"HALLMARK" MOVIE ...MY LIFE...Directed by GOD

I am coming clean...recently I have been watching the Hallmark Movie Channels.  I am in a state  of political overload, tired ads of miracle drugs with their promises and warnings, sitcoms that are not funny, and news that is propaganda.  Hence, I landed on the Hallmark Channel.  Now understand that I am far to manly to really get too involved in the movies and they are so predictable; good is good, evil is evil, and happy endings every time.  But never the less, I have memorized the numbers for the channel.

Predictably, every movie has a good character who is the struggling victim in the story and a villain.  We ride the roller coaster events as the victim strives to find answers and solutions to the problems facing him/ her, while the villain is working against the good solutions being sought.  By the end of the movie, the victim is victorious with good overcoming evil and all is well.  Now the ending for the villain is not as predictable.  Some villains have their hearts softened and they turn to good and abandon the bad intentions sharing in the joy with the victorious star, while some villains never soften and are not present in the final joyful scene.  At the end of every movie, I have to admit that the ending was good.

As I was watching one the other day, I had this strange feeling that God is looking down on my life and directing it and viewing it very much like one of these movies.  As the director, God knows the script.  He knows the evil in my world, the good, the darkness, the sadness and the joy.  By His Spirit, (the audience) looking down, He feels my sadness and my joy.  He shares in my hopelessness and my hope.  He knows my fears and provides the strength and courage to move on.

As a Christian, I have faith that the my "Hallmark" life will have a victorious ending.  I know that God is directing and leading me on a path where His love and His peace will be the final scene.  Jesus came to us to reveal that His Father's script for each of us promises a perfect ending.  His Spirit helps us to stay on script and brings us back into the light when we lose our way.

God is the creator and the director of all things, but we are not puppets on a string.  We have a tendency to adlib and go off the script, therefore He sent Jesus to us so we can have the faith and belief in Him to lead us to the ending He wants for us.  It is by our belief in Jesus and the Holy Spirit that we receive the words, the encouragement, the corrections that guarantees a happy ending.

In Genesis 1, each day of creation God saw that "it was good".  On the sixth day, after creating male and female, He saw that it was "very good".  I know that because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God will bring my "Hallmark" life to and a victorious conclusion and say, "It was very good!"

In the name of Jesus...Get up and walk.

Acts 3 New King James Version (NKJV)

A Lame Man Healed

3 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ^[a]ask alms from those who entered the temple; ³ who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. ⁴ And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. ⁸ So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

In our Bible study, a member of the class asked an interesting question.  He wondered if Jesus had walked past this lame man on His way to the temple before His crucifixion.  We know from the scriptures that the blind and lame came to the temple and were healed by Jesus.  Obviously, this man was not one of them.  It  was an interesting question and I cannot sit here today and say that we discovered the answer, but reading God's word led us to a place where His word made sense to us.

Matthew tells us in his gospel, that Jesus healed those who came to Him in faith.  We recall that Jesus often told those He healed that their faith had made them well.  Perhaps the lame man mentioned in Acts, did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God and did not believe Jesus received the power to heal from God before His crucifixion..  Perhaps he was one of the Jews who said, "Crucify Him!"  But here in Acts, by the name of Jesus, he received a healing from Peter. What changed?

I believe that this healing event reveals the importance and the impact of Jesus' resurrection.  We learn that His resurrection was the talk of Jerusalem from the two men on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35). We saw on the day of Pentecost, that the disciples of Jesus, were recognized in a new light, and the name of Jesus was a source of power and impact.  I believe that this lame man, upon hearing the name of Jesus, knew Jesus in a new way as Peter and John offered to heal him.  With the Good News of the Savior's resurrection, we are healed from our spiritual blindness and invited to walk eternally in the Love of God.