A House Divided

Flying on airplanes has always been a dilemma for me. I have not been a huge flyer until recently, but in my first few years, movies were only on the big screens if at all. People talked, strangers became less of strangers, stories came of conversions or at least spiritually breakthroughs. But now right in front of me is a small screen with hundreds of forms of enterntainment, all literally at my fingertips. A good portion of it is unfortunately not great, face it, evil! So what do I do? There are some good ones like uh, well, Valkyrie, and that Al Gore movie on the environment (didn't watch it yet). But finding the goods ones means passing by the temptaions. No I don't choose the really bad ones, but maybe the slightly not so edifying, the questionable films. But really I look at the movies like brownies with only a little deadly poison, unfortunately it is hard to eat the brownie and not die from the poison. Well I had chance to gain victory this time. As we taxied out on the runway, I was listening to my MP3 and the End of the Spear movie soundtrack (that's a non poison movie, but if you sensitive to gore, I wish more were, the book is awesome too, "Beyond the gates of Splendor" by Elisabeth Elliot) and Mark Schultz's sining, "What will we do with the time that is left". Christian people forging a new futre, the past behind, what will happen from now on in each of our lives. God helped me out, the movies system crashed, no movies! I still pushed the limit and tried some documentaries, no go. And I could have gone to something else, but the meal came, and I then went back to movie trying. I rejected two films (evolution docudrama and a John Wayne romance, yuck) after a couple minutes of watching each, and went with another. A good friend of mine that spent many years on oversees missions, said that when we go out , especially to a foreign place, we pick up good and bad ideas and traits from the host culture. We also see helpful and destructive characterstics revealed in ourselves. On the transition back to our home cutlure, we have to go through and decide what to leave behind, and what to keep for our lives in Christ's service. I was only six weeks this time, and I really didn't do that whole deciding process well. I didn't prepare or pray for the overwhelming media of the West. I didn't put the lessons I had learned to practice, as I should have. And thus I end up on the plane wasting time on a so-so film. I see the process like having a suitcase. We all carry one, full but always changing cargo. We carry consequences of past actions (not guilt as Christians I hope), lesson learned on the road of life, things being learned, victories. So when I go to Benin I find blessings in their culture, in their way of living the Christian faith. I try to get rid of my destructive items, and add beneficial ones. I can also decide what is something in their culture that is a product of the Devil, inadmissable in my suitcase. I try every morining to repack my suitcase, to ask God to cover me with Jesus' blood, to wear once again His robe of righteousness. I put in the suitcase messages He may give me from His word or in my prayers, from thoughts. I ask him to help me keep out what I don't need, and to help me get rid that nasty stuff that wants be in my life.
The movie I watchedwas "A Night at the Museum 2", not worth anybody's time. At the end of the movie Abraham Lincoln tells the main character, Larry, "a house divided cannot stand". The words hit hard. One because I could have been reading the book those words came out of and building character, instead of watching a statue say it in movie filled with witchcraft. And two because what Jesus said that Abe repeated was exactly what was happening to me at that moment (some moments I wish not to repeat). My conscience said do something else, my nature chose a film. I don't know what's in your suitcase that you can't get rid of, but what I know is that the only way to get the Heaven is th have a bag full of God! and God alone! It's not easy, but God's gift is free, and His obedience too, we just have to add effort too. Ellen White went to Heaven in a vision once, when there some old pioneers, who probably did not look so old in Heaven, came up to her and asked her group what they had experienced on earth. They couldn't really get out any memories. But in the end they could still conclude, "Heaven is cheap enough." All that they went through on earth, even trial and heartache was worth it (and if you read Life Sketches, Ellen White had a real tough life, for sure). All was barely a sacrifice in comparision with eternity, God's free gift. I don't know, is Heave cheap enough to me, that makes all the difference.