In A Plain Box

I loved reading this story, I've only included part of it.

On January 25, 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered during a routine inspection by the mine's superintendent. Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the "Cullinan," it was the largest diamond ever found.

Frederick Wells was 18 feet below the earth's surface when he spotted a flash of starlight embedded in the wall just above him. His discovery was presented that same afternoon to Sir Thomas Cullinan, who owned the mine. Cullinan then sold the diamond to the Transvaal provincial government, which presented the stone to Britain's King Edward VII as a birthday gift. Worried that the diamond might be stolen in transit from Africa to London, Edward arranged to send a phony diamond aboard a steamer ship loaded with detectives as a diversionary tactic. While the decoy slowly made its way from Africa on the ship, the Cullinan was sent to England in a plain box.

Isn't this a graphic picture of how God has come to us, as it were hidden within the plainness of a human box, contained within our fleshly humanity. So many looking for something, someone who walked and lived amongst us for 33 years and missed seeing him.
Is it any different today, God the Father now clothed in us as us is like then, now also not seen by so many.

Rich

Seeing The Big Picture

Partial vision is pretty much the same thing as being totally blind if with the ‘vision’ it does not bring into our inner being a spiritual adjustment.

As God presents to us His unfolding heavenly pattern in greater fullness and in His light the potential is there to see as well as becoming that much more adjustable.
With each new adjustment there is a new faith-comprehension.

Oh to BE more adjustable that we might appreciate divine vision. Our Father is working with a foreknowledge of a future day which is imminent and this fuller vision alone will be the answer. He must lead each one to embrace it even though it seems “revolutionary” and too idealistic for this hour.
Many retire to the cautious way of quiet safety, and reject the new order which God is bringing in because they are afraid of the divine order. Yet there is surely coming a day when their programs will flounder, and all sorts of expediencies will then be resorted to with no faith-comprehension.

There is a deep groaning and shaking going on within the hearts of those who are afraid to go on in the things they have dimly seen; and those who are afraid not to go on-even though what they have seen seems presently impossible. If we dare to be counted with this later group we shall not be caught off guard nor found warring against eventualities, contingencies and emergencies. As we move on in His light we begin to see how ALL things, whether good or evil, are NOT ends in themselves.

Rich

I Want To See

What you see is different from what you look at!

I find it fascinating, when we loose sight of Him, as it were in loosing our bearings, our spiritual equilibrium how easy it is try and see through what Father is doing in the life of another.
Without embracing the process of being processed of the Father we will only live vicariously with the Lord. Damn, and there it is again, "Who do you say that I AM?"

It is through this inner correcting that our Father is accomplishing the opposite of this; “Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish.”
The lie of ‘blind faith’ has kept us groping in the dark for far too long. The just living by faith is not talking about going for broke, a last ditch effort, a leap into the unknown, or walking blindly. All of that is describing in my opinion us still trying to live apart from Christ in us as us.
If it is no longer I that lives, never the less I do live, but my living is now because of the Life of Another, then maybe I have at my disposal in Christ the ability to SEE!

The famine we are experiencing in the body of Christ has nothing to do with a shortage of bread or water, but something far more substantial, the Word of God Himself, and that Word being revealed to and in us as our ONLY life!
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by feeding on Him our true bread from heaven. A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

I encourage you in Christ to choose to embrace the loving correction He is bringing into your life, so that you will have a living hope that you are abounding in, and not a substitute hope trying to live it out because of what He is doing in another’s life.

Rich

Seeing is, Believing

Seeing the world through the eyes of others.

The caption under the picture I chose for here was, “You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can encourage others.”

One theme I am permanently stuck in and trust I will never get out of is, the “unconditional love” of God the Father!
The main reason I redundantly use the prefix of ‘unconditional’ with regards to Love, is because at best the only so called love any of us have ever experienced is about performing measuring up, ergo if it is sufficient, we will then ‘be loved.’ Interestingly Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Only in seeing, knowing, experiencing this unconditional love will we ever discover the ability to move away from what is nailed down, obvious, and secure and walk out into the desert without rational explanations to justify our decisions or to guarantee our future.
The journey of faith across the chasm between knowledge and experience is what is calling out to us from within the Father’s unconditional love for us. We prefer to read the map rather than visit the place. The specter of our actual unbelief persuades us that it is not the experience that is real but our explanation of the experience. Often it’s our beliefs—which William Blake called “the mind-forged manacle”—distances us from the grip of personal experience.

