No Greater Love

It is very rare that I comment on movies or such things like that, but here in the past few posts the movie industry has come up. However, this time I highly recommend a visual production entitled, No Greater Love.

This is a Lionsgate production and comes with a 4 out of 5 for family friendliness from the Dove Foundation.

My wife and I viewed this just recently and both of us were just overwhelmed with the acting and the portrayal of Christianity through the eyes of an unbeliever. We loved it! It was honest, fresh, very well done, and tastefully, yet vividly emotional.

The opening scenes are abrupt and certainly get your attention. They deal with a wife caught in the grips of deep depression and turns to alcohol as a way out before she abandons her husband and 10 month old son. The movie then comes to the present day where this abandoned husband, Dave, and his 10 year old son are very attached and lovingly strong in their relationship. The husband now, an unbeliever, is now actually thinking of marrying another woman, yet has such emotional ties to his long-lost wife.

The movie brings us along the journey of discovering his lost wife, now dealing with the anger, bitterness, yet overwhelming love he still has for her. The problem now is that the wife, Heather, has become a Christian. She is a totally different person. What now? Believers and Unbelievers being married? Divorced? Different paths, plans, and what about the burden of a believer's heart to follow God when now comes this man she lost contact with and a son she has not known for his entire life practically?

This is a great movie that tugs at your heart and portrays the power of Christ's change in those who are truly saved and walking in obedience.

I encourage you to watch it. I think the content is a bit much for a younger audience and would agree with Dove's assessment of keeping it to an audience of 12 years old and up. This is a much milder version of a Fire Proof kind of movie. The emotions are calmer yet very intense at the same time.

We found our copy in the local video store, so make it a date movie if you like that and enjoy, No Greater Love.

Service Times and The Big Game!

Recently a man I respect and admire wrote an article about how we determine our approach to scheduling church services during big sporting events like the one coming up on February 7. What will the churches do especially if they are rooting for teams that could be headed in that direction? John Pratt, a pastor and teacher at Central Seminary in Plymouth, Minnesota addresses this topic.

He brings out several things that we all should wrestle with even if you are not a sports fan, but have any activities in which you are an enthusiast. Let it challenge you as much as it did me.

(If unable to use the link - http://centralmn.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/service-times-and-sporting-events/ )

God given abilities

Was shown this recently. Thought I would pass it on. Great story and a great family from all indications.



( If having trouble seeing the clip - www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=9xwCG0Ey2Mg )

Multi-site churches, are they effectively connecting?

This has been a discussion point for some in our church already. Interesting thoughts and I personally like the direction this writer took this piece. I am in agreement for the most part on many of the points he makes for this post. Collin Hansen also notes an USA TODAY article in his post that you should check out as well.

The Hansen Report: Valuing Visitation | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders

I do agree that more needs to be said on this topic and that there are some things that Collin left out or just bated the reader into thinking on, but I do think that it is not about mega as better, but about are we still effectively resembling a body that is fit to bring people into a relationship with Christ and into a growing identity with Him?

Christ is the focus and we simply come with abilities and gifts that God wants to add to this local body to make it effective in demonstrating the power of God's love and grace, and to show forth the change Christ is able to make in our individual lives as we work together for Him.


NOTE:
If you are having trouble with the link above then copy this link and paste in your browser bar.
http://www.outofur.com/archives/2010/01/the_hansen_repo_6.html?sms_ss=blogger

The Book of Eli

I just received an email today from a source for churches and inside its contents was a link to invite churches to use this new movie called The Book of Eli as a way to have a Bible study.

I clicked on the link and open up to a trailer about a movie cast in the future after the earth, especially the United States has endured a apocalyptic event some 30 years prior.

The movie comes with a "R" rating and contains graphic violence and language throughout. So, my first twinge of consciousness is why are we even using this as a study guide to Bible study? The link above will take you to a page where there are study notes that you can download referring to particular scenes from the movie.

This obviously made me more curious about the movie itself. So I went to the movie's official site to learn a bit more about this movie.

The interesting thing is that the Bible is at the center of this film. That is due to it being supposedly the last remaining copy in existence and Denzel's character, Eli is on a mission to carry it from the east coast to the west coast. Why? We never really get a clear reason other than he has a destiny and perhaps a vision has spurned him on. So for years now he has been making his difficult journey across country to fulfill this mission given him by....well, I guess God.

Now...I know this is a movie. I know that it has many flaws and perhaps some admirable attempts to introduce faith and purpose around a iconic symbol like the Bible. But it is a movie produced by secular minds to present some sort of sordid philosophy about ignorance and education, faith and the power to control through fear and intimidation. Good versus evil in just another setting and in another imaginative way.

From all the trailers and dialogue it reminds me of a remixed version of Mad Max and Waterworld. We have led us to our deserving end and where is the leader that will rise to save the existing world and make the good to prevail?

Ok, enough about movie reviews especially since I have not seen the movie and probably won't since I have a problem with promoting a Christian to see something that even the world says is worthy of a "R" rating.

That leads me to my next thought. Why do we need to use this film to help us promote what is already in the Bible? Why do we need to turn to secular sources and even such violent ones to help us make parallels with the Biblical truth?

Now someone might argue that Jesus took the familiar and the examples around Him to bring out heavenly principles, but I would still argue that He didn't use such examples as "R" rated movies to fulfill His search for an analogy.

How far is too far and where do we start drawing lines in helping us be careful not to condone worldliness in an attempt to be "in touch" or "in tune" with where people are today? I could draw parallels to many of the apocalyptic movies of today and yesterday, because we know that sin destroys and people without Christ are basically zombies, but I still don't think we should go out and bring in clips from "Night of the Living Dead" to help us illustrate the point.

Now we have a movie that uses the Bible as its symbolic icon in a movie that is filled to the hilt with violence and vulgarity and we just have to make sure we use it to help people learn some sort of Biblical truths?

Come ON!

Alive!

I am writing this obviously more for my benefit than for anyone else's. The seasons of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now New Year have come.....and gone! So, now what? What do we have to look forward to? In a word....

LIFE.

So much of life happens between the bookends. As we read the book the title just draws us in and the contents page just lays out the progression, but until you turn to page 1 and begin to read, nothing really can be learned or appreciated from the book.

So much of life I feel falls in a similar vein. We can start this year with all the good intentions and can declare it by title...2010! Now the analogy breaks down, because as LIFE happens the contents of this year begin to be etched upon the pages of each day, month, and then in summation, the year's end. But nothing can be experienced apart from the living of this life.

We look back and see that from January 1st to December 31st we have experienced the real and the mundane. But is life really able to be mundane? When you take into account that somewhere right now children are born....and children die? When you take into account that there are those whose livelihoods were taken away this past year and others had great success? When you consider that someone's daughter or son went off to college, graduated, got married, or moved to another country?

How can we say that life is mundane? How can we call life routine? Life is what we are filled with, look forward to, protect with all our might. Life is who we are and what we live for.

So, what will our life be like this new year? What will we live for? What will we give up, let go, or claim as the moment of great delight, fear, hope, dread, or success?

LIFE

To know it, and to have it, and then to live it. As a Christian my life is sourced, founded and sealed in the ONE who alone has given to me real LIFE, real purpose, and real hope. LIFE has no real meaning apart from Christ and the life He has blessed me with. Yes, blessed me with. Even in death, in loss, or in great triumph and new found directions, all of these come together for His glory and my good.

As comes the New Year, so comes the opportunity to remember the New Life that we have because of Christ. May this new year afford us the opportunity to make Christ the real success in our lives. May we be found at December 31, 2010 as a faithful steward and a promoter of LIFE in Christ.