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

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Courageous was number 4 for the weekend in total money, but smashed the competition in average $$ per theater. At just 1161 theaters, that was a third less than the top money making movie. Courageous was in half the theaters than Lion King 3D, yet made just .7 million less. This movie is truly a commercial success!

Why You Must See Courageous

1. It really is a great movie.
2. We need to financially support the Christian Independent filmmaking movement. The world needs to see that Fireproof was not just a "one hit wonder." Movies are arguably perhaps the most active culture drivers in the U.S. Let's make sure that these movies are successful financially. Don't wait for the DVD on this one!
   
3. The message is powerful and needed - Fathers need to take the responsibility to lead their families, to be spiritual leaders, and to bring up the next generation to maturity.
4. The scene where the main character and the guy he hires are confused about who each other is and why they are together is worth the price of admission alone. I also loved the "I love you" lines on the phone - priceless!

Be advised - it is a tear-jerker. You will literally laugh and cry. Dads - don't do anything else this weekend - take your kids to see Courageous. Be prepared to spend more money afterwards, though, because the movie convicted me that I needed to take my boys to Chick-Fil-A afterward. (Or maybe it was that I was hungry, and subtlety motivated by the movie - the other "bust-up" laughing scene was where the guy orders a CFA meal in spanish in the police car. What a funny scene! Would that be "product placement?")

Support MBC video

Here is my latest video - I made this to encourage everyone in our Maranatha Bible Camp family to continue to support MBC. Hopefully churches will show this for their "Treat the Camp" Sundays. I recognize that it will be nearly impossible to get a 7 minute video shown in any Sunday morning church service (unfortunately), so I did make a 3.5 minute version, that I have aptly named the "Too Short Version."

This video had all kinds of challenges and opportunities for growth and learning.

Equipment/software - I used the trial version of Sony Vegas 11 on the kids HP laptop (my computer does not have the "horsepower" to do such things, sadly). Other than making a short experimenting video, I had not used Vegas before, and was relatively satisfied. I still have a lot to learn about it. Using Sony DVD Architect was a challenge, because just simply clicking the "Make movie" button to render a DVD directly to Sony DVD Architect won't render audio correctly. Go figure that Sony's video editor and DVD authoring program won't play nice. It can be done, but not by the simple one button click. Another challenge was that my Panasonic DV camera had bitten the proverbial dust just days before we began working on this. (It actually had smoke coming out of it!). I was very thankful to Penny for letting me borrow her Panasonic DV camera, but we had to charge the battery every 20 minutes or so of shooting. So, considering that I used trial software and had to borrow the kid's computer and a camera, I was pleased in general with the result.

Content - I have never made a "documentary" feel video of any kind, but I thought that this might be the best combination of explaining how important MBC is and showing summer highlights. I wrote a basic script of what I wanted to say, and then talked through it with my team of helpful "Critics" (Jenette and the four older kids, all of whom love to argue and pick things apart!) Their input was very helpful. Then I began the arduous task of sorting out video content from all the various sources. There was DV from my own camera (RIP) this last summer (all shot only in June before I broke my leg). There was quite a bit of good video from HS1, JH1, and JR1 (again, June camps) because Phil Weece had spent a lot of time shooting. And then there were many clips taken mostly from camper's and volunteer's digital cameras on our camp hard drive. Some of the clips were horrible, poorly shot, and useless but a few were pretty good. This was the biggest challenge of making this video, and now is the time for me to repeat the thing I have said to myself the last four summers in a row:

"Next year, I am going to get great video shot all summer at every session of camp of lots of happy campers and adults doing fun and meaningful things with one camera that has a consistent look, quality, and format. If I don't do that, once again, I will go bananas trying to make highlight videos."

Shooting - all the highlight video was already shot, but we did the interview parts here at my home office. Jonathan set up two of our lamps from the house so that there was light on the background, (which was actually a blue bedsheet hanging on the wall) and light on my face. I thought he did a brilliant (HA!) job setting up the lighting and I honestly did not even think about setting up lights the way he did. He said that he had those lighting ideas after he watched "Divided" and noticed how lighting was set during interviews. I was very impressed with his vision for the lighting. We also experimented with a "Franken-microphone" thing that somehow ended up working with the borrowed camera. Jonathan ran the camera and Jordan was the self appointed "director" and franken-microphone pointer. She was actually very helpful by insisting that I do each section several times. I think the end result was much better because she gently pushed me to make it better.