Unlike the children of Israel being lead out of Egypt’s bondage, we are being lead out from something far more insidious, Adam.
We are either still in the first Adam, or in the last Adam-Christ. If any man be in Christ he is a whole new creation, the old has passed away and all things have become new.
It says that the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not SEE.
The Father’s intention is to open our blinded eyes causing us to see, and in seeing, we experientially enter into that which He has prepared for us.

Becoming rooted, grounded, founded and established in the truth of the Father’s unconditional love is going to encompass a life time. It is the Father’s good intention to press into our hearts a living knowing, that we ARE Loved!
Jesus, as the revealer of the Godhead, defines God as love. In light of this revelation, we have to abandon the cankerous, worm-eaten structure of legalism, moralism, and perfectionism that corrupts the Good News into an ethical code rather than a love affair.

We have the choice set before us to either keep believing in the distorted, disfigured, unpredictable mean God, the god of this world, (Satan) has and keeps before us or, we can allow ourselves to be fully, lovingly embraced by the God and Father that Jesus came to reveal.

Rich

Is That Nudge, God

I haven’t had the time I’ve wanted, putting up my thoughts here on my blogs, because something far more important has taken precedence, a good friend and brother has been with me since Wednesday, he has come all the way here to Ontario from Nova Scotia to try and save his marriage. He has and is seeking counseling from trusted people not far from me.
In the mean time it has been a non stop time of deep and very intimate exchanges of Papa bringing to the surface within us both such wonderful and liberating security and freedom as He continues to root and deeply establish us in and with the assurance of His 100 % grace and Love.

The following quotes are from 3 different days of Oz Chambers, I have them here only because of what has been and is being fleshed out, not only in my brother’s life but mine as well. I trust Papa will encourage and witness to your heart as you read them.
As Father permits, I hope to share more of what is difficult to describe other than what our brother Paul writes about in the Scriptures, of where the Spirit is Lord, and in that atmosphere, we are being changed from glory to glory.
I am in awe and deeply humbled being an eye witness to the miraculous power of Papa’s love doing and accomplishing the impossible.

Rich

It is a question of obedience, and instantly the relationship is perfected. Turn away for one second out of obedience, and darkness and death are at work at once.

All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. "I suppose I shall understand these things some day!" You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming "wise and prudent."

The Atonement of Jesus has to work out in practical, unobtrusive ways in my life. Every time I obey, absolute Deity is on my side, so that the grace of God and natural obedience coincide. Obedience means that I have banked everything on the Atonement, and my obedience is met immediately by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

It was said of Jesus - "He shall not fail nor be discouraged," because He never worked from His own individual standpoint but always from the standpoint of His Father, and we have to learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God's Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible which never were possible before. Getting into the stride of God means nothing less than union with Himself. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don't give in because the pain is bad just now, get on with it, and before long you will find you have a new vision and a new purpose.

Losing My Religion

I was awakened way to early this morning by my woofing, barking dog, I tried to get back to sleep, but it just wasn’t going to happen.
But more than this disturbance, there was something far more disturbing, Papa speaking to my heart. He is so good at disturbing the comfortable, and comforting the disturbed!

I guess I’m going to discover afresh what I might be thinking with regards to Him disturbing me, what I truly believe by living and thinking out loud here one more time.
For whatever reason over the past couple of days I have been thinking of Naaman the leper in the Bible and how his story is what Father is speaking through to me as far as loosing my religion. Let’s take a look shall we?

During the course of his ministry Jesus returned to Nazareth. The people were amazed at how different Joseph’s and Mary’s son had become. They expected him to do miracles as he did in Capernaum, but because familiarity breeds indifference, if not contempt, Jesus told them that God’s special people don’t always receive the blessing: “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:25-27).

The whole story of Naaman in 2Kings 5 intrigues me. What launched this man on his journey of wholeness was the Father working through a young captured Israelite girl that was a maid to Naaman’s wife. This maid says to her mistress, “If only my lord would betake himself to the prophet in Samaria! He would have cured him soon enough of his leprosy.”
Long story short, Naaman has permission from his master to go and seek out the prophet regarding his leprosy and possibly being healed. There are a great number of hindrances and obstacles that would try to discourage us from stepping out of our comfort zones simply being obedient, and this man was no exception.
Naaman was no different than any of us with his preconceived expectations of how this was all going to unfold.

The prophet doesn’t even appear to this powerful and influential man seeking him, but in fact simply sends his servant out to speak to him. Naaman is instructed to dip himself seven times in the Jordan River, please read 2Kings 5:9-13. This important man is so infuriated with this blatant display of disrespect, he is ready to forget the whole thing and turn around and go home, until, once again a servant says to him. “Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean?"

