When I was growing up, there were several movies around that I think were designed with the sole purpose of scaring the daylights out of young people. These weren’t creations of Wes Craven, Stephen King or any of the well-known masters of the horror movie genre. Rather, these were Christian filmmakers and organizations producing movies depicting the end times as they interpreted them from the book of Revelation. Films like “A Thief in the Night”, “A Distant Thunder” and “A Burning Hell” (apparently all Christian movies of this genre had to begin with the letter ‘A’). The scenes in these films ranged from creepy to utterly disgusting. The shock value, however, fulfilled the purpose of the producers to scare many young adults (and quite a few not so young adults) into repentance and surrendering their lives to Christ. I wonder what happened to all those who gave their lives to Jesus? If a large number of my generation truly committed their lives to Him, why have we seen so little progress in spreading the truth of Christ in the years that have followed?
Matthew
Cover My Eyes
My wife and I were out recently with another couple who brought up the topic of human trafficking. They were asking about the problem and where it was most prevalent. As I began to answer the questions and reveal some statistics, one of them brought the conversation to a quick close. She said whenever she see’s reports about trafficking on television, she just closes her eyes and turns away because it is too disgusting and horrible to even think about. For too many, this is the default response. Even among those who profess to be Christians, it is far easier to cover our eyes than to look at some of the horrors of this world.
What is the Measure of Your Success?
How do you define success? Is it the amount of money in your retirement account or perhaps the cash you have at your fingertips? Is it the car you drive or the house in which you live? Maybe you would define success by the job you hold, the company you keep or the possessions you own. The more altruistic might say their success is reflected in their family or friends. As Christians we might shake our head and acknowledge those to be ways the world defines success, but not ways in which we would ever describe it. Yet when I look at my life and that of fellow believers, I cannot help but wonder if we are any different at all; in what ways are we truly setting ourselves apart from those who do not choose to follow Christ?
What is the Cost of Love?
Jesus demonstrated in the most visible way that true love costs everything. Before His death, He prayed that if it were possible to accomplish the mission in any other way that it would be provided for Him (Matthew 26:38-39). In the end, there was only the way of the cross, with its painful betrayals, beatings and humiliations along the way. Love prevented Him from turning away from that brutal path of sacrifice. At any point along the way, Jesus could have said, “It’s not worth it” and been delivered from what He was going through (Matthew 26:52-54). Instead, Jesus perfectly demonstrated the cost of love. When we surrender our lives to Him, we declare our love for Him and pledge that His life will be our model in everything we do. With that in mind, how much is your love for Christ costing you?
What Does it Mean to Believe?
You might look at the title of this post and wonder how I could ask such an obvious question. I think we all have a concept of what it means to believe something. The dictionary defines ‘believe’ as “to accept something as true”. So if we accept that Jesus is the Son of God then it could be said that we believe in Him. But the more I study and learn about what the Bible teaches, I think the word “believe” means so much more. In the pages of Scripture, belief is always accompanied by action as if one could not be separated from the other.