(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)
At last, I have stumbled upon a compelling movie scene and have decided to write about it before my sister, Madie, has! To be frank, I’m sure this movie scene and quote have been written down in her iPhone notes for some time, but after watching the movie only a few evenings ago, I decided I couldn’t refrain from sharing with y’all.
The quote that struck me is from the movie, Murder on the Orient Express. The famous detective, Hercule Poirot, has just solved an interesting case and is looking out at a beautiful evening landscape. A military serviceman comes to escort him to the ferry he plans to take for a mini vacation away from all the “noise” and people who are in need of his services.
The serviceman asks Poirot if he is going to Istanbul and then to London.
Poirot replies by stating that he is tired. He explains that he “wants to look at paintings and have too much time on his hands.”
The serviceman asks him how he knew that the crime he just solved had been committed by the man no one would have expected to be a thief, and by a simple little crack on the wall.
Poirot says, “I have the advantage. I can only see the world as it should be, and when it’s not, the imperfection stands out like a nose in the middle of a face. It makes most of life unbearable. But, it is useful in the detection of crime.”
In this scene, there is a moment of silence, and then the serviceman expresses his amazement at Poirot’s ability to correctly discern time and time again and asks, “But it’s as though you see into their hearts and define their true natures?
His simple response is, “And whatever people say, there is right and there is wrong. There is nothing in-between.”
I would ask that you read the quote above a second time.
One of my spiritual gifts is discernment, and though I am certainly not Poirot, I think his statement about “seeing the world as it should be” is one of the most masterfully curated statements I have ever heard. I do not write this out of pride or selfish ambition, but many times over the last couple of years have I questioned if my fellow Christians, fellow brothers and sisters, notice imperfection and sin when it is staring them right in the face.
Perhaps you have as well?
I deeply mourn the fact that so many Believers function in a “grey area”, where the concept of there being right and wrong and nothing in-between is almost unthinkable.
Hear me out when I say this… There are no exceptions when it comes to sin.
None of us may be a “master detective” such as Hercule Poirot. However, God has given Christians, who have the Holy Spirit within them, the incredible ability to see the world as it should be (some to a lesser or greater degree). To see a world in which everything is just, and right, and true because we function as we were intended to all along.
He has given us the advantage of noticing when something is not quite right and when sin is making every effort to distort the truth.
Many Christians, and most American pastors, choose not to acknowledge this duty that we must stand boldly for what is holy and blameless because it does, in fact, make most of life unbearable. Sometimes it costs you a good night’s sleep because you can’t overlook the blatant sin even if everyone else can. Sometimes you lose friends you thought would choose to please God over man but prove to you otherwise. Sometimes you watch churches die because no one will acknowledge that the leadership is weak and worldly.
But no matter the cost, there are still a few in every generation who will not sit back and let the enemy take all the good we’ve got.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
Verses 12-17: “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of Godmay be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Dear Christian, keep making your way through the land of the lost. After all, remember, we have the advantage. We can only see the world as it should be, and that’s the world that matters the most.
SO WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?
= Are you standing up for what is holy and blameless in the Lord’s sight?
= What are you going to do differently?
The Few 