Reformation Day Vs. Halloween

One of the oddities of the church at large is that while few Christians have even heard of Reformation Day on October 31, many Christians have a party on Halloween. It's not my purpose here to discuss the many difficulties of Christians celebrating Halloween with horror movies and all things death and ghouls (I'll save that for another day). 

The popularity of Halloween vs the nearly complete  ignorance of Reformation Day. It's a picture of the modern church: enveloped by popular culture, but not knowing our own history. 

I get frustrated with the fact that many Christians take a "so what have you done for me lately" attitude with history; especially church history. But then again, maybe it's really because pastors and teachers have not taught the body of Christ that our faith is build on, as it says in Revelation, "the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." We get the "Word of God" element, but the "testimony of Jesus" has two parts - the testimony of Jesus Christ about himself and the testimony of all the faithful witnesses in history who are pointing us back to Jesus.

Call it "old fashioned." But to quote a movie line from The Avengers: 

"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light; people might just need a little 'old fashioned.'"

Thus says the Lord:“Stand by the roads, and look,    and ask for the ancient paths,where the good way is; and walk in it,    and find rest for your souls.But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I set watchmen over you, saying,    ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’ Jeremiah 6:16-17 

Reformation day is the remembrance of October 31, 1517. On that date 495 years ago, Martin Luther  posted the infamous 95 Theses to the Wittenburg church door, kicking off the protestant reformation. 

From Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses

On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to Albert of Mainz, protesting against the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," which came to be known as The Ninety-Five Theses. Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had then no intention of confronting the church, but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire."^[2] Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of Saint Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"^[2]Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs."^[3] He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.On the eve of All Saint's Day, October 31, 1517, Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, according to university custom.^[4]

Reformation day is not a day where protestant Christians should pat themselves on the back and say "look how great we are for ditching the Catholic church." Rather, it should be a humble reminder that in every generation we are caught in the chaos of two constant struggles:

We don't want to do the effort to study our Bibles on our own, so we are constantly looking for an extra-Biblical authority - someone else to tell us what God really wants us to know. It's easy for Protestant Christians to criticize the Catholic church for following a Pope, but haven't we set up "popes" of our own making? The church growth gurus and the pastors with the national following have become our self imposed "popes" as we listen to them to try to find ways to grow our churches instead of simply proclaiming the revealed Word of God. Out of Luther's 95 Theses eventually developed the concept of "Sola Scriptura" - Scripture Alone.  We don't need to read more books about the Christian life or about prayer, we need to read and apply the only Book that matters.

We are always trying to find a way to gain our own salvation. Those who bought the indulgences that Luther criticized so strongly were being led along to believe something that is easy to believe, that we have to do "something" to gain salvation. It's too unbelievable to think that Jesus Christ died on the cross to give stunningly evil human beings a free gift of salvation. How can the love of God be so extravagant? Surely, we think, we owe God something. Surely, we think, we must be able to somehow claw our way back up the mountain of God's righteousness. And so whether it is buying indulgences or the modern American idea of being a "nice, American boy (or girl)" -either way, it's the same thing, it's all about trying to earn our way to heaven. And again, perhaps it is because not enough pastors and teachers are confronting people with their sin and then leading them to the grace of God.  If a pastor does not teach his church the reality of sin and the grace of God, isn't it the same thing as absolving the church attenders (indulgence buyers?) and granting them a false salvation?

That is why we must never stop the reformation. The reformation must always be leading us back to the Word of God. 

Too judgmental? Maybe not judgmental enough!

One of my concerns with putting The Baby War: Defenders and Defectors out there is not that secular, worldly people would attack it and call it hopelessly ridiculous. In fact, I think that would be pretty awesome if this film gained enough exposure in order for that to happen. 

One of the main concerns I have is that Christian people would say that the film is "too judgmental."

There are several common phrases and even Scripture passages that are used when the "too judgmental" card is played. They usually involve "judge not, lest you be judged"(Matthew 7:1). This verse is a favorite in the wider culture, because it is exactly what the world wants to hear. 

