FLYBOYS?

In my quiet time with the Lord today, He laid it opon my heart to give an analogy from the movie Flyboys. If you have not seen it, I encourage you to make it your next movie. In my mind, I was shown a people that think they will be safe at the end of times, if they are standing on neutral ground. Basically, if they are not picking a side in this spiritual war, that we are battling on this Earth. They are not choosing Jesus or satan. These people I am speaking of, are choosing to go this battle on their own. Friends, there is no doubt that Jesus is coming back to claim what is His. God has provided a way for us to enter into His glory and be saved from this war. It is through His Son as we have been reading in Romans. Our only part is to realize that we cannot fight this battle on our own any longer. We need to BELIEVE the promise that God sent Jesus to die in place of us, so that we can be justified before God on judgment day. We need to be heartfully sorry for the things we have done that were not of God’s best for us (sin). If you have broken relationships, anger issues, addictions, etc. You can be sure that there is sin reigning in your life that you are struggling with. You are in bondage to something that only Jesus can free you from. All you need to do is come to Him with a heart set on making your wrongs right. BELIEVE that He can change your life, and He will. Surrender your will to His. Trust that you are forgiven and forgive yourself.

This is a scene from Flyboys. Beagle's plane comes apart and he crash-lands hard in the middle of a battlefield where infantry from both sides fire at each other, and the enemy shoots at Beagle whose hand is stuck under the wreckage, making him unable to flee. Blaine ends up landing and darting through the battlefield. With no alternative, Blaine uses a shovel to cut off Beagle's hand because it is pinned under his plane. They then run over to their side, avoiding gunfire, with Beagle's plane being hit and then exploding.

Wow, this is a powerful scene to me that speaks to this situation of thinking we are safe going things alone! If you see the movie, please let this scene stand out in your mind and think about what I am saying. There is Beagle (us) pinned under his plane. What is your plane (sin) that is pinning you down? Here comes the main character Blaine (Jesus) coming to our aid. During this entire scene Beagle keeps telling Blaine to just leave him there (we tend to refuse the help of others out of pride). They are in the middle, stuck in the crossfire of the two sides. What a dangerous place for us to be! We have the enemy shooting at us, and some of our own side because they cannot tell through the smoke and commotion which side we are on (our actions). Eventually, Blaine had to make a decision that he knew was going to be very painful for Beagle of cutting his hand off. There is Beagle knowing his life depends on this, but screaming NO NO NO! He would have rather stayed there pinned under his plane, which would have eventually led to his death. Sometimes Jesus has to take things or people out of our life that we are comfortable with, that are catering to our sin in order to transform our lives. Sometimes it is a temporary time off and sometimes, we will have to say goodbye forever. The good news is that He does not take anything away without giving you something in return and that He knows what is best for us. We need complete trust in our one and only true savior, Jesus Christ for life.

There is only one thing that is different about this story. Beagle did not need to ask Blaine to come and get him. They were on the same side of the war. Jesus needs to know which side we want to be on. He will not force us just as they do not force you to choose a side in war. We need to choose. I choose life! I choose Jesus!