So I just spent the last half hour going through all my past posts.  Looking to see if I had written anything based on the movie "The Last Samurai".  I was really surprised to find nothing.  Most women's favorite movies are rom-coms or light period pieces, but personally my favorite movies by far are a bit more gruesome.  I don't mean horror movies or thrillers.  I mean Braveheart, Last of the Mohicans, The Patriot and of course The Last Samurai.  Movies about war and battle, honor and integrity.  Movies where men are men and they fight for the people they love and the values they believe in.  Movies where broken people learn what is truly important and learn what they are made of.  Where brokenness can be changed forever by honor and sacrifice.
Such a movie is The Last Samurai.  Captain Algren, a 'war hero' is now a drunk, a shill for the rifle company who pays him to share his exploits killing Indians.  He is tired, disillusioned and angry.  He agrees to go to Japan to help train the emperor's army to put down a rebellion.  He says for 500 dollars a month he will kill whoever he has to.  He goes there prepared to make some quick money and get out.  Instead the Colonel demands that the poorly trained army head out immediately to quell the rebel fighters.  They are so ill prepared that most of them are killed, the others run away.  Captain Algren fights until he cannot stand any longer.  The leader of the rebels, Katsumoto is compelled to spare his life.  He is taken to the village where the Samurai live and train. 
After Algren recovers from his injuries he lives among the villagers.  He cannot leave until spring, so he begins to observe his captors.  He is drawn to their way of life, to their commitment and dedication to the way of the Samurai.  "They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline. I am surprised to learn that the word Samurai means, 'to serve'."  I was struck by the meaning of the word 'samurai'.  You assume that they are just warriors, men of the sword, militants led by a warlord.  Instead they lived by a code of service to their lord.  Some of the first written documents available from Japanese history are poems written by warriors about service as border guards:
"From today
Without regard for myself
I set out
A shield strong but humble
For our Sovereign Lord." (1)
That is to be our lives as servants of our God.  We are to be Samurai in the service of our Lord.  I think most of us just live as Thoreau wrote in Walden, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation".  What a sad commentary that is.  There is a time for quiet contemplation and there is a time for getting out there and making some noise.  How often do we wake up, start the day already worn out and just hope for a somewhat peaceful day to pass quickly so we can get back into bed again.  Forget about seeking perfection in what we do, let's just get this day over with.  We serve a most noble Lord.  We serve the great Creator and Redeemer.  How does that reflect on Him if we while away the hours just getting by?  How does His excellence and majesty get portrayed when we can barely muster the energy to get through the drive thru lane at the local coffee shop?  Discipline, we hardly have enough self-control to get through the commute to work without expressing our displeasure with our fellow drivers.  Oh, how I want to live a life that is devoted to the perfection of being a child of God.  I want to emulate my Lord.  I want to stand up for the things He stands up for and to put behind me the things that displease Him. 
We are so busy with all that is temporal.  Sleep, and work.  Household duties and children.  Taxes and too little pay.  Yard work and recreation.  Too much to distract us from what is truly important.  Most of it things we need to think about; loving our spouses, teaching our children.  But so much that is not imperative.  What restaurant to eat at, what kind of lawn mower to buy, where can I find those shoes I really want.  As Algren learned when he was defeated in sparring practice, "too many mind".  He asks what is that?  "Mind the sword, mind the people watch, mind enemy - -too many mind. "  His instructor says, "no mind".  Meaning let everything else fall aside.  Keep your mind on the thing that is most important.  Focus on the essential, let everything else fade away.  Like that beautiful old hymn, 'and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of Your glory and grace'.  Seek Him first.  His will, His way and then your focus will become laser clear.
When we are still, when we stop and let things become clear we can feel His presence.  Again Algren comes to understand this in the quiet of that lovely village.  "There is so much here I will never understand. I've never been a church going man, and what I've seen on the field of battle has led me to question God's purpose. But there is indeed something spiritual in this place. And though it may forever be obscure to me, I cannot but be aware of its power."  The thing that he did not understand though was that when we seek God, we will find Him.  He will never stay hidden from us when what we desire most is Him.  Yes we will be aware of His power, but more than that, we will bask in His presence and we will know His purpose for our lives.
It amazes me what I can get out of a movie when I see it through the eyes of the Spirit.  There was so much here that spoke of the Father's love for us.   One such scene was when Katsumoto is being held prisoner and Algren, Katsumoto's son and some men from the village come to rescue him.  In the ensuing fight, the son is shot.  He knows he is going to die, but he wants that death to mean something.  He tells his father to leave him there, that it is his time.  He wants his life to have purpose even in his death.  He will use his last bit of strength to die at the enemy's hands so that his friends and family may escape that same death.  Katsumoto props him up against a tree, looks at his son with tears in his eyes and then turns his back and lets his son die for his people.  If that is not a picture of the Father's love for us and the sacrifice He made by allowing His Son to die on that tree for us, then I don't know what is. 
At the end of the movie, when Katsumoto knows that all that is left for him and his people is death, he says to Algren, "For nine hundred years, my ancestors have protected our people. Now... I have failed them."  Algren replies, " So you will take your own life? In shame? Shame for a life of service? Discipline? Compassion? "  To that Katsumoto answers, "The way of the Samurai is not necessary anymore."  "Necessary? What could be more necessary?"  We are told in our modern culture that it is every man for himself.  That it is a dog eat dog world.  Take care of number one.  All of that goes against what is meant by a life of service.  Remember that Japanese poem above, 'From today, without regard for myself...'  That is what the life of a spiritual Samurai is supposed to be about.   Service, discipline, compassion.  Having the heart of God for our neighbor, and yes, for our enemy.  Living with no regard for ourselves, esteeming others higher than ourselves.  That is an oxymoron to most people in the world today.  But to those of us who have committed our lives to serving our Lord it is a call to action.
A life of service is not an easy one.  There is hard work, there is commitment to duty and honor.  There are rough times and there are times of ease.  There are times of sorrow and times of joy.  People today think life is wasted if money is not made.  If success is not seen in the eyes of others.  We pursue fleeting things, rather than eternal things.  We seek highs, forgetting that the lows have their value also.  Katsumoto tells Algren, "The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life."  He was implying that it would be almost impossible to find that perfect moment, that perfect blossom.  It wouldn't be wasted time, but you may never find one.  As he lay dying on the battlefield, he sees cherry blossoms floating in the air among the smoke.  He says with his last breath, "Perfect... They are all... perfect..."  Here I go crying again as I write.  Every moment that God gives us is perfect.  Every one.  The painful, the beautiful.  The loss and the achievements.  Every moment can be exquisite if we will look at it through the eyes of our Father and let Him work out His will in us...becoming perfect as He is perfect.

