Matrix Reflections: Choosing between reality and illusion - Softcover

Zacapa, Eddie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 142080782X ISBN 13: 9781420807820

Publisher: AuthorHouse, 2005

Synopsis

"There is a battle before us. It is the battle for good and evil. It is a battle for truth and for the greater purpose to be revealed. Something that the world and the enemy will fight against to the end. It is a battle for the destruction of the Matrix." From the book Matrix Reflections, Eddie Zacapa "I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking to understand how to make sense out of life." Dave Medders - Director, The Foundation For Christian Discipleship and Campus Ventures Do we live in a dream world? The Matrix Reflections acts as a tool, a mirror, a key that unlocks some answers to the very questions that we encounter throughout our lives. It invites us to take a journey, like Neo, the hero of the films, to discover the truth about our world and it's illusions. Come and explore the Matrix films deeper and discover the answers to the Big Questions of life. "It has a definite youth feel and is totally relevant! It will challenge students to think deeper." Charlton Scullard - Pastor of Student Ministries, Twin Oaks Church

About this title

About the Author

Eddie Zacapa was born in Santa Clara, California. He worked with Campus Crusade for Christ for many years and was the founder of The Next Step Ministries. He has conducted discipleship workshops with churches and para-church ministries throughout the Bay Area. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from San Jose State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Bible and Theology from San Jose Christian College. Eddie and his family live in Sacramento, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

OUR DEEP NEED

There is a deep need in all of us. A need to belong and to know who we are and where we came from.

When this need is not met we may find ourselves trying to fulfill the longing with other things that are harmful to us­ things that bid for our attention and distract us from seeking the answer to our deepest longing. It is quite easy to lose ourselves, our dreams, and our deepest calling to the quest for power, fame, money, affirmation, recognition, or revenge.

Yet for some of us a question continues to lurk in the back of our minds. It is The Question of why we are here and "what is the truth." It is The Question, and it comes in many forms: "Why do I exist?" "What is the meaning of life?" "What is the purpose of my life?"

Some people become accustomed to their everyday life without the answer to that question. Many are content with not answering The Question because they are consumed with the distraction.

Others of us are driven by The Question; restless until we find the truth. Is it not comforting to know that The Question is looking for us and that it will find us if we want it to?

" Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." ­ Luke 11:9 (NIV)

THE ILLUSION

Morpheus: "Do you want to know what it is? The Matrix is everywhere it is all around us. Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."

Neo: "What truth?"

Matrix

The answer to The Question leads us to confronting the illusions in our lives. According to Webster s Dictionary an illusion is an unreal image seemingly presented to the senses; any misleading appearance; a false show.

Morpheus tells Neo that the illusion " is the world that has been pulled over our eyes to blind you [us] from the truth."

Illusions are easy to believe in and difficult to destroy. It means that everything we have believed until now is a lie. It may mean we are selfish, insecure, a liar, an adulterer, a thief, an addict, etc.

When illusions are destroyed they leave us naked and vulnerable before the world. Especially if our whole way of life may have been run by them. That is why it is so tempting to clothes ourselves with them over and over again.

Denis Diderot said, "We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth that we find bitter." 4

When Neo discovered the truth about himself and his world he initially denied it and said it could not be possible. It took him a while to accept reality.

Edition details

• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 142080782X
• ISBN 13: 9781420807820
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 100