A Letter...A Movie...A Night to Remember

I found myself sitting in a room filled with anticipation. Four hundred hungry souls sat before me ready to feast on the faithfulness of the Lord. The scene sparked with electricity as the power of the Holy Spirit began to course through the room during worship. Life invaded our space and glory made way... Kairos begins.

Tonight's menu boasted a different flavor, different chef's-those who once played a supportive role were stepping up to center stage. That's when it happened.  During the second session the man at the front of the room began to read about our unveiled faces from 2 Corinthians 3 just before acknowledging that the supportive Scriptures and information he was about to share would not be found in the pages of the book they held on their laps.

I smiled and scrawled out the reference he'd just given. 2 Corinthians. I flipped the pages of my two year old Spirit Filled Life Bible, NKJV-a few of them are loose from their binding. It remains a treasured staple in my devotional line up. I landed in that last half at 2 Corinthians but parked a few houses up at the first lot on the block.  That is when it happened - first one and the another... It was as if I had been standing in a dark room trying to discern the actions in a play before me but there was no light before that moment.

1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others,

epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with

ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets

of flesh, that is, of the heart.

4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are

sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but

our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of

the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but

the Spirit gives life.

7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious,

so that the children of Israel could not look steadilyat the face of Moses because

of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the

ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation

had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the

glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away wasis much more glorious.

12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech-- 13 unlike

Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look

steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded.

For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament,

because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read,

a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3:1-18 (NKJV)

As I read the beautiful words of this passage of Scripture, my heart felt full and alive with a fresh word and anointing. I drove straight away to my friend's house afterward. I read the Scripture aloud to her from her NIV Study Bible.

I paused a moment at verse 12: "Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold"...

WE ARE VERY BOLD. I am a letter written in bold letters to the lost and the dying in this world. O Glory. I just realized and knew that the cliche oft quoted in pulpits across America is found right here in 2 Corinthians 3 - "You may be the only Bible that someone every reads."

I'm a letter - not the letter that kills, but I am a letter written by the Spirit on the tablets of my heart. I'm a love letter. :)

Which brings me to the revelation - I want to begin memorizing chapters of the Bible and journaling my way through it. I don't want to do it to check some project off my list, or just 'cuz that is what good Christian folk, do... I want to do it because I want to have the rest of that letter written on my heart. I want to be a living, breathing Rhema word from God to anyone who would listen.

Which brings me to the movie - The Book of Eli was in theaters around Valentine's Day. I had read a post about this movie at Angie Wyatt's blog when it was released in theaters. I wanted to see it. Last Friday, I lay  our leather couch an watched as this story unfolded in a post nuclear war America. One man was trekking his way across America finding shelter in bombed out, abandoned homes. Fighting off high-jackers with a couple of guns and a machete and doing everything he could to protect and deliver what he believed to be the last existing Bible in the entire world.

By the end of the movie you are cheering. And, as I consider the content the recognition that the subject and the violence were difficult to take at first - language could be foul and there was a scene where a young woman offered herself to a man sexually. But... In a post apocalypse world where the Word of God is all but forgotten what could one expect? Foul mouthed, murderous, angry men and women controlled by these men.

I'll leave the rest of the movie for you to see, but honestly. It made me think - I want to know the Bible like this man did. I want to know it... not just in my head or my hands, but I want to know it in my heart... I want every word written there like a finely penned manuscript awaiting the printing press.

I want to make Him famous. I want to be His letter to the world. Freedom Ministry is so much fun. I love It.