Filed under: daily discoveries, films & the tube, soul fuel | Tags: easter, john griffith, memphis express, most the movie, the bridge
Before you read any further, please take a few minutes and watch this video.
The clip illustrates in a powerful way how the sacrifice of Jesus must have completely broken the heart of God the Father – and how Easter should also include a time of expressing our gratitude not only to Jesus, but to the Father as well.
This clip is also more than just a video. It’s actually based on the true story of a man who made that exact sacrifice. Here’s what really happened:
* The father’s name was John Griffith. He had lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi where he took a job as bridge operator for a railroad trestle. In 1937 he was involved in a horrible accident. One day his 8 year-old son, Greg, spent the day with his Dad at work. The boy poked around the office and asked dozens of questions – just like little boys do. The bridge was over a river and whenever a ship came John had to open the bridge to allow the ships to pass. The day the boy was there with his father a ship was coming so John opened up the drawbridge.
After a moment or two he realized his son wasn’t in the office and as he looked around, to his horror, John saw his son climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge. He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard a fast approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with 400 people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him. All of a sudden John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, the boy would be crushed in the gears. John would sacrifice his son. He made the horrible decision, pulled the lever and closed the bridge. It is said, as the train went by John could see the faces of the passengers, some reading, some even waving, all of them oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made for them.
This week over a billion people will celebrate Easter. We celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ came back from the dead after paying the ultimate price for our sins. We celebrate the fact that salvation is available through trusting in the risen Savior of the world.
But even though we celebrate, sometimes we forget. There was more than one sacrifice that was made on the hill where Jesus hung on the Cross and poured out His life. There was also a Daddy. He watched in heaven as His precious Son was spit on, insulted, tortured, and finally murdered by people who had no idea who they were killing. The heart of God the Father must have been shattered into a million pieces as the land grew dark and Jesus cried out to His Father:
Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:46)
That’s why this Easter we need to remember and celebrate not only the earthly side of the gospel message, but the heavenly side as well:
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” - Romans 5:8
While we were on the train, headed for destruction… while we were addicts and selfish, sinful people… while we were clueless about the destiny of eternal souls… a Father chose to love us and choose to let His one and only Son be crushed by the gears of Crucifixion.
On Easter Sunday, take some time to watch the video again. Let it remind you of the tragedy and triumph of that first Easter, and that you have a heavenly Father that loves you too much to live without you.
Written by: Lane Palmer
Position: Youth Ministry Specialist
* Source: http://www. sermoncentral.com
Filed under: soul fuel
“The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is for me among those who help me.” Psalm 118:6-7
You’ve probably noticed that the circumstances of life in this fallen world can bring us to the brink of collapse. But we read in the Bible – and you have probably experienced this truth in your own life – that God always provides the strength we need to continue on His path.
Sometimes, though, we are merely putting one foot forward at a time; sometimes that’s all the light we can see on our path at the moment. (Psalm 119:105)
Sometimes others are believing in God – and in His goodness and His power – for us when we can’t believe for ourselves.
Sometimes others are praying for us when we struggle to pray on our own.
When God brings us through seasons like that – and He does see us through them – we realize that He truly is the champion of His children. Then we can sing with the psalmist, “The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14)
That song may not be on your lips right now, but it will be someday as it has been in the past… because the Lord is for you.
[devotional credit: Henry & Richard Blackaby, Discovering God's Daily Agenda]
“Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
Sometime ago, I traded e-mail with a friend who was approaching 30 and had no serious love relationship in sight. He’s talented, fun, handsome, and a committed Christian. But so far, everything on his romantic horizon has turned out to be a mirage.
Several months earlier, he had been very enthusiastic about a young woman with whom he was corresponding. Two weeks before they were to meet for the first time, she was killed by a drunk driver. My friend made the trip to meet her family, experience their pain, and deal with his own sense of loss.
Today, many people will feel the absence of love as keenly as others celebrate its presence. In a world where love means so much, is there a word from the Lord for everyone, with or without a sweetheart?
First John 4 focuses not on being loved by another person, but on God’s love for us and our love for one another (v. 7-11). According to 1 Corinthians 13:7, this love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
How is this possible? Because God’s love “has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5)
Long after the cards and flowers are forgotten, there is love from God’s heart to ours!
Filed under: book nook, soul fuel | Tags: journal of the unknown prophet, legacy to a renegade generation, wendy alec
Journal of the Unknown Prophet – Legacy to a Renegade Generation by Wendy Alec.
Riveting! This book left an indelible mark in my life.
[A friend from England sent me this book last October, as an early Christmas gift.]
