Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

          This movie was so much fun!  Zac Efron stars as the voice of Ted, a young resident of the tree-free, industrialized city of Thneedville where they buy bottled air.  Ted wants to impress his friend Audrey (Taylor Swift) and for that he'll need to find a tree.  So Ted goes to the Once-ler (who sports the dramatic and entertaining voice of Ed Helms). 

          The Once-ler regails Ted with the story of his wonderful invention, the thneed.  The thneed was an all-purpose piece of clothing made from trees and was once the must-have fashion item.          
        The Lorax who speaks for the trees (Danny Devito) is a cute and fuzzy little creature with a mustache and an attitude. He warns the Once-ler not to harm the trees or something bad will happen.  But when the Once-ler foolishly decides to chop down trees instead of harvesting only the part he needs, he uses every tree in the forest and is left with nothing. 

    After all the trees are gone, the Lorax sends the animals away and leaves the Once-ler alone in the gray, barren forest with only the tree stumps and a special stone.  The stone has a word carved on it: Unless. 

          When the Once-ler finishes his story, he gives Ted the last seed.  He tells Ted to plant it where everyone in Thneedville can see so that they will know the importance of trees and free air.
               

        We may not have thneeds, bottled air or the Lorax but our world is a lot like Ted's.  Like the forest that was once beautiful, our world was once very good:

"Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!"

 Genesis 1:31 NLT



          Like the Once-ler, we got a warning:

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.' " Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV

 

          We didn't obey and something bad happened:

"For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23a NKJV

 

          And we have an Unless:

"...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23b NKJV



                  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 NKJV 

 

Christ lived the perfect life we never could and died in our place, as our substitute, taking the punishment from God that we all deserve for the wrong we do.  Now we can be forgiven and go to Heaven someday if we accept this gift.

 

And we have a seed to plant by telling everyone we can so that everyone can see the importance of Jesus and free eternal life!





Mr. Monk Never Forgets

     Monk is a quirky, lovable show about obsessive-compulsive detective, Adrian Monk.  The show ended after eight seasons but lives on through a series of very fun novels.  Mr. Monk was a successful homicide detective until his wife's murder caused him to suffer a psychological breakdown.  Now he assists the San Fransisco Police Department on the most difficult cases as a private consultant.  He uses his need for order and his obsession with perfection to see the details that the average investigator would miss.  Monk catches the bad guys that no one else would ever catch.  

But he couldn't do it without Natalie.  Natalie is Mr. Monk's plucky assistant.  Her job is to keep him calm and focused, hand him disinfectant wipes and run interference with the people he ultimately frustrates.  They get into and out of a lot of scrapes together and have saved each other's lives more than once.

         

         One of the things that makes Monk so unique and so good at solving crimes is his memory.  It's perfect.  Once during a session with his therapist, he recounts a traumatic memory and his therapist realizes that Mr. Monk is actually remembering his own birth!

          Even though there are probably no real people who have a perfect memory like this, God does.  Psalm 147:5 says, "Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite."  God knows everything.  Acts 15:18 says, "Known to God from eternity are all His works."  He knew every moment of human history before time ever began.  He knows everything that has ever happened or will ever happen to everyone. 

         God knows us, He really KNOWS us.  He knows everything we've ever done, including all the bad things.  He says in the Bible that we deserve His punishment. (Romans 6:23) 

         Now listen to something amazing - "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."  -Romans 5:8 

          He sent Jesus to take the punishment that we deserve.  When we accept that we deserve God's punishment, when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are forgiven.  All of our mistakes and bad deeds and bad thoughts are washed away.  Forever.  And He continues to forgive us when we slip up because now we have Jesus as our Advocate.  (1 John 2:1) 

        God, the only One with the flawless memory, chooses to forget.  For our sake.  Just because He loves us. 

        Here is what God's forgiveness is like:  Hebrews 8:12  "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”



Once Upon A Time: Remember Who You Are

          ABC’s Once Upon A Time is one of my favorite new shows, along with Fox’s Terra Nova.  Once Upon A Time is a gorgeous fairytale drama with sweeping cinematography, engaging storylines and acting so real it gives me goose bumps.  It’s highly original plot sets this show apart from previous fairytale endeavors and other sci-fi/fantasy hits. 

          In this reimagining, the Evil Queen from the classic story of Snow White has placed a curse on the entire realm of fairytale characters.  In an attempt at revenge on Snow White and her Charming husband, the enchantress has banished them, along with others from their world, to a life with “no happy endings” in our world.  They find themselves in uneventful Storybrooke, Maine.  They live ordinary lives and have no memory of who they used to be.  Snow White is a schoolteacher.  Rumplestiltskin is a pawn broker.  And the Evil Queen has positioned herself as mayor of Storybrooke. 

