Truth Grit

  My, my, my, it seems that my husband and I can enjoy a movie together from time to time. His tastes are more action, aggressive movies and mine tend to lean heavily towards period pieces, you know like Pride and Prejudice. Bridging the Grand Canyon-like gap can be difficult but sometimes it happens.

My "Nest" Chair

 A new Netflix movie arrived this week and in the envelope was a little surprising nugget. The hubby had picked this western and I was not exactly thrilled. Loading "True Grit" into the DVD player, I hopped into my nest chair with my snuggly blanket and expected to entertain myself with Words with Friends. 

 Ohhh, I was so very wrong. "True Grit" has several versions and has been out for a long time so forgive me for being behind the times and culturally stunted.

 Pithy Mattie was a hoot and most of the dialog was packed with gems like, "You do not varnish your opinion." The older Mattie opened with, "You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free, except the grace of God." Now, it did have a large amount of cursing and some gory parts so be warned if you think you want to check it out. The striking thing for me was that it put into my mind that the character Mattie is a bit like we should be when it comes to false teachers. She was wholeheartedly devoted to her mission.

 With all the ruckus about Beth Moore, Heaven is For Real, and many others, we need to know what we believe and why. We need to be able to show why a teaching is false and sometimes it will require bringing out the moxie. The true grit of a Christian is not their ability to be the toughest bulldog or to bring down the orneriest outlaw. True grit comes in not varnishing the truth.

 But, do not misunderstand the call of our role.

 Charles Spurgeon, if we put him in this theological version of True Grit, would coolly repeat this famous quote, "Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself." Our power is not in how much louder we can shout or if we bring a big enough posse to the showdown; our power is in being fully convinced that the God of the universe is who He says He is and His Word is enough. Ain't nothing bigger than that. 

 Once we understand grace, we comprehend that there is no reason to square up, shout down, or shoot down a dead man. Grace tells us that we are all dead unless we have been made alive by Christ and having been made alive, we should all the more realize the importance of spreading Truth. Our message is that although grace is free, it came at a great cost and we are the ones under the immense debt, yet we could never pay it, nor did we want to but Jesus paid it anyway. 

 That is the source of our true grit and it drives us to be unashamed, joyfully courageous, and doggedly grounded in Truth. The six-shooter in our holster is loaded with 66 books. The one who deputized us also defeated temptation of Satan with the Word so if it was sufficient for Him over such a great enemy it should be sufficient for us. 

 We should be as tenacious as Mattie, willing to grab firmly hold of our ponies of faith and stick to the trail of the one who leads us, bravely fording rapid rivers and steep canyons so when others encounter us they will proclaim as Mattie did to Rooster, "They tell me you are a man (or woman) of true grit." For it will be worse if you end up before Jesus as the hanged man in the movie who is cut down from the tree, landing at Rooster's feet and he proclaims, "I do not know this man (or woman)."

Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself. - See more at: http://reformedquotes.com/defend-the-bible/#sthash.5rQhWQVA.dpuf

Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself. - See more at: http://reformedquotes.com/defend-the-bible/#sthash.5rQhWQVA.dpuf