The Clipboard: How to Analyse a Movie

Christians should disdain passive, couch potato’s strategy for watching a movie and instead adopt a pre-emptive, culture changer’s battle plan. I have listed some basic steps that you can take to develop your own battle plan for taking on films.

Preparation

Read a review of the movie before you watch the movie for several reasons, (a) Know what topics you will address and maybe gather some additional resources to support your case and (b) Make sure that you are not open the doors of your home to a spiritual Trojan horse. I have found Plugged In Online reviews to be systematic and do an adequate job of providing a heads-up.

During the Film

Wear the Play/Pause button out! Any opportunity to point out positive and negative elements in the film should be seized with gusto. Field and encourage questions from the audience to clarify issues. This is your opportunity to offer your own commentary that can involve biblical principles, filming techniques, and behind-the-scenes information.

After the Film

Discuss the movie as a whole, looking at the major themes and the ultimate message the directors and producers tried to communicate. Compare your analysis to any reviews you read before watching the movie. You could have your family compose their own review of the movie.

The Clipboard: Silver Screen Threat

When a Christian normally approaches a film to ascertain its ability to provide wholesome entertainment for the whole family, the typical investigation consists of reading the short descriptions of the film or seeing a trailer and the all important MPAA rating check. Thankfully, many families will go the extra mile and read a review performed by a Christian or family organization. However, it today’s culture Christian need to go farther than these steps if they truly desire to ensure that their children are not negatively impacted by the images that flash before their eyes. Not only do families need to do their homework before they watch a film, but also the homework during and after the film.

I am glad to note that most Christians are quite able to identify and debunk the filthiness of Hollywood. When worldviews involving socialism and evolution appear, we can immediately identify, explain, and instruct those around us in the way of truth. Many Christian organizations are able to provide excellent guides to avoiding movies that contain foul language, immorality, and unjustified violence. Not all organizations provide helpful counsel, sometimes even showing favor to movies that strike against God and the family. Many films contain ideas and implied assumpstions which will slowly erode the foundations of the Biblical family.

In some ways a G or PG rated film can be just as dangerous as a more mature film. Why? First, Christians have accepted the world’s standard for grading a film and just assume that the film is okay to watch and immediately lower their guard. Secondly, due to this absurd level of trust, we let their values trump ours if you just make rules that involve ratings to determine what is viewed in your home. The G or PG rating gives a false sense of security, lulling the Christian into a philosophical slumber. I do not advocate watching mature rated films just so that you are forced to be on your toes, but I am arguing that we need to always be on guard. Movies like Princess Diaries 2, analyzed at the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF) arguably can be one of the most cleverly concealed and damaging movies for the family.

Next week I will post a short guide on how to analyze a film, providing you with a guide to forming your own battle plan to avoid passively viewing a film.

Knowing God: Part II

God is the "the Truth." The Bible is the "truth about the Truth." Theology is the "truth about the truth about the Truth." Fundamentalism is the "truth about the truth about the truth about the Truth." Christian people live in these many truths about the Truth, and, because of them, have not "the Truth." Hungry, beaten and doped, we had forgotten theology and the Bible. We had forgotten the "truths about the Truth", therefore we lived in "the Truth." It is written, "The Son of man will come in the hour when you do not think and on a day you do not know." We could not think any more. In our darkest hours of torture the Son of man came to us, making the prison walls shine like diamonds and filling the cells with light. Somewhere far away, were the torturers below us in the sphere of the body. But the spirit rejoiced in the Lord. We would not have given up this joy for that of kingly palaces. (Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand, pages 72 and 73 - © 1969)

Don't ditch theology - it's important. But consider John chapters 14-15, and the book of 1 John.

I recently finished listening to the book Crazy Love (which, incidentally, I highly recommend; more on that another time.) The author, Francis Chan, recommended that you read 1 Corinthians 13, and instead of skimming it over, stick your name in the blanks.

[name] is patient, [name] is kind...  by the time I got to the end, like Chan said, I was lying.

Knowing God is about abiding in Him. It's about obeying Him out of an incredibly deep love for Him - because God first loved us. It's showing God's love to others - and having a burning passion to know God more, and an endless desire that others would know God. It's not a stuffy, dry, purely academic subject. Again, though, I'm not saying to ditch theology. That's really important - otherwise you could very well be a heretic, a blasphemer, and an idolater.

Be balanced. Beg the Lord to make the following verse true in your life, as I'm crying out for Him to make it true in mine. 