But what does Jesus mean when he says these words? Look at the whole passage in it's context:

7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.⁶ “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

The large majority who quote Matthew 7:1 never make it to Matthew 7:2. Jesus doesn't just say, "don't judge." He says "don't judge, because that judgment is going to come back on you in the same way you are judging others." So the point is that we are not allowed by Jesus Christ to judge others self-righteously.  We need to first take the log out of our own eyes before we start trying to remove the speck from someone else's eye.

So, to say that this passage means that we shouldn't "complain" about things as I heard one preacher put it, simply misses the point. 

In fact the Bible says that we are indeed to cast judgment on others. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 is a tough passage: 

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. ¹² For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? ¹³ God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

We are to judge those inside the church by looking at their actions and comparing them to the standards of the Word of God. So how exactly do we do that without being self-righteous? I mean, who among us haven't at some point been "guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler?" 

The key to this judgment is best explained in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:

³ For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, ⁶ being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

We are specifically to do two things:

1. To destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
2. To take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. 

In other words, we judge thoughts and ideas, and bring those ideas kicking and screaming to the judgment seat of Christ. Now this may be the most culturally unpopular thing that a person could do living in 21st century America, because in our culture, the absolute worst thing that could be done is to say that another person's thoughts and ideas are wrong. 

Many Christians have bought into this, and even many churches now stay away from the confronting cultural lies, because it hovers too closely to the edge of sounding "judgmental."

So, in essence, we don't proclaim truth (God's ideas) and live in truth (God's ideas) because we are fearful of being thought as "judgmental." But there is a real problem with doing that. I think it was Ravi Zecharias who said something to the effect of "In the marketplace of ideas, some stalls smell better than others."

Some ideas are bad, ungodly, worldly ideas that, according to the ultimate standard and judge of ideas, smell pretty awful. The problem is that we are too afraid of sounding "judgmental" and we go ahead and step into the stinky idea and walk around just trying to ignore the fact that we are carrying the stink with us where ever we go. 

There is only one way for us to "judge" and that is in accordance with God's law. We don't have the right or authority to judge by our own standard because our standard is changing and flexible. Culture is always moving and changing and our standards of righteousness remain in a constant flux. So, Jesus says, to judge someone else by your own standard is to invite that same judgment back on yourself. 

Thoughts and ideas can only truly be "judged" by us finite, changing people, by submitting those ideas to the judgment seat of Christ. We do that by comparing our ideas to God's ideas in His Word.  

So, if this is done properly, the "person" is judged by comparing the thoughts, ideas, and even the actions of the person to the Word of God. We must begin that judgment with ourselves. We remove the log from our own eye before we help others remove the speck. 

Ideas have consequences. 

This is why we need to teach people constantly to evaluate their own lives in light of Biblical truth. 

When it comes to the topic addressed in The Baby War:Defenders and Defectors, I hope that the film causes people to ask this question: is the church's teaching on marriage and procreation in line with all the previous centuries of Biblical interpretation, or is it in line with some other standard? 

I have met very few people who have not struggled with this issue personally and have not been "kicking and screaming" as they brought their own ideas to the judgment seat of Christ. I myself can attest to this mightily, and I may share much more of that story in the follow up film.

If anyone says, this film is too "judgmental," I would say that yes, the film unashamedly judges ideas. The Church for too long has not been judgmental enough of those ideas. The baby war is a war of ideas: our ideas vs. God's ideas about babies. 

Who will win the war? In the wider world, the ideas that get the most "air time" will win, because when we hear it often enough we believe it. But in the hearts and minds of the Bible believing Christian married couple, the war of ideas will be won by God as the Holy Spirit convicts them through His Word and the testimony of Christian witnesses throughout history.

The reason this film is needed is because someone needs to shake up the modern church's silent acceptance of the world's ideas about what marriage is to be. 

On The Baby War: Defenders and Defectors Post Production

So, the goal all along had been to finish TBW:D&D by October 15th in order to submit the film to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. We had finished everything and were just attempting to transcode and burn DVD's the week before the deadline, but the it took Adobe Encore around 36 hours to transcode. This is on a very high end production machine. We made a few tweaks after the first transcoding, and then the second 36 hour round finished on Saturday morning the 13th. 