Other - The background music was provided by Announcing the Apocalypse (That's Joel, with Jason and Jonathan). I thought it was pretty awesome and added the right feel to the video.

My thoughts on the Movie "Divided"

At the risk of offending many dear friends involved in ministry, I would like to encourage anyone involved with Church ministry at all to watch this film. It is online free for a limited time, so please go ahead and watch it. I would love to hear what others think about this.

The premise of the movie is that traditional youth ministry has the potential danger of dividing families away from each other. The solution, according to the film, is to have families together in worship and in Bible teaching instead of segregated by age or life stage.

While I think that solution by itself is limited, the larger goal is to have the church take up the responsibility to challenge parents to be the spiritual leaders and disciplers of their children.

We keep asking ourselves why kids are leaving Christ and the Church, but we haven't gained any ground against the world.

I think the Church needs to ask and address this question: are we truly holding onto the next generation by what we are doing, or do we need to do something different? While I would not agree with the movie that the Bible states definitively and undeniably that age segregation in the Church is wrong, (book, chapter, verse?) I do see that in many churches, the family is just as fragmented as in the world.

I don't know any Church or any youth minister that would say that the Bible is unclear about who is supposed to be the spiritual leader in a child's life. However, by our practices, maybe we communicate things that we don't mean to.

For example, most churches have a "youth group" time, and an adult Sunday School or small group time, but how often do churches have a dedicated "family" teaching time when youth and adults are experiencing the same thing at the same time in the same place? Unfortunately for many churches, that never happens. What does that teach the family? The kids? Is the family really gaining spiritual ground against worldliness? If not, why?

Is it possible that the media (or methodology) actually becomes the message?

Maybe if youth ministries spent more effort training parents to spiritually mentor their children, they would be more effective. I don't agree with the movie that we should do away with traditional youth ministry, but I do think that we should make it so much more family centered.

Please watch this and encourage Church leaders to watch this. We need to stop fooling around and start winning back the Church's youth for Christ.

Seven Days Later

Seven days later I am feeling at least enough oomph to type. Here's what happened.

Tuesday, July 12 8:30 AM

I go out to the zip line area at the ATV to raise the termination cable on the North line. I was trying to slow down the rate that people were coming in on that line. As I was finishing, the other guys came down in the truck and Jeff backed the truck right up within a foot or two on the East side of the tree, thinking that I might need to stand on the truck bed to finish what I was doing with the zip line cable.

Tuesday, July 12 9:35 AM

The first group of High School campers arrive to get ready for some zip line fun. We get them harnessed up and they are ready to go.

Tuesday, July 12 9:45 AM

With the students ready to go, the hop into the back of the truck for the short ride up the hill. At that moment, Jeff got into the drivers seat, and I stepped behind the truck, between the truck and the tree. I was starting to tell the students that they should not walk under the zip line when they walk back up hill. I was also thinking that I should move, because where I was was not safe. Jeff started to go, but the truck rolled backwards just a few inches - enough to pin both of my legs just above the ankles to the tree, but (at the time I thought) not enough to hurt me. I guess I screamed, and some of the kids in the back of the truck laughed at me, thinking I was being silly. As soon as the truck went forward, the pain hit me and I instantly fell, watching my lower right leg kind of dangle. I knew then that it was broken.

Tuesday, July 12 9:50 AM

The first person I remember coming to me was Jeff, though I know there were others there. I told him my leg was broken and I wanted to make sure he knew that it was my fault. I shouldn't have stepped between the truck and the tree, and Jeff didn't even know I was there. (In fact I told my boys later that if I had seen them there I would have yelled at them to get out of there because surely they would know better than to place themselves in such a dangerous place.) Nathan Martin was right there as well, and he actually told me details of the story that I didn't remember. Jan Garbet was one of the adult volunteers who was nearby, heard me scream, and came running.

As a trauma nurse and paramedic, Jan took control immediately. After a bit of arguing with her about calling an ambulance, I prevailed and they began developing a plan to stabilize my leg and take me to the hospital. What followed was maybe 30 minutes or so of writhing in pain, while they splinted my leg. There were so many focused, professional, caring people right there. Of course Penny was there. I think Nathan or maybe Kevin Klein were the first of several people who began praying for me. Andrew Stout came and began praying. Blake and Kenan were there holding my hands as I was groaning and struggling. My boys were there, watching this whole thing. I'm not sure what they were thinking, but they were right there.

