Kingdom Hearts and Jesus

"They'll come at you out of nowhere. The Heartless have great fear of [you]... That's why they'll keep coming after you no matter what." -Leon, Kingdom Hearts

A young boy, barely a teenager, sits on the beach he's known his whole life, and stares out at the ocean as the sun slowly sets. Near his closest friends, he says to them this. "It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. Why did I end up here? And suppose there [is more]... [we are] just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?" Sora, the boy, is questioning his destiny. Why am I here? What is my purpose? Isn't there more?

One night, he begins to learn it.

Awakened, he comes face to face with darkness itself. It looks uncomfortably like himself. He tries to fight it, but fails miserably on his own, and sees just how sinister darkness can be, but he also, by divine providence, is given a weapon. A blade, but not only that. A blade used for fighting evil, and unlocking the Hearts of people. The darkness separates Sora from his friends - especially the girl it seems he loves, named Kairi.

What follows in an extremely thrilling, epic, creative and hilarious adventure video game that takes both elements from the popular video game series 'Final Fantasy' and mixes it with the nostalgia and legacy of decades of popular characters and worlds from Disney films. I know I do posts like this quite often - finding spiritual significance in pop culture - but I really thought some things in Kingdom Hearts was profound enough to share with you all.

The game came out in 2002, and I got it about 2005, and just now completed it. The story is marvelous, and it's extremely fun to play, but it seems, especially near the end, there's a lot deeper meaning and spiritual themes coming into play.

First, we have the Enemy. Spoilers follow.

The Enemy, Ansem, sees every person, every being, every man, woman, child, as being inherently evil. He believes, thrives, and plants darkness in people's hearts... so much so, that they begin to loose their heart completely. Oooh, boy - see where I'm going?

They become The Heartless - a creature that shows no emotions, that is void of all love and life; all because of the darkness once deep has been exposed. Ansem thrives on darkness - his power depends completely on the Heartless, for without hearts, they are manipulable and controllable. Those who still have their hearts, he seeks to implant darkness and seize their heart.

Sora, though, has been given a mission. He's been given the Keyblade - a sword said to unlock people's hearts, and destroy darkness itself. With it, he embarks on a mission to seal the worlds from darkness with the power that is in his sword.

Near the end, Sora confronts the Enemy who has taken the form of his friend, Riku. At his feet lies the girl Sora has been searching desperately for since they were separated by darkness, Kairi. Riku explains that his power cannot be made full unless this girl, this princess, this bride... has completely lost heart.

"The Keyhole cannot be completed, so long as the last Princess of Heart still sleeps," the Enemy says. As Sora triumphs over the evil, he realizes she still sleeps. In a dramatic and heart-churning scene, Sora willingly and without reservation gives his life to save her.

Watch the cutscene yourself

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But, as the story goes, death could not hold him under. He returns, fully alive, and though the doors are sealed, and the world has almost been saved... he still has an Enemy to destroy...

Sora travels to the End of the World where he meets the King of Darkness himself. Ansem. He is beginning to set things in motion that will completely destroy the hearts of everyone, and darkness will sweep across eternity and all will be his. As he's about to fill himself with the power of Darkness, Sora proclaims the Truth to combat Ansem's lie.

"I know now... without a doubt... that Kingdom Hearts... is Light."

Or, allow me to paraphrase for my own purposes: "I know now, that without a doubt, the key to the heart... the key to the kingdom... is Light."

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

Ansem is defeated. In a beautiful cutscene, we see Sora promise Kairi, his girl, his Bride, that nothing can ever truly separate them. As the music plays, and the light of the Hearts are returned to the people, new life sweeps across the land, and everything is made new again. The Kingdom, literally, is restored, and the Bride is safe, thanks to the one who is Light. The Enemy vanquished, friends reunited, and the Hearts are set free. Wow.

Now, okay, to be fair, I have not played the sequel, though I will be soon. Chances are significant that any sort of plot device that is in the sequel could very well shatter the spiritual significance I've found in the first game, but just for a moment, feel the story the game is telling. I got pretty specific, but the overall message of Kingdom Hearts seems to be "The Heart is being attacked by darkness... the only thing to save and restore it is with the Light.'

