Are You Ready to Bolt?

By Lane Palmer, Christian Post Guest Columnist Friday, March 27, 2009

No surprise here, right? Disney has done it again with the highly rated and very enjoyable CGI installment called Bolt.

If you didn't catch it, the plotline is basically about a dog named Bolt who plays a canine with superpowers on a TV show. The problem is that Bolt really believes he has the powers and abilities that are shown on the program, when in reality he does not. Through a series of mishaps, he gets lost and eventually discovers that one of his foundational beliefs about the world was wrong.

Poor widdle doggie!

And it gets worse…Now, I don't want to be a cotton-headed ninny-muggins plot spoiler, but I will let you know that one of Bolt's friends gets trapped, and even though he doesn't have superpowers, he will attempt a rescue anyway.

Why? Because he realizes something very critical, and that is it doesn't take a superhero to rescue our friends. It just takes a combination of willingness, courage, and faith that you can be successful.

Maybe you have friends that need to be rescued? No, hopefully not from an animal shelter…but from:

Addictions
Grief
Pain
Abuse
Anger
Despair
Hopelessness
Worthlessness

These are the traps that can be worse than any physical prison built by human hands, because they are dungeons of the soul.

And don't we sometimes feel like Bolt? How we desperately long to have spiritual superpowers that could free our friends and change their lives forever.

But we don't…and this is actually a good thing. Here's why:

Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the LORD's favor has come."

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. "The Scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day!" (Luke 4:14-21).

This is the scene of Jesus' sermon to his hometown friends and family, and given the choice of quoting any Old Testament passage, He chooses the one about how a day was coming when a Person with 'super' powers would come and set people free from poverty, captivity, blindness, oppression, and give them an opportunity to find favor with God.

And did you catch the last part?

"The Scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day!"

In other words, Jesus is publically proclaiming that He is the embodiment of a freedom prophecy from 700 years before He was born!

And the best part is that He is doing the same today - 2000 years later. He wants to set your friends free even more than you do. And He will…it just takes a combination of willingness, courage, and faith on our part that He can be successful.

Oh - and one more encouragement for you. One of the little known yet incredibly critical directives from the Bible for Christians is this:

Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment (Jude 23).

We all have people in our lives who are trapped. We don't have superpowers, but we know the Person who holds all the power in the universe. He can rescue people from the hell they are going through, and most importantly, the hell they are going to!

So what are we waiting for? Let's get our courage on and bolt to our hurting friends. Let's let them know that we've found the answers to life's biggest questions and hardest circumstances. Isn't that the true definition of a superhero anyway?

Flashpoint: Ignite into Action

Think through all your friends for a minute. Do you really know what's going on with them? The reality is that everyone is struggling at one level or another, and are probably feeling trapped by something or someone. This week, sit down with your friends and start a conversation about what is really going on in their world. Pray for an opportunity to share the freeing message of the gospel so they can know the hope that Jesus has given you.

Accelerant: Feed the Fire

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (Romans 1:16).

So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere (Luke 9:6).