"Capture the Matrix - Your Life is Moments in His Time"

 "Capture the Matrix - Your Life is moments in His Time"

  A matrix is defined as 'a situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained.' It has several meanings, one of which is a 'binding substance'. As I wake up on this Shabbat (December 7, 2013, or 4 Tevet 5774 in the Hebrew calendar), I understand the matrix of my life has changed, evolved and will never be the same again. I pour my cup of coffee and sit on the sofa and try to get my thoughts and eyes to blink open at the same time. The sun is coming up in the East, and before I begin my day, I am feeling His. I remember what the Lord spoke to my heart not that long ago. 'Liz, things of this world will grow strangely dim. Yes, you are in this world, but you are not of this world. You are not part of this worlds system or economy. You are in my Kingdom". I remember the lyrics Helen Lemmel penned to that wonderful hymm, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,  In the light of His glory and grace." There are days we get up, go to work, have everyday conversations, do everyday things, and on the outside, it is business as usual. We smile, laugh, get tired, get frustrated, end the day and go to bed. Yet, on the inside, The Master weaves His matrix of prophetic proportions, on a Kingdom, eternal level, a craftsmanship so rare and excellent, that if we could see beyond our mortal eyes and into the things of the spirit, we would see, an epic planet of redeemed souls is being created, one life, one breathe, one space at a time. If you only knew how rare you were!  If you only knew how important your life is to God! If you only knew how vitally important you are to the chain of events, in your circle of influence, you would realize your everyday stuff is but the modeling and glue for the Creators' Master Matrix: called the citizens of heaven. Your life would not feel the same if you could feel it the way God does. You are more than the particulates of matter that compose your body, you are the image of the incarnate God who lives from the inside out of you.
 

 Something good was on TV last night. I curled up on the couch with a favorite blanket, pets by my side. Tried to stay awake and listen to some bible prophecy scholars discuss the hour of time in which we live in. There are more prophetic events happening at one time than  you can ever imagine. The panel of seasoned saints and teachers cracked open the Book of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, Isaiah, Psalms, Genesis and the New Testament, and reeled off one verse after another, with matching current events we hear about every day on the news. One would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to be even remotely aware we are living in the end, of the end of time. As I listened, I suddenly remembered how just 6 years ago, I was awakened to a a dream in which I saw the Lord, as it were, standing over the earth, and He looked at me, (more like into me) and said (without words, yet I heard Him) "I AM 5 MINUTES OUT". It was so real. I flew out of bed, turned on the PC, and began to do a word-study (if a thousand years is as a day' according to scripture, then a half-day, 12 hours, is 500 years. I made an chart incrementally and realized we are in the literal 'years' of the wrapping up of the 'scroll' (Revelation 6:14, Isaiah 34:4) . I made a chart for myself (not that anyone 'knows the day or hour') but we are commanded to know the season we are in. In fact, God calls 'wicked' those who won't or do not acknowledge or look for His return as soon.(Mt. 24:36-51).  All I know is the Lord let me know His return is much, much sooner than anyone thinks. I am not setting 'dates' or 'times' on bible prophecy, Prophecy is a measuring tool and a guidepost, and when you cooperate with the Holy Spirit of God and allow Him to reveal Jesus, who is the Spirit of Prophecy (Rev. 19:10), it is a road map or means to lead His people, to prepare them, for what is up ahead.  I am not a scholar on trained bible teacher, nor am I an eschatologist, as was the panel of experts last evening. I am just a woman who has learned to listen to that small, still voice of her Messiah. No one knows the day nor hour of the Lord's return, yet, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus Himself sent to us at His departure from earth, does still work in increments of revealed revelation, and He navigates the times and seasons 'knowing the end from the beginning' (Is. 46:10). Only God knows the end (the Tav) from the beginning (Aleph). He 'reads' the whole book of time, and sets things in order and motion from back to front. God reveals prophetic timetables so we can be prepared, aware and be ready. Scripture tells us that from cover to cover: be prepared, be aware, be ready. (Luke 21:36).

 Not long after my husband passed away, his sister made me a CD of his favorite music, most of which he could play and sing quite well on guitar. One song, with lyrics originally written by the Beatles, and recorded by Crosby, Stills and Nash, is 'Blackbird'.  If I am out and about, or in the car, and that song comes on the radio, I have to pull the car over and just take it all in. I can still picture him, after a grueling 14 hour day, coming home dead tired from work, and picking up that guitar to sing away the blues, and get refreshed with the music. Certain songs that Ben would sing can still get to me. I have been changed forever by the man who sang to me and wanted me always to sing with him. Here is an excerpt from the lyrics to Blackbird: "Blackbird singing in the dead of night. Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise." 

 I remember often how I would come in the door and Ben would be sitting on the edge of the bed or sofa, and strumming away to 'Sanctuary' or 'V'Ahavta' from Marty Goetz  (c.Marty Goetz  'Sanctuary' CD 1999).
The words to the V'Ahavta' (Dt. 6:5-9) and 'Sanctuary' are inside of me in a way they can never be taken. God has used Ben's life to carve the truth of these words into me, and once the matrix of the most significant people and moments of our life happen, we can never go back to be who we once were.

 I hear the Lord tell me this morning "look up, your redemption draweth nigh'  (Luke 21:28). There are many ways we are redeemed. There is the final redemption, when we 'shall be changed' and our corruptible bodies receive His immortality, and we are made like Him. There is the daily redeeming; how we think, how we perceive, who we are. Then there is the redeeming of our lives, where God matches us up with the peoples and individuals who will most need us, so they can become all they were meant to be, and the ones we most need, so we can reach our destination. I know God is even now redeeming me in all these areas.

 One of my husband's favorite musicals was The Music Man  Whether it was the music Ben played on the guitar, or the shows he had acted or sung in, Ben and I knew that great lyrics could capture the essence of a life, a moment in time like nothing else. Quoting from Professor Harold Hill to the the librarian Marian Paroo: "Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering."  Harold Hill was right. Don't wait till tomorrow to experience life. Love today. Give it. Treasure it. Share it. Find it. Keep it. Bathe yourself in it. Your family. Your mate. Your children. Your God.

 One of my favorite songs Ben used to sing to me from The Music Man was the duet between the Librarian and Harold Hill, Till There Was You.  If I am out in public and that song is played somewhere, it stops me dead in my tracks. I can't move for a moment, and my face is wet with buckets of tears. I can still hear Ben singing that to me. There are certain songs and certain memories, that will become so precious to you in time, that they will form the matrix of your soul, and it will become a place where God will visit and dwell and imprint His understanding into you. Because the Lord wanted you to be born so He could know you. Not just the words of a lover, but the words of a God, to make them into your words:

  "Till There Was You." from The Music Man.

There were bells on the hill
But I never heard them ringing,
No, I never heard them at all
Till there was you.

There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
Till there was you.

And there was music,
And there were wonderful roses,
They tell me,
In sweet fragrant meadows of dawn, and dew.

There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No, I never heard it at all
Till there was you!