Know the Author

One of the first sitcoms on television was “My Little Margie” played by Gale Storm. Does anyone else recognize her? The show aired 76 episodes from 1952-1955 and must have done a few seasons of reruns because there is no way I could have remembered this from TV when I was under 5…except for the fact that I have heard that the older you get the better you far term memory is and the worse your recent memory is. That probably is not true…what was I saying? oh yea, Margie. Anyway, I was reading something from Andrew Murray today that reminded me of one of the early episodes. For some reason, forgotten by me, (which hopefully nullifies the far memory/advanced age thing) Margie had to spend the night in a haunted house. The house belonged to a famous author and a bunch of his fans were invited to spend the night. Ghostly things began to happen that unnerved everyone but Margie. Nothing scarred her. When a hand appeared through a hole in the headboard while she was reading a book in bed, she gave it a pat and a dollar. By morning all the guest were ready to leave except Margie, who thought it was all great fun. This was the 1950’s so of course no one was hurt in any way. When everyone demanded to know why Margie was so calm in spite of all the ghostly activity, she just showed them the book they all claimed to have read. Everything the “ghosts” did was right in the book. She knew it was harmless and the work of the author to entertain his fans for the evening. Most of us claim to be people of THE BOOK, claim to have read it but are still scarred of the authors intentions and activities in our lives. Murray recounts how the disciples, when lost at sea in the storm wanted the presence of Christ to calm the storm….and then were afraid of Him when he did come to calm the waters, thinking HEwas a ghost:

“The disciples had no reason to dread that “spirit” coming there, for it was Christ Himself; and, when God’s word comes close to you and touches your heart, remember that is Christ out of Whose mouth goes the two-edged sword. It is Christ in His love coming to cut away the sin, that He may fill your heart with the blessing of God’s love. Beware of dreading the presence of Christ.” (Google, Andrew Murray, The Deeper Christian Life to read the full context. It’s easy to find) teh shack discussion guide, discussion guide for the shace, paul youngs

The message of the story: If you read and believe the book, you do not have to fear anything the author is doing, even if it looks scary at the time.