Knowing that we would not have enough time to transcode it again, I watched the DVD with great despair because the quality of the DVD was so poor. The images were blurry and the many images of text were so fuzzy that some of them were practically unreadable. 

But, I knew that we didn't have time to do it again, so I gathered up my pathetic DVD's, went to the Post Office on Monday the 15th to get the film submitted by the 15th postmark deadline. 

Jenette and I went to Springfield and came home later that day, where I found  an email from the Film Festival that said that the deadline had been extended to October 31st. 

So, I just knew there had to be a way to get better quality. Through a very late night of internet research I learned that Adobe Encore was known for producing poor DVD quality because of it's encoder. This is really frustrating, because you would think that such a quality package of software as Adobe Production CS5.5 would be able to produce quality DVD's.

There is a possibility that some of my video card settings are not playing nice with the Adobe Media Encoder, so maybe it's not all Adobe's fault, but still, I would like to blame someone. 

One of the great wonders and benefits of the internet is that if you are having any kind of technical problem, someone else has experienced that same problem and has complained about it on the internet, and usually someone else has helped find a solution. 

Well, that's exactly what happened. Through some very helpful technical tutorial videos and other articles, I was able to download and run free open source software that transcoded the film video file to AVI and then encoded it to MPEG2-DVD in a fraction of the time it took Encore, and at a stunning quality difference, with a lower file size. Did I say stunning? What I meant was a stupendously crazy wonderful quality difference. 

So, bottom line is, don't ever give up on making things better quality. I seriously thought about not trying to distribute DVD's of this film because our initial attempts were so horrible. Now, I am pleased to be able to put this on DVD. 

If you are using Adobe Encore to make DVD's, I highly suggest going through this challenging, multi-step process to make your quality better. 

I will do another blog where I will describe the process in detail, not because I think anyone would be interested, but because I want to document the process well so I can know how to do it again. 

So, Jonathan did more post work to redo the chapter headings and burn the new DVD's and I am going to be very glad to send the revised DVD submissions to the film festival this week. 

Furthermore, I had some more thoughts about the content of this film. I am nervous making this public because I know that many people we know and love will think this film is too "out there." This film doesn't just challenge the mainstream ideas of the world, this film challenges the mainstream ideas of Godly, conservative people. 

We were very careful in this film to present everything in an historical light, and show the results of that history. Most of the clips in this film show facts: facts of history, facts of current events, and facts of Christian culture. We removed nearly all of the "snarkiness" from the script. We have attempted to leave a lot of room for viewers to come to their own conclusions. 

There is a section in the film where we highlight three different clips of sermons regarding sex and marriage from American pastors whose sermons are available publicly on the internet. When we first wrote the script, we called these sermons, "the good, the bad, and the ugly." But as our family sat and poured over every word of the script, we felt that we weren't leaving the viewers enough room to determine for themselves whether what these pastors was saying was "good, bad, or ugly," so that part of the script was chopped. 

Inevitably, someone is going to say that this film is too "judgmental." Here's my response to that:

1. Being "judgmental" implies self-righteousness. You will find no self-righteousness in this film. 
2. The film judges no person, but judges ideas. 
3. Ideas are to be brought kicking and screaming to the judgment seat of Christ through his written word. 
4. The evangelical church (as a whole) has, through it's silence on the priority of procreation in marriage, has not been judgmental enough of these ideas.  

This film is controversial because, apart from a few writers, no one is talking about this matter in the church, at least until this year. It's interesting that the HHS contraceptive mandate has put the issue in the forefront, and church leaders of many flavors are talking about contraceptives for the first time in half a century. 

Someone will also say, "So what are you saying, that we should stop using birth control? - Uh, that means that we would have more kids, and that's pretty freaky and would change my life dramatically!" The film never says this. What we hope each person will take away from this documentary is this: 

1. The Christian defense of procreative marriage is a fact of history
2. The defection from that belief has led to all kinds of horrible consequences.
3. It is time for Christians to once again defend the basic Biblical definition of marriage.  

