[Video] Heaven Is For Real

By now many of you have heard of or maybe even seen the Christian-themed movie Heaven is for Real, but how do its claims match up with what the Bible says on the subject? Here's a video that will help answer that question.

For more information on this topic, go to the site "Is Heaven For Real?".

So what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with what the speaker said in the video? Share your views in the comment section below.

Whose Side Are We On?

Courtesy unboxedwriters.com

Do Christians unintentionally do the devil's dirty work in promoting movies that tell lies about the character of God?

Have you ever had one of those moments in which it seems as though a topic you've been pondering for some time suddenly becomes clear? In case you're wondering what to call that moment, it's called an epiphany, and I had one recently in regards to Christianity's relationship to movies. Let me share with you the thought processes that led up it.

Negative Publicity

Many Christians made a big deal about the recently shown movie "Noah" and its apparent disregard for the biblical story of the same name. Not surprisingly, it ended up being the top movie by a large margin in terms of money generated for that weekend.  That last bit of news got me thinking as to if all the negative talk about that movie actually increased ticket sales somewhat as people wanted to see the source of all this controversy for themselves. I have heard that in Hollywood there is no such thing as negative publicity, and while we may never know for certain if that was true in this case, it did give me food for thought. However God can also be misrepresented in a different way, so to help round out the picture lets look at a movie which Christians viewed quite differently.

Son of a Different God

The movie "Son of God" based off of "The Bible" miniseries shown on the History Channel, depicts the story of Jesus Christ, and its creators apparently planned to have many people watch this because in some of it trailers display a number to call and purchase group tickets. This movie generated no negative publicity that I am aware of, and although it brought in much less money in its opening weekend ($25.6 million vs. $43.7 million) than "Noah" is still doing quite well for itself. The problem with "Son of God" comes from its creators going to the opposite extreme than those who put "Noah" together. One reviewer put it this way.

"If the producers only wished to film a good story, that would have been okay. After all, the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ really make a wonderful narrative, made all the more wonderful because it is true. But the producers have declared their wish that the movie and the miniseries would reach many people with the Word of God. Films can do that, and—while I hope this one does—I fear that biblically illiterate viewers will see nothing in the movie to help them understand how Jesus’s death should benefit them. Though grossing well at the box office, it remains nothing more than a fairly incomplete depiction of Christ as a happy smiling wandering miracle worker that made some downtrodden people feel good about themselves."

Smear Campaign

By emphasizing such extreme views of God and His teachings, many "biblically based" films lead many to adopt distorted views about God. It becomes so difficult to reconcile the extremes that many people simply choose the extreme that suits them best. God either becomes so vindictive that one cannot reason with Him, or so passive that one need not worry to disobey what He tells us to do. The devil is happy for us to believe either one of these lies because both fall under his smear campaign against God, and is even happier when God's professed followers do their best to spread these lies to all their friends and family.

The Christian's Response

So how should Christians deal with such movies? We cannot simply bury our heads in the sand and pretend biblically incorrect movies don't exist (and they do generate some witnessing opportunities), but at the same time we shouldn't spend so much of our time and energy on these films that we don't have the time or energy to devote to worthier causes. So next time a professedly Christian film starts generating some buzz, be careful that the cause you promote is of heavenly, and not diabolical, origins.

What do you think of this viewpoint? Be sure to share your views in the comment section.

Uncommon Company

Courtesy frederickcountymd.gov

When working for a common goal, you may find yourself in uncommon company.

My wife and I recently decided to stay at home and watch a movie together (something we hadn't done for awhile), and we decided, via a coin-flip, to watch the movie Big Miracle.  Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the movie, it involves the plight of a family of Gray Whales trapped by the ever-increasing arctic ice.  This true story highlights how people, and nations, who were normally at odds with each other came together to help these stranded animals.  One exchange in the movie that stands out is when a Greenpeace volunteer and an oil-drilling executive who were both helping the whales each confess that the other person was not so easy to hate as they used to be.

