John 3:30

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Hollywood

I’m Not Ashamed

by

Jonathan Edwards resolved “never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can and “never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.” 1

I’m Not Ashamed, from Pure Flix, teaches the same concept. I strongly recommend you see this movie if you are able!

I'm Not Ashamed

Let’s start with the positive elements:

I’m Not Ashamed is “based on the inspiring and powerful true story and journal entries of Rachel Joy Scott- the first student killed in the Columbine high school shooting in 1999.” 2 Rachel Joy Scott’s story is about far more than her stand for God she is known for taking at the end of her life, though. This movie is raw emotion!

Watching the film, it seems like a random array of chopped up scenes. The scenes do not always have the best transition from one scene to the next. But when you realize you are viewing events as described in a teenage girl’s private journals, it makes sense. It is Rachel’s story you are viewing, and it seems the move makers kept things true to her journals. For this reason you will be taken down the emotional valleys that Rachel really experienced. I’m not sure you could make a movie like this up. The emotions are too raw.

When we make Christian movies or stories, we usually highlight the good things. We make heroes out of men and women. When, in reality, I’d argue that most of the history of Christianity has been filled with average men and women who simply serve a great God. Rachel Scott’s account seems to have very little whitewashing. She is caught up in sin, doubt, and a lack of affection for God at times in a way that many other Christians have experienced but are afraid to talk about.

The insight this movie gives into the pressures and difficulties facing a young Christian lady in 1999 are startling. I can only imagine it is even harder to walk the Christian talk in 2016! Praise Jesus for His saving grace.

This movie really shows the reality that none of us really lives as if it could be ours or our loved one’s last day. The depiction of the events of April 20, 1999 prior to the Columbine High School shooting will leave you wanting to kiss all your relatives and tell them you love them. And the reality that people young and old may be standing before God, even today, is enough to motivate me to more urgently dispense the gospel.

I really hope you will see this film about Rachel Scott. Her life is worth hearing about.

A Word of Caution

Unfortunately, there is an aspect of the film I must criticize. I can overlook the bits of bad theology. I can accept that a recently converted 17 year old girl who didn’t appear to have solid discipleship espoused some errant ideas about God which are depicted through the story. I hope you, too, can overlook bits and pieces of things that aren’t perfect teaching.

What I can’t understand is why a movie that is supposed to be about Christianity would have young men and women locking lips to act out kissing. I understand it is a biography and not everything in this girl’s life was ‘holy.’ But you can depict beer drinking without actually drinking beer; you can depict an argument without having a heart full of anger. You can depict lots of types of sin in a story without actually sinning against God in the process, since sin starts in the heart.

But you cannot depict sexual acts by actually performing them and say, “it is just acting.” My heart aches for the people who gave away a piece of themselves in the name of acting, in order to make this move. And, aside from that, the depictions were more than a bit sensual. I fear that someone who is weak in the area of fighting temptation to lust could easily be led into sin, even if only in their mind, as the result of the sensuality displayed.

I will make a plea. A final argument that if you are performing a play or a movie or whatever it is: you can find a way to show that someone kissed without actually compromising the purity of the actors.

In Conclusion

The little research I’ve done has yielded wonderful faith that the movie really was an accurate depiction of real life events. I have to be careful drawing assumptions about Rachel or other characters in the movie who the movie wasn’t about because, as well done as it was, the movie is only a part of the story.

I do believe that a discerning Christian can enjoy this movie for what it is, a biography of a young lady who, amidst struggles and temptation, was kept faithful by our Father in Heaven, and by our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. It is truly by faith alone that we are justified and by God’s Spirit that we are sealed. Rachel’s private struggles-made-public teach us that even the faintest of us will be made strong for the day of battle by His grace.

John 10:27-28 [Jesus speaking] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

[1] http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-resolutions-of-jonathan-edwards

[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4950110/?ref_=nm_knf_i2

My First Sunday Morning Sermon

by

On March the 6th, 2016, I was honored to preach my first ever Sunday morning sermon at First Baptist Church of New Albany in Ohio.

To skip my comments and just listen to the sermon see below.

A few notable moments. Upon arrival I found out they were happy to allow me to lead the entire service. They had a bulletin already created which they could not get printed. As I was writing it out, I was so glad to see Heaven Came Down, How Great Thou Art and Victory in Jesus listed for singing. Then I noticed a song titled “Let Jesus Come into Your Heart” as the ‘invitation hymn.’

