Missions Field - Day 3

I do want to address the elephant in the room of what's been going on in the world wide web today, but let me start with a little about my day.

Slept in for the second day in a row and it was beautiful. Then I woke up and played red light/green light with my cat. He was being weird and slinky so I said red light and he stopped moving and crouched. Then I said green light and he kept slinking. Then I yelled red light again and he crouched. It was so hilarious!

Then I went to church. At East Auburn Baptist Church, they were finishing up their study of the prophet John the Baptist. They talked about his faithfulness in stewardship and how it relates to our lives. We are all called to prepare the way for Jesus, speaking into the lives of those around us to prepare their hearts to receive the salvation of Jesus Christ. But we must know our limits. While we can prepare the way, we cannot execute the saving. John knew this as he says in John 27-30:

"A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease."

We, as servants of God, must do everything we can to glorify God and prepare for his coming (Luke 3:5) without making it about us.

Pastor Roger Cousineau also accented how John spent 30 years preparing for his short lived ministry. That was encouraging to me to continue to be diligent in my preparing my life for God's plans.

...

Dad and I got to see the Hobbit today. It was ok, and it got me thinking about the true evil vs. true good. Unlike most other villians, Sauron represents true evil, with no possiblitiy of a sympathetic reaction from the audience. I think the reason why these films are so appealing to our nation is that they represent good triumphing over pure evil. And they also represent that the road is not all butterflies and daisies. It's a treacherous road, but as Sam says in the Two Towers:

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."

It's worth fighting for. Good is worth fighting for. God is worth fighting for.

...

This is an interesting transition - to address the elephant of the web: the Duck Dynasty guy. I'm speaking on this as someone who only got her information about what happened from two articles, one from ICLA page and one from the PC girls page aka two completely different viewpoints of the issue.

For the first article, I didn't know whether to be hurt or not. There is so much religion bashing, including Christianity, that I began to get defensive. But then I realized that I don't stand for a religion. I stand for a faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God who came to save us for our sins. And while God doesn't need a defender, he calls us to boldly proclaim Him.

Now I realize there are some things in the bible that people don't like to hear. But, as the second article articulates and I tend to agree with, words are powerful and should be used carefully. I'm not saying that radical declaration is not right, but it should be done for the benefit of the person you are telling.

I'd also like to discuss a discovery I made. Coming back from "The Hobbit" I saw a movie poster with the same actor from "The Bible" HBO series entitled "Son of God." I was a little wearisome that the motives behind this movie were not good. But below, I have found an interview from the filmmakers who seem enthusiastic to share the good news of God and the story of Christ across the nation. I'll be praying for this motion picture release, that comes out February 28th by 20th Century Fox.

Here is the interview I was talking about.

A message from Roma Downey and Mark Burnett | Son Of God



I know there is a lot of powerful conversations in this blog. Feel free to comment below or connect with me on Facebook if you'd like to discuss privately about anything I've discussed above. Goodnight and God bless.