Man Sues Hospital After He Didn't Die
In 2005, a man named John Brandick went to the doctor with troubling symptoms. The hospital performed some tests, told him he had terminal pancreatic cancer and only one year to live. When Mr. Brandick heard this news, he decided it was time to live the good life. He quit his job. He sold his home. His sold his car and most of his clothing. He started spending his life savings. He traveled. He ate at expensive restaurants. He splurged.
About a year later, around the time he was supposed to die, he went back to the hospital to find out why he was doing so well. It turned out, he didn’t have cancer after all. He merely had an inflammation of the pancreas. He was not dying. He was going to live!
Think for a moment how you would respond if you thought you were going to die of cancer and then found out you were cancer free! Mr. Brandick’s response? He sued the hospital for misdiagnosing him!
Instead of suing the hospital, perhaps Mr. Brandick should have been thankful for a year of living his life to the fullest. How many of us ever really do that? It is interesting that it took facing a death sentence before John Brandick really began to live.
What is holding you back from living your life to the full? Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Have you experienced what Jesus promised you? If not, why not? Perhaps the answer is found where He also said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it" (Matthew 16:24-25).
In other words, the key to real life, abundant life, is death. Death by way of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Just as Mr. Brandick only began to really live be embracing his own death, so we find our lives by losing them.
Ironically, the meaning and purpose for which we were created can only be experienced in death.
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The Perfect Crime
Jacob Baynham,with VICE Guided Tours, writes:
The blood is still drying on Clay McCann's hands when he walks into a remote ranger station, slides a warm gun across the desk, and informs the ranger that he's just killed four campers.
"Do you want me to call a lawyer?" the alarmed ranger asks.
"I am a lawyer," McCann says.
So begins C. J. Box's 2007 thriller Free Fire, the seventh in a book series about a Wyoming game warden. The novel's plot spins on the premise that in an uninhabited, 50-square-mile portion of Yellowstone National Park, you can legally get away with murder.
The book's premise originates from a 14-page article called "The Perfect Crime" by Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt. The article describes a judicial no-man's land in the Idaho part of Yellowstone, where a person can commit a crime and get off scot-free due to sloppy jurisdictional boundaries.
... "I write about mystery, suspense, and crime, so the idea of a perfect crime anywhere, and especially in my neighborhood, was just really intriguing," Box told me over the phone.
His novel, Free Fire, made the New York Times extended best-seller list and continues to be popular.
The perfect crime seems a strange thing to call a violation of the law just because the perpetrator happens to find a loophole. The loophole might be perfect, but the crime? The only way to perfect a crime is to pay the penalty associated with it. Of course, in Jesus we find both. In HIm our crimes paid in full, having been nailed to the cross of Christ.
Thus, we find the loophole to end all loopholes, not in the Idaho part of Yellowstone, but before the Throne of Grace. It is the ultimate judicial no-man's land, where even those who are guilty of breaking the very laws of God can be released of responsibility. Not due to sloppy jurisdictional boundaries but due to the precious blood of Christ.
“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).
Couple Billed for Reneging on Wedding Invitation
Christine DiGangi writes:
Jessica Baker and her husband were planning on going and RSVP'd to a no-kids-allowed wedding a few weeks ago, but Baker's mom called the day of the event to say she couldn't watch the Bakers' daughter, so they had no choice but to stay home. Then earlier this week, Baker received a bill for $75.90 — $60 total for the herb-crusted walleye she and her husband requested in their RSVP, plus a $7.95 fee per person for tax and the service charge.
"This cost reflects the amount paid by bride and groom for meals that were RSVPed for, reimbursement and explanation for no show, card, call or text would be appreciated," the bill said.
What if God sent us a bill for every time we failed to follow through on a promise or a good intention? He has! James 5:12 says, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation” (ESV).
Fortunately, howevr, Jesus took that bill and nailed it to the cross, declaring it paid in full!
"He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14, NLT).
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