There’s only one person who can come to Storybrooke and break the curse.  Emma Swan.  The daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.  At the time of the curse, she was an infant.  Now she’s a gritty, disillusioned bounty hunter, unencumbered by things like personal attachments or optimism.  But when the son she gave up for adoption shows up at her door, her life changes. 
Henry knows all about the curse, thanks to a special book of fairytales.  He believes that Emma is Storybrooke’s savior, the only one who can make everyone remember who they are and put things back the way they were.

What a wonderful, rich story.  It reminds me of a wonderful, rich truth.  The truth of the Bible.  The truth about us.  Just like the fairytale characters in Storybrooke, all of humankind is under a curse.  We live in a world we weren’t meant for.  We have forgotten where we come from and who we are meant to be. 

This is what the Bible is about.  In the beginning, everything was perfect just how God created it.  The first people, Adam and Eve, were a perfect couple, living in a perfect garden, in a perfect world, friends with God.  There was no suffering or death.  Only happiness, harmony and love.  It sounds like a fairytale.  But this is the truth.

And then something happened.  Adam and Eve turned away from God; disobeyed Him.  This is when earth fell under the curse.  As the owner of everything, God cursed the world because of Adam and Eve.  They were no longer going to live forever and now life would be difficult.  Now that they knew how to disobey God, they would sometimes be angry, bitter and selfish.  They would argue and hurt each other. 

God’s punishment for sin is death and after death- separation from Him.  Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death…”

          Today, we are still under the curse.  We all sin. (Romans 3:23)  And we have forgotten what the world used to be, what we are supposed to be.  But God is not like the Evil Queen, He didn’t place us under this curse out of spite or for revenge.  It is more like a reset plan.  A way to get the world back to that perfection.   
          The Bible says in Romans 8:20-21 that “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.”
          He sent us a Savior.  His Son, Jesus Christ.  Born as a human, Christ lived the sinless life that no human ever could.  Then He let Himself be killed, at the same time taking the punishment for all of humanity’s sin on Himself.  Then He rose from the dead, victorious over sin.  He is the cure for the curse that we brought on ourselves.  "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16

All we have to do is accept this; truly believe we are under the curse of our own sin and ask God for the cure- the Savior.  Then we can live the life we were meant to live.  Life based on His unconditional love and His promise of Heaven.

Listen to Colossians 3:2-4: “Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.  For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.  And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory.”

Did you hear that?  When you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, your real life is with Him.  Don’t let this world get you down.  It’s easy to worry and hurry and let discontent run rampant.  I have this problem big time!  But like the verse says, don’t focus on the things of this world, focus on your real life.  Don’t live in the curse!  Live the life you were meant to live, look forward to your real home in heaven.  Remember who you are! 

   Song Recommendation:  Remind Me Who I Am – Jason Gray (written from the perspective of someone who has accepted Jesus as their Savior)

"Come With Me If You Want To Live"

       This one is an oldie but a goodie.  The extremely famous, 80's hit Sci-Fi movie The Terminator.  Very dark in tone and full of heart-pounding action, The Terminator is interesting from start to finish.
       Sarah Connor is an ordinary waitress.  Until she becomes the target of a serial killer.  Someone is murdering every Sarah Connor in the phone book, one by one.  Sarah doesn't know that she is the real target.  She doesn't know how important she is.
       In a future ruled by machines, Sarah's son, John, is humanity's only hope.  The killer is a cyborg sent from the future to murder Sarah before her son is ever conceived.  He is strong, resilient, nearly unstoppable.  The Terminator.
       But someone else is looking for Sarah too.  Kyle Reese was sent by Sarah's son to save her life.  To save her from the Terminator. 
       When the Terminator catches up to Sarah, he creates mayhem and terror.  Reese intervenes to save Sarah.  She doesn't know Reese but he risks his own life to save her.  With the Terminator seconds away from killing her, Reese holds out a hand and says "Come with me if you want to live."
       Romans 3:23 says "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Every person has failed God.  Every person does wrong.  Romans 6:23 reads "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  God says the punishment for sin is death. 
       We all die but the Bible tells us that people who have sinned are doomed to Hell after death.  The Bible says it’s a place where there’ll be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” and fire forever.  So everyone is doomed to this because everyone sins.  Everyone deserves Hell.
       Hell is like the Terminator.  It’s getting closer and closer.  On our trail, chasing us.  We all know that we’ll die sometime and every second that passes we get closer to it.  Every second that passes Hell is getting closer to us.  Like the Terminator getting closer to Sarah.
       But there is hope!  “The free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus”- that’s Heaven.  Jesus allowed Himself to be killed on the cross and allowed God to put all the sins of the world on Him so that we could have forgiveness.  We just have to ask for it. 
       When He was on earth, Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6)  No one can be friends with God and go to Heaven without Jesus. So in other words: “Come with Me if you want to live!”
       Sarah could have run away from her rescuer and been killed by the Terminator.  And we can run away from Jesus and go to Hell.  Every person needs to make a decision to either ignore Jesus, try to do there own thing and fail; or to come to Jesus and live.  Jesus is holding out His hand.  He's offering to save you.

Hell is getting ever closer, come to Jesus and live.

Romans 10:9  "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."