it was a power, few realized it was song. From incontrollable utterances, to babblings or ramblings in many vernaculars; there certainly had been way too many divisions and strife for modern man to have the final answer on what was going on in heaven. Hell maybe but heaven? No, modern man had no idea. It was a lot more peaceful than that. If mankind couldn’t come up with one translation of the bible everyone agreed on, he certainly had no idea what was happening in heaven. The tower of Babel would have been surprised had it gotten close enough or high enough to hear singing. Maybe they would have joined in, maybe not. Eben chuckled.  The Truth was far simpler than anyone had imagined. “Rather than argue… if they had just sung about it they would have gotten the “Big Picture”. Eben laughed thinking about old ways, old days, and wrong ideas. He had done much the same thing with his own ideas of how it would be like till he got there. Once he got there, it wasn’t a surprise he was wrong. At first he was too busy taking it all in to really care. Looking back now, he was about as accurate as everyone else had been; not at all. Heaven was certainly an experience he would not soon forget.  Mind blowing to say the least and in the old expression, it was the ultimate trip. Certainly there was no way to really describe a different dimension. The greatest paradigm of a paradox was expressed in a common expression used to describe location, time and space in proximity about heaven: No matter where you went in heaven, there you were…, In heaven. He might have said it was….heavenly… but the lake was close by and he arrived at it interrupting his thoughts. « Last Edit: Today at 8:19pm by Michael James Stone » Report to Mod - Link to Post - Back to Top  Logged

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