Just as Sora has an enemy trying to steal the hearts of people and use the power of darkness to gain power, so do we. Our very real Enemy, Satan himself, has the same motivations. He wants to cripple and destroy your heart. Why? The same reason Ansem wanted Sora stopped - he wanted to stop him. If our hearts are set free with the Light, the Enemy fears us, because he knows what we're capable when we realize that 'Kingdom Hearts is, indeed, Light.'

Armed with Keyblades, swords, of our own (Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12) - the truth, we are to combat the Enemy as well. We must remember the sacrifice Jesus made to set us free, and we must remember how death could not defeat him. We must remember how, in the end, the Light of the World will ultimately triumph over evil once and for all, and the Kingdom will be restored, and everything made new again. It's a powerful truth, and it's ten times more epic than any video game you could ever play.

Remember the story you're in, remember the battle you're fighting. Remember to fight the lie with the Truth of the Light. Don't surrender your Heart to the darkness. You play a far too important role to allow that to happen.

Now if only we had our own Gummi Ships. That would be sweet.

Thanks for Reading,

-Matt

Lord of the Rings and Jesus - The Battle for Helm's Heart

"The dark tide flowed up to the walls from cliff to cliff. Thunder rolled in the valley. Rain came lashing down.

Arrows thick as the rain came whistling over the battlements, and fell clinking and glancing on the stones. Some found a mark. The assault on Helm's Deep had begun but no sound of challenge was heard within; no answering arrows came.

Then the Orcs screamed, waving spear and sword and shooting a cloud if arrows at any that stood revealed upon the battlements; and the men of the Mark amazed looked out, as it seemed to them, upon a great field of dark corn, tosses by a tempest of war, and every ear glinted with barbed light.
Brazen trumpets sounded.. The enemy surged forward... The lightning flashed, and blazoned upon every helm and shield the ghastly hand of Isengard was seen. They reached the summit of the rock; they drove towards the gates..." JRR Tolkien, 'The Two Towers'

Thus begins one of the pivotal battles in the story of 'Lord of the Rings.' The enemy of the free peoples of Middle Earth has forged an army of the foulest and most sinister soldiers imaginable, and they're going for where the people from the city of Edoras had hidden themselves - in the heart of a mountain; a fortress known as Helm's Deep.

What follows is an epic, devastating battle in which the Men of the Mark fight the Orcs of Isengard in arrow-firing, sword clashing, blood-shedding combat. If you've read the novels or seen the movies, you know how big of a deal the Battle for Helm's Deep was. Why did the evil wizard Saruman decide to send his soldiers and minions to attack the free people of Rohan? Why them, and why attack their settlement in the heart of the mountain?

I believe it's because Saruman could not stand, evil and powerful as he was, to be engaged in a war he would ultimately loose. He looked at those people, those free people led by a King, and felt such hatred that he wanted them dead, knowing he had already lost them.

Sounds a lot like our Enemy, doesn't it?

The thief, who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, looks upon the free children of God with such hatred, he does the same thing to us; he attacks us at our Helm's Deep - the heart. The heart, which is the very core to our life. The very thing Christ has set free - the very essence of our being. The good thing God put in us - the core of who we are, and who God is in our lives.

"Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life." - Proverbs 4:23, HCSB

We see in Lord of the Rings that the Rohirrim do just that - mustering up their courage, their strength, and, being led by the King, they attempt to guard their heart - they begin to fight off the Orcs attempting to seize Helm's Deep. Do you ever think of the battle for the heart in the same way? I'm going to capitalize that - it's so truly epic, it deserves it. Do you ever think about the Battle for the Heart in the same way? As the Enemy is ramming into the gates of the hold, they scream and shout as they rain arrows down upon the people and bang their spears and clash their swords. They obviously want to get in there. They want to kill. They want to steal. They want to destroy.

At that point, the people inside open their doors and say 'Come on in!!'

