I've never seen the movie so it must have been from a clip or maybe a trailer....Oliver's Story....the sequel to Erich Segal's....Love Story. It's in the beginning of the film....and Oliver apparently is contemplating ice skating in the same rink that played a part in the first film....but the rink has no ice....or even water. Candice Bergen's character runs by Oliver....jogging.....and says something clever and humorous to him....who has ice skates in hand and is staring at an empty ice rink. Oliver struggles with whether or not to finally attempt to talk to a woman. He decides in the affirmative and catches up to her....lugging his ice skates....and breathing heavy....a few words are exchanged before he says to the female jogger....
"Do we have to run while we are talking?"
Of which she immediately replies....
"Do we have to talk while we are running?"
I can remember those lines but I'm not certain about where my keys are at this moment.
Honestly folks....that's what came to mind while contemplating the topic of this post. My days are spent....much of them anyway....thinking about ways to have conversations with people....anyone....believers....unbelievers....anyone....on the gospel of Jesus Christ....and salvation....and the urgency to warn or coax or call others into the mercies of salvation of that gospel of Jesus Christ....for the time is indeed short....but in this extended day and age of constant busyness....and isolation....Facebook madness....entertainments....and seeking instant gratification in anything....it seems as if even Christians subconsciously are thinking....'Do we have to talk about God when we are conversing?'
At this present moment in time....in America....and even in evangelicalism....we have little to no interest in talking about God. The title of Frank Peretti's classic Christian novel....This Present Darkness....comes to mind.....an apt analogy....but even more so Paul's warning and admonition...."For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)
It has not been the....Lord's Day....for a long time....possibly centuries. Today at best it is the....Lord's Morning....between 9 and noon on Sundays. Look around you the next time you are in a restaurant....and see how many people might thank God for what they are about to eat? It's been reported that 123.4 million people watched the Super Bowl....on what used to be the Lord's Day....the most watched US television broadcast in history....in itself idolatry of Babylonian proportions....in a nation of roughly 330 million people....and this as America is about to descend into chaos!
We make a big deal today about keeping church doors open. The day for that is fast approaching but the real problem in the church today has been what is and isn't preached once you go through those church doors! The Lord of hosts spoke through Malachi...."Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!"
We need conversation folks. It is time for pastors to stop hiding behind their podiums....and address some real issues. We have a wolf in sheep's clothing literally tearing the sheep apart limb from limb....and we're not even supposed to talk about it? We're literally worshiping a golden-haired calf.....and we can't talk about that? If artificial intelligence isn't related to the Antichrist of prophecy....than a monkey was Darwin's uncle....and if this isn't the darkness before the Lord's return....then God didn't make little green apples.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of the One having called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" 1 Peter 2:9