Not opposed to judging a song by its title, I asked if we could change it to “How Firm a Foundation” and they had no problem with that. The service flowed nicely with a skilled pianist and my friend Christopher offering prayer.

They had Scripture reading on their bulletin. I had not prepared for that. Since my sermon was about God’s Word, I thought it would be appropriate and helpful to read Proverbs 30:5-6. I then tested myself and tried to quote Psalm 1 from memory. I did it!! I thought Psalm 1 went nicely with my sermon, and it was the first time I had quoted an entire chapter of Scripture in public from memory (inside a church).

Then my daughter Bailey played perfect renditions of Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art on her flute for special music. You will notice if you listen to the sermon that I open by talking about the hymns. I then do what I am apt to do (and learned from my own pastor), and I spoke for 20 minutes off the cuff while ignoring my notes. So many things flood to my mind that I want to share.

I really enjoyed myself and was very grateful to my friends Mike Stockwell and Christopher Ledezma who attended along with my 3 oldest children. It was a time of service to God and to one of His local churches. I appreciate everyone who prayed for me and the service. As a hipster Christian might say “God showed up big time.” 😉

Feel free to listen here:

You Really Should Blow Some Money on Today’s Noah

by

If you haven’t read enough reviews of the Noah movie which is in theaters starring Russell Crowe to know that no Christian needs to see it, then that isn’t my fault.

Here are the three best reviews (possibly ever) for the movie. (Links will open in new tabs)

Matt Walsh (witty) | Dr Brian Mattson (deep) | Lyndon Unger (No Holds Barred)

If your hermeneutic forces you to interpret the Bible in such a way that you can only see the Noah movie as a good thing because the cinematography is something Christian film-makers need to emulate, then the problem is how you interpret scripture.

Now, maybe what you really plan to do is go see Noah, then give it a really scathing review. That way, everyone will know how much more you know about Genesis than the atheistic maker of the movie. Or maybe you are thinking you will evangelize your friend or family member.

Stop. Just stop. Stop lying to others and to yourself.

Share the gospel with your friend or family member. Stand outside the theater and hand out tracts to people or The Biggest Question. Be sure to click those links they will open in new tabs. Both the organizations at the end of those links need your $10 more than the makers of the Noah movie.

And then, take your $8 for the ticket and the other 8-12 dollars for snacks, lunch, whatever and send it to someone who is actually laboring for the gospel. I don’t care if you boycott Hollywood or Starbucks for the sake of a boycott.

But let’s face it: you have nothing to add to the internet when it comes to evaluating Noah. Your review is already too late, and it won’t be more sarcastic, smart or biblical than the articles already published.

No, dear Christian, don’t be fooled and don’t even let a postmillenial hope bring you to be such a poor steward of what God has given you that you would waste your $20 on this experience. Instead, give it to your local church or one of these faithful evangelists listed below.

Bobby McCreery | Tony Miano | Mike Stockwell & Robert Gray

Yes, these men are today’s Noahs: Preachers of Righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). These are the Noah’s who you ought to support. You really should blow some money on today’s Noahs!

Click their links and read their statements of faith, watch their videos. And if you really want to part with your money to support a 2014 version of Noah – click the paypal link on one or all of their sites.

More from Mr. Cameron

by

Kirk Cameron, everyone’s favorite “growing pain” has released a trailer for another movie. It is available for public viewing now at this link on Vimeo.

The trailer is compelling, to say the least! I love the hymn in the background. As with any good trailer, there is enough to make you want to see more without spoiling too much.

After my review of Monumental which you can read at the link, I am excited to give Kirk another chance; and maybe Barbara Cameron will forgive me. 🙂 Monumental was a great movie which was missing a single key element in my opinion, a clear presentation of how a sinner obtains God’s forgiveness.

Hopefully, Kirk will explain with clarity in this next movie the means by which God reconciles sinners to himself and issue a personal challenge to all viewers.

What do you think based on the trailer?

Monumental Movie Review

by

Plenty of reviews of monumental have been posted. I ended up writing a friend an email about the movie and wanted to simply post my thoughts for the entire internet and the 15 people who read my blog (my wife promises me she doesn’t just click 15 times). There is more than just a review. The conversation started with me telling my friend it was “disappointing” and I sent him a link to a friend’s blog which explained many of my thoughts. Read it here.

My friend wrote me back:

From what your friend stated he was disappointed, but, he had several witnessing opportunities, what can be disappointing about that?

