Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Batman saves the Jews!



For the most part, I like the fact that there are movies attempting to bring forward biblical stories and themes the last few years.  With the success of movies like the Passion and the History Channel's tv mini-series "The Bible," Hollywood is waking up.  However, there are some challenges to this new direction....

So there's a new "Exodus" movie coming out next month starring Christian Bale. The title is "Exodus: gods and kings" the description is "One man against an empire." In other words, "Batman saves the Jewish people." 

However, the only hero in the biblical story of the Exodus is God. Moses was a broken old man who was a "has been." He was someone who grew up with privilege and even though he had empathy for his people, he still lived in the palace. He was 40 when he killed a man mistreating the Jews and then he ran. He lived in the wilderness as a shepherd for another 40 yrs as God stripped away all vestiges of his former life. He was humbled and undone. At the age of 80, a new beginning at a burning bush that he was reluctant to embrace. He was too old and too broken to rely on his own plans and his own strength anymore; perfectly positioned to be used by God. The next and final 40 yrs of his life were spent putting to use his training as a shepherd (though I'm sure he didn't perceive it as training at the time). He dealt with a bunch of whiny temperamental sheep...I mean people, leading them through the same wilderness.
All this is not to say that Moses wasn't a great man, but I'm just betting the emphasis in the movie is upon the man rather than the God who made, called and empowered the man.

Looks like it will be an entertaining flick though and I'll probably go see it.  The only danger is that with this movie and movies like Noah with Russell Crowe is that the stories are becoming so twisted around so that they are completely missing the point.  I think we all expect a certain amount of creative license when movie scripts are made, but we live in a biblically illiterate culture and therefore truth is lost in the adaptation.  Those that watched the movie Noah are likely to walk away with the message that God destroyed humanity because we were bad caretakers of nature.  What it does is undermine the credibility of these events recorded in the Bible and turns them into myths and fairytales.  I wonder what message will be delivered with this latest movie. 

Maybeeee this one?


KAPOW!  BLAMM-O!  


Monday, October 27, 2014

Thou Shalt Judge

**WARNING!!**  This posting is not Politically Correct.  Not even close.  :)



Did you know that it is not only ok, but biblical to judge?  (see Mt. 7:15-20; John 7:24; 1 Cor 5:11-13...just to name a few) )  Today you are absolutely condemned if you stand up and say that something is "Wrong."  Groupthink says that things are never wrong, just different. (unless of course you disagree with this post-modern philosophy; then you are...wrong)

But Christians DO have the biblical mandate (that is so often misapplied and thrown in our faces) to "Judge not, lest ye be judged." (Matthew 7:1).  So are we to never stand up and say what's going on around us is wrong?  Let's bring this home by looking at the two most prevalent examples in our world right now:

Are we unloving to say that homosexuality is sin?  Are we wrong to declare that homosexual "marriage" is destructive not only to the immediate people involved, but also our country?

What about Islam? Are we being prideful, ignorant and narrow minded in saying that it is a false religion that is deceiving millions of people around the world?  That it is the most common factor behind the horrible acts of terrorism happening around the globe today? Are we wrong to take a stand against Sharia Law both here and abroad?  Isn't that culturally insensitive? Intolerant? Bigoted?

Well, we have been told so. And many Christians I know are confused and stay silent because have adopted the "live and let live" philosophy of this world.  But a Christian who understands a biblical worldview knows that adopting this philosophy is more like "we'll live, but we'll let you die."

So how do we walk this biblical line?  Is it possible to love, serve and respect someone who you totally disagree with?  Is it possible to stand against an agenda that someone you know and love wholeheartedly supports without shattering the relationship or at the very least continue loving them?  Does love mean (as we are being told today) that we never rebuke? Does it mean that we have to approve and embrace everything someone does?

Paul gives us the key when he says in Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  
How does this help?  Because Paul shows us the distinction that the PERSON is different from the spirit/idea/philosophy/culture/etc. influencing them.  

It is not only ok, but it is right to continue to preach God's Truth in a world that is rejecting it.  There is still only ONE way, ONE truth and ONE life and that is through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  (Jn. 14:6) It is absolutely right to stand up and judge something wrong or evil if that is what God's Word says that it is, even if it offends or hurts someone's 'feelers.'  The warning Jesus gave about "Don't judge or you too will be judged" was followed by the words "with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you."  I'm ok with this!  I use God's Word, not with self-righteousness or a sense of superiority.  In fact it is the "Measure" that every human in existence WILL be measured by. I'm a wreck in need of a Savior!  I fall upon His grace all the time! And by that grace I am slowly becoming more free and more like Him.  

We have permission to judge according to God's Word, because it is not the standard of our own selves or our own performance that we are using.  There is certainly the accompanying mandate to "Speak the truth in love..." (Eph. 4:15) We don't have to be insensitive jerks when taking a stand or disagreeing, but my whole point in this post is that it is not unloving to judge evil as evil. We are saying "This is what God says..." and then we love as we have been loved.  

Monday, April 28, 2014

Marriage Sacred?

There's been a lot of attention on marriage the last few years. What it is, what it isn't and who has the rights to define such things.  So these are some of the random thoughts I have had lately on marriage from a biblical perspective (a little deeper than normal):  

From God came man.  From man came a woman by God's hand, and out of woman comes all men and women by the creative breath of God upon the union of seed from man and egg from woman. God is the originator and creator.  He is the one who continues to create and He is the One who holds it all together.  

When man and woman come together in marriage they are uniting two parts of a whole and God is the Witness and the bond that brings those things together and in Him they are made complete. Man and woman in themselves are not whole for they did not have their beginning in themselves, but God.  Two people coming together in their own power, design and bond are but shadows of what God has intended and walk in disobedience.  God cannot bless disobedience

The marriage ceremony in church honors what God has created.  It recognizes the sacredness of the creation of this institution and both submits to His authority as well as invites His blessing upon the union.  It invites witnesses who also honor God to share in the joy, to bless the new union and to hold this new couple accountable to their vows to one another and to God.  For their union is not about themselves only.  

Marriage reveals God's Triune nature.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Three are One.  Husband, Wife and God united make a whole.  From this unity comes creation and new life.  From this new life God's plan is revealed, fulfilled and carried on to future generations.  

This is God's plan.  We also live in a broken world of our own design and have made a mess of His creation.  Certainly there is grace to cover and re-cover because of the cross of Christ. However, grace is not license to redesign. Grace does not put us on the throne.  Marriage is not ours to do with as we please.  We are to orbit  around God's designs for He is the center of all things, not demand that He orbit around our designs as if we were.  The blood of Christ and the accompanying grace allow us to break free from the destruction of serving self and instead start building our lives upon God's plan that brings new life and blessing.  

So the problem we face as a society is who gets to define what marriage is?  Is it about us? Our feelings? Our attractions? Our design?  Or is it about the One who made us and the design of man and woman coming together in empowered unity with God Himself.

Marriage is the fundamental building blocks of a society...the family unit. It is the main intersection of the sacred and the secular within a society.  It is the wellspring from which all things will be determined.  Sacred? Yes.  Important? Absolutely.