Save Me From the Land of Chalk Drawings!

               Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings
                 Where the Church is Living Today

September 3, 2003, re-worked December 8, 2005

In 1987 my son and I used to watch a children's program together called "Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings." It was a cartoon on a children's channel.

Simon was this very artistic kid who always had some chalk in his pocket and whose mind wasn't on school. There was this certain, tall, unpainted, wooden fence in front of a vacant lot that Simon had to walk by each day on the way to class. This young artist had gotten into the habit of sketching a bit each day on the fence. Nobody seemed to mind his graffiti and so Simon's world grew into "The Land of Chalk Drawings."

Either in reality or in his imagination The Land of Chalk Drawings would come to life. As Simon would walk by the graffitied fence a boy from The Land of Chalk Drawings would climb up the fence, from inside the vacant lot, sticking his head over the top of the fence, beckoning Simon to join him. Simon would then climb a ladder over the fence translating himself and we viewers into the Land of Chalk Drawings. There his chalk playmate would show Simon a problem that had arisen in the Land, that Simon might correct by drawing an additional chalk something-or-another.

The interesting thing about "The Land of Chalk Drawings." was that it was a two dimensional world. Everything was in colored chalk and flat. Simon had not learned to draw in perspective yet. And so as Simon climbed the fence and entered that Land everything became flat, just flat colored chalk. Even Simon himself turned into a two dimensional chalk boy like his friend. Something was lost between one dimension and the other, between the real world and the chalk world.

The plot of this cartoon came back to me after a man of God, speaking prophetically while under the power of the Holy Ghost, quoted a portion of Scripture. The Spirit of God was all over this saint. This is the Scripture that was repeated from the saint's lips:

"I AM HE that liveth,..." [Rev. 1:18a]

The Lord God Almighty was speaking through that man of God. It wasn't the man of God that was saying such a thing, but Christ Himself, by the Holy Spirit was saying again what was recorded in the Book of Revelation.

Jesus spoke that to John the beloved, who at 90 years of age, on the Island of Patmos, was carried by the Spirit of God into Heavenly places. There John saw the glorified Christ and Jesus spoke in that awesome voice, "I AM HE that liveth,..."

You would think that Jesus would have said, "I AM alive," because HE was dead and then HE was raised to new life. The phrase "I AM HE that liveth,..." however, says something so awesome, if you think about it.

If Jesus is that ONE "that liveth," then that means that all the Christians on Earth are, in a manner of speaking, in the Land of Chalk Drawings. They are not alive quite as Jesus is. We have a measure of life and vitality. But when Jesus rose from the dead, in that new body, he climbed the fence, out of that vacant lot of chalk drawings into a place where life is so far advanced that here we are dead in comparison!

Paul said "...HE [Jesus] is...the beginning, the FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD; that in all things he might have the preeminence." [Colossians 1:18]

Right now Jesus is the only ONE who has this measure of life. Even the saints in Heaven don't have their new resurrected bodies. They have a spirit body. And they await the "twinkling of an eye" when they will receive their new bodies.

Paul tells us "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised INCORRUPTIBLE, and we shall be changed." [1st Corinthians 15:52]

Oh precious brother and sister in Christ, one of these days, this dispensation of Grace, the time of the Gentiles, the time of the Holy Spirit, is going to come to an end. God is going to start Israel's clock ticking again. Suddenly this old World will slip out of the "Age of Grace" back into Old Testament mode and Israel will pick up the baton that the Church will leave behind. The Holy Ghost that was given at Pentecost will lift up off this old Earth. His "special time" of 2,000 years will be finished. God's focus will come back upon Israel.

Did you ever think of the fact that from Adam to the Manger was the time of the Father? From the Manger to the Ascension was the Time of Jesus. And From the Ascension to the time of the "twinkling of an eye" is the time of the Holy Spirit. Then God has a "changing of the guard." The church age will have ended. Israel moves back to center stage to complete their final seven years before Messiah comes. Then finally they receive their Messiah. Those final seven years of culmination are like the Old Testament times. The Holy Spirit still moves, but only on certain persons and in certain ways. The Holy Spirit will not be here, during the Tribulation, as The Comforter. There will be no church to comfort! There will be no Spirit Baptized people!

After the Rapture of the Church there will not be one single soul on Earth who is baptized in the Holy Ghost!! The Holy Ghost will escort the Church to Heaven and give the Bride away to the Son at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The Holy Spirit will no longer be on Planet Earth in the manner that HE is now here. The Spirit as Comforter of the church will depart with the church. As a result evil will not be restrained at all. The Comforter has restrained evil to a greater degree than we realize. St. Paul speaks of this in the following verse.

"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he [the Holy Spirit holds back the powers of darkness to some degree] who now letteth will let, [old english for "he who now holds back will hold back."] until he be taken out of the way." [2nd Thessalonians 2:7]

Paul gives away another bit of detail in Romans 8:11.

"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." [Romans 8:11]

Those who qualify to escape will be "quickened" or made even more alive, as the Holy Ghost lifts those ones on up into Glory. Those who have enough of the Holy Spirit within them, the brightly burning flame of the Holy Ghost, those will depart for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. They will be changed and will rise perhaps as Jesus rose on the day of Ascension. The Bride of Christ will arise to be given away at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. They will depart with the departing Holy Spirit. Those who depart will be those whom the Holy Ghost has complete possession of.

But those Christians who do not have the flame of the Holy Ghost burning brightly will suffer a terrible fate! Lukewarm Christians, who are quenching the Holy Spirit, who have not allowed the Holy Ghost to have all of them, who are only giving the Spirit of God part of themselves will not have the "super glue" holding them upon the coat tails of the departing Spirit of God! The Spirit of God will arise and depart. But the foolish virgins will be left, left because they need to stay and be purified by martyrdom and persecution so that they will truly die-out to self.

I'm tired of living in this Land of Chalk Drawings. I don't want to miss that glorious departure to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the awards banquet of Jesus Christ. I want to be alive in all the new dimensions that Jesus has promised to make me alive in!! I want to leave this World that is missing that glorious Heavenly dimension. Can you see what I'm writing about?? Do you catch my drift? This World has been broken until only Jesus can repair it. Only HE can make it new and clean and pure and right. But first terrible times must come upon Earth. And only a few qualify to escape those awful times. Only a few are pure enough to leave as Enoch left this World. Only a few are pure enough to miss death as Elijah missed death. But many must remain and be purified. I do not desire to be a half-baked believer. Lord, Jesus help me to die out, totally, to the World, the flesh and to all sin!"