Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? Rom. 6:1-3
" Every time you die, you get smarter..." Rita (Emily Blunt) in Edge of Tomorrow
Let me start of by saying this is not a review of the movie " Edge of Tomorrow" as much as it is a review of something valuable I gleaned from the movie. For those of you that know little about it, it is a sci-fi version of Ground Hog Day replacing humor with action & battle sequences..and how appropriate for living that the world in which we live isn't funny but rather filled with violence. As a Disciple of Christ ( I like to think of myself as that more than the nebulous Christian terminology) in general I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise, but I felt compelled by public persuasion to go and check out this movie. I must tell you, it really is a must see...and if you can afford it....I recommend in 3D IMAX, my first experience.....and I'm still picking my teeth up off the floor.
The point and purpose of this blog post is to simply address a comment made by Rita (Emily Blunt) the supporting actress and to correlate it the teachings of the WORD of GOD. Tom Cruises character is gifted through circumstances the ability to reset the day, and his fortune has plopped him into a war with a force that has rapidly begun annihilating humanity. Each time he dies, he learns something new...and that learning of something new can do him some great good in reengaging battle. (Now I must state this is battle Tom Cruise's character wanted nothing to do with, as a matter of fact he attempted to go AWOL many of times)
Christ says to the following crowd if you want to follow me...you have to turn from your selfish ways, lose your lives and those that refuse to will lose them anyway, and those that CHOOSE to LOSE them for His sake you'll save it. (my paraphrasing) The moment Cruise's character realized that he was in a war that he had to engage in, he began to learn little things each time he experienced death. In each death it revealed purpose in his life, and I wonder if we as disciples get that. I know the early disciples had to see this....for this was the very reason they were able to GIVE THEIR LIVES for the CAUSE OF CHRIST. Now I realize that making the leap from this SCI-FI movie where a physical being repeatedly experiences death and is able to come back to do it over, to what we experience as "followers of CHRIST" to me shouldn't be different. We are supposed to according to Paul, by inspiration by GOD die to our sins, in other words crucify those things that get in the way of us living like first generation disciples. We should actually by this day and era....be smarter. We have the WORD OF GOD that we see generation after generation of what happens when a person excludes GOD. We see what happens when a nation complains against GOD. We see what happens when a person tries to do things apart from GOD. We see what happens when we pretend & live as if that there is no battle going on. We also see and read what happens when we embrace the reality there is a battle going on, and when we engage it.....souls are saved, and the Kingdom of God rises up.
So in closing I wonder as we are all dying (physically for sure( I pray carnally as well) are you learning from those things you are dying to as well as from? And if you are.....I pray that it has caused you to engage this BATTLE and live to offer CHRIST to those that are living in ignorance. Otherwise you haven't learned anything and your dying is in vain. LGLP
