Fill The Streets With Play

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Life and death are so close to being the same thing. If you haven’t experienced either I suppose one might think the two are opposites that never can be together, and yet the two are one.

We commonly miss moments to die because it’s depressing. Truth is loss can be very sad whether it be losing a high school wrestling match or a sunset on the best day of your life. Of course the loss of life is great loss that rich and poor both suffer.

Aging can be shocking.There is a moment when ‘that person in the mirror really isn’t me’! It’s just what I look like these days. Right? Help!

It’s hard being human yet being human is very common. I predict all who read this are humans who are dying and living, hoping and despairing, laughing and crying. The rub here is ‘ desparately wanting to hide all extreme shows of feelings.’ We say ” I don’t want you to know what I know about me so I will show only what I want you to see.” I think that’s sad. It means fellowship is not safe.

I am certainly not saying I have mastered being real and transparent . I am saying I am learning it’s better to cry like a child, hunger as a poor man, and want fellowship as one who knows how lonely he is for real friends.There is a Bible proverb that says “if you want to make friends be friendly.” It does not say if you want to make friends make contacts, customers , and strive to be popular .

One thing for certain about the Passover of Jesus is that something and someone had to die so humanity could get a new start and a forever new beggining.
He beat death to death and won real life so life could live. He did not die and rise from death as ritual or symbol. It happened so life can happen in life not a staged play of predictable outcomes.

You can believe this, doubt this, or debate this. My heart in writing this is to say “let’s really try humanity”.Let’s play it out and not just think it out. Let’s not even rehearse it out.
I say lets cry,laugh, and be together often too. Lets listen with eyes, ears, and hearts . We all are going through life ,death , and loss of what really matters with disappoinment. We can be instruments for hope too . How? By being present.

We can be honest and be the first to say “it’s scary out there.”

We can find something clusters of trees know all too well.
We need one another’s roots .
The roots come from where we mutually began.We are all humans and we need each other. When we learn we ‘Want Each Other too’?! We then enter through the door called ‘ fellowship of the dying, the living, the lost and the found.’

There is a hidden blessing in the midst of the fellowship I speak of.
This Jesus, Lord, and God is hid among us.
This hidden Jesus is our Brother.
The Son Of Man is The Son of humanity and is the inner GPS to who we are and who we can be.

He is brother and family among us, through us and alongside us. This horizontal Jesus looks like you and like me too. He looks like the person you have seen around, but do not know his name yet.

There is in our DNA a longing for something more than survival. It’s a childlike creativity. It’s a coming out of symbolic living and truly finding play. When you see a road sign that reminds the driver ‘ Children At Play’ consider this. God is at play! He is seeking drivers to abandon the old vehicle ,go for walk, and fill the streets with Play.

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Originally from New York, Dennis Cole completed his undergraduate degree at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. in 1971 and studied acting in Boston and NYC where he earned his Actor's Equity membership in 1975 after completing several New York stage productions. He was saved from the "Broad Way that leads to destruction" in 1983. After entering through the Narrow Gate that leads to life, he was called into ministry. In 1986 he attended Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. and completed his Master of Ministry degree 2 years later at Azusa Pacific Graduate School of Theology in southern California in 1988. That same year he and his wife Wendy entered into full time pastoral ministry. Dennis was a senior pastor from 1988 until 2002 in churches in California, Oregon and Michigan and Indiana., In 2001 Dramatic Christian Ministries was founded and became a full time ministry organization in 2002. He now travels extensively throughout the United States and other parts of the world presenting the Bible in the first person through acting. Dramatic Christian Ministries and the Narrow Gate Theatre bring the Bible in the first person to people in order to fully minister the Word of God. The focus of this drama ministry is to equip and uplift the church and to show the way to eternal life to the unsaved. Acting according to His Word invites people to encounter the Bible as it was first "breathed" by the Holy Spirit. Dennis also teaches acting in his recently started school and is involved in producing and directing live theatrical performances in Albuquerque, NM.

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