In the process of choosing to be obedient dipping himself seven times in the dirty river, Naaman first lost his anger, then his pride, then his leprosy.

What is it going to take in our discovering all that Father has for you and me apart from simply being obedient to whatever he is saying to us? Remember the foolishness of God is greater than all of man’s wisdom. He continues in this hour to offend our minds in order to reveal our hearts. Not to shame us or condemn us, but to make known to us we do NOT have to remain in our present state whatever that might be, there is a way of escape, and it’s called Grace!

I’m going to close by once again quoting Darin Hufford here, “What are you willing to give up, if it meant by giving it up you would open a part of your heart to know the truth about God? What separates those you get it and then continue to get it and grow in it and continue to get more and more and more of the real heart of God, what separates those people from other people has to do with blockades that we have in our minds that restrict us from hearing or from seeing and actually getting the message.
I’m beginning to see things in peoples lives that don’t get it, and you can see immediately why they don’t get it, like its immediately you can see they don’t get it because they refuse to let go of this that and the other and because of that they will be blinded and until they are willing to give that up.”

Rich

Willing to Give Up

The past couple of pod casts from the Free Believers Network, into the wild have been so refreshing I thought I’d mention them here.
The one from two weeks ago was, “Should I be doing more” and last weeks, “Giving up.”
Here is a bit of what Darin shared on the giving up pod cast. “What are you willing to give up, if it meant by giving it up you would open a part of your heart to know the truth about God? What separates those you get it and then continue to get it and grow in it and continue to get more and more and more of the real heart of God, what separates those people from other people has to do with blockades that we have in our minds that restrict us from hearing or from seeing and actually getting the message.
I’m beginning to see things in peoples lives that don’t get it, and you can see immediately why they don’t get it, like its immediately you can see they don’t get it because they refuse to let go of this that and the other and because of that they will be blinded and until they are willing to give that up.”

One of the greatest hindrances to our continued walk of faith in coming to know the truth of the Father’s love for us and to live out of that reality, is being seduced into believing what our soul senses are blasting us with is in fact the truth.
I’ve shared this quote several times already, but it fits in here well. “The primary realities of this universe are NOT observed by physical senses. God’s presence works at a far deeper level than eyes, ears, and rationalism can touch. Faith is our link to what is UNSEEN, helping us to see God’s will and giving us the strength to obey it.” (Wayne Jacobsen-The Naked Church).

Here is an additional quote from The Naked Church, “Get involved with people in need. People who say the church doesn’t need a miracle today aren’t spending time with anyone who really needs one. When you see human need in light of God’s love, you won’t be able to sit back unaffected. The disciples got involved, even if unsuccessfully. But only people who are willing to risk failure in the use of supernatural power will engage the process to grow in its use.”

The Scripture I was musing upon the past couple of days is about a prophet named Elisha who has warned the king of Israel about an impending assault on the city by armies of the Arameans, here is some of conversation, “One of his servants said, "No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." So he said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him." And it was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan." He sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see” And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

It seems over and over Father is driving home to my heart the knowing reality that this walk/journey we have been called into, is to BE a supernatural-natural everyday expression of seeing Him and what He is doing.
It is a continued revelation of Papa’s love for us that will free us to lay down, give up that which unknowingly has kept us living as people with our eyes wide shut to His active involvement in our lives and the lives of those around us.

I encourage you to do what Jesus said to do, “Try me, test me, prove me, and see if I will not pour out unto you a blessing.” In my opinion that blessing is in realizing because of the purity of His heart that we are one with, we have an open window to see Him in the now!

Rich

Seeing Him

The picture I’ve chosen here spoke so loudly of this One who seems to be so silent, at least to the natural senses.
Many different times I have pondered on these Scriptures; “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.”
Of course this is speaking of Moses, and yes this is a pre-Christ in you picture, and yet this man was able to endure, to persevere, being steadfast all coming out of this invisible One. Wow!

Another passage of Scripture Father spoke through long before I even began to see Him in me as me was this; “I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains These are the things I will do, And I will not leave them undone."

Once again Papa is making it known to me that if there is anything but Him as my focal point of reference, I will be walking in my own light, and ever so subtly being drawn into having twisted within me a form of godliness, but having NO power.
It is the easiest thing in the world to do being a follower of Christ to settle for anything less than Knowing Him and all that that encompasses.
Like Moses I choose to go outside the camp in order to know Him as my ALL!

