Ever have one of those Twilight Zone moments? When several things hit you at once? Sometimes I have to have the obvious pointed out to me because I tend to not see the forest for the trees.
Deuteronomy, the last book of the Pentateuch. I have read it but this past Sunday, the message at church got to me. 'Don't forget the Lord' At the start of the sermon I prayed 'Lord, please don't ever let me forget who You are and what You have done for me.' I thought that I was done with that. I went through the dry period of my life when I left the church at 13. This sermon proved that I was not as,'done with that' as I thought.
Deu 8:12-14 spoke volumes to me. When Pastor said 'Satan tempts us when things are going good.' It's one of those things you know in the back of your mind, but for me when he said that 2 things popped in to my head.
1) I thought about those times when things were going good and I would forget to be thankful for the little things or I would be like a toddler trying to walk on my own and end up falling flat on my face because I let go of my Father a little to soon. It also hit me that while I understand that when things are bad we lean heavily on the Lord which is very obvious to me, but when things are going good I tend to teeter to the other side of the tot!
I need to be more vigilant during those times because that's when Satan slithers his way in and has an opportunity to take hold of your life without you even realizing it.
2) The earliest memory of Christian thought was when little, playing in my room I said out loud 'Lord, if being poor and having a hard life makes me closer to you, then that is what I want to be.' deep thought for such a little kid. I wonder if the sermon on Sunday was similar to the one I heard that inspired me to say that at such a young and tender age.
Thinking of that, it reminded me of how many times I let Satan have free reign over my heart and my head without even realizing it.
Thank you Lord for putting up with my shortcomings and reminding me from time to time how far I've come and how far I have to go.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Jesus In The Main Stream
Highway to Heaven, Touched by an Angel, The Passion of the Christ, Fireproof.
Those shows and movies are good Christian shows and movies. While they help bolster Christians in their daily walk they don't affect the people who are skeptic of Christians.
There are other shows and movies that openly discuss Christianity in a way that is not confrontational. I was watching Bones and I realized that while they do discuss Christian ideals, sometimes even scripture its very rare and sparingly. It shows how 'real' a Christian can be. The character 'Bones' is an empiricist and the character 'Booth' is Catholic. It opens up some interesting conversations. Today's rerun was a comment that struck me as funny. She was commenting on cajun voodoo and was marking the similarities. She says 'They have zombies, you have a man who rose from the dead after 3 days.'
Booth says emphatically, 'Jesus was NOT a ZOMBIE!' While most Christians would be offended at the conversation.(I was the first time I saw it.) I think that conversations like that are important for skeptics to actually see defenders(no matter how silly the context) of Jesus. A couple of times they quote and share scripture. I figure, aethiests, empiricists, agnostic people watch the show. Whenever they quote scripture, it plants a seed. Whenever the characters get in a debate in beliefs they see the argument. Granted the discussions are only a couple of times per season it seems but its there. If you are obvious in trying to plant the seed, it falls on fallow ground in my opinion. When you sprinkle it in it plants questions in such a way that it shakes the picture of a Christian up.
Then there is the Madea series. Those movies are shocking to a Christian heart but it shows how real life is.(In a satiric type of way) Diary of a Mad Black Woman was the first one I saw.
When they started cursing I was floored, I thought it was Christian based. The Madea series is, I would guess, is offensive to soft Christian hearts but it sprinkles Christian ideals and thoughts throughout but is so outrageous that I fully believe that a non believer would enjoy watching it. I know it helped a few people with their walk because they saw it was ok to actually be a Christian and have fun. Whether it is doing the Harlem Shuffle or laughing at the insanity. It shows that Christians are first and for most human, Christianity grows over time. Its not topical it's something that shines through. It is a spoon fed way to introduce the uneducated to the truth of the matter. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
I was a child of the 80's in the worst way. I didn't go to church because the church had gotten kicked out of the SBA and that to a young teen was akin to being sent to the principles office and it scared me to death. Since my family didn't go I just faded away in the life of that church. They did things that freaked me out like record burnings and Book burning. Not all the music or books were talking about the Devil or evil things but they sure wanted them to burn. They also did protests. I heard from a friend that said she got hit in the head with a Bible because she didn't want to stop and listen to them so they grabbed her by the hair of her head and smacked her face with the Bible. Stuff like that made it so very easy to fall away.
