 | I learned something when I spent a week at Fort Ticonderoga in Upstate New York, a few years ago, that I can share with you. Upon examining 17th and 18th century cannon at the fort alongside one of the costumed docents, I discovered that I did not know what point-blank means. For years, I have heard it heralded about on cop shows: “The victim was shot at point-blank range.” “The president was shot from point-blank range.” “They were shooting at each other at point-blank range.” I just thought it meant close, but there is a more distinct definition for the term. |
We stood at one of the walls of the Fort Ticonderoga, looking out over Lake Champlain and Lake George. Across the confluence of the two lakes is Mount Defiance, also known as Rattlesnake Mountain. In the 1750s, a great battle was to take place, one I’ll probably share with you at a later date. It was a battle in which the French were fighting from the fort as the English planned to attack from around Mount Defiance.
The docent informed me that from the fort walls, one of the cannon used could fire on almost any point of the two lakes or on any visible location of Fort Defiance at point-blank range. That shattered any idea of what the term meant for me since that seemed like long distances. I needed to find out a definition for a term I thought I already knew.
The term-blank dates all the way back to the 1500s. It probably comes from the French phrase, meaning “pointed at white”: Pointé a blanc (Pardon my French.).
It may have referred to the center of a target, which was likely a small white aiming spot. The term literally refers to the distance a bullet (or a cannon ball) can travel before gravity begins to pull it down. Point-blank means a gun can aim directly at a target without compensating for gravitational pull.
Sometimes we hear a verse of the Bible without really thinking about it. Sometimes we read a verse more often than other verses, and we fail to pause to really think about it. Romans 3:23 is one of those verses. We hear it quoted all the time, but how many of you think of it in regards to shooting a target? It says that all of us have sinned, and then it says we also all fall short of the glory of God. Friends, our target is Heaven; our goal is to spend eternity with Almighty God. Yet, we fall short of that target. As humans, we do not shoot at that target within point-blank range; only perfection gets us to the bull’s eye.
All of us land short. We are pulled to the ground before get to the glory of God. We’re pulled by pressures and stresses. We’re pulled down by the company we keep. We’re pulled down by habits and addictions. We’re pulled down by aches fatigues. We’re constantly being influenced by the media – social, unsocial, mainstream. We’re pulled down by the gravity of hearsay and rumor, gossip and slander. If only we could fire our weapon with the assurance of striking the target, but again, only perfection gets us to the bull’s eye.
Thankfully, God understands, and He provides us a little boost. In the illustration, I suppose we could say the Holy Spirit is the aiming mechanism. The Spirit, through the Word of God, aims us at point-blank range toward the Father. We are the arrows – the bullets – who otherwise would fall short, but we achieve perfection when we are aimed at the target through His Son Jesus.
The docent informed me that from the fort walls, one of the cannon used could fire on almost any point of the two lakes or on any visible location of Fort Defiance at point-blank range. That shattered any idea of what the term meant for me since that seemed like long distances. I needed to find out a definition for a term I thought I already knew.
The term-blank dates all the way back to the 1500s. It probably comes from the French phrase, meaning “pointed at white”: Pointé a blanc (Pardon my French.).
It may have referred to the center of a target, which was likely a small white aiming spot. The term literally refers to the distance a bullet (or a cannon ball) can travel before gravity begins to pull it down. Point-blank means a gun can aim directly at a target without compensating for gravitational pull.
Sometimes we hear a verse of the Bible without really thinking about it. Sometimes we read a verse more often than other verses, and we fail to pause to really think about it. Romans 3:23 is one of those verses. We hear it quoted all the time, but how many of you think of it in regards to shooting a target? It says that all of us have sinned, and then it says we also all fall short of the glory of God. Friends, our target is Heaven; our goal is to spend eternity with Almighty God. Yet, we fall short of that target. As humans, we do not shoot at that target within point-blank range; only perfection gets us to the bull’s eye.
All of us land short. We are pulled to the ground before get to the glory of God. We’re pulled by pressures and stresses. We’re pulled down by the company we keep. We’re pulled down by habits and addictions. We’re pulled down by aches fatigues. We’re constantly being influenced by the media – social, unsocial, mainstream. We’re pulled down by the gravity of hearsay and rumor, gossip and slander. If only we could fire our weapon with the assurance of striking the target, but again, only perfection gets us to the bull’s eye.
Thankfully, God understands, and He provides us a little boost. In the illustration, I suppose we could say the Holy Spirit is the aiming mechanism. The Spirit, through the Word of God, aims us at point-blank range toward the Father. We are the arrows – the bullets – who otherwise would fall short, but we achieve perfection when we are aimed at the target through His Son Jesus.