(1) Origin of the Samurai, https://judoinfo.com/samurai/
Movie quotes from imdb.com

I've set out to write an epic poem
to celebrate a hero of legendary proportion
An extraordinary way to show Him
that He alone is my lot and my portion

He is my Creator, the Grand Architect
the builder of my life and path
He alone is the One my way He doth direct
my life's purpose and plan He does hath

I rise with the sun, that light in the morn
roused from sleep with praise on my lips
I know that to this altogether was I born
To see His face, the sun He doth eclipse

I sing with joy, orchestrating praise
lifting my hands in sweet surrender
My adoration and worship I doth raise
to Him for all His glory and splendour

The birds they do sing, my ears doth delight
as they too adore the Ruler and King
Taking wing and soaring in flight
as if to the heavens their praises to bring

The vibrant flowers lift their glorious heads
basking in the light of His beauty and grace
I think if they could rise out of their beds
they would seek out His warm embrace

Nature seems ready to put us to shame
the rocks and stones about to cry out
It is my one true desire and aim
to praise Him with an outspoken shout

To Him be all the glory, to Him all acclaim
He is worthy of that and so much more
If for no other reason than the sweetness of His name
That name that is the stuff of legend and lore

Jesus, sweet Jesus, my Saviour, my Lord, my all
My heart rejoices, it revels in knowing
That for me You gave all, You heard me before I could call
In giving Your life for me, You became my everything

