It was probably August of 1988....a warm night as I remember....as thousands of us gathered on the upper end of Forbes Avenue in Oakland....the community of the University of Pittsburgh....to stage a silent protest of the new Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation Of Christ....holding candles as we walked down Forbes...stopping in front of the King's Court Theater to pray....and then moving on. I committed at the time never to watch a Scorsese directed film....and I never have. According to a news article this morning....Scorsese has a new Jesus film in the making....and I'm sure it will be just as blasphemous.
I had gone down to the protest with a good friend. After pausing in front of the theater we continued the walk that would have all of us circle back to where we began. We had only walked about thirty yards or so on Forbes when we were in front of a popular college bar. It all came back to me....and I asked Dave to stop for a moment as the others kept walking past us. Here I was part of a crowd that stopped traffic on Forbes Avenue.....actually diverting it....I pointed down to the spot upon which Dave and I were standing....and described to him as it came back to me.....how fifteen years earlier I had stopped traffic on this very same spot....only it was as a college drunk fighting in the middle of the street. I had to go to the doctor after that brawl as I had a human bite on my neck.Folks....can you imagine what went on in my mind? My life passed before me....a period of about five years anyway....beginning while in the army.....the alcohol and the debauchery....the wantonness and the shame. I know that I was thankful for God's mercy....but looking back....I could not have known how much more I had to repent of....how much more I had to learn through experience....and how long and difficult at times the walk would be....but there was a bright side....
For I also did not know on that warm August night....six years into my Christian pilgrimage....the extent of the mercy that was given....the miracle of the new birth....and the glory and power of Jesus Christ whom I thought I was defending....but who needs no defense.....for He rules every atom of the universe....and beyond! I only had a glimpse of the rejoicing that was to come! I had minefields yet to walk through....castles of despair yet to escape from....sloughs of despond yet to reach out of for help!
Folks....walking in a linear line....away from Vanity Fair....and closer to the Celestial City....dims the din of the crowd....dissipates the fog....and though the eyes are weaker....and the hearing may be fainter....and the steps are not as brisk....the glory of Jesus Christ becomes more overwhelming!
This verse just came to mind.....Jeremiah 32:40....NKJV...."And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me."