Here is my response with some editing:

Brother – there is nothing disappointing about witnessing opportunities. But that does not justify the means that provided the opportunity. Abortion centers provide witnessing opportunities; so does teenage pregnancy, death of loved ones and car accidents. Witnessing opportunities are what we make of them. I’ve witnessed at the same movie theater after other movies as well. So yes, I praise God Almighty that Fred Triplett as well as John Chizam preached the Word after this movie and someone I don’t know named Lance. I am glad I was able to give out tracts. But that has no bearing on the movie itself.

Now as far as the movie goes:

  1. It was a movie about Christianity, but it was missing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  2. Many well known people were portrayed as “partners” with Kirk in this endeavor. In all cases, they are simply portrayed as Christians. This list includes:
    a. Alveda King – who may or may not be a Christian, but she partners with Catholics in the pro-life cause.
    b. David Barton – I don’t know who he is, but everything I found quickly wasn’t flattering.
    c. Glenn Beck – a well known denier of the one true God, Jesus Christ. Probably biblically qualified to be considered a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

    I do not think that as Christians we should partner with those who are not Christian, particularly on such a spiritual endeavor. Kirk Cameron, whether wittingly or not, lended credibility to Glenn Beck last night. The Bible says to not even greet someone like that. 2 John 1:10

    3. 3. There was a sublte but clear postmillenial slant. As members of Berean Baptist Church, we have affirmed a premillenial view of the Bible and eschatology. Many of the positive reviews I read celebrate the postmillenial slant that Kirk is now putting on things. This is actually a turnoff for me, but even if it had a premillenial slant, my other points would still apply.

    4. There was a touch of pragmatism involved, although Kirk tried to stem this off at times (by talking about the necessary heart change). The following concept or idea was implied:

    if we use God and His bible –>> Then we can get what we want (whether that is freedom, prosperity, whatever, often a very good thing could be the result).

    First of all, God is worthy of our praise, worship and OBEDIENCE regardless of whether we think it will achieve for us our desired effect. As well…many of the people who need the gospel will be turned off by this message. They (unregenerate, unrepentant sinners) do not desire the freedom offered by the gospel…they desire their sin. Promising a homosexual or an abortion doctor or a prostitute or a hardened criminal that a return to biblical roots will offer them freedom and help our country is asinine. They do not have any desire for the freedom offered by the gospel.

    What they need is to be told of God’s righteous judgment which is immminent, that His wrath is currently abiding on them, and the escape offered by grace through faith alone in the resurrected Son of God, Jesus Christ who became sin on behalf of His people. They need to know that Jesus Christ is their Lord, whether they acknowledge it or not. Attempts to convincing them that biblical basis for laws without a regenerated heart will not only be unfruitful, but somewhat insulting. You may as well tell a leopard to change his spots or an ethiopian to change his skin color…Jeremiah 13:23. You could make the argument that the country could be made better using these principles, even if people don’t believe them. That even false converts and members of apostate christian churches and groups could embrace the morality and promote it, but who cares? I’m not trying to make the world a better place from where people can go to hell. I praise God so many unbelievers still have a conscience, but their end is the same as the most violent criminal apart from faith alone in Christ alone.

Was there a lot of good in the movie? Yes, just like October Baby (which I do not recommend because of the universalist/ecumenical slant and no gospel), there were some good messages; Christian morality was exhibited and extolled. At one point, it was pointed out that not all churchgoers are Christian, and Kirk even mentioned that not all the founding fathers were Christian, yet they still saw the value in the Bible as a source of truth for governance. There was a ton of historical information which was offered (with little attribution to the source) which can pump people up for our nation. David Barton mocked secular historians for their lack of footnotes…yet this movie itself cited no source for its data either.

It was entertaining and somewhat inspiring.

But how does it inspire?

  • Did it inspire me to buy Kirk’s Monumental Homeschool curriculum? No.
  • Did it inspire me to buy Kirk’s Family Home Devotional? No.
  • Did it inspire me to encourage my friends to go, or my unsaved family? No. (In fact, I hope my unsaved family misses it because I’m afraid it will allow them to feel comfortable in their sin because many of them are on the right side of the morality fence.)
  • Did it inspire me to visit or demand others visit the demand this movie website? No.

It inspired me to do exactly what the movie itself needed to do. It inspired me to follow the Bible in my home, attempt to influence people in the same fashion, and hope that through the preaching of the gospel, the Lord will grant repentance and faith to lost souls and that the Holy Spirit will then guide their lives and we will being to live in a country that is actually converted.

