LifeBlood (story)

Note: This is a piece I have pulled out of the archives. I thought it might be fun to post this during this week as a way to celebrate both National Poetry Month (which is in April) and Holy Week. I will plan to do poetry readings videos for the rest of week, if anyone's interested (These are specifically available for my family and friends on Facebook.) (I'll still do them to amuse myself even if no one's interested- lol. :-)) The text of this entry and a little introduction is below. (Today's entry is not really exactly a poem but I thought it was fitting anyway!) Enjoy! Happy Easter! 
In honour of Holy Week and The Lord Jesus, I also wanted to read poems reflecting on the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us when He died and rose to pay for all sins for all time. We can have forgiveness of sins and salvation from the hell we deserve and entry into the Heaven we don't deserve all through our faith in the love God has for us and the salvation He has provided through Christ! (Romans 10:9-13) ................................................................................


This is a story I wrote a few years ago for a flash fiction contest where I had to use no more than 100 words. This is sort of a sci-fi dystopian kind of story with a spiritual message that I hope will be evident enough, particularly on Holy Saturday. We know that blood leaving the body often is a precursor to the end of life, as in hemorrhaging; however, blood leaving the body can also be a precursor to the beginning of new life, as in a transfusion.
The Life is in The Blood.



"LifeBlood" 
(copyright Nathan Ludwick 11/10/2017)
(Leviticus 17:11)

Blood. It oozes and swirls as bodies descend. Every language utters its last gasp. Throats tighten and pulses stop. Consciousness ebbs.  Death reigns everywhere. The stench overwhelms. Awash in red, flesh melts. Bones bathe beneath. Everywhere it seeps. The surge never stops. Veins' vessels vanquish vitality. Streams rush down in an inexorable pull. A planet bleeds from the inside. Darkness envelopes and consumes. Everything reaches a full stop.  Luminosity looms large. The edge of beyond beckons. Infinity and mortality implode. Paradox proffers paragon. Mysteries combine and confound. The bleeding begins anew. A planet bleeds on the outside. Life flows. Blood.

A Dusting of Stargazing

I'm a bit late for All Saints' Day, but I had been thinking on this earlier and thought it fit well. Evolutionary theory says that we are stardust- that we are literally made of the atoms of exploding stars through the Big Bang and evolution. I've seen this explained in movies where it's made to sound all cosmic and romantic because the sense of eternity that we associate with stars, which can last for so many ages. It's like a touch of The Divine, you could say. And The Bible says that's halfway right. The Divine has made us with eternity in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) We are made to be eternal beings. We are made of dust alright- but it's dust from the ground, not the stars. (Genesis 2 explains that God made Adam from the dust of the ground and then made Eve from one of his ribs.) The Bible mentions this a couple of times. Psalms 103:14, in detailing the depth of God's compassion, explains that He remembers how we are formed, that we are but dust. From ashes to ashes and from dust to dust- we are made from the dust and to the dust we will return. (Genesis 3:19 and Ecclesiastes 3:20)
Another passage talks about this, but I think it's one that gets buried in the midst of a super famous chapter about the Resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:35-49
English Standard Version (ESV)

The Resurrection Body
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”;[a] the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall[b] also bear the image of the man of heaven.

The evolutionary theory ascribes a divine composition to our bodies without acknowledging The Divine Being Who "infused us with holy". (To briefly quote Chris Rice's "The Final Move") It is true in that sense that we are made of the Bright Morning Star of Heaven (Revelation 22:16). He made us in His image. He is the only reason we can take wonder at our bodies and our creation. The glory is reflected in us the created but it reflects back to The Creator! When we marvel at the beauty of the moon's shimmering brightness at night, in one sense we are marveling at the moon, but ultimately we're marveling at the source of the moon's light- the sun. In the same way, when we marvel at humanity because we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalms 139:13-14), we are really marvelling at the source of our wonderfully made bodies- The Son.
Psalms 8 asks God, "What is man that You care for him?" We are but dust, yet God made us a little lower than the angels. In our search for wonder and meaning in that wonder, we must wonder as we wander about the wonder around us and within us and it should lead us to the One Whose Name is Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God.
And when we realize we are not as strong as we think we are (that's a Rich Mullins reference), we can acknowledge our need for The God Who created the cosmos and everything in it. He's the only One Who can bring new life to dying stars and planets. He Himself came from Heaven to die to pay for all sins. And because the Eternal One of Heaven rose, we know we will also rise in Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:14) Our faith in Him assures us of our place with Him. And then we become complete in Him- our frail forms of dust from the ground are transformed into Morning Stardust instead as we take our place beside The Ancient of Days in the heavens- in Heaven- forever. :-)
Praise God for His amazing love that fills us with wonder every time. Romans 5:8 is forever wondrous to me- Jesus, You are the Wonder and Mystery I seek to behold. May I ever be captivated by Your awesomeness too great for words.

