[Word Count: 694]
Stories
Story archetypes are recognizable patterns in a story's plot and structure that are repeatedly found in stories across time, cultures, and beliefs. Each archetype orbits one of several central themes:
Overcoming the Monster
Rags to Riches
The Quest
Voyage and Return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth
As in life, better stories may combine two or more of these themes.
If GOD exists (and He most certainly does), wherever in your story you may find yourself, you have been given the priceless gift of existence! According to author Mel Robbins the odds of being born are one in four hundred trillion (it takes thirty-two years to count to one billion)! You outperformed four trillion other sperm to fertilize that egg in your mother! Going back just ten generations (and not accounting for pedigree collapse) approximately eight thousand people had to exist for you to be born!
And now you've discovered that, unless you act, you will be the target of Divine Wrath forever due to an act of disobedience by your distant ancestor...an act that has transmitted your ancestor's dead spirit to you.
Thankfully, GOD has looked upon your situation with compassion and is not only offering you an escape from His Wrath, but a priceless opportunity TO BECOME HIS HEIR!!! All the "heavy lifting" has been done for you, yet you must set your heart to follow Your Creator (GOD The Word, incarnated as Jesus the Messiah) back to the Father of all spirits and NOT LOOK BACK on the familiar life you were born into.
Quite the narrative, isn't it!?
The hardest part was believing (faithing) the Truth, as incredible and far-fetched as It may appear. Now the key to your success is THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH (Romans 1:5; 2 Corinthians 10:5); and obedience of faith is contingent upon a growing trust on your part as you grow to admire, love and worship GOD.
It is with this understanding that we receive Christ's Third Word...
Third Word
“He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My Sake shall find it.” -- Jesus Christ, Matthew 10:37-39 KJV
In the end, when all is said and done, the Truth is both clear, glaringly obvious and indisputable: LIFE AND DEATH ARE DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO AND ABSOLUTELY INCOMPATIBLE WITH EACH OTHER All other philosophies try to paint a picture of Death that is attractive. A critical factor in the world's hatred of the Gospel is that It tells the world that THE WORLD IS DEAD to GOD and is therefore condemned to Eternal Death without the Divine Life made available through the Person Jesus Christ.
Your life without Christ--even if it was a religious life--was DEAD. GOD is offering you THE SAME DIVINE LIFE THE GODHEAD RUNS ON!!! If you desire to be saturated with That Life, your attitude towards the DEAD LIFE you've lived hitherto will have to CHANGE. All the relationships you depended on for comfort, meaning and survival will have to be ABANDONED for the Eternal Relationship between the Members of The GODHEAD to which YOU have been invited!!! And the great news is YOU DONT HAVE TO WAIT TILL YOU DIE TO EXPERIENCE THAT DIVINE RELATIONSHIP!!!
The whole purpose of prayer is to open the Door to Eternity so you can be surrounded, filled and saturated by the Life of Christ made available to you without price and without cost!
Christ's Life must become more precious to you than your own dead life or the lives of those around you who may NEVER see you as Your Savior sees you.
This is a difficult lesson to learn, and you must never abandon this course...even though you may start off with a failing grade.
In Part Eighteen we will address the importance of cultivating relationships with others who have been called to Christian discipleship.