No, I'm kidding. Could you imagine? And yet... that's what so many of us do, don't we? Instead of guarding our hearts, we leave the door unlocked. Heck, sometimes, we let the Enemy in freely, don't we? We will sometimes invite him in. Scary thought, when put in perspective, isn't it? We invite him him by opening the doors and gates to the heart by the things we do, the things we say, the things we watch, read, listen to - the lives we live... like what's inside doesn't matter to us. Well, wait, what exactly is in the Heart?

"Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?" 1 Corinthians 6:19 HCSB

So.. what?

"Okay - each of us is now the Temple of God, so where, then, is the Holy of Holies? Your heart." -John Eldrege, 'Waking the Dead.'

Think about that. Your heart is the very place where the Holy Spirit dwells - where the Holy Spirit is, if you've put your faith and life in Christ. That's what they mean when they say 'You've got to let Jesus into your heart.' They mean that quite literally. God Himself comes to dwell in you the moment you put your faith in Him. The wonderful counselor makes His home within you, to always be with you. Cool stuff, huh?

Why are we so... lazy... in guarding our hearts, then? Why do we let the Enemy in so freely? What would have happened is the Rohirrim had just flung the gates to Helm's Deep open and said 'We welcome you, Enemy?' I think we don't realize how much of an attack we're under, and even if we did, I think we'd be scared. Makes sense - it's a scary thing fighting the one who wants to steal your happiness, destroy your life, and kill your spirit. The men of Edoras probably felt the same way. Scared. Unable and unwilling to defend the hold.

"So much... death..... what can men do against... such reckless hate?"
Aragorn, the True King speaks to him.
"Ride out with me. Ride out with me and meet them."

Fighting alongside the King, Theoden leads his men into battle with the Orcs of Isengard, and the epic Battle for Helm's Deep begins. "The sun is rising..." Gimli says.

We act like Theoden sometimes, don't we? Scared. Wondering what good fighting will really do in the end. What guarding the fortress, the Heart, will really be for. The King reminds us that the Heart is worth fighting for. He, himself, gave his very life to set it free - why wouldn't we try our hardest to guard the Heart from the enemy?

I believe that the Enemy doesn't have to do much to get into our hearts. He plants a tiny seed, and we water it. He gives us the tiniest bit of pain, or the smallest essence of doubt, and we latch onto it, and we let it grow. By believing his lies, we have let our guard down; we've swung the doors to Helms Deep and wide open and said 'Hey Satan! What are you trying to sell me?' and he comes in, and, literally, all hell breaks loose in our lives.

It is crucial to guard the heart. We are to do it 'above all else.' Why? Because it is the essence of our life, and the very dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

In Lord of the Rings, eventually, the Men of the Mark were able to drive away their attackers. Yes, the Enemy got in for a split second because Rohan let their guard down, but alongside the King, they had their victory. The enemies ran screaming to hide in the forest, Tolkien writes. The same, too, shall happen to our enemies, if we defend, if we guard our Hearts with the help of the King.

"Let this be the hour... we draw swords together!" - Theoden, Lord of the Rings

" Don't assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34 HCSB

"For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow..." - Hebrews 4:12 HCSB

Jesus has come to fight for and defend the Hearts of His people. He also says, to us, that the Bible is a sword. What better to defend the temple, the sanctuary, the hold, the castle of the Heart from a reckless, ever-attacking Enemy... than with the Sword of the King?

The enemy is coming. No, scratch that. He's already here. Let this be the hour you draw your sword. The hour is late, and the Enemy is breaking down your door. Trust and follow the King. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the source of life. To arms! CHARGE!

"This is a call to arms; gather soldiers! Time to go to war! This is a battle song; brothers and sisters, it's time to go to war!" - 30 Seconds to Mars, 'A Call to Arms,' - THIS IS WAR Album

Are you ready?

Here they come...

-Matt

Worlds Apart

"I am the only one to blame for this.
Somehow it all adds up the same.
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride,
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
with a world I try so hard to leave behind.
To rid myself of all but love;
To give and die..."