"Looking for Faith" (song)

There are a few themes that are simply repeated over and over and over again in The Bible. Chief among these must be the need for faith. The Christian life cannot be lived without faith. It is necessary to please God (as Hebrews 11:6 tells us) and it's how the righteous of the Old Testament walked with God- by faith. As Jesus told us in John 6:35, He is the Bread of Life and all who come to Him shall never hunger and those who believe in Him shall never thirst. And then verse 40 reminds us that it's The Father's will that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life and He will raise us up on the last day. Genuine faith in Christ is demonstrated through the Godly actions that it manifests, but we can't have one without the other. Faith that doesn't produce good works isn't really genuine (as James 1-2 points out), but good works of self-effort that don't come from a place of faith in Christ are worthless as well. Whoever comes to Jesus must have faith that He has spanned the space between us and God with His cross- and through His Resurrection, He has given us the hope of new life in Him for this life and eternal life in the next. So as we follow along the straight and narrow way, we must keep walking as Jesus did in faith.


"Looking for Faith"
(parody of "Looking for Space" by John Denver; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 8/1/2015)
(Deuteronomy 7:9, Isaiah 40:28-31, Psalms 103:1-5, Romans 1:17, 1 John 5:1-5 and 13-15, Habakkuk 2:4, James 2:14-26, 2 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Timothy 4:7-10, Hebrews 12:1-2, Revelation 14:12, Revelation 21:5-8 (ESV), James 5:5-8, Mark 9:14-29, Mark 10:13-16, Mark 10:46-52, Matthew 6:25-34, John 16:29-33, John 17:20-21, John 20:24-29, John 20:30-31, John 14:1-6, John 16:1, John 16:23-24, Matthew 21:18-22, Matthew 15:21-28, Matthew 9:1-8, Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 11:12-14 and 20-26, Luke 5:17-26, Luke 7:44-50, Luke 8:22-25, Luke 8:40-56, Luke 9:37-43, Luke 11:9-10, Luke 12:28, Luke 17:5-6, Luke 17:11-19, Luke 18:15-17, Luke 18:35-43, Luke 21:18-19, Luke 21:36, Luke 22:45-46, Luke 24:39-43, John 1:12, John 1:43-51, John 3:14-21, John 3:36, John 4:46-54, John 5:24, John 6:35-40, John 7:37-38, John 9:35-38, John 11:25-27, Matthew 13:53-58, Matthew 14:22-33, 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 and 23-24, Matthew 18:1-6, 2 Corinthians 6:2, Matthew 11:15, 2 Timothy 2:7-13, Luke 24:13-36, Hebrews 11:1-6, Matthew 8:5-13, Ephesians 2:8-10, Matthew 8:23-27, Luke 18:1-8, Ephesians 3:1-12, John 10:10, Isaiah 53:1, Romans 3:9-31)


On the road to Emmaus
Near crying, two guys commiserate
Suddenly this other Guy comes join the fray
When they speak, He rebukes them
'Cause their belief's near nil
He explained what Scripture says about Him

And He's looking for faith
Will He find some when He comes?
And He's looking, but no one understands
It's a mystery
One through Holy Ghost is clear
One that's outlined- 3 Ephesians
And one we must preach and declare

And you know, 18 Luke 8 verse
Will He find faith?- Now go read
Judge who's lost gives some justice to widow's plea
When we look to our Father
Certainly He's always fair
We'll find from Him speedy justice when we plead

And He's looking for faith
Will He find some when He comes?
And He's looking but no one understands
Well, His grace redeems
But find this verse right here
11 line 6 in Hebrews
Must have faith to please The Savior

6:2 2nd. Corinthians
Now's the day to get saved
Christ paid our ransom
Jesus said we must have faith

When you look in 1 [one] James
In verse 5 through 8- that part
When you're asking, use faith with all your heart
Faith is the victory!
Substance of what's not seen
Salvation lies (in) 2 Ephesians
It comes by faith in Jesus' grace
God makes me fly like an eagle
Wait on Him though
The right live by faith!
Ooohhhh!