I knew that I had lost control of many, many things that morning when I was asking for water, but Jan wouldn't let me have any because she was concerned that I might be going to surgery soon. That was a horrible moment. Besides pain, I was horribly thirsty all day.

As I was laying there, I couldn't help but think of the Scripture in Phillipians 4 that says,

"don't be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

I realized that I needed to be thankful. Thankful for the pain, for the caring helpers, for the ants that were crawling on me, for everything.

Tuesday, July 12 10:30 ish.

They had run to get the camp backboard, but after they secured me to the board, and tucked in an inflatable frog to help stabilize my leg, they lifted me into the van. Jan was holding my foot in place, checking that I had good circulation, while Nathan drove. It was an agonizing drive, even though Nathan was very careful, I experienced every hill and curve in a new a special way. I heard Jan tell Nathan to drive into the ambulance entrance at Cox South. I had unbuckled my chest strap on the backboard because I was having a hard time breathing.

Tuesday, July 12 11:08 AM (that was the time stamped on my hospital bracelet)

The first thing that happened at the hospital was that a Paramedic opened the door to the van, took a quick look at me and yelled, "who did this?" That was not very encouraging. I guess he saw the backboard and assumed I had a back or neck injury or something. After Jan fussed at him for a moment, he backed off. They took me into the trauma room and immediately began to check my vitals, and start an IV. They gave me morphine, which helped a lot, but messed with my head and made me a little goofy. I was sure that the ceiling was moving, and I said that a couple of times, but no one seemed to pay any attention.

Jenette arrived soon after and she began answering their many, many questions. I was truly befuddled by the array of questions and I don't think I could have answered them. All the while, of course, the ceiling was still moving, and I said again to Jenette, "the ceiling is moving." She looked up, smiled at me and said, "yes it is." I thought she was serious, so that even freaked me out more.

They resplinted my leg, which was the most painful thing that happened at the hospital. I gripped Jenette's hand so hard. It reminded me of her gripping my hand when she birthed a baby. I had felt that hard, strong grip many times and it was familiar to me, but this time, we had switched roles.

The next thing I knew, they wheeled me into another room, but when the released the brake on the bed the entire bed shuddered and the sound made me jump and panic. "Oh, sorry about that" was the response from the guy moving the bed! They plopped me onto another bed and ran me through the CAT scan machine - a really freaky experience as well.

I guess I will write more later.

Unless you change and become like little children...

What does Jesus mean when he says in Matthew 18:2,

Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven...

I think that kids don't have all the hang ups that adults have. They aren't busy looking around at what others are doing and what others might think of them. They naturally trust those who take care of them. They won't trust perfectly, but they really don't have any choice. Kids are always being toted around wherever their parents go, so they are always willing just to go. Little Josie wants to go with me every time. She doesn't know or care where I am going or what I am doing, she just wants to go. Because children don't have a big picture of how bad and awful the world really is, they innocently thing that everyone is "nice."

So the complete trust in God is what we really need that is like a child, but the context of those verses in Matt 18 is really important. The disciples ask a question - who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven - I think they are really asking, "which of us is the greatest?" In Jesus' classic style he doesn't answer their question but gives them a better thing to think about. A small child is never in her wildest dreams going to think she is the greatest at anything. She may fuss and scream for her way, but she does that because she knows she small and insignificant next to the "big people" around her. I think the heart of Jesus' response is that we are never, ever, going to be great in God's kingdom by thinking we are big and bad.

The economy of God is that in Him and through childlike faith and trust in Him alone, the weak and powerless can do anything that God wants to do. We have to change from the big, bad, proud men & women that we are and become weak and helpless, fulling falling on his strong arms to hold us up.

It's been said that Christians are weak because they use their faith as a crutch to lean on in hard times. (like Everitt McGill in the O Brother Where Art Thou movie said, mocking his friends being baptized, "Hard times flush the chumps." He also said, "Baptism - you two are dummer than a bag o' hammers.")

The truth is that faith is not just a crutch. It is a stretcher, and only when we fall completely on it face down helpless before God can we really be a worshiper.

Bloggy on my wayward son

Too busy to blog, so that's usually when I come up with something profound. I realized that there is a whole plethora of things to blog about, but I have been too busy with camp stuff to get to it. Here's what I have been thinking about and doing:

The 2011 Camp Season - and all its blessings and difficulties. Zip lines are going great. Leading worship for kid's camps is an awesome, incredible privilege. Keeping a close watch for hazards and difficulties keeps me ever vigilant. I have some incredible helpers this summer, some of whom were sick or gone this last weekend, so I missed them even more. I can't help but be amazed at what has happened the last two weeks.