If watching this film causes some Christian married couple to re-evaluate their personal use of birth control in the light of Biblical interpretive history, that is a good thing, but it is not the primary goal of the film.

The film is about the historical Christian definition of marriage and that certainly involves having children. Each couple should consider God's Word first about their decisions in this matter; not what some family expert or what Dr. So & So says.  Our family struggled though this "Baby War" - our ideas vs. God's ideas about babies, and we ended up with nine children. However, other couples have trusted God for the number and spacing of children and only had one or two children. Either we believe God's promise that children are an unqualified blessing (Psalm 127 & 128) or we don't.

One of the real problems with this film is that it is only part of what needs to be said. The Baby War:Defenders & Defectors looks at the issue from an historical lens. The follow up film that we want to make called The Baby War:A Conflict of Fears will look at the issue through a Biblical lens. 

The opening lines of the film say it well: "Proceed with caution. This film might challenge you to think different thoughts and to lead different lives." 

The Remember Movie

http://www.theremembermovie.com/Remember/Home.html

Remember is a movie that may go down as one of the best sci fi stories ever made. Some reviewers will say stuff about it's low budget. I don't really care about that. This is just a really good story. The acting and  the visual effects are very good, but the story itself is outstanding. 

Having said that, this is an ambitious project with a small budget that has resulted in a powerful movie. I won't give a synopsis of the story, as that can be found on the movie website. I encourage every family to buy this movie and support these independent Christian filmmakers. I especially like the scene where Carl and Wendy are talking to each other and they both hesitantly figure out that they have both stopped taking the memory block meds. The music is powerful and majestic. 

How amazing it is that independent Christian filmmakers can make a film of this qualtity that is sci-fi? I don't remember anything quite like this before, and I hope it will encourage other filmmakers to take on projects like this.

Thank you Moviemakers for a job well done. 

Time to start the can opener.

The Baby War:Defenders and Defectors Trailer from Jim Clay on Vimeo.

Ok, it is with great fear and trepidation that we being the public exposure of The Baby War: Defenders and Defectors. From the very beginning, we have intended to open "a can of worms" with this film. I guess now is as good a time as any! 

We will be releasing this film free for internet viewing on November 1. After that, we will be producing DVD's that will be available in late November. 

Originally this project was intended to be made for submission to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, (and we are submitting it), but we have learned that this message is far too important to just submit it to the Film Festival. We hope many more people will see it.  The website for the film is http://thebabywarfilm.com/index.html. We will be posting more information on facebook as we approach the release.

Here's the trailer for the documentary film we have been working on. Be warned! This film is as controversial as it gets. It is not politically correct! As I know that most people will probably get very nervous at the content of this film. That's ok, because I am nervous putting it out there. 

Although I have produced, directed, and written this film, my production team has been Joel Clay - original music. Jason Clay - visual effects and animations. Jonathan Clay - sound design and post production. Jenette Clay and Jordan Clay have also been key parts of this production, working on the script and many other things. Although many others have helped with this, this has been a family project. I am very pleased with how it has turned out. 

And, by the way, the music in the trailer is also completely original by Joel Clay.

So, why a film about this topic? Well, in my opinion, it simply is ignored by the church because it is too politically incorrect to talk about procreation in marriage. Because of that, most of us have just gone along with everything that everyone in the world thinks and believes about this. I want to challenge Christian married couples and young Christian people considering marriage to think about the issue of using birth control in a Biblical and historical framework, instead of just going along with what everyone says about it. 

This film is called The Baby War:Defenders and Defectors because it is about the war of ideas: our ideas vs. God's ideas about babies. 

But at it's heart and core, this film is about the definition of marriage. And as Christians, we believe that God has the authority to define it. The real question of this film is this: why have modern Christians quietly removed procreation out of the Biblical definition of marriage, standing against 19 centuries of Biblical interpretive history? And the conclusion of the film demonstrates the results. 

