Good evening! My blog tonight is again by my college friend, Frank Myer! Frank, a prolific writer, pens a weekly devotional that is excellent! Keep me in your prayers as, Lord willing, I am in Vietnam!
Good morning, Dear Readers,
Here we are at the end of another week. I hope you had a productive week.
Quick thought: You are given one free miracle every day when you wake up. What you decide to do that is up to you. Jeff Arch
Writers create. While they strive to make a good story, what they ache for is to create a moment that will stick in your memory. I’ve listened to writers talk about movies and the moments which stayed with them.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few interesting writers over the years. I’ve shared a meal with John Landis. Two of his works stand out. 1) The Blues Brothers. “We’re on a mission from God.” rings a bell with fans. Mr. Landis was also the first director to spend a million dollars on a music video, Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Andrew Marlowe wrote the movie Air Force One which starred Harrison Ford as the president. There’s a scene in the movie when Harrison throws one of the bad guys out the back door of Air Force One and yells, “Get off my plane.” Andrew said when he wrote that line, he spent a lot of time wondering about it. He wasn’t happy with it but didn’t come up with anything better. He told our group, “I decided to leave it and I would go back and fix it later.” He never did and it’s a good thing he didn’t. It’s a scene that has resonated with viewers.
At times a moment changes everything. Often in a murder mystery it’s the moment the killer is revealed or confesses. How many times have we watched a murder movie and when the killer is revealed we say, “I knew it.” or “That can’t be right.”?
In that moment everything changes. Our brain reshuffles everything we thought we knew.
The brain has an amazing capacity to reshuffle and adapt to the new knowledge. Even when the events are spread over years.
One prime example of this is when Darth Vader, don’t get ahead of me here – when he tells Luke – say it with me – “Luke, I am your father.”
Star Wars was released in 1977. The Empire Strikes back was released in 1980. Three years later – when Darth comes clean with being Luke’s dad and we all instantly changed our perception of the story.
There are moments in life that change everything. Until one says, “I do.” they aren’t married. We probably know someone who changed their mind at the last minute. They planned to get married. Maybe they acted like they were married, but they never said those two little words, so they weren’t.
There are other moments in life that define the status. A child is born. A person passes away and one morning someone is a widow or widower.
A moment changes everything.
In history there’s a moment that changed everything for all of mankind.
It happened behind a huge stone blocking the door to a tomb owned by a man other than the one inside.
It happened in total darkness, on a cold slab of stone.
One moment there was a body.
The next, the eyes fluttered open, and Jesus Christ was back, wrapped in funeral clothes.
Were the angels there waiting for his return? Are they the ones who folded the clothes and then placed the head covering separate from the others? Who moved the stone, the angels or Jesus?
All those details are interesting, but don’t really matter when compared to the moment Jesus opened his eyes.
In that instant the relationship between man and God changed. The ultimate sacrifice had been made. God has proven He loves His creation to a level that demanded the death o his son. Amazing.
The short and simple. We all know those with sin cannot stand in front of God. In God’s plan in the Old Testament the sins were rolled forward. What happens to our sin now that Jesus has beaten death?
Hebrews 10 tells us God remembers our sin no more. Talk about a game changer.
Let’s make it simple. Let’s pretend you have the AMEX Black Card. You’re having a grand time spending and adding to your credit limit. Then your banker calls you.
You look at the balance, and if you’re like a lot of people, you will wonder how the amount climbed that high so quickly. The banker asks you pay. You can’t.
Expecting the worse, how would you react when the banker said, “I tell you what. We’ll just roll this over a year. You can balance out next year.”
That seems like a great idea. The problem is all next year you know good and well you won’t be able to pay. In addition, you’re still using the card. The end of the second year rolls around. You know it’s coming.
And now keep that pattern going for 10, 20 or 30 years. You may try tricking yourself into believing the debt really doesn’t matter. You know it does.
January 1, you get the same letter you’ve received every year since you can remember. You drag yourself to the bank. Surprise. There’s a new guy in the office. You’re ecstatic. The old guy knew all your excuses. You can pull out all the golden oldies now.
Even before you say a word, he tells you. “Great news. No more debt.”
“Wait. What?” It doesn’t sound right to you. What could he possibly mean by no more debt? You may not have known the exact number, but you knew it wasn’t zero.
No more debt. Romans 8 tells us in Bible talk – no condemnation.
How could that be? What changed?
It was a moment in time when the eyes of Christ opened inside that dark, cold tomb.
The more you process that moment and apply the understanding of how our relationship with God changed in that moment, the more you’ll enjoy a little Heaven on Earth.
Enjoy the ride,
Frank Myer
Dallas, TX
FrankMyer.com
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
No comments:
Post a Comment