I loved the original movie “War of the Worlds,” where Gene Barry as a
handsome Cal Tech professor seeks to find the solution to stopping the
invaders. A movie, like many of the other good ones that each time I see it, I
see something new. But with special effects that are believable, a pretty
heroine, and the townsfolk who come face to face with them, it is all
believable. Just like it was on the radio with Orson Wells a few years
earlier. So I enjoy it, and will again. But one part that always has us
laughing is the weaponry used on the invaders. Guns, dynamite, bombs, and other
heavy duty artillery have no effect on them, yet when invading a farmhouse, a
broom is taken against them and they flee, damaged and confused. Maybe we need
to arm our police and Armed Forces with brooms! But in the end, it seems the
invaders could not live here on Earth, as our atmosphere has little germs in it,
that were deadly to them. And the moral at the end was about the least of God’s
creation winning the battle. A great movie, a far cry from the Tom Cruise
remake....talk about the least of God’s creatures....
I learned years ago that too many people who are admitted into hospitals
and die there, don’t die from what they were admitted for. Infection is a
deadly device, and having almost succumbed to it, I can tell you I never want to
go through that again, nor my family. Like in WotW, it was and is the little
things that can be most deadly. And so many can be prevented, if we only pay
attention. Over the years I have ministered to many who didn’t take care of
their body, who abused it with drugs or alcohol. So many times the talk of
death comes up, and I reassure that there are consequences more deadly than
death. I know too many who have had feet amputated from diabetes brought on by
alcoholism. Who cannot get out, and must be attended to 24 hours in some cases.
I know others on breathing machines, who cannot go to the bathroom without
help. Those who have gone blind, lost teeth, or even gone mad, reduced to a
childlike state. Left on the street to die. And so often I hear from those who
are warned, that they will be different, they will know when to stop. They are
different, not stupid like the others. When it is only a matter of
time....
Jesus warns us there is no little sin, and that sin, like leaven, will soon
go through the whole loaf. Whether we like it or not, it is uncontrollable from
a certain point. But yet they espouse excuses, lying to themselves more than to
their audience, as even junkies know from first hand experience. It seems
misery loves company, no one wants to get high alone, so they need an
accomplice, so often found in a so called friend. An old friend Frank used to
buy us hard liquor to get drunk with him, as he mainlined vodka into his
stomach. A scene I can never forget. The little sin became a big one, an
appetite that could not be suppressed, and soon he was without friends, wife,
job, and soon disappearing from sight. If only we had had a broom to beat some
sense into him with.
An article I read this morning tells how with the decriminalization of
marijuana, that it has adversely effected Mexico, so they have gone to smuggling
women, children, and heroine. Seems some 70% of the women attempting to cross
the border illegally have been sexually abused, some many times. Something to
consider with the next toke you take, or needle you inject in your arm. There
is no isolated sin, collateral damage is frequent, nobody was ever a nobody and
became a somebody by doing drugs. That little sin, the little white lie spreads
like wildflower, there is no isolated sin anymore.
But in Jesus Christ we have an advocate, one who deals with the infinite,
both large and small. Who provides for the the birds of the air, but cares for
you more. We once had some nasty birds who used to swoop down at out dog and
us, so one day I took a hose to their nest, totally destroying it. Hoping they
would leave. Only to find them playing in the puddles I had made. And so the
battles continue, a war of two worlds, good and evil, but with a promise from
God, wherever sin abounds, grace does even more. And in Christ we can be
assured of two things, one this too shall pass, and when Jesus is in it, your
boat will not sink. In our darkest moments, when we are at our weakest, God’s
strength is made perfect. My nurses told me that I was strong and it helped me
survive, but I know different. Comatose is no way to do battle, and can be
worse than death for a believer. People fear because they have no faith, what
are you afraid of?
Fear is normal, how we handle it tells a lot about who Jesus is in our
life. I was quite content to die, I know where I am going, but God has his
timetable set differently. There are only two things in your life you have no
control over, the day you were born, and the day you die. But in between you
have a lot of say....don’t waste it fighting God when you can be on his side and
winning. Like War of the Worlds reminds us, “the things seen are temporal, the
things not seen eternal.” Unless you are an invader....life is for the living,
even Gene Barry has to admit that! Sin was the original invasion entering
through the first man Adam, it was overcome and destroyed by the last Adam,
Jesus Christ. Like the movie poster says, “at this moment ships from beyond are
on their way to destroy our planet.” Aren’t you glad you know Jesus? For only
he saves...and he has everything under control.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com