As I thought about this film, I couldn't help but think about a story told by Carl Wilkens in his book I'm not leaving. (you can find my review for the book here).  He told the story of how a group of orphans fled their orphanage to avoid being murdered.  Wilkens discovered that when the children left they took only the clothes on their backs.  He then decided to go back and retrieve their personal items, and upon arriving he stumbled upon a group of armed men looting the orphanage.  After a very tense negotiation it was decided that the orphans should have their things, and the very men the orphans were running from helped Wilkens load the various items into a truck to be delivered to the children.  A surreal moment indeed, but an ideal illustration of what can happen when people work together for a common goal.

While you or I may not find ourselves in such extreme situations or in such unusual company, whenever we work on a project bigger than ourselves, we may find ourselves working with people with very different views than ours.  We should not allow these differences to derail our goals, but rather we should allow these differences to enhance both the project and ourselves.

Have you ever worked on a project that brought you in contact with uncommon company?  Feel free to share your story in the comment section.

[Movie Review] Soul Surfer

Photo courtesy movieposter.com

Every once in a while I discover a movie that is worth my time and money.  Soul Surfer is one of those movies.

To state the obvious, I have decided to add movie reviews to this blog.  I will not have very many of them because I don't watch a lot of movies (anymore), and even fewer of them interest me enough to write about them afterwards.  Therefore, you will find no rating system of any kind (no stars, thumbs, or tomatoes).  I figure why promote bad movies when the good ones often don't get the attention they deserve, but enough of that, on to the review.

I have lived in southern California for a couple of years, and even more recently have moved to within a relatively short distance of the Pacific.  I have become acquainted with a number of people who have surfed at least once, some who surf occasionally, and a couple who surf a lot (they met while surfing, and were married on the beach).  With all this in mind, when I saw Soul Surfer advertised in a catalog and in movie vending machines (I missed it when it came out in theaters) it caught my attention.  Well that, and the fact that the movie involves someone who survived a shark attack.

The movie retells the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a rising amateur surfer who had her left arm radically amputated by a shark while surfing off the coast of Hawaii.  I vaguely remember hearing about Bethany (or at least seeing her picture) in the past but never read her story or her book.  This lack of knowledge may have helped me enjoy the movie more because then everything was fresh (well almost everything).

The movie does a good job of portraying the Christian aspects of the story, not going too far in either direction.  I've seen too many Christian-themed movies where the religious aspect seems tacked on or the Christian characters seem, well, non-human.  Soul Surfer portrays the Hamilton family and those connected with them as real people, not as plastic saints or bumbling buffoons.  They get angry, frustrated, sad, and don't have all the answers, but they move forward in faith knowing that something good can come out of something terrible.  Best of all, this movie does not exist to sell merchandise.  (A couple Christian movies come to mind that fit that category.  More about that in the future.)

The movie does fall into one trap, howbeit a small one.  The people who made the movie apparently go out of their way to contrast Bethany's main surfing rival to Bethany and her friend, Alana.  Bethany and Alana have long blonde hair and cheerfully walk around in bright colors while her rival has short dark hair, wears black, and only smiles for the cameras.  This could have been done differently, but didn't detract from the main theme of the movie.

Overall, this movie has something that could appeal to anyone, especially those who have dealt, or currently deal with, some sort of disability.  This movie may not sweep you off your feet, but after you watch it, you'll most likely will look at your own difficulties in a different light.

The Divine Hitman

The Death of Jezebel
Courtesy Orientalism in Art

Truth may not always be stranger than fiction, but it can be as dramatic.

The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?’”
   “What do you have to do with peace?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me.”
   The lookout reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he isn’t coming back.”  2 Kings 9:18

As I am reading through the Bible, I am constantly amazed at how many great stories exist in the Old Testament.  Those who neglect that portion of the Scriptures miss out on many stories involving colorful characters.  Jehu is one such character.  There are two Jehus in the Bible, the first one, Jehu son of Hanani, was a prophet, and while I'm sure that he had an interesting life, the one I'm talking about is Jehu the son of Nimshi, who was a military leader who became king of Israel.