Less of me, more of You is what I hope to attain
that when others happen to gaze upon my face
They will glance, and then look again
Because it will be You they see, in all Your glory and grace

It is all the rage these days, detoxes and cleanses.  To get your insides cleaned up and functioning to their greatest effect.  Their purpose is to remove toxins, poisons, pollutants from your body.  They are used for weight loss and to get rid of the build up of toxins that may be harming your body or even killing you.  Juice cleanse, liver detox, master cleanse; there are more ways to flush out your body than you can shake a stick at.  The thought is, why stop at just outer care for your body; washing your face with natural soaps, soaking your skin in organic emollients, doing your daily ablutions religiously, but never caring for the inner parts.  The life is in the inner man.
That is kind of how it was before Jesus came.  When the people sinned they would make an offering of an
animal without spot or blemish before the Lord.  The animal was killed and some of the blood was sprinkled by the priest on the alter for a sin offering.  And then there was the Day of Atonement when the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies; once a year to offer a sacrifice for all the people.  The thing was though that their sins were not removed, they were just covered over.  The high priest would bring in two goats, one to sacrifice for the Israelites, for their uncleanness and whatever sins they may have committed; the other goat ceremonially carried the sins of the Israelites by the laying on of the high priest's hands and confessing the rebellion and wickedness of the people.  This goat was taken outside the camp and released into the wilderness.  The goat carried on itself the sins of the people which were forgiven for another year, that's where the word scapegoat comes from.
What we saw in that ritual was basically the washing of the face in regards to sin.  The outer man was cleansed, but the inner man was not.  Those sacrifices were more or less like sweeping up the dirt and debris on the floor and pushing it under the rug.  It was never completely removed.  As Hebrews 9:9,10 says, "the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order." (NIV)  Even after all the ceremonies, all the rituals, they knew that they would have to do it all over again the next time they sinned.  And there would have to be another Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement the following year because their sin was never completely done away with.
Over and over again.  Bulls and sheep and goats and doves.  Blood and death and sacrifice.  Day in and day out, year after year. 
Can you imagine.  Wow, today I feel so clean, so whole, so pure.  Oh, shoot, I sinned again. Time to run to the local sheep lot and hope to find another perfect animal to slaughter.  Never having a clear conscience, never feeling like you could do enough to please God.  Never feeling worthy of His love or free to worship with your whole heart.  A life filled with dread, a heart unsure of God's love, a conscience that was never cleansed no matter how much blood was spilled.
Until...
"Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God," Hebrews 9:11-14 (NIV).  He came and sacrificed Himself, of His own accord, because of the Father's love for us.  Not a sacrifice that must be done every time we sin, that must be repeated yearly; but once, for all.  "When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God," Hebrews 10:8-12 (NIV)  He sat down by His Father because the work had been done.  As He said on the cross, "It is finished".  No more blood to be spilled.  No more rituals, no more sacrifice.  And what strikes me about the passage above is that it says in verse 8 that those former things were done according to the law.  He gave His life not for the law, but for love.  And that love sets us free to love Him in return and to have a conscience that is continually clean before Him.  No more doubt.  No more fear. 
It is hard for us to imagine that.  Especially on the days that we blow it.  We lose our temper at work.  We get angry with our spouse or children.  We rail at the opposite political party.  We lie, we curse, we mentally commit murder with our hatred of others.  How many sheep do we have to sacrifice for those sins?  Let me count them up...uh, none.  Remember, He offered for all a single sacrifice.  In His eyes we are clean.  In His eyes we are perfect..."For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified," v 14.  We are set apart, holy, free from sin.  Yes, we were born with a sin nature, but by His blood we are washed clean.  Though our sins were as scarlet, we are now white as snow. 
It is with a clean conscience that we have the freedom to worship God wholly.  No more washing, no more cleanses.  No more trying on our own power to take a wet wipe and scour away the stains of sin and death.  No more spit baths attempting to wipe the schmutz of guilt off.  We have been scrubbed clean by the blood of the Lamb.  Not only is the outer man all spiffy, but the inner man is spotless.  Free to live a life unto Him who calls us His own.