Going back to the picture I choose for this entry was this quote from Mark Twain attached to the picture; “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
In my deafness and blindness I am trusting in the visible audible One, although invisible and seemingly mute to the naturally minded man, I am experiencing His kindness.

What joy fills my heart realizing that this loving caring Father is making the impossible possible, slowly but truly transforming me into one who is child like, one who is able to see and hear and enter into all that is barred from those ruled by their wits. And yet I hear the laughter the sounds of freedom filling my inner senses knowing so many more of my siblings are discovering the portal of His grace!

Therefore, continue to grow in the grace and true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rich

Seeing The Unseen

I’m going to launch out into something the Father is making SO real to and in me.
I was talking with my wife and she had the TV on and said, isn’t that a guy you use to listen to, I wasn’t sure what or who she was talking about, as I looked and listened to what was being said, I heard the one brother saying in response to his guests, “So you’re saying, confess your faults to one another and you will be NAILED!” He was joking, as he was simply addressing what has happened to this God directed opportunity to experience His grace and healing within our individual lives, but in community as well, when we confess our sins to one another.

Family of God, we have NO fricken idea of the power of the One Scripture points to, “Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” Of course we do the little dog in the back window of the car and do the head bobbing yes, of course that is true, but is it-really?

My wife was sharing with me as she was taking her bath this morning how yesterday at school (it was a day off for the kids) she and her colleagues were in several different meetings. The one meeting was about a project called “The Danny Project,” how to help with the long term effects of poverty within the lives of children. Her school was the one chosen from all of the schools in our county to go to Toronto later this fall to a national get together addressing this growing and crippling erosion.

I’ve said all of this to get to the root of the problem, my wife has like all of us, been crippled by the one and same enemy common to us all, Satan.
Lucifer (Satan) was once the ‘light-bearer’ created to direct all glory and majesty back to God alone. When he fell, was cast down to earth, he no longer retained that capacity, in fact he is now commonly called ‘the angel of light’ masquerading himself as one who is beautiful, truthful etc.
Here’s the kicker, those who have been re-born, are now the true light-bearers, and this enrages Satan beyond imagination.

MY wife has struggled form the time she was a young girl with the sound of her voice and consequently soon settled into shutting down, in fact loosing her voice, not physically but just didn’t want to talk any more than necessary unneeded risks. There has never been too many times when she would open her mouth trying to express her heart without a huge assault of incrimination and bludgeoning upon her from the inside where no one sees, but she did, and once again out of the horrific torture this was, shut up!

I don’t want this to turn into a book here, so please bare with me, if necessary I will stop shortly and continue with the rest of my thoughts on my other blog, its that important to speak this forth!

My wife said to me this morning that yesterday in the Danny Project meeting she spoke up-out several times expressing her heart thoughts regarding how they might address the issues of poverty and its long term effects upon the children. She said once again her heart was beating so fast, so hard she thought for sure everyone must be able to hear this wild noise. In spite of the personal assault on her by speaking out, she continued to go forward.
As I listened, I could hear the Father speaking to my heart through all of this inner anguish she was still experiencing from yesterday’s events.
I realized this, we are by nature at our core, spiritual beings, and when we are re-born that connection is a permanent one, ‘he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.’

We have no comprehension of the spirit power hidden within the very words we speak, and it was this fresh realization-revelation that one of the main reasons Satan is hell driven to shut any of us down is because of the power of the Spirit of our Father not only speaking personally to us, but then opening our mouth to utter his words.

The first recording reference of God speaking is in Genesis 1:3; “And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.”
It is the intention of our Father to invade this world of death, lies, fears, darkness, deception and illusions with the truth, love, hope, peace etc of His words he has formed within our spirit.
Our enemy knows the power of God’s word better than any Christian, he fears His words, by His word he was cast down from heaven, and now knows that the Father is again now speaking, invading his world of darkness through His son Jesus Christ that is the only life of the believer!

I’m going to stop here for now, its getting way to long, I will continue later on my other blog.

Rich

Do You See What I See

My wife has been getting estimates on window and door replacements. One representative told her his company was best because it was part of an organization assembled for the sole purpose of ensuring that they were all on the same page when it came to window installation. Apparently, only the most respected contractors were invited to share their input. The guy talking to my wife said it was interesting to watch these big-name contractors, all with huge egos, debating and arguing over the course of two days over the best way to install a window, but eventually they hammered out a consensus.

When she shared this with me, I couldn’t help but see me in this story. I began to see once again how very easy it is to forget that Papa is love, and become so focused on seeing only my point of view at the expense of how much more my life could be enriched in (listening) hearing the Father’s heart being expressed through those like me who are growing and learning of His grace as well.

