This
Body of “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)
our biggest problem is not your zitty face. It’s not your love life or lack thereof. It’s not even Osama bin Laden and his band of merry terrorists.Your biggest problem is that you are going to die.Yes, the latest scientific findings have confirmed it. One out of every one person dies. You are dust and to dust you shall return.
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H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 26
As people have pondered the grave through the eons, they have imagined all sorts of specters, ghouls, and goblins. As they have considered what lies beyond, they have dreamt of worlds and powers that chill the bone.Those with more active imaginations have conjured spooky campfire stories which have been handed down and modified through generations. And these eerie visions can now be projected on screens large and small. The horror movie usually deals with one or two basic primeval themes—evil and death. And, of course, these two go together like Barnes & Noble or macaroni and cheese.“The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). Good horror movies grapple with that reality and express something true, even if unpleasant. A lot of modern people tend to be too optimistic about human nature. Is man basically good or basically evil? Is a checkerboard a white field with black squares or a black field with white squares? Let’s answer those questions with another question: What would you do if you believed you couldn’t be caught? This is the theme considered in H.G. Wells’ novel, The Invisible Man. We read about a decent fellow who turns into a barbarian and steals, lies, and murders to achieve his personal aims. Or maybe he was always the barbarian. Maybe he was always a thief, liar, and murderer in his heart, but it was only when he became invisible and so could not be caught that he acted out on his deepest urges. Kevin Bacon’s movie, The Hollow Man, is a modern-day telling of that same story. In neither case is the ending very happy. It actually is a good thing that we don’t act out our fantasies.The Law is a curb. God’s commandments and our fear of being punished for breaking them keep us from going too far off course. The freaky black-and-white vampire flick, The Addiction, is explicitly Christian (and unbelievably gross). One vampire says,“We’re not evil because of the evil we do, but we do evil because we are evil.” And the film makes it veeeerrryyy clear that Christ’s body broken and blood shed are the only answer.
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