The first thing I would like to say in this little blog entry of mine is that I and we, and us, we need Jesus Christ. For real! It’s so easy in this world of ours (religion included) to miss the whole point of all of this. The whole point of all of this is that God the Father had a dream to give His Son a bride. This glorious man Christ Jesus was His Son, and He wanted to give His Son a bride. He wanted a people to know(Yes, intamately as when a man knows a woman except in a pure spiritual sense) He wanted a people to know His Son fully and that they would be fully known by Him. He wanted a people caught up in the pleasures of loving Him extravagantly and wholeheartedly while He showered His love upon them. Yes this is why we are here. We have lost our focus on the cross and we (I included) have lost our focus on the beauty of Christ and His love for us. Anyway’s I’m rambling and preaching, but I had to talk about Jesus. I’m finding that two realities are the foundation and all that I need. The Cross, and the heart of the Father. From these fountains come everything else.
I saw two movies this week, Glory and Glory Road. Glory is a movie I have seen many times and just felt like watching again and Glory Road is a new movie out in theatres. Both of them are “civil rights” type movies about the struggle for African Americans to gain their freedom and equality. Needless to say since I am half black, these movies really touch me deeply and cause me to think quite a bit.
One thing about both of these movies that has really gripped me is what these people had to go through. They are hero’s, not only to me, but to anybody who believes that Justice, Righteousness and Freedom are worth something. Sometimes I like to think that I am radical and really giving my LIFE to the Lord. In a sense I am, but in another sense I’m scared sometimes just to witness to one person. In both movies these men and women had to literally put their lives on the line everyday just because they were different. I want to share a story from my favorite movie Glory and maybe in a later post I will share about the basketball movie Glory Road.
In one scene from Glory, the Colonel Robert Shaw is given a proclomation from the Confederate Congress. This movie takes place during the Civil War and Col. Shaw is a Union officer in command of one of the only Black infantry units in the military at that time. Many of them were run away slaves, and some of them were free, but they all came to fight for their freedom from the oppression and injustice of racial hatred. The proclomation from the Confederate Congress is warning the white officers that if they are found in command of black soldiers they would be put to death. It also warns the black soldiers that if they are found wearing a military uniform they would be put to death. The scene takes place in the evening and Colonel shaw tells them he will give them discharges in the morning if they want them. He leans over to his white officer freind and whispers “if I don’t see you tomorrow, I understand.” Then the scene shifts to the morning time and of course Colonel Shaw beholds the glorious scene of every man choosing to stay in the army rather than run away.
This scene really challenges me because this is not just a game. It was the same with the basketball movie because it was a true story. And it’s the same with Martin Luther King Jr. and many many blacks in that day. And it’s the same with the persecuted church or with Christ Himself. This is reality, and this is what moves the human heart like no other thing. To really have something that you would give your LIFE for. Lose your LIFE and you will find it. What would it mean for us to literally have to face death everyday for the sake of the gospel. Can we even imagine that?
The other thing that struck me was endurance. In this scene of Glory it wasn’t so much that the soldiers did anything, but that they just showed up instead of getting discharges. That’s part of the strategy of the enemy. He want’s us to get discouraged, dissapointed, depressed. comfortable ect. Anything to just make us quit and give up. And sometimes it’s not in our doing anything, but rather just choosing to show up again and believe. After having done everything to stand, STAND. Just show up day after day in the midst of the threats of the enemy because there really is something worth our LIFE
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