I am guessing we have done over 400 zip line rides in the last two weeks. This week I need to finish preparing the ground for Nathan Smith to bring his horses here for JH1.

While up on the zip line platform on Friday morning, launching multitudes of delighted 2nd-4th graders down the lines, (hundreds of yards from the highway) I heard a terrible squeal of tires and then the unmistakable sound of loud crunching metal. I and everyone around me knew we had just heard a vehicle crashing on the road. Since I was up on the platform launching campers I knew I could not leave, but I saw people literally running to help, not knowing what they would find. In the Lord's providence, we had at the camp (for demonstration purposes) a highway patrolman, and a life flight helicopter, as well as several firemen and emt's.

It was a hard moment for me to not run down and see what was going on, but all those folks were professionals who dealt with the crash and the poor driver instantly. How often would that happen out on the back roads of rural Missouri? I was so blessed to know that there are so many wonderful, capable, professional, caring people who are volunteers at this camp.

I am also so impressed with my three sons. They have done so much hard work these last few weeks to get ready for camp and to get the camp season started. All three were high school campers for HS1, and then they started working again. Jason got sick, and Jonathan stepped up and did many things that he did not plan to do, including playing the drums while I led worship. Truly those three young men are a blessing to me and to the camp. Few people realize how valuable they are to this ministry.

I am so thankful for my brother in law Jeff working here this summer. What an amazing man, hard worker, faithful servant, and all around fun guy to be with.

How great it has been to see Blake growing up some as he has taken the role of lifeguard - more police work than anything.

And all the others - Adam, Kenan, and the girls, they have all done great. The kitchen serving thing is the best we have ever done it. At this point, I think I can honestly say that now at the beginning of my 5th summer doing this, I am beginning to finally feel like I actually know what I am doing. I don't always get it all done, but I know what I am supposed to be doing.

What amazing teaching and preaching I have heard. I haven't been able to hear them all, but they have been outstanding. These last few days, we have had Matt Proctor teaching the 2nd - 4th grade camp. Here is a Bible college president teaching little kids, and doing a much better job than many children's ministers and teachers I have heard over the years.

I am glad to be serving the Church by making the Church better by helping the Church extend its ministry.

Excited to see what tomorrow brings.

jc

Bring me your tired, your weary, your filthy....cell phones.

MBC wants to ask YOU to donate old cell phones! This effort is simple, easy, and it's a win for everyone!

1. You clear out the old phones sitting around in your sock drawer.
2. Ask your cousin/mom/grandma/next door neighbor to do the same.
3. Send in the phones to MBC or give them to your church youth leaders.
4. MBC sends them in.
5. MBC receives a check.
6. MBC buys new furniture for our canteen area!
7. Campers at camp this summer say "Wow, that is cool! You mean I don't have to sit on rusty metal chairs anymore at canteen?"
8. Guys/gals in oversea countries get refurbished phones.
9. Your sock drawer is no longer plagued with useless junk.
10. God is honored and glorified at MBC!

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Why you should encourage students to come to Yourlife 2.11

Yourlife 2.11 is an event hosted here at Maranatha Bible Camp. It is put on by area Campus Ministries for High School Seniors and Juniors. It might be the most unique and the most important event we have at MBC - although all our events are unique and important.

First of all, I have never heard of any other event quite like this anywhere. So for the youth worker wanting something fresh for their students, this is it. It is led by Campus ministry leaders and the students. Real interaction and leadership happens from those who are "in the trenches" to those who are getting ready to step into that arena.

Second, it is really important. There is arguably no more dangerous time in a person's spiritual life than the young adult years - right out of high school and thrust into the chaos and unbridled freedom and lack of accountability that is found on the college campus.

Yourlife 2.11 is all about challenging students to think through those issue before the day they face them. It's about realizing that campus ministry should be their first thought in going off to college, not their last.

My question to anyone reading this is, if you have not encouraged someone to go, why not? it might be one of the best things you could do for that young person.

Finally, these guys that do campus ministry are truly the front line of this battle for the next generation. Anything and everything should be done to support them.

Things that I've never done before.

Keep saying that I need to list all the things that I have never done before that I am doing. Definitely keeps me learning and growing. The most recent list.

