A Spiritual Lesson In Video Game Language 9a

Game: Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3 (Note: Super Mario Bros. 3 is on a game called Super Mario Allstars with this system), Platform: SNES

Topic: Around The World 1 — Just Whistle

Lesson PDF link: Around the World

We are going to take a trip around the world of missions using the SNES version of Super Mario Bros. 3 and SNES: Super Mario World, but first a question, in our Christian faith walk, what is the first thing we must do?

That's right, we must suurender ourselves to God's plans to save us through Jesus Christ our Lord. This for a lot of people is a huge accomplishment in itself because we humans have a lot of stubborn pride. God alone can save and we must submit to how He saves. The bravery that produces this surrender isn't of us though, it's from God Himself and God gets the credit for saving us; we can't save us.

What is the next step in our Christian faith walk?

God must teach us through different areas in spirit and life; we must be willing to take correction and humble ourselves in The Way. This takes many forms; prayer and faith are huge keys to success for the Christian. Let's look at Proverbs 1: 1-7

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

2 for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight;

3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair;

4 for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young —

5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance —

6 for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.

7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

We must be like the conquered and surrendered fortress in the picture above from SNES: Super Mario World (Level #1 Iggy's Castle — with its white flag of surrender). Instead of us being in our own strength only, God is to be our fortress.

Let's look at Psalm 18: 1-3

1 I love you, LORD, my strength.

2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

3 I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.

Paul speaks of this particular step in Phillipians 1: 8-11

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.

When we discern what God has for us, which can take some time depending on conviction received and faith level, we are apt to end up anywhere, because God will not keep us idle. In life, there are different places we might go and different difficulty levels.

If you received this instruction, where would you end up?

In the above picture from SNES: Super Mario Allstars — Super Mario Bros. 3, there are instructions to use the whistle in the box to go to a far away land; this means it warps you to another stage of the game as a level promotion. In life, a lot of times, there are level and difficulty stages as well, but are you ready; if not, you could end up like this set of unfortunate pictures below.

Mario foolishly uses two whistles to warp to level 8 with 1 life remaining and no items left in storage saved up. It's too late to do anything but make the most of it and take the consequences.

Have you ever been here, meaning over your head in trouble and no way out of your choice for the time being?

Let's see if Mario makes it.

The answer is painfully obvious; Mario doesn't make it, as he is getting his face blown off by a cannon.

The time has come where you know it's too late and you shouldn't have made a bad choice like this one. We have all been here. Just remember this passage of scripture in Ephesians 6: 10-17.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

This is to be done all before any mission for God is successful.

What have we learned so far?

When we are wholly surrendered to Jesus, we won't be like our other pictures of the bad warp whistle choice. We will be more apt to be more careful about whistling for God to send us some place that we may not be ready for and therefore have to learn the hard way.

The whistle has got Mario into trouble so far (only because he didn't have the right stuff. We need to praise God that He is the master of the second chance and more. Next lesson, we will look at some of the right stuff to go on missions with and we will see if Mario has learned his lesson.