Ultimate Sacrifice

... either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.

The story of Harry Potter is one series of books that I have enjoyed.  I know the idea of Harry Potter's magical world is very controversial to believers, but bear with me a moment.  Harry is a young wizard filled with many wonderful traits: kindness, goodness, loyalty, bravery, and above all, an intolerance for the dark arts.  It would be quite difficult to summarize seven books in a single blog, but I do want to highlight the sacrifice Harry made.  

There is a dark wizard, one who terrorized the magical community with his murders and thirst for power.  He was obsessed with immortality and committed many heinous acts to split his soul.  He was less than human, and would not die.  Indeed, when Harry was tasked to kill the dark wizard, Voldemort,  he discovered the prophesy reflected in the image above, "...neither can live while the other survives." Harry was anguished when he discovered that to kill Voldemort, he must die.  The reasons are outlined in the book series.

Harry does resolve himself, and did sacrifice himself for the "greater good." Here is the really neat part; he didn't stay dead! His sacrifice defeated death and the dark wizard, Voldemort.  

Who does Harry remind you of?  If you said Jesus, give yourself a gold star!

  Read the book of John in the bible, and see what kind of a man he was, and then read about his sacrifice and defeat of death.  He remains alive today.  Discover the man who is God for yourself.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 KJV

Too Late for Redemption?

Evolution of a Character

One of my most favorite movie series is Star Wars.  I admit, I find the character of Anakin Skywalker, AKA Darth Vader to be the most compelling.  He takes an interesting journey through life, first with adventure and delight, then with pain and resolution, moving into hate and revenge, and finally completely lost into darkness.  If the story had ended here, we would have seen a lost soul.  But, in the very end, Anakin felt love again, and committed one last act of redemption.  By this act, he saves his son, his soul, and brings balance to the force, as was predicted when he was just a young boy.

Have you ever believed your sins and darkness took you too far from God to be saved?  Don't believe it! God hates sin, but he loves you too much to let you die to your sin.  He wants to peel away the darkness that consumes you, and help you find the light of his love.  It's not too late.  It's never too late to find God's redemption.  

"Christ arrives right on time to make this happen.  He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready.  He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready.  And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway.  We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice.  But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him." ~Romans 5:6-8 MSG

Secret Identity?

Which identity was real to him? Clark Kent or Superman?

Do you ever wonder if the Superheroes had identity issues?  In the stories of the comics and movies, you sometimes see them struggle with having two personas.  I feel the story that most illustrated identity crisis was the story of Superman, as told by the writers of the TV series, Smallville (WB).  The series portrays young Clark Kent struggling as a teenager, growing up awkwardly with powers that grew.  Often times, he hated his power and his responsibilities, and only longed to be simply "average."  In the end, we see how he finally accepted his responsibilities to the planet Earth, and how he embraced those with great honor.

Sometimes, life as a Christian brother or sister feels just as conflicted.  We have additional responsibilities that were given to us, as the gift of life was given.  Sometimes, we would choose to ignore that responsibility, trying to stay "average," which is also known as "worldly," or even sinful.  God calls us to rise above the worldly ways, and adopt his Godly ways.  We are called to love - God and his people.  What does it look like to love that way?

This is best illustrated in the book of Galatians.  When we love others the way God intends us to love, we demonstrate fruit: we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (chapter 5, verses 22-23).  I think Superman demonstrated these traits.  Can we?

"When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!" ~Galations 5:19-23 NLT

Thor's Hammer

Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR! ~Odin

Superhero stories always fascinate me.  Thor is an arrogant hero with powers that were stripped away when he was banished from his realm to earth.  He believed he was entitled to the power he possessed in the hammer, but was shocked to find out he was no longer worthy to possess it.  It wasn't until he was willing to die for his friends that the hammer was returned to him, restoring him to full power.

Let's think about the story of Samson in the Old Testament.  He is portrayed as strong and blessed by God, with the strength of many men.  His Godly blessing was in his uncut hair.  He made many demands, and when he did not get his way, he caused war and killings.  His power was stripped away when his lover tricked him in revealing the source of his power, and arranged to shave his head.  Humbled, humiliated, and beat down, Samson finally prays to God, "Sovereign Lord, remember me again.  O God, please strengthen me just one more time.  With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.  Let me die with the Philistines."  With that, the temple crashed down on the Philistines rulers and all the people.  He killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime (Judges 16:28-30 NLT).

When God blesses you, take care not to allow your arrogance to overwhelm you.  God will find a way to humble you, for those who are humbled will find themselves in a place of honor.

But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. 

 ~Matthew 23:12 NLT