More blogs will follow as I begin to share my research into this issue. 

Good, Evil, or Goevilod?

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:12-14

The most basic of Biblical truths should be understood by nearly every person who calls themselves a follower of Christ. However, many who follow Christ have not been seeking maturity in their relationship with Christ. Nor have the majority been seeking a sanctified life, that is, a life that is becoming more like Christ and less like the world. This has come to light for me recently as I have stated reasons why I think that The Hunger Games movie is very problematic for the Christian family.

It doesn't really matter what my opinion is, or what someone else's opinion is, or what Doctor So & So says - there is only one objective standard in life, and that is God's Standard - nothing else stands completely outside of human experience. Only God's standard is the yardstick against all other thoughts, beliefs, and practices, and only the Bible will endure the test of time as an eternal rock of unchangeable truth. Of course worldly people will mock it, scorn it, or whatever, but those words will all be judged eventually, and God will win the argument.

The problem is that Christians are the ones who are confused, and perhaps that is for two reasons:

1. Many (most?) Christians have not trained themselves by the constant use (study) of the Scriptures to be able to distinguish good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14).
   
2. We have been so amalgamated into worldly ways of thinking that we simply don't know anymore what is good and what is evil, and even deeper, why something is good or evil.

For example, three Bible principles dominate my thinking about not supporting financially The Hunger Games movie in any way:

1. The Sixth Commandment - Don't murder - Exodus 20:13
   
2. The non-partnership with sin principle :

   Proverbs 1:10-19 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; ¹⁶ for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.

   Ephesians 5:5-7 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷ Therefore do not be partners with them.

3. The set your minds on right things principle:

   Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

So, applying these three commands or principles, it seems to me that obeying God's Word in every aspect of life would mean that I should limit myself in movie watching to movies that would honor God's principles. I have to first remove the log from my own eye and admit that I have not always done this. I have watched movies and television that were most ungodly and unwise.

However, as a father & husband, I have the hearts and minds of my wife and children to protect, so I am projecting my limitations on them, using the authority that God's Word gives me as a father. Someone might challenge me about The Hunger Games movie, "you haven't even see it, so how can you be so against it?"

First of all, the internet provides unending resources to discover what the content of a movie is, including the Internet Movie Database, which contains a parents guide for most movies that simply presents the uninterpreted facts of the content. Through that source and other research I have done, I have learned that the visual elements of the movie contain kids killing kids. Kids killing kids is not a visual element I want stuck in the heart and mind of my children, (or even myself) because of the Biblical principles described above.

I am against the movie (not necessarily the book, because a story can be handled much differently in a book) because demonstrating in a movie kids killing kids is something that, in my opinion, just simply should not be seen on film.

Look, I understand the plot of the movie. I know that it does not specifically condone or celebrate the killings. I get it. I have heard the point, "but that (the killing) is not the message of the film." Granted.

But here's the point - we have confused good and evil. Aren't we, by paying to see the movie, doing what the movie says is so wrong? Aren't we the Capitol? One of the characters in the book states that that the hunger games would not exist if people stopped watching. Why do we need a movie to show visually that kids killing kids is wrong? We have God's Word to tell us what is evil. Even if this movie has a great story and some heroics, it is a fact that one of the visual elements throughout the film is that kids are killing kids. Even if it is not the only visual element, even if it is on the sideline - to me, that is simply unacceptable.

There are lots of movies I shouldn't see and no one else should either. I certainly am not going to let my kids see them. Some movies are just plainly a waste of time, but others have definite, unredeemable content.

Let's look at the extremes. I have not seen any pornographic movies, but I certainly don't need to see them to know that I don't want my children or anyone else to see them. I don't need to see them to say that they are horrible and ungodly. Unfortunately, I know enough of their content to make a wise decision. Pornography is unredeemable. Horror movies are unredeemable. Sexual comedies are unredeemable. A follower of Christ should never see them. The Bible gives us commands and principles that we should use to judge every question of life, including which movies we see or don't see.