Had the ninth baby. (for those who are playing at home, that is the fourth home birth, the sixth girl)
Preached 3 Sundays in a row.
Preached about economic crisis.
Preached about Revelation.
Built a zipline.
Bought a chevy.
Disassembled a carport
Instructed the boys to completely clean out the van (meaning, I didn't have to do any of it!)
Installed Carpet Squares at the Retreat Center Basement
Installed Drop Ceiling at the Retreat Center basement
and (Will do this next week)...Will ski on snowblades.

Sermon Player -

Just a glimpse in to what we have been up to....

Camp Ministry life has it's seasons of busyness - and the last few weeks have been one of the busier seasons. Many Church ministry people are really busy leading up to Easter. We are looking forward to Easter weekend so we can have a little breather! Here are some of the many things that we have been doing in the last 5 -6 weeks. (Not just me, but Penny as well)

• Finished up the process of remodeling the Multi-Purpose building Kitchen.
• Continued work on completing the Retreat Center basement!
  
• Hosted YOURLIFE 2.0 – Led and taught by six area campus ministries – challenging High School students to continue their walk with Christ as they head to college.
• Hosted THE SANDWICH for Jr. High Students. What a great, challenging retreat for the students who came!
• Sunday Church visits by Penny and Jim included Southland, Oswego, Fir Road, College Heights, Christ's Church of Oronogo, and Carl Junction Christian - doing everything from Children’s Church to preaching.
• Set up displays and handed out information at the Preaching Teaching Convention at OCC and the SMCEF meeting at Son Rise Christian in Marshfield.
• Hosted three marriage retreats at the Retreat Center.
• Hosted over 100 people staying at the Retreat Center and Camp Buildings for a whole week. These great folks, from Wichita, were involved in a national Homeschool Basketball tournament in Springfield. What a privilege to have them stay here at MBC!
• Worked with SIX different volunteer work groups – from Countryside Christian (Nixa), College Heights Christian School (two groups of 50 each day!), Central City Christian, FCC Kimberling City, and Glendale Christian in Springfield). WOW!
• Planning and preparing for our next great event: JR. BASH for Grade School kids! Check out the website for info!
• In addition, we have mailed out summer camp information to all of our mailing list and distributed Church packets to nearly every Church in our database!
  

I'm tired now!

jc

The Nasty Message of Revelation 11

I heard perhaps one of the best sermons I have ever heard at the Preaching Teaching Convention at Ozark Christian College. The sermon, by Jeff Walling, is available for purchase as a download at http://catapes.com/viewresults.cfm?cid=143 for $5. He is a very visual preacher, so the audio won't be quite as impacting as watching it. I bought the DVD at the convention and brought it home to share with my kids.

The reason I thought this message was so well done is that it accomplishes the important but difficult elements of outstanding preaching. First of all, it taught the text really well. So much preaching these days is about the text or around the text, but not in and of the text. Second, it was convicting, and filled with application. And third, it was completely engaging. Jeff Walling has a way of keeping your attention like few guys can. And he did it within a reasonable time frame. Preaching is difficult. Preaching and being Biblical is very difficult. Preaching, being Biblical, and pounding home conviction and application is extremely difficult. To do all that and to be interesting and funny is near impossible. If you can accomplish all that and be done in your allotted time, its nothing short of a miracle.

He started in Revelation 10 with the idea that once the truth is unveiled to you, you can't unknow it. The idea of eating the little scroll in Revelation 10 is the ingestion of the Word - God's truth being such a part of us, that we can't separate ourselves from it. But it turns sour - there is bad news with the good news. Some people won't believe God's truth. Those people choose to not follow Him, and their judgment is brought upon them - another theme of Revelation. That's the sour, sick feeling in your stomach. That is the message that the modern emergent church doesn't want to follow or teach. Some people will burn forever in hell. That may be the most politically incorrect thing you could possibly say these days.

Heard any sermons about the truth and the doctrine of hell? Why not? Because it is a hard, hard message to stomach.

In Revelation 11 the two witnesses appear. They are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth (vs 4). Because Revelation already called the Church the lampstands earlier, (See Rev. 1:20), we know that John is talking about the Church. There are two because of the Old Testament imagery of the necessity of at least two witnesses. Jesus sent his disciples two by two. The Church is you, and the Church is me. There are two of them, but they act as one.

There are images there of Moses and Elijah - witnesses for God who brought the unwavering message of God -"I am God and there is no other."

