How to Share Your Faith Using Ladder 49

WARNING: This review will spoil the movie 100%. Sorry! Can’t help it!

Few movies can grip at the heart of so many different people’s emotions more than Ladder 49. While watching this movie there were times when I wanted to laugh my head off and there were times when I wanted to cry (ok, so I’m a guy…I’m not supposed to cry right?). The movie breaks your heart and makes you want to find the nearest fire station and give every one of those brave, selfless (slightly crazy) men a hug and thank them for all they do.

Ladder 49 stars Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta and Jacinda Barrett, among others. It’s a story about a man with two loves: his family and his mission to save others. Jack Morrison’s ( Phoenix) passion for being a firefighter and saving lives is the backdrop of the movie. In the beginning of the film, he is in a burning building finding and saving a man before he takes a horrible fall when the building begins to collapse. As he lies at the bottom of this burning building, he begins to remember things as they have happened to him since he joined up with his fellow firefighters at the station. We see him fight his first fire, meet and marry his wife, have kids, lose friends and make new friends. It’s happy and joyous. It’s sad and heartbreaking.

As all of this is going on, there is a team of his fellow firefighters trying as best they can to get to him to pull him out of the blazing inferno. Towards the end of the movie, he gets to a place where he can see that they will not be able to get to him. He tells his friend and boss Mike Kennedy (Travolta) to tell his wife that he loves her and to get his men out of the building. Travolta, shaking and with a quivering voice, tells his men to evacuate the building. The result is that Jack dies in the fire. He loses his life, but saves many others.

The story is sad, but it is an awesome example of the sacrifice of one man to save many others. It reminds me of another story of a man who gave his life for everyone in the world. That man was the God in the flesh – Jesus Christ.

You see, all humans were destined for a blazing eternity in hell because of their sin. But Jesus came charging into the fire providing for us the way out. But the thing is, that just like it cost Jack his life to save the others, it cost Jesus his life to save ours.

The concluding 20 minutes of Ladder 49 is a perfect segue into sharing the Gospel message with your friends. This movie will hit anyone at the core of their heart. It focuses on love and sacrifice, the very ingredients to the saving act of Jesus Christ. Use it to share the GOSPEL Journey with your friends, and hopefully they to will accept the gift that Jesus was dying to give them. Not all of us can be firefighters on an earthly level, but we can definitely be firefighters on a spiritual level.

Do you want to be a hero? Rush headlong into the flames of this world and help rescue your friends with the eternal life saving message of the gospel!