I love this quote from last weeks pod cast with Wayne and Brad from the God Journey pod cast: “Its not because there's conflict, not because people see things differently, it's how we treat people who see things differently.” I do not want to be blinded by my need to have my ego pumped up at the expense of not extending His love that is poured out on me toward others.

Something else that made His heart so evident to me is what my friend Dave shared recently: “I realized that my passion for photography had somewhat faded. At least the passion part. I do really enjoy it but I concluded that I would have more enjoyed knowing those people. That feeling out of place was a sense that if I joined that club it would be a knowing one another only after the photography (after the flesh, perhaps).”

I realize I am quoting several different ones here, but the combined pieces make up such a living mosaic it’s hard to know when to stop when so much life is hitting you between the eyes. Here is something from a wonderful friend I am just beginning to know, Amy over at Walking in the Spirit.

What is becoming so real, so breath taking to me, is in seeing and hearing how so many of His sons and daughters are being brought into a vibrant, thriving, living encounter with the Father of their spirit, and the kicker is, it’s being done without the aid of any mediator other than the man Christ Jesus!

If we own nothing, then there is nothing to defend, and nothing to loose.

Rich

And the Blind Shall See

Even a blind man can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of orchards in one seed!


My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Rich

I Can Only Imagine

Listening to the illustrative language Jesus used was such a wonderful blending and weaving of the natural sights and sounds the average person would normally encounter, and yet, those words more often than not were but as colored pictures on a menu pointing to the hidden substance unseen in the heavenly kitchen.

I was thinking this morning about this illustrative language he used in referring to himself as ‘the door’ in the Gospel of John chapter 10.
So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

It’s funny how a simple fleeting thought, much like a butterfly that lights upon one flower only to quickly search out another could be seen as almost magical at times.
Such a thought lighted on me this morning, and it was within this passage that some of the hidden wonder and awe began to draw me into this portal.
I began to look upon the use of the word, ‘door’ as something that I don’t normally associate its meaning to, the thought of it being a portal much like that used in C S Lewis’ book, The Lion Witch and Wardrobe, how one of the children (Lucy) discovers that in going into a huge clothing cabinet it turns out to be but a portal transporting her and her other siblings into a far away place, a land called Narnia, the sheer wonder and awe that captured their hearts defied all logic and rational comprehension.

Is it possible that as Jesus referred to himself as ‘the door, that he was in fact a living portal whereby anyone who chose to respond to Him was as in the language used in the bible, ‘translated (transported) out of the realm of darkness into a (previously unseen ~click) realm of light and love so real that the wording of language seems to melt in ones mouth trying to describe it?

Like the line from the movie The Matrix, where Neo who has been disconnected from the Matrix and who is being rebuilt as it were, (all of his muscles have totally atrophied in never having used them) says at one point as he is lying on a surgery table, “Why do my eyes hurt so much”?
The answer was, “Because you’ve never used them before”!
When the eyes of our heart are opened and they continue to be opened even more so, that which appears to have been hidden, undetected, becomes so surreal, you almost have to pinch yourself to see that you’re not dreaming.

So many believers I know have at one time or another expressed the notion of hopefully reentering that which was lost, Paradise, the Garden of Eden, thinking how wonderful that would be, and I’m sure it was a cool garden, BUT!
In this space time continuum we now live in, is it possible that there is in fact a portal in and through Jesus that has been opened up whereby any may go in and out at ease only to discover so many incomprehensible delights that only free us to BE who we were always meant to BE?

I want to share this line from the movie The Majestic from 2001~Click:

That's why we call it The Majestic. Any man, woman, child could buy their ticket, walk right in. Here they'd be, here we'd be. "Yes sir, yes ma'am. Enjoy the show." And in they'd come entering a palace, like in a dream, like in heaven. Maybe you had worries and problems out there, but once you came through those doors, they didn't matter anymore. And you know why? Chaplin, that's why. And Keaton and Lloyd. Garbo, Gable, and Lombard, and Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Cagney. Fred and Ginger. They were gods. And they lived up there. That was Olympus. Would you remember if I told you how lucky we felt just to be here? To have the privilege of watching them. I mean, this television thing. Why would you want to stay at home and watch a little box? Because it's convenient? Because you don't have to get dressed up, because you could just sit there? I mean, how can you call that entertainment, alone in your living room? Where's the other people? Where's the audience? Where's the magic? I'll tell you, in a place like this, the magic is all around you. The trick is to see it.

Rich