They had a message of judgment for those who did not honor God and a message of blessing for those who did. That did not change between Old Testament witnesses and New Testament witnesses. Those who wanted to listen and hear did hear and those who didn't want to hear didn't hear it. Fire coming from their mouths represents this message - (and forget the wacky Left Behind books that picture these guys as human fire breathing dragons - that's totally bizarre!) The Church throughout the centuries is the two witnesses.

The nasty part, and the part that makes me ask lots of questions starts in verse 7:

⁷Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. ⁸Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. ⁹For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. ¹⁰The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

¹¹But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. ¹²Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

There is enough in this section to blog about for a month, so let's start at verse 7. "When they had finished their testimony..." So, exactly when would that be? When is the Church done testifying about Christ? When is she done preaching the gospel? Or carrying the good news to the ends of the earth? I think it is pretty clear here that it is the end! Verse 12 sounds very much like 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Someone might say here, "hey, wait a second...uh, where is the Lord?" How about verse 12 - the voice from heaven.

Side note - in case you are wondering why the end is here in the middle of Revelation - that's because the end is all through Revelation - imagine the same story being told multiple times in different ways with a focus on different things. If you try to force Revelation to be a linear, chronological thing, then it will be horribly confusing and totally misrepresented, in my humble opinion. There are many parallel passages within Revelation. I need to do a blog post just on that concept.

So, the implication here is that at the time of the end, the Church will experience an unprecedented persecution. We really don't have much connection to that in the American Church, but believers all over the world have been dealing with this for many, many years. So, I believe, that we need to be ready for severe, overwhelming persecution. We need to teach our children to be ready and willing to sacrifice everything for Christ. To give up what we can't keep in order to gain what we can't lose, to paraphrase Jim Eliot.

The reason for this timing is also in verse 7, which is a parallel verse with Revelation 20:1-3. At the end, immediately before Christ comes again, Satan is allowed almost completely free reign for a very short time - "he is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short." (Rev. 12:12). Satan will overpower, attack, and seemingly destroy the Church - why then? Because the Church has finished its testimony.

Another side note here - Christian, have you reached that place? Have you finished your time of testimony about the Lord? (You haven't, because if you had, you would be dead, and dead people don't read blogs.) If we aren't dead yet, then God still has a purpose for us here to bring Him glory and to testify to his greatness. Why do we waste so much time with completely worthless pursuits? (Speaking to myself here.) Maybe we don't believe these verses? Maybe we don't believe what we are supposed to be testifying about? Maybe the world has distracted us so much that we have forgotten that we are here to give glory to God and testimony about Him?

Now, back to our program: Verse 9 says for three and half days, people will gloat, send each other gifts, refuse the dead bodies burial, and generally have a party because the Church is dead and gone. It seems that Satan has won, but God always has the final word and the victory, and you see that clearly in verse 11.

Revelation is a book of victory for the Christ follower. Even death can't be defeated! People often think of these great battles between God and Satan - Armageddon and all that. There's no great final battle - Jesus comes, flicks Satan and the worldly system into the fires of hell and it's all over. The final victory is assured. I'm not worried about that.

What I am dwelling on is this: am I prepared for the nastiness that will happen before that final victory? Do I have the courage and conviction to testify to the awesomeness of Christ until the time that the testimony is finished? And then, will I be ready to face the trials that will surely come? How many of my children will be prepared for that day? How many people who are in my areas of influence know how important it is to be ready for trials and persecution?

We have done the Church a great disservice by calling them to be ready ONLY for the second coming of Christ. I used to think of that day as being this "great, gettin' up morning" when we would see the sky crack open and the hear the trumpet blast as we were ending our leisurely breakfast. Revelation 11 is a little more "nasty" than that. We need to encourage each other to be ready not only for Christ's second coming, but for the suffering and persecution that, I believe, will surely come before the second coming.

I wonder why we can't just end our testimony and go to heaven? Why the little nasty interlude with Satan running amuck?

I guess it is because God won't get as much glory that way. And that is what it is all about. There is a billboard in Springfield advertising a car dealership that says, "It's all about you!" That might sound good in advertising, but that won't play well at the time of the end.

Comments are definitely welcome. Let's encourage each other to be the witness for Christ that we need to be.

The Shredder's Thoughts About Life and The Universe

The Shredder's Thoughts About Life and The Universe

Thoughts about Christian music from my wise and discerning son.

jc

Fuel Taxes Must Rise, Harvard Researchers Say - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

Fuel Taxes Must Rise, Harvard Researchers Say - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

Here's what we will get with progressive Energy policies: $7 a gallon gas! Lookin' forward to that!