Jehu son of Nimshi comes onto the scene during the time when Elijah was the main prophet in Israel.  Shortly after the Mount Carmel experience, God gives Elijah a "to do" list which involves anointing two kings and his prophetic successor.  Apparently, Elijah didn't complete the list before being taken to heaven, so we find Elisha being the one to set Jehu's reign in motion.

I'm not going to retell Jehu's entire story (which you can read in 2 Kings 9-10), but I will say that his story reads like some sort of action movie (hence the provocative title for this post).  After being anointed king by an anonymous young prophet described as a "maniac", Jehu, formerly a military commander, becomes the leader of what amounts to a death squad hunting down and eliminating all those connected with the now-deceased evil king Ahab and the worshipers of the false god Baal.

One of my favorite parts of this story shows that there was something special about Jehu (if I was making a movie, this clip would be in the trailer).  As he was approaching the hideout for number one on his hit list, Ahab's son Joram, Joram sends out a messenger to see if Jehu has come in peace, and as all good action-movie stars go, he has definitely not come in peace.  Jehu had such a way about him (I would compare him to Leonidas of Spartan fame), that with two short sentences (see text above), he convinces not one, but two of Joram's messengers to switch sides and fight against their former leader.

After eliminating Joram and Ahaziah, Jehu goes after the prophet-killer Jezebel, Ahab's widow.  What happens next says something about both Jehu and Jezebel.  When Jezebel heard that Jehu was on his way, she did her hair and put on makeup, and stood by a window waiting for him.  When he arrived she asked him if he came in peace (you know the answer to that question), and once again, with a few words, Jehu was able to convince some on the other side to do his bidding.

The remainder of the story involves more action as Jehu makes his way through his divine hit list (incidentally, nobody after this point asks if he came in peace), and God commends him of his services even though Jehu didn't get everything right.  While I am not advocating the glorification of bloodshed, I'm writing about Jehu's story for the purpose of getting people to pay more attention to the entire Bible.

So if you take the time and read some of the great stories of the Old Testament, you will find that the truth in the Bible can be as interesting as the fiction you'd find elsewhere.

Let God Take Care of It

Psalm 109:1-5  ¹ O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, ² for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. ³ With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. ⁴ In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. ⁵ They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.

Life got you down? Have you been falsely accused by wicked and deceitful people? Has your friendship been repaid with evil? Don't get even. Let God take care of it.

While other psalms have been about praise or the natural world, Psalm 109 is about payback. However, this is not payback in the usual sense. This is about divine payback. David, the author, has had people treat him very poorly, and in return he asks God to do some things to these people. Here are the things that he asks God to do.

• Appoint an evil man to stand against him so that he will be found guilty in a court of law
• Have his prayers condemn him
• Shorten his life so another takes his place of leadership
• Make his children fatherless
• Make his wife a widow
• Make his children become wandering beggars
• Have all his property seized by creditors and plundered by strangers
• Have all his descendants cut off and blotted out from the next generation
• Remember the iniquity of his fathers
• Never blot out the sin of his mother
• Always remember their sins so that their memory may be cut off from the earth

A little extreme? Probably, but the key point I want to make here is that these are all things he asked God to do. These are not things that he said he would do to them. We are not given the exact time in his life when he wrote this psalm, but it is safe to say that he was in a position to exact some sort of revenge upon his enemies at this time. However, he left it to God to take care of the situation.

David's attitude stands in direct contrast to the prevailing attitude of society where those who exact revenge upon evil people are glorified. This attitude is most notably reflected in popular movies, especially action movies where an individual or a team of individuals take the law into their own hands against evildoers. However, we should not think that we can avoid partaking in this attitude simply by avoiding watching movies and television. The desire for revenge comes from within the human heart, and the only way to silence it is to surrender our hearts to God.

Help me Lord to fully surrender my heart to you, so that when I am mistreated I will not look to myself, but to You, for help.