Friday, December 7, 2012

Dec | 07 | The Deeper Magic

Key Word:- HOPE

Title:- The Deeper Magic

Hebrews 12:22-24 
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom is a ‘Mecca’ for those people of longing hearts, both young and old, still seeking to get some of their wishes realized and get a big white gloved ‘high four,’ which says ‘well done and welcome,’ from the big eared little mouse-man and master of ceremonies himself, Mr. Mickey Mouse.
In Disney world, profits and good business have not yet thoroughly allowed political correctness to rob the children of what is innately theirs; that is, beauty and courage. For as you trudge the happy little streets where each hour of every single day, good is seen to triumph over evil, around your grown up feet will walk ten thousand little children, the boys wielding some kind of shining sword, slaying dragons, with all the girls dressed as Cinderella, Sleeping beauty, Ariel or some other stunning princess, each one waiting eagerly for their prince to come, each one naturally, innocently, unmanaged and unreservedly playing out that which has been laid up in their hearts!
Many adults wander Mickey’s Magic Kingdom without children in tow. The only child they have with them is the one that we all carry deep inside, the one that longs for the lost summers of long ago, the lost dreams, the lost hopes, lost ‘might have beens’, lost magic, if you will. If these grown ups had the chance, most of the men even now would carry a sword and all of the older women would be dressed in waiting white, decked in colour glorious, bejeweled in sparkling splendor. Maybe the Magic of Mickey’s Kingdom for both young and old is the dream of what might have been and the hope of what might yet be?

Now, away from the fantastic fireworks, the light displays and dancing lasers, the castles and the smiling faces, let me take you to another kingdom. It is a broken one and a city there is cloaked in black and a preacher long since passed yet speaking still; aptly paints its circumstance with the thickest of brushstrokes, that we who are most familiar with lost magic might at last have a little hope. Listen to an old prince of preachers from long ago now, listen:

“Walk the streets by moonlight, if you dare, and you will see sinners then. Watch when the night is dark, and the wind is howling, and the picklock is grating in the door, and you will see sinners then. Go to yon jail, and walk through the wards, and mark the men with heavy over-hanging brows, men whom you would not like to meet at night, and there are sinners there. Go to the Reformatories, and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile depravity, and you will see sinners there. Go across the seas to the place where a man will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and there is a sinner there. Go where you will, you need not ransack earth to find sinners, for they are common enough; you may find them in every lane and street of every city, and town, and village, and hamlet. It is for such that Jesus died.

The truth that Mickey’s Magic Kingdom encapsulates and sells so gloriously, is down to the desire and hope within us all, for better things, for renewal if you will, no more than that, for redemption! We the church, at the end of the age, need to learn from this and need to re-educate ourselves on what it means to be men and women, beautiful warrior princesses, chaste and charming princes belonging to an eternal King, who has redeemed us from the Kingdom of bone gnawing darkness and despair into His glorious Kingdom of light and made us equipped, made us confident, made us surefooted, made us more than conquerors and unrelenting pursuers of the fleeing serpent.

As we approach the end of all things, the howling wind may be wrapping itself about the dark night once more in it’s cold and ever tighter grip on humanity and yes indeed, self eating, self hating men and women, lost in slavery to sin, today may still sit abused in the dark corners of satanic dungeons, but look at the scathing scene and see! SEE in each ones hand, they hold in their cupped and shaking dirty little grip, something different, something lost and something yet still hoped and longed for! It is a knowledge of better things, that still carries with it a perfume of hope that even the excrement of sin cannot thoroughly overpower. Do you smell it? HOPE!
Hope may die last in Russia, but when it is the last thing to die in a human being, that human being will die.

We who belong to Christ have this cup of hope and knowledge full to overflowing. Let’s today experientially sip from it in all its fullness and then, let’s SHOW THE DESPERATE HOW TO POSSESS it for themselves.

May God help us in this Divine mission, this caring conquest of restoring the deeper magic to a lost and lonely stinking world.

Listen:- Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case-things that accompany salvation. God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Hebrews 6:9-12 NIV

Pray:- Someday My Father, Jesus my prince, will come. Help me to be found abounding in redemptions fullness, fighting in this Your story glorious! In His wonderful name I pray. Amen.


 

2 comments:

Robin said...

Fantastic message! Here's lifting a 'cup' of hope to you.

Robert said...

Thanks For the comments Robin..Cheers!