Do You Hear the Bell Of Your Faith?

Macy and I just finished watching "The Polar Express." This has become one of my favorite Christmas movies in recent years. It's a movie about restoring the belief of a little boy. He sees Santa Claus and receives the first present of Christmas a bell, and you can only hear the bell if you believe. At the end of movie he shakes the bell and hears it and so does his doubting sister.

The parents then pick it up and it doesn't ring for them and they claim it's broken. As the movie comes to a close the boy now grown up says as the years past the bell grew fainter to the point that he and those around him couldn't hear it no more. It's a sad shock when we finally find out there is no Santa Claus. For at least nine or ten years of your youth is spent believing in a kind jolly man in a red suit that brings you toys to no longer exist. So fades your faith of what you believed in every Christmas. It becomes just a holiday of gifts instead of the excitement of waiting for Santa and being as still as you can be on that Christmas night.

So it is with some when it comes to a belief in a man who came in the middle of night, saved others and died on a cross. The bell of faith glistens and they continue to polish it and ring it loud for all to hear. But as life goes on, the bell becomes fainter and tarnished by their disbelief and the staleness of it all. They hang on to see that nothing great has happened to them, they feel let down because and have allowed their faith to become tangled in the web of Satan and his evil.

The good news is that the bell of faith can once again ring and shine like Bethlehem's star. There is so many great and saving reasons that can make it ring and never stop. A prayer can or a fine example of others faith. We are surrounded by a great God who wants us all to hear his bell and come to his loving arms and wings of protection.

I saw this yesterday. As I came home for lunch Shannon had given me some bad news of child named Conner. His parents Donna and George are a faithful couple in our Bible class. When I got the news he was in a deep coma and the doctors had no answers and still don't. When I had gotten off work at four, we headed to Little Rock to see them at Arkansas children's hospital. When we arrived he was awake and was in great condition. Nobody knows why but only the handful of Christians standing there and his faithful parents. God was there and had no reason to take him home yet. Gods bell of faith rung throughout our congregation who still hear their bell of faith. Prayer from us all brought him back to them, and we all stand amazed. The doctors have no understanding of it all, his mom told them it was God. Again God beat science like He always does.

I heard the medi-vac helicopter rumble over our house the night before to only realize the next day it was Connor who was in it going to Little Rock. I said a prayer like I always do when it shakes our house. When I hear it I know it is a serious case of illness and that person needs a quick prayer. It's time for us all to shine our bell of faith and shake it up and hear it ring. God is calling us all to come to him and believe in something real. He gives more than gifts he give us mercy, love, hope and eternal life beyond comprehension. Shake your bell and believe!

I ask you cotinue to pray for Donna, George and little Connor.