In my humble opinion, The Hunger Games movie is unredeemable because it contains kids killing kids. I am basing that opinion on the above mentioned Biblical principles. In essence, by saying this a "good" movie, we are calling what is evil "good."

It seems to me that we should look at God's Word to tell us what is good and what is evil. That is the only standard that matters. We can start with the Ten Commandments - a partial list of what God would call evil. There are other "lists" in the Bible, such as Proverbs 6:16-19

¹⁶There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Ok, I would imagine that everyone knows that. But the Bible also contains principles about the nature of good and evil, how it is to be defined, the results of both, and what we are supposed to do with both good and evil. Let's go beyond these "lists" and get into the heart of good and evil.

Evil is to be called evil and not good, according to God's standard:

Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. ²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

Malachi 2:17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

Doing Good according to God's standard brings blessings, doing evil according to God's standard brings curses and judgment:

John 5:28-29 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

Even God's "own people" who do evil are fools who don't know how to do good:

Jeremiah 4:22 “My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good.”

God lovers are to hate evil and love what is good:

Amos 5:14-15 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. ¹⁵ Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Good and evil come from the heart, not just actions or words on the surface:

Matthew 12:34-36 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. ³⁶ But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

Humans are utterly evil - slaves to sin, and can only be made "good" by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross:

Romans 7:21-25 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

The follower of Christ is commanded to be wise about what is good, and innocent of evil:

Romans 16:19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

The follower of Christ is commanded to turn from evil and do good:

1 Peter 3:10-11 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. ¹¹ He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

Here's the bottom line: confusing good and evil has grave consequences.

God, would you blow away our confusion and help your people to stand on your Word alone?

Sola Scriptura

jc

Why You Should Never Support the Hunger Games Movie

"24 young men and young women (ranging from ages 12-18) stand on pedestals at the beginning of a competition and await a countdown, when the counter reaches 0 the young people run for a large collection of supplies and attack each other and 12 of them are killed: we see blades slashing and covered with blood, we see bodies lying motionless with blood stains and smears on their clothing and flesh, a young woman falls and a young man stands over her with a blade until another young woman throws a blade into his back, and a young boy is hacked with a large blade and we see blood spurt onto nearby objects (we do not see the boy)." (IMDB.com)

Kids killing kids.

Ok, in case that isn't enough of a reason, let me give an even more pressing reason.

The production company spent $100,000,000 (yes, that is correct, one hundred million dollars) to make a movie showing kids killing kids.

Have we gone so far away from Christian discernment that we are glad to pay money to see this? By paying to see the movie, we become the evil "Capitol" that the movie makes out to be the bad guy, celebrating the deaths of children because their deaths make our hero more victorious.

Why are we shocked when real kids kill other kids?

I am grieved that I know Christian parents who are taking their children to see this. No, I am more than grieved, I am frustrated and angry beyond belief.

The culture of death has taken on new life with this movie. In stark contrast, the movie October Baby is opening in theaters this weekend. Following the story of a girl who discovers that she was the survivor of an abortion attempt, the tagline for the movie is "Every life is beautiful."

One of the taglines for the Hunger Games is "May the odds be ever in your favor."

It is the tale of two tales. Theism vs. humanism. Life vs. death. Hope vs. despair. Victory vs. defeat. True heroism vs. false heroism. Wisdom vs. foolishness. The goodness of God vs the evil of humans.

May God come to judge us, and cleanse us of our unrighteousness.

jc

Clouds Timelapse

More experimenting with timelapse.

My Thoughts on the Caucus

I was at the Lawrence County Republican Caucus today. What a trip! Here are some of my thoughts about this on video.

The Sandwich Zipline Timelapse

Doing a timelapse with the GoPro Hero2 is so fun. I started with almost 4000 pictures! Taking a picture every .5 seconds really starts to add up after a while! These are all 5mp images shot in the late morning on March 11, 2012, just about 30 yards East of the zipline tower.

After figuring it out a bit, I whittled it down to just about 400 pictures.

Proshow producer makes it easy to drop them in, time them correctly, and publish.

2012 Summer Camp Promo Video

2012 Summer Camp Promo Video