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.

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!

Validation

I know that some will view this as a shortcoming in self-promotion and self-esteem issues, but it does have a cute and interesting twist. I think everyone wants to feel validated, to find purpose and especially as a Christian, I am to elevate and encourage my fellow believers.

I wanted to save this clip for myself and thought I would blog it to do so. I guess I am a romantic at heart. It is about 16 minutes in length, so view it when you find time.

Film Description as given: A short film about the magic of looking for the best in people. This movie has played at 34 film festivals worldwide and won 17 awards.

More on Fireproof

Thought it was really neat to hear some comments by Kirk Cameron. Check it out and go see the movie!

Looks like a great movie