Tomorrowland Is Real. Are You Going There?

If you haven't had a chance to see the movie Tomorrowland, you should give it a try.  It was a failed box office movie, but personally I liked it.  It centers the story around a  new world that was being built, and because of a lack of dreamers and corruption it was not completed.  One such dreamer locater has left a commercial of that new world for a girl who is unhappy with what is going on in her world and that commercial is on a pin.  When the girl picks up that pen she sees the other world, or Tomorrowland, and even though she isn't physically there, it all seems so real.  The dreamer locater named Athena follows up on this girl, named Casey Newton and leads her to Frank Walker who went to Tomorrowland when he was a child but got kicked out. Now Frank doesn't believe anymore.  Casey's great desire to see Tomorrowland and Athena's mission orders put them together at Frank's doorstep. When Casey gets into Frank's house she sees the latest technology from the mind of dreamer Frank.   Casey convinces Frank to try one more time to believe in Tomorrowland and  he takes her and Athena there and through a series of events starts building the Tomorrowland again and begins recruiting new dreamers to make it happen.  Wow. What a great story!!  This parallels the great desire God has for his children to focus on the new heaven and earth He has built for those who know Him.  In John 14: 1-4  Jesus said, "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."  Of course, you know where our Tomorrowland is don't you? It's heaven. The reason for Tomorrowland in the first place was to build a whole new world and they need more "converts" to live there. Sound familiar?  That is the beckoned call of all who call Jesus Lord.  Get more people to this new world Jesus taught about.  The writer of Revelation in chapter 21 verse  1 describes that new world and summarizes by saying, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,  for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea."  Heaven is our Tomorrowland!!  Now where do we fit in to this parallel story?  We are the Athena's or the dreamer locaters.  We have our pen, which is the message of the gospel, and we can give unbelievers a glimpse into this new world through God's Word.  No movie magic can compare to the explanation given in Revelation 21 and we know first hand it is a completed Tomorrowland!  But like those who started the Tomorrowland project in the movie, some have given up their hope and they don't anticipate that glorious city anymore.  Tragic.  Not just for believers, but for those who need to hear about this new heaven and earth that is available to them.  In the movie Frank was a total believer and dreamer as a young boy, but the constant hits against him made him quit believing and he just gave up.  When we first accept Jesus the whole thing is so fresh and real, and amazing.  We can't think about anything else but our Tomorrowland and we want to tell others about it so they can go there too.  But life kicks in and one bump after another causes some to quit looking forward to it so much.  Time dims our enthusiasm and the message of a new world somehow dies with it.  But it shouldn't!  It must not die!!  Years ago a guaranteed big crowd attraction was when someone did a Bible study in the book of Revelation.  You couldn't fit everyone in the room because they wanted to know and hear about our Tomorrowland.  I wonder if anyone is even interested anymore in hearing about heaven and all that it holds for those who know Jesus?  What we need are some more Athena's.  Those willing to keep spreading the Word and finding others who would believe in Jesus and His new Tomorrowland He has built for us.  By the way, Athena was a robot who was focused on one thing, recruitment.  We aren't robots, but we are to be very focused in our life and our goals.  Hebrews 12:2 says, "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."  We are to be FOCUSED! 

Tomorrowland, a reality or a bust.  It is a REALITY!!!  You just need to wake up to the fact of our Tomorrowland and tell (recruit) all you know about it and how to get there (faith in Jesus).  Think about what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus in Chapter 2 verse 1-6  "It wasn't so long ago the you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.  You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live.   You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.  We all did it, all of us doing what  we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat.  It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us.  Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us.  He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ.  He did all this on His own, with no help from us!  Then he picked us up and set us down in the highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah."(The Message)  Since God has placed us in the company of our Savior Jesus, it should not be too hard to dream about our Tomorrowland, heaven, and know so much about it that we tell all who will listen they must accept Jesus to go there.  That message should be in the forefront of our mind and our lives.  We make it believable by our passion and conviction about it and our total belief in God's Word.

"Do You Believe" is more than just a movie title.  It is a question we must all answer.  I believe!!  Do you?  Tomorrowland is real and I'm going there.  You should too!!

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

You’re My Brother, You’re my Sister, so take me by the hand.

The interdependence of believers.  Depend – Rely on.  It is not by accident that God put us believers on an even playing field with no one better than the other and no one favored more than the other.  Scripture calls it UNITY.  It is where we are all focused on Christ.  He is the hub, or as scripture says The Vine, and we are the branches.  The question may be asked, “How many Christians does it take to build a church?”  The answer is “all of them.”  It seems like it is more and more difficult to keep a Church together, much less grow one in the present condition of our world.  We have digressed into the attitude that believes someone owes us something, instead of Jesus’ teaching where he says in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  We “Americans” don’t understand the serving thing so much anymore and it is a foreign policy that has been tossed out with the latest effort to build each other up.  Selfishness is the new norm and it takes our faith and puts it on a slippery slope that will surely end in chaos and war.  Many churches have taken this mantel and allowed it to drive their faith right off a cliff and the return trip up the mountain seems insurmountable, but it CAN be done.  As written in the above Scripture, “even the Son of Man took on the form of a servant.”  This brings to mind WWJD.  Remember the quirky little letters that started a firestorm of servant mindedness back in the 80’s?  The only problem with thinking about what Jesus would do is we need to know what Jesus would do and those answers are found in God’s Word, not in our personal impressions of what we “think” Jesus would do.   Which brings us to the problem at hand.  We have been living our Christ-centered lives from counterfeit information, and we are the counterfeiters putting out the fake Christianity.  The counterfeit faith of many has been handed down to their children and their children’s children, and the end result is a selfish generation.  I know this because I have been part of the problem.  I drank the Kool Aid long ago and the sweet taste of it only marginalized my walk with God.  I finally woke up and quit drinking,and because of the conviction of the Lord said, “enough is enough!”   In making my commitment I didn’t realize that changing my mind wouldn’t mean that others would come alongside and join me in my commitment to live a real life for Christ.  It was like telling an alcoholic they needed to quit drinking.  The first thing they say to you is “ I can quit anytime I want.”  But they can’t!   Here is where the whole interdependence thing kicks in.  We need each other, and we need to commit together to only follow God’s Word and keep each other accountable to this very lifestyle.  Together we can do it.  In Unity!!   Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” We need to make an effort and it starts right now.  We as believers need to learn to love God and love God’s people.  Love will be the glue that holds the whole thing together.  Colossians 3:14 says, “And over all these virtues put on love,  which binds them together in perfect unity.”  If you do take this stand to trust others to help keep you accountable you will start to lean on them  and they will on you and the process of true fellowship will kick in and empower you to live a more committed, servant lifestyle.  !1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you.  Always give  yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  Paul wrote this scripture at the end of a wonderful chapter that explained the victory that we as believers must live and walk in.  Let us walk it together in peace and harmony.

 and we will experience true victory.

The Pilgrimage continues….

David Warren