Ensign: Amazing Fantasy #14

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3




AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                                        1 April 2016




Someone, somewhere, is kicking themselves for not completing their Amazing Fantasy collection from the early 1960s. For the Marvel Comics series was announced to end with the next issue (the one after today's title, #15) which would be the debut of this guy who would call himself SPIDER-MAN. I expect even non-comic reading members of my audience know who Spider-Man is -- Peter Parker was a geeky teenager in high school and at a science exhibit got bitten by a radioactive spider and BAM! he got the proportional powers of a spider.




It's easy to let power, any power, get to your head, and Peter Parker does for a while, letting a thief run by him after one of his stage shows. A few nights later Peter's uncle is shot by a burglar, and Peter using his powers as Spider-Man goes after him, and when he defeats him finds out it's the guy he did not stop when he had the chance. In mid-February of this year, a near-perfect copy of this first appearance of Spider-Man sold for just under half a million dollars.


And it wasn't mine.




What causes us to place value on things? On people? It's not just age (Amazing Fantasy #15 is fifty-four years old), it's also physical condition and personal interest we have in that item or person that determines what you and I are willing to do to attain the item that or the person who interests us. Those of us who have ever been in relationships know that this can get very expensive very quickly.


We need to be willing to pay the price every day.




Not necessarily a financial price, but rather be willing to dedicate ourselves to preserving and enhancing the relationship, to remind those closest to us that we are there for them. Sometimes that is not easy -- but if it were easy for us, would it really be worth having? Our not-so-amazing reality often forces us into a crunch with so many things we want to do (and some are even "Godly"!) and only so much time to do them.


We can do anything we want, just not everything we want.


It's hard to not imagine Jesus when He was in Gethsemane asking His Father God, "Can't I get out of this death on the cross for everybody's sin when I haven't sinned?" Oh wait ... Jesus DID ask that, but in the King James Version's more stentorian phraseology it comes out "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." (Luke 22:42)


Evidently God was not willing.


That had to be tough. Yes, in the next verse we see an angel from heaven appearing to Jesus "strengthening him" and in the following verse we see Jesus praying "in [such] an agony" that His sweat fell to the ground looking like blood. It actually WAS blood, it was that intense. But then in verse forty-five, we see Jesus has ended His prayer -- yes, Virginia, all prayers have to come to an end and then you have to face yourself whatever happens next.


And THAT started with Jesus seeing the disciples who had fallen asleep.


I like this note I'm reading in the study Bible I'm using on verses 43 and 44 which reads in part, "Surely Jesus wrestles, not so much with death itself, but with his own destiny to be made the sin-bearer for all mankind for all the ages." Although it sounds unpleasant in our day and age, we can handle death. It's the long wait for our physical beings to actually cease that can often be daunting, so daunting that we find ourselves with many in Scripture asking,


"How long, O Lord, how long?"


I don't have to be as sick as Job or as depressed as Elijah or as seeking as Abraham or as smart as Paul to realize that, yes, when I'm missing the call of God on my life it feels like my finite life (getting finite-r by the second) is going in slow motion. But here's the kicker. The slow times are when God is working in us too, with His Holy Spirit. The Comforter Jesus promised His disciples at the Passover and Who -- important, the Holy Spirit is not a Thing but a Person -- is here even now.


And no fantasy,


David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope I encourage you to action too. Especially me lately. If you find that I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that You will provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.