I feel like sometimes, I'm so close to God. I feel alive, and I feel vibrant, and I feel like I can conquer the world, and that Jesus Christ can radically change the world through me. Then, other times, I feel like I'm worlds apart from him. I feel dead. Motionless. Defenseless. Not able to life a finger to command the sin in my life. I'm redeemed; I'm saved. But it's still there; ready to strike like a lion; a thief ready to steal my happiness, kill my love, and destroy my life. (John 10:10a)

It's my fault, though. I am the only one to blame for this. Somehow it all adds up the same.

The selfish pride I fly upon says 'I love Jesus, but I try and save myself with my behavior.' But, like Icarus, I collide with the fire, my wings melt, and I begin the long fall back to earth - the world I tried so hard to leave behind.

How can I rid myself of all but love, and give and die?

"To turn away and not become
another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves
more deeply than the oceans,
more abundant than the tears
of a world embracing every heartache..."

Today, at church, Pastor Jerry was talking about The Enemy of ours. What I want to know is why he continues to pursue me after he knows he's lost me? Jerry brought up a passage that I actually read in John Eldredge's 'Waking the Dead,' which is an absolutely amazing book. I remember reading this, too. He says that the enemy fears what I am capable of, so, of course, he's going to do everything in his power to stop me from doing what I can actually do.

I think of it as a secret soldier, sneaking into the King's camp, taking the armor of his knights, and weakening them; taking their swords and dulling them to the point of being ineffective. I feel, sometimes, like that's what the Enemy is trying to do to me.

"All said and done I stand alone
amongst remains of a life I should not own.
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me..."

Why does it take so much for me to believe that God has not only saved me, but is willing to fight for me? This is such an outrageous concept to me; the Death of Jesus - the son of God. I mean, think about it. The death of His one and only son was less painful than the thought of spending eternity apart from me - from you. This is mind blowing and heart melting. Jesus saved me, but the infinite creator of the universe, the King of everything, the Lord of heaven, and the GOD of EXISTENCE loves me enough to practically KILL his own son... just so he could embrace me.

Me, the one who allows all this horrible scum in and out of my life, like I've given it a portion of my heart. Why wouldn't I fully give all that I am to the one who loves me like that?

"Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are,
because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart..."

I think my problem up to this point is I think I've been looking at this battle, this struggle, as a war I'm fighting for God, rather than a war he is fighting for me. I'm going to be really honest; I cannot defeat Satan. He is strong. He is powerful, and he is evil. I cannot defeat him. But God CAN, so I need to allow him to fight for me because, well, you cannot defeat God.

I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost.
And wipe away the crimson stains,
And dull the nails that still remain.
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour.
The battle between grace and pride;
I gave up not so long ago.

So steal my heart, and take the pain.
And wash the feet, and cleanse my pride.
Take the selfish, take the weak,
And all the things I cannot hide.
Take the beauty, take my tears
The sin-soaked heart and make it yours.
Take my world all apart.
Take it now, take it now.

And serve the ones that I despise.
Speak the words I can't deny.
Watch the world I used to love,
Fall to dust and thrown away.

Take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
Take my world apart...

Apart from him, I, we, can do nothing.

"This is the last time I'm starting over with you."

So, is it? Is this the last time I'm starting over? Is this the last time you're starting over? I hope so. I pray that you and I, whoever you are, reader, see the big picture, and see that God is willing to fight for us the battle we cannot possibly win. I love this about the God we serve. His love is infinite.

"Oh, he loves us. Oh, how he loves us. Oh, how he loves us. Oh, how he loves."

'I pray that you ... may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long
and high and deep is the love of Christ.' (Ephesians 3:17-19) That excites me to no end! I'm ready to rely on the Holy Spirit, I'm ready to really allow God into my life, and I'm ready to to live again.

Thanks for reading,
-Matt

- - - - -

'Worlds Apart' by Jars of Clay
'Valley of Tomorrow' by NeedtoBreathe

'How He Loves' by David Crowder

Jerry Davison's blog and John Eldredge's blog located off to the side.