Here is another review which I thought was fair by Jon Speed. You will notice the postmillenial praise (which I would expect from a postmiller) as well as a lot of very well-reasoned comments on the movie.

Anyway – I love you brother, and I’m not trying to argue. Go ahead and go see it if you want. Personally, with my budget and the abundance of gospel preaching missionaries and evangelists I know I’d have preferred to give the ticket and popcorn price to one of them, or just spent it all myself on tracts I could carry. Like I said, I love Kirk, but I think he made a mistake, and it happens to be a very public one, which requires public repentance, in my opinion.

I could be wrong about some of these things. I do believe the movie was “good.” But a missed opportunity and potentially a display of a direction that I hope Kirk isn’t headed into partnership with nonbelievers.

Steve Jobs’ Final Wish

by

I don’t know a lot about Steve Jobs. I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley and have bought a few iPods. I had never met the man: so how do I propose to know his last wish?

First we must review Luke 16:27-28.

27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’

I believe that Steve Jobs’ final wish is that God’s law and gospel be proclaimed to those he loved the most in this world. Whether Steve Jobs is currently suffering the condemnation of God or worshiping the Creator now because he is in Christ Jesus – I trust his hope is that others will know who the One True God is. So where is Steve now?

I don’t know for sure. God knows each man’s heart; I do not. But what I do know is that if he was never born-again, if he never repented of his sin against God and trusted Jesus Christ as the only provision for the basis of forgiveness of those sins, then he is suffering the just punishment for his life of enmity with God – and so will you, without Christ. It is also possible that due to the mercy and grace of Christ, that Steve was covered by His sacrifice and is currently enjoying communion with his Savior. Enemies of the gospel of grace will call me callous for even using a recently deceased person as an example; and I am sure some Christians will find my take on the eternity of Jobs too weak, since he never publicly professed Christ and, in fact, professed a false religion (Buddhism, if my research is correct).

I cannot help Steve Jobs anymore. I cannot pray him into Heaven (a false doctrine of Catholicism called purgatory), and I cannot preach to him or plead with him to repent and believe the gospel. Josh Harris sent him the gospel a while back. I suppose Steve died with knowledge of how to be saved and we can all live with the hope that God had mercy on him late in life. What we cannot say is that anything we know about him indicated regeneration. We cannot just arbitrarily assume that Steve was “probably a Christian” because it makes us feel better, or because we lack the courage to allow people to believe that we think Jobs’ hellbound life remained uninterrupted by God’s grace. For we know the truth is that EVERY man and woman is hellbound. Every man and woman has fallen short of God’s standard and is accountable to God for their own sin. The question is not “Where is Steve Jobs?” The question is – “Have you been born again?” John 3:3-7.

I am sure many will think it is wrong to even refer to Jobs so soon after his death, especially concerning eternal matters. I, of course, would disagree. Assuming this dissension would come from people outside Christiany, the criticism is unwarranted, irrelevant and inarguable. There will be no convincing non-Christians of Christian things with clever arguments or sound logic. These folks simply deny the foundation of Christian beliefs (God’s Word), and, thus, can prove or disprove anything they want, arbitrarily. But let’s look at the Christian response: Are you a Christian who thinks there should be some waiting period before we discuss the gospel after someone dies? Or maybe you think the person’s name should never be used? I’d ask you this: how many people are you ok with perishing to eternal torment while you wait for the right time to begin discussing spiritual matters? Because you do not know, (as Jobs did not), who will be next, or when? What arrogance you have to believe that your non-believing family and friends and coworkers have even another breath in them.

So please, share the gospel NOW. Be gentle and meek, patient and humble – yet bold and confident in the power (Romans 1:16). Refer to the gospel not as your message to humanity, but rather the message of the Bible. Make sure your hearers understand that if they disagree with you, they are actually disagreeing with the Bible. And don’t take it too personally when they reject you and sling accusations at you, for if you properly share it – if you accurately express the message of condemnation of sins and hope in Christ’s righteousness instead of self-righteousness – your earthly existence ought not be too much better than the life of Jesus and John the Baptist.

Dear brothers and sisters, I beg you and command you in the name of Christ: “Go ye therefore.” You may impact someone for Christ who impacts someone for Christ who Steve Jobs desperately wants saved. You will certainly be showing your gratitude for what Christ did for you.