What brought me back wasn't the Highway to Heaven type shows or movies. It was the constant sprinkling of Jesus. Shows that would sneak little snippets in when you least expect it. Movies that let you know that we are to be a light in a dark world.
I think about how different my life would have been had someone told me that Bible thumpers weren't the typical Christian.(I love the passion in those kind of people but you cannot share the word if you slam the door close before you even open your mouth, if you know what I mean)
I hope this post doesn't offend, its not its purpose. Its just something that struck me. I try not to be offensive, my focus is to glorify God and to spread his word. While its easy to be a Christian when all your friends share your beliefs, its not really an effective way to do the Great Commission. I was told it's called friendship evangelism. I am all for it and I think if a new Christian has a strong Christian friend its the best way to be a 'fisher of men'. I think its more effective in the long run because if you don't have any Christian friends or family then its easy to be like I was and just drift away.
Those shows and movies are good Christian shows and movies. While they help bolster Christians in their daily walk they don't affect the people who are skeptic of Christians.
There are other shows and movies that openly discuss Christianity in a way that is not confrontational. I was watching Bones and I realized that while they do discuss Christian ideals, sometimes even scripture its very rare and sparingly. It shows how 'real' a Christian can be. The character 'Bones' is an empiricist and the character 'Booth' is Catholic. It opens up some interesting conversations. Today's rerun was a comment that struck me as funny. She was commenting on cajun voodoo and was marking the similarities. She says 'They have zombies, you have a man who rose from the dead after 3 days.'
Booth says emphatically, 'Jesus was NOT a ZOMBIE!' While most Christians would be offended at the conversation.(I was the first time I saw it.) I think that conversations like that are important for skeptics to actually see defenders(no matter how silly the context) of Jesus. A couple of times they quote and share scripture. I figure, aethiests, empiricists, agnostic people watch the show. Whenever they quote scripture, it plants a seed. Whenever the characters get in a debate in beliefs they see the argument. Granted the discussions are only a couple of times per season it seems but its there. If you are obvious in trying to plant the seed, it falls on fallow ground in my opinion. When you sprinkle it in it plants questions in such a way that it shakes the picture of a Christian up.
Then there is the Madea series. Those movies are shocking to a Christian heart but it shows how real life is.(In a satiric type of way) Diary of a Mad Black Woman was the first one I saw.
When they started cursing I was floored, I thought it was Christian based. The Madea series is, I would guess, is offensive to soft Christian hearts but it sprinkles Christian ideals and thoughts throughout but is so outrageous that I fully believe that a non believer would enjoy watching it. I know it helped a few people with their walk because they saw it was ok to actually be a Christian and have fun. Whether it is doing the Harlem Shuffle or laughing at the insanity. It shows that Christians are first and for most human, Christianity grows over time. Its not topical it's something that shines through. It is a spoon fed way to introduce the uneducated to the truth of the matter. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
I was a child of the 80's in the worst way. I didn't go to church because the church had gotten kicked out of the SBA and that to a young teen was akin to being sent to the principles office and it scared me to death. Since my family didn't go I just faded away in the life of that church. They did things that freaked me out like record burnings and Book burning. Not all the music or books were talking about the Devil or evil things but they sure wanted them to burn. They also did protests. I heard from a friend that said she got hit in the head with a Bible because she didn't want to stop and listen to them so they grabbed her by the hair of her head and smacked her face with the Bible. Stuff like that made it so very easy to fall away.
What brought me back wasn't the Highway to Heaven type shows or movies. It was the constant sprinkling of Jesus. Shows that would sneak little snippets in when you least expect it. Movies that let you know that we are to be a light in a dark world.
I think about how different my life would have been had someone told me that Bible thumpers weren't the typical Christian.(I love the passion in those kind of people but you cannot share the word if you slam the door close before you even open your mouth, if you know what I mean)
I hope this post doesn't offend, its not its purpose. Its just something that struck me. I try not to be offensive, my focus is to glorify God and to spread his word. While its easy to be a Christian when all your friends share your beliefs, its not really an effective way to do the Great Commission. I was told it's called friendship evangelism. I am all for it and I think if a new Christian has a strong Christian friend its the best way to be a 'fisher of men'. I think its more effective in the long run because if you don't have any Christian friends or family then its easy to be like I was and just drift away.
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