Heart Tracks - Terminator vs Life Giver

"The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness." John 10:10...."The devil knows who you are and can be before you do. He attacks us to keep us from God's destiny for us." Lisa Bevere

I heard speaker and writer Lisa Bevere give a wonderful analogy on John 10:10 in her recounting the story of Sarah Conner, inThe Terminator movie franchise. Conner, who worked a mundane job as a waitress, living a life of seeming hopelessness, suddenly finds herself the target of a cyborg from the future, bent on killing her. Why? Unknown to her, she was to be the mother of a man who would rise up to lead a defeated human race to victory over the machines that had conquered them and were intent on their eradication. Also sent from the future was a man whose mission was simply to save and protect her, that she might fulfill her destiny; to be the mother of the savior of the human race. When that man appeared, he simply said, "Come with me if you want to live." There could not be a better illustration of John 10:10 for us. We are born into a world where the enemy of our souls first and deepest desire is to steal both our lives and souls. All his efforts go into that. Yet into this world has come One whose sole desire and work is to save us from that destroyer and give us life. True life in Him.

Though the devil doesn't have full knowledge of all things concerning us, he does have at least limited understanding of what the Father desires for us and created us for. He will do all in his power to keep us from that. In the movie The Gladiator, the Roman general Maximus, ordered his soldiers to begin loosing great fireballs upon their enemy with the words, "Unleash hell." This is exactly what satan wishes to do with us. Christ's response to it all is to unleash life. His life. The devil's death and Christ's life are both being "unleashed" upon us. Which are we receiving? Which will we receive tomorrow, and all the days yet to come? Where, as concerns eternity, will that receiving take us? Sarah Conner had no idea as to the life that lie before her, and the impact it would have. Neither do we. And I speak of something far more than that of making a name for ourselves. His destiny for each and all is that we would enter into all the fullness of the life we were created for. A life that finds its culmination in our "knowing Him and the power of His resurrection." Satan will unleash hell in order to keep us from that. And he will never stop coming at us in order to do so. Yet the Terminator from the pit of darkness is powerless to keep us from the abundance of life that the One who is the giver of Life offers. Both will come to us, and in every aspect of life; physically, mentally, and most of all, spiritually. Which do we receive? The thief who takes all, or He who gives all?

Jesus said that eye has not seen, and ear has not heard ALL that the Father has stored up for those that love Him. That "all" begins now, but it will stretch out in ever greater ways into and throughout eternity. The thief has no place in eternity for those who are His. If we are truly His, he need have no place in our lives right now. Like the Terminator, the devil is relentless, and we have no human defense against him. He will destroy us, indeed, apart from Christ, we are already destroyed. Yet his relentless pursuit cannot and will not be able to destroy those who are His by His blood. So, in a world crushed by this enemy, He stands before each one and simply says, "Come with Me if you want to live." Do you want to live? Are you living now?

Blessings,
Pastor O