"I Died Today"

A Sermon by Steve Whipple (Link)

I found that message on the church's computer last night, and found myself listening to the whole thing. It was from a series we did about a year ago about the launch of our church's capital campaign called 'The Wild Goose Chase." I love this part of the message:

"I've died so many times in my life, I can't even count how many; it's not even funny how many times I've died. I really have a hard time dying. Every time I do, I struggle with it... What I'm talking about is the sense of dying to myself. The key to dying to myself is not so much that part, but what happens after I die."

Then, he goes on to tell about a High School guy that used to attend 'The Ridge.'

"It's been nearly three years now since we launched [The Church at the Ridge]. God's been doing some amazing things here in three years, and it wasn't too long after we started, there was this High School kid came to one of our services, and I don't even remember what we talked about, but I do remember he came walking out, and he took me by the hand, with tears streaming down his face, and he said "I died today.""

Wow. "I died today." Such a powerful thing to say, and such a hard thing to actually do. I totally understand what my Pastor was saying when he said "I've died so many times in my life, I can't even count how many; it's not even funny how many times I've died. I really have a hard time dying. Every time I do, I struggle with it." That's extremely true with myself - I think every Christian goes through it, too, at some point or another. Dying to ourselves, and pursue with intentionality the Holy Spirit with passion and excitement. We leave ourselves behind, and we are totally passionate about God's plan and his work - a friend of mine once described this as a 'Jesus-High.'

"Then Monday comes," like my Pastor says. Monday and the ordinary come back around, and you're no longer dead to yourself - you're living for yourself again, and are dead to the Holy Spirit. How scary is that, huh? Trusting yourself instead of the one who created, redeemed, and saved your life. I've gone through it many times. Starting over and over again on this spiritual journey that should be a one-time deal.

Starting over. New life. What am I, a cat? Do I have these nine lives I have to go through to get to where I need to be? What does the Bible say?

This is one of my all-time favorite passages in scripture. You can feel the hope and love radiating off of these words as you read them.

¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! ¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

(2 Corninthians 5:17-21 NLT)

'A New Creation!' 'A New Life!' 'COME BACK TO GOD!' What powerful words. There's never been a point in my life, even when I was a kid, that I didn't believe in God. I consider this to be a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because my parents raised me like they should have - teaching me the Bible and who Jesus was, etc. It's bad because it took 14 years for me to see the difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Jesus. In fact, that is what Steve, my Pastor who did the message I linked to at the top, has been talking about in Church.

Besides that, though, my question remains. 'How do I die to myself and stay dead?'

I think this is where I'm heading these next weeks. For a while, I was concerned with what God wants me to do with my life. I discovered, through the counseling of friends, through messages taught by several Pastors, and studying the scriptures that sin, indeed, is a hinderence.

That might seem obvious. I mean, everyone goes around saying that. But what does that really mean? I believe the sin in us is keeping us from God. Not that we're our old sinful creatures, but the sin that lives in us is trying to control us - the Enemy is trying to control us.

He, the Enemy, would love nothing more than to make a bunch of spiritually dead, Christian zombie drones out of all of us - living for ourselves rather than living a life 'fully alive' (as John Eldredge puts it)

I have sin in my life that I just can't seem to shake... and that's my problem. I'm trying to shake it myself, instead of relying on the Holy Spirit to shake it for me. It seems all this time I am allowing the Holy Spirit to work through me when I feel like it. I'm not relying, counting, on the Holy Spirit to move me. I've been looking at Him more like an aid, rather than a 'counselor.' In Summer camp, what does a counselor do? He directs the paths, places, and activities his campers participate in, right? That is what I want to allow the Holy Spirit to do! Direct my paths like it says in the book of Psalms.

"Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow! Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you." -Psalm 25:4-5

Pray for me as I pray for the Holy Spirit to be a supremely active part of our lives. Through him, God can do amazing things through us! What an amazing thing.

Thanks for reading!
-Matt