This week I watched a movie that was so good. I strongly recommend Pure Flix as a provider of great faith based movies and family programming. I have seen so many good movies with a message. The one I watched this week was about how different lives are just threads in the beautiful tapestry God is designing.

You never know when our life will interact with another life that may have a divine purpose with far reaching ramifications. It showed the lives of several individuals going about their everyday lives but how they all were intermeshing to bring His will and ultimately salvation to lost and hurting lives far from him.

The main thing I took from the movie is something a man walking the streets with a large wooden cross asked to a local minister. “Do you believe in the cross of Christ?”

He said well of course, I’m a preacher. But it didn’t end there. It got him thinking and it did me to.

Growing up as a Christian in a Christian home I knew all about Christ. We went to church Sundays and Wednesdays, had Bible studies at my parents house one night a week. My parents worked with the college class so we were always getting together with them to do fun things.

I enjoyed being around my church friends. That was a big part of my life and who I was. But at other times it was business as usual. God didn’t affect much of my life. Oh I always tried to be good and knew God was important but it didn’t really change the way I lived.

As many of you know a severe stroke got my attention when I was only 45. Up till then I did what I wanted and when I wanted in regards to my life. That stroke was a wake up call from God. I almost died. Was I ready to meet God?

It was all different for me and tragedy often brings questions into our lives. What is life all about? What lies ahead? Our we ready? How have we run the race? I had to do a lot of seeking and I came up lacking greatly. I was not who I should be but God who is faithful, knows us, loves us, and gives us a do over.

The question that preacher heard hit him so hard that he asked it to his congregation.

“ Do you believe in the cross of Christ?”

Jesus, God’s son who had been with him since time began made a plan with his father. Thousands of years ago before we were ever born, although God for knew each one of us and loved us. They had to make a way for us to be together apart from sin. Yet we are all sinners, everyone.

Jesus would give up his right to be equal to God and come to earth as a helpless new born baby. He would be 100% man with all the failings we have, yet not sin, not even once. He would live a perfect life, with God’s help. Submitting to all authorities even to being hung on that cross to die as a hated criminal.

His perfect sacrifice, pure and blameless, would be just what we would need to be redeemed. By faith, only, we have been bought with a very high price. We don’t deserve it. We could never earn it. Still he did it for everyone who will believe.

How do I thank him for that gift properly? Everything I have ever done wrong in my life is washed away as if it never happened. I am far from perfect even though I try to do good. Do I really try to do his will for my life? Do I serve him and those around me?

Everyone I come in contact with is loved greatly by God. Who knows if I may divinely impact their lives, whether good or bad. Might I be the last Christian to leave an example of my fathers love in their lives. We are all the hands, feet, finances, and love of God in this world.

Do we draw others to him with our lives? He has promised to help us. To make our lives extra impactful for him. Not just an ordinary life, but one that truly matters to others. I always try to do his will. But do I pay that much attention to my every interaction with others.

I will now. It makes so much difference to those around me. I talk with difficulty, and my words may be few, but they need to be intentional. “God help me to always stay in control with my emotions by trusting that you are in control of what happens to me, good or bad.”