ATTA BOY LUTHER

Well friends...the countdown is on. One day until Fat Tuesday...two days until Ash Wednesday...49 days until Resurrection Sunday. In between all of that we have 40 days...not counting Sundays of Lent. If you choose to take the Journey of Lent (in whatever form or fashion God leads you in)...I just want to say....
ATTA BOY LUTHER!

For those who are wondering...the Luther mentioned is Luther Heggs in the movie THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN starring Don Knotts and Joan Haley. The question is...what does THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN have to do with LENT? As with many other Ramblings...NOTHING. It's just another cheap lead in to talk about the Death, Burial, Resurrection...nothing more nothing less.

In the movie...Luther Heggs works at a newspaper, setting up the type for obituaries...who desires to be a reporter. He views what he thinks is a murder that turns out to be a wife hitting her drunk husband in the head. He then accepts a challenge to stay in a house where a murder took place in a house that is being torn down. He sees many scary and strange things including an organ that plays by itself with bloody finger prints on...that even BON AMI...cannot get off the keys. After he stays in the house...he becomes a hero...and is speaking at a hero's picnic...where someone in the crowd continues to yell out... ATTA BOY LUTHER. Well...in our lives...we can try to cleanse ourselves from our sin and the guilt of sin...but good works, pentance...and even BON AMI cannot remove the stain.


During this upcoming LENT SEASON...is a time of retrospective. It is a time when we turn on the searchlight...where things in the darkness of the recesses of our souls...are brought to light.

We first reflect the Psalmist as he sings..."In your anger do not sin...when you are on your beds, SEARCH YOUR HEARTS and be silent...SELAH (think about it, contemplate it, ruminate on it)." (Psalm 4:4)

We are called as believers to..."walk in the light". "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we WALK IN THE LIGHT, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the BLOOD of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from ALL SIN." (I John 1:5-7)

Again the Psalmist speaks of the power of the SEARCHLIGHT in our lives...
"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways." (Psalm 139:1-4) He then continues on with a question..."Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" (Psalm 139:7) He then begins to list the places where God will be. Now the Psalmist speaks of the way the SEARCHLIGHT pierces the darkness..."If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will NOT BE DARK TO YOU; the night will SHINE LIKE THE DAY." (Psalm 139:11-12) We proceed to see the depths of where God KNOWS us..."For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb...I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. MY FRAME WAS NOT HIDDEN FROM YOU when I was made in the SECRET PLACE." (Psalm 139:13-15).

Finally we see the yielding of the Psalmist to the SEARCHLIGHT..."Search me, O God, and KNOW my heart; TEST ME and KNOW my anxious thoughts. SEE if there is any OFFENSIVE WAY in me, and LEAD ME in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24)

I asked my son Phillip to create a drawing for me that pictures the cross. The dark backdrop with the cross...and three holes represents the death of Jesus. The emptiness of the cross represents the burial. Phillip and I went on a two man retreat this weekend. It was me..my son...and the Word of God, as we went through THE PURPLE BOOK and studied the basics of Christianity. Sprinkled througout the weekend we ate (Famous Daves, Shoney's Breakfast Bar, and Chicago Style Hot Dogs...supplied by Mario Galleone). Also throughout the weekend...various people that I asked to pray and come a speak a word of encouragement and affirmation to my son showed up.

One section that we studied was the importance and necessity of THE BLOOD OF JESUS...more powerful than BON AMI for removing the stain of sin.

"Since we have now been JUSTIFIED ( Just As If I'd Never Sinned) by his BLOOD, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him." (Romans 5:9)


"In Him we have REDEMPTION through His BLOOD, the FORGIVENESS OF SINS, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." (Ephesians 1:7)

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been BROUGHT NEAR through the BLOOD of Christ." (Ephesians 2:23)

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship wit one another and the BLOOD OF JESUS His Son, PURIFIES us from ALL SIN." (I John 1:7)

"And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth,. To Him who loves us, and RELEASED US from our SINS by His BLOOD." (Revelation 1:5)

The bottom line is...it is NOT the BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS...of human effort that can save and keeps us...it is not BON AMI that can scrub our souls clean of the guilt of our deeds, and it is not the blood of animals that can take our place as the PROPITIATION (substitute and satisfaction to God).

"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered throught the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the BLOOD of goats and calves, but through HIS OWN BLOOD, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained ETERNAL REDEMPTION. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, SANCTIFY for the CLEANSING of the flesh, how much more will the BLOOD OF CHRIST, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, CLEANSE YOUR CONSCIENCE from DEAD WORKDS to server the living God." (Hebrews 9:11-14)

He is the mediator of a NEW COVENANT. The first covenant was made with BLOOD...with blood of cavles and goats...underscored by...This blood of the covenatn which God commanded you." (read Hebrews 9:15-21)

The bottom line is this...whether we like it or not...whether it offends us or not...Christianity is a BLOODY RELIGION...."And according to the Law...one may almost say, all things are CLEANSED WITH BLOOD...and WITHOUT SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS." (Hebrews 9:22)

What does all of this have to do with me tripping and stumbling through LENT? Well...as I have the SEARCHLIGHT shine on me...and God puts His graceful and merciful finger on me...I come undone by my sin...and call what is revealed by what God calls it...SIN. I then CONFESS (come in to agreement with God)...apply the only thing that can cleans me and restore me...HIS BLOOD...and then GET UP AND WALK FORGIVEN...as my sin is cast into the sea of forgetfulness or as far as the east is from the west.

I hope as I walk in His grace, mercy and forgiveness...and as I yield my will to His will...and as I do the works I was created to do...I hope that I will hear...like Luther heard ATTA BOY LUTHER...that I will hear...well done, good and faithful servant...enter into the rest of the Master.

Happy Lent
Rodney "Feeling The Touch" Boyd