October 24, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Friday, October 24.
Netflix is premiering a movie tonight called “A House of Dynamite“. It’s a fictional account of what might happen if incoming, unidentified missiles showed up in U.S. airspace. I’m looking forward to seeing it. Yesterday, I read an article about this film that mentioned another film - a documentary about a real-life event. That movie is called “The Man Who Saved the World”.
On September 26, 1983, I was a full-time college student and part-time minister in Houston. I don’t remember anything about that particular day. But, on the other side of the world, in Russia, Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty as the director of the Soviet nuclear command center. Suddenly, warning bells went off, indicating that five American missiles were on their way to bomb Moscow. It was Petrov’s duty to relay that information to his superiors, who would then launch a counterattack against America. But the young colonel sensed that something wasn’t quite right, and labeled the moment a false alarm. Later, it was revealed that radar had mistaken sunlight on high-altitude clouds for a deadly attack. There were actually no nuclear missiles, but there would have been a nuclear war.
I doubt that you remember that particular day, in the early fall, 42 years ago, but without Stanislav Petrov’s calm decision, it would have been a day that no one would ever forget. Houston was one of Russia’s nuclear targets, and so my family would probably not have lived to remember that day. And neither would the families of hundreds of millions of people on both sides of the world. A sobering story. A cautionary tale. Up until yesterday I had never heard of this event. But I’ve thought a lot about it in the last 24 hours. And as I considered that movie’s title - “The Man Who Saved the World” - some other things came to my mind. Scripture verses.
We have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. I John 4:14
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. John 3:17
He saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. John 11:29
When moments of challenge or loss or joy or blessing come to your life, do scriptures come to your mind? The Bible commands us to “hide its words in our hearts”, so that when we need the truths of God - they are there at our fingertips.
Meet you back here on Monday,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
