A Post Apocalyptic Movie

The Book of Eli is about a man traveling across the country to fulfill a calling. During the thirty years of his mission he encounters other survivors of the world’s devastation, but he stays out of their affairs at all costs. For his mission he has been endowed with a gift, which he uses very brutally for the sake of his directive. 

     Eli has been traveling for thirty years and has read the same book every day during that time. At the end we find out that not only has he read the book from cover to cover he has memorized every word. 

     The story, he reveals to us when he tells a girl that he got so caught up in reading the book and protecting it, that he forgot to live by what it says in the book.  

    

     When he finally knew the book as well as he could, and he memorized it during the thirty years, only then could he understand the underlying message of the book as a whole rather than individual chapters, pages, or stories. It’s a movie so they never mention the most important theme and purpose of the book that Jesus came to save us.

     While it cost him his life, in the end he tried to save someone, other than himself or the book. During those thirty years, he only saved one lost soul.

     Eli’s book was a King James Version of the Bible printed in braille. Even after he knew everything about the book he was not putting it to use, believing that it was meant for someone else to use for the good of mankind.

     It is so easy for us to get caught up in fixing ourselves first, that we can forget that we just need to try. We become afraid of failure, so much so that we get caught-up in our own betterment. Be aware that we will fail. It is the act of trying that sets those few apart from the rest of the world. 

     Like Eli, we are all given a gift to share the word of God with the world, and like Eli we often get caught-up more in the quest, and forget to share with others what was given to us freely.

     Perhaps we even believe a little, that just the simple act of reading the Bible makes everything right in the world. We can know and even believe something without putting it to use for the good of anyone else. Unshared knowledge is useless knowledge.

     We are not asked to save everyone from hell, we are only asked to try, and then maybe help save some. The act of obedience is all that is really required of us. 

We cannot save ourselves, we can’t even come close. If you don’t believe me try going to heaven for a little while and come back to tell us all how it was. No, don’t try, you can’t. 

      I for one have never really liked the Old Testament. The truth is that it is meant to show us that we don’t deserve God’s grace and we have absolutely no chance of earning our way to heaven. No one wants to believe that they are not good enough.

It is about how man has always failed and will always fail.

     The New Testament is the story of Jesus’s love for his children and the extent to which he is willing to prove it by sacrificing his own blood as payment for our unworthiness.

     The Bible as a whole is that we do not want God to be fair with us, because we will always fail. It is only by God’s compassion and love for those who choose to love Him, of their own free will, that they can share in the grace of salvation. Grace is a gift that has been given to us, despite the fact that we do not want it, cannot earn it, and we do not even deserve it.

     We should care about what God cares about, if for no other reason than, that God cares about it. God cares about people and their love for Him.

     God deserves our love and devotion, we do not deserve anything, yet He gives, of a giving spirit.

     Any and all gifts received from the spirit of God, no matter how diversified, are designed for the sole purpose of sharing the word of God to the entire world.

     The Bible is just a book filled with merely words; it is that they are God’s words that are what is important. Man can write great things with great words, but they are not God breathed. Without God, The Bible is just a book about living a better life. The Bible is not to be worshiped, it is not God; it is only an object.

     Do what matters.

     Do whatever, just do it for the glory of God.

     God is glorified by your getting involved and making a difference. God doesn’t need your help, people do.

 

Why is accepting the grace of Jesus so hard for so many?

No one wants to need, to be saved by someone else.

I think that the bible does focus a lot on giving up one's self, and loving and serving others more than yourself. Perhaps, until we give up our selfishness; selfish pride and entitlement; we cannot be filled by the Holy Spirit enough to accept that we are not great enough to save ourselves. We do need to be saved, and until we come to terms with it and admit it, we are lost.