Words about the WORD - Brad McBee - First Christian Church

In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety. -Psalm 4:8 (NIV)

Sometime back, I walked into the living room and my son, Simon, was watching the 1960 movie “The Time Machine,” based on the H.G. Wells book by the same name.  I told him that when I was a child that movie gave me nightmares.

If you remember the movie, you know it’s about time travel. The time traveler, George, ends up in the year 802,701 A.D. and everything has changed. First, he meets the Eloi, a peaceful, playful, simple human race that are vegetarians. But George finds that underneath the surface of this seemingly ideal world there is a darker side. There’s a different form of human civilization. The Morlocks are an apelike group of people who live underground and only surface at night. The Morlocks raise the Eloi as their food source. The Eloi are so trusting that they willingly go below when beckoned, only then to be consumed. 

You can see how this storyline could leave a child with nightmares.

There are different biblical illustrations one could draw from the narrative of “The Time Machine.” Let me just touch on a couple.

First, the Bible tells us that we are in a battle with unseen forces. Forces that are just under the surface, only hidden to the extent that we fail to see them or recognize them for what they are. The Christian Standard Bible translates Ephesians 6:12 like this, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.”

There is a battle going on for the very souls of humans. There are evils forces that would like nothing more than to draw people into their evil lair and consume them. These evil Morlock type forces seek to remain unseen, but for those who are able to see things through heavenly lenses, their wickedness becomes plainly seen.

Secondly, though evil forces do seek to destroy all that they can, those of us who have come into a life-giving relationship with Jesus are held safely in His guardianship. Colossians 1:13-14 proclaims of God, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

We have been rescued from the forces of darkness, from the Evil One. Our sins have been forgiven. We are redeemed and live eternally in the secureness of our salvation through Christ.

I can’t remember the last time I had a nightmare. Knowing I am a child of God allows me to lay my head down at night and sleep in His peace and safety.

Peace, Blessings, and Love, Pastor Brad McBee – First Christian Church, Albany, Texas