Now More Alive Than Ever!

Does the name Mel Blanc “ring a bell?  Probably not!  But I’m guessing the characters Mel “voiced” in hundreds of Warner Brothers cartoons are familiar to you.  Characters like Bugs Bunny, Tweedy Bird, Willie E. Coyote. 

But my favorite Mel Blanc cartoon character is the most cantankerous, ornery piggy ever: Porky The Pig.  Now as Mel gave Porky “voice,” Porky got in all kinds of scenarios, most often with Daffy Duck and Sylvester the Cat, with Porky playing straight-man or ‘second-banana.” But “in the end” Porky “came out on top,” because “in the end,” Porky literally ended each and every Warner Brothers cartoon, with one of the most famous signature phrases of all time:  “that’s all folks.”  Why that signature phrase was so impactful, it became Mel Blanc’s favorite phrase.  In fact, if you visit Mel Blanc’s grave site in Los Angeles, it’s not Bugs Bunny’s signature phrase or Tweedy Bird’s signature phrase that’s on his tombstone, but Porky’s phrase: “that’s all folks.” 

I’m curious:  what signature phrase will be on your tombstone?  Frankly, I find Mel Blanc’s phrase a downer:  that’s all folks?!  But there are alternatives, like the phrase I’ve chosen for my tombstone: “now more alive than ever!”  I mean because of Jesus, I will be more alive than ever, even when I die. 

But a lot of folks can’t grasp that, because they’ve never grasped Jesus.  And so a lot of folks default to Porky’s phrase: “that’s all folks” -- a sad, temporal word.  

In Romans 10, Paul doesn’t want the Jews left with a sad, temporal word.  But Paul’s clear:  the Jews will be left with a sad, temporal word, unless persons help them grasp Jesus.  You see the Jews were like a lot of us:  they were convinced that life is grasped through self-effort and achievement.  Commonly called The Law, it was a “formula for life” based on getting more “merit badges, blue ribbons, and trophies.” 

But Paul is clear:  you can never get enough “merit badges, blue ribbons and trophies” to find life.  The only way you find life is by grasping Jesus.  Why it’s in confessing “…with your heart that Jesus is Lord and [believing] in your heart that God raised him from the dead” Paul clarifies – “[that you grasp life, that] you will be saved…” (Romans 10:9).   

Increasingly we need to help persons confess with their heart that Jesus is Lord, raised from the dead.  For that’s the only signature truth, that delivers life, both today and for eternity.   

And so let’s deliver the signature truth that delivers life.  For how can persons “…believe in [truth, in Jesus, if] they have not heard. And how can they truly hear without someone preaching to them [sharing with them;  evangelizing them]…”  (Romans 10:14).  Frankly such declaration is crucial, for our destiny is not found in the words: “that’s all folks,” but the reality: we will be more alive than ever, forever, because of Jesus.  

  

Claim the reality:  we will be more alive than ever, forever, because of Jesus; claim the gospel!  Be saved from self-effort, pride and sin!  And then go and save others, declaring:  Jesus is Lord, risen from the dead, empowering us to rise, and live -- as well!