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:11)

Glorifying the Lord - A Privilege

"Oh, magnify the LORD with me,And let us exalt His name together." Psalms 34:3

A very prominent theme in scripture is the glory of the Lord. Many verses speak of God's glory proclaimed in nature (Psalm 19:1, Psalm 97:6). The Bible declares God's glory to be in His righteousness and holiness. And these attributes cause His name to be glorified above all things. In fact, the Bible speaks of God's glory being so powerful, pure, and awesome, that the mere sight of it would cause sinful men to be killed and cast into eternal punishment. In Exodus 34, the Bible describes Moses's face - a mere dimmed reflection of the glory of God - as so bright and overwhelming that the Children of Israel could not look upon him (Moses).

When Isaiah, in a vision, saw God seated on His throne and His glory, he cried out, "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).

Many passages throughout Scripture extol and exalt the glory of the Lord. God is able to display His glory to His creation in any manner He chooses. He could shine forth His glory Himself to men, which he did many times, or choose not to use any means to accomplish the displaying of His glory, but he doesn't. He gives us the privilege of glorifying Him. We who have been declared righteous in His sight by Christ's death on the cross, receive the the great honor of lifting up our Savior for His glory.

When Christ redeems us from the curse of the law, we are no longer slaves to the law and unable to glorify the Lord; He establishes us as children of the Lord and co-heirs with Christ. Christ proclaimed many times in Scripture that He sought to glorify the Father. As co-heirs with Christ our striving passion should be to glorify God in everything that we do. This is not in any way a burden, but is an incredible gift from God, that he allows us to accomplish, as well as take great joy in fulfilling.

In my next post, I will discuss how the glory of God is shown in our life, and how it is an utter privilege from the Lord to glorify Him.

The Clipboard: Gossip

One way type of damaging communication is gossip. Gossip presents a great threat because of several reasons. First, it is difficult to control our tongues (James 3:5-8), secondly, it is easy to let information slip out, and, finally, people just like to give their opinion.

Why do we gossip?

• To boost our ego by showing others that we have the scoop
  
• To elevate ourselves by putting others down (Pharisee v. Tax Collector)
  
• A desire to bring dishonor or make fun of someone

What the Bible says...

He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. (Proverbs 20:19)

...he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. (Proverbs 13:3b)

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. (Ephesians 4:29)

Application

As we go about our daily lives we need to think through our words carefully. My pastor provided several questions that you can use for self-examination.

1. Do we have all the facts?
2. Do I know what I am being tempted to gossip?
3. If I need to say something, am I talking to the right person?
4. As a listener will I make the decision to quit enabling the one who gossips?

I hope this information has been helpful, I would highly recommend examining the articles and messages that I have linked to in the Resource section of this post.

Resources

Westminster Confession on Gossip

The Plague of Talebearing within the Christian Community

You can download my Pastor's sermon on "Gossip" by choosing either mp3 or the Windows Media Stream here or you can download the sermon by right-clicking here and hitting "Save Link As..."

You may also want to purchase the Vision Forum's message Gossip: The Plague of the Church (CD Version, MP3 Version)

Knowing God: Part I

I introduced this mini-series last week by linking to the Our Daily Bread devotional for August 1st. I was taken aback when I read Dave Branon's concluding words: "Get to know God. Be His biographer. It will teach you more about Him than you ever thought possible." The problem lies here: if you equate "get to know God" with "be His biographer".

First of all, though, let me say that I'm not bashing ODB or Dave Branon in this post. I do think that he would agree with what is written here. I'm writing to give the broader context for his words.

Today, the word "know" is thrown around flippantly; sometimes, even to mean "I've heard about/am familiar with him." Sadly, even the word "believe" is used this way!

Q: Do you know/believe in Jesus?
A: Sure, definitely (ever since I was born).

Q: Do you know/believe in Jesus?
A: Yes (and Mohammad and Buddha, too)!

We must not stop here - we will end up in hell!

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." - James 2:19 (KJV)

This lower-case "know" is a mere knowledge about God, or a general belief that he exists. God calls us not to just know about him, but to know him in an intimate way.

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." - Psalm 34:8 (KJV)

Many biographies have been written - about good men and bad men. Autobiographies have also been published, but only a fool would encourage his readers to "taste and see that I am good." Knowing God must go beyond being His biographer.

An Orthodox priest, a friend of mine, telephone me and told me that a Russian officer had come to him to confess. My friend did not know Russian. Knowing however that I speak Russian, he had given me my address. The next day this man came to me. he loved God, he longed after God, but he had never seen a Bible. He never attended religious services (churches in Russia are very scarce). He had no religious education. He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him.

I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy proclaiming, "What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ!" It was the first time that I saw someone so rapturously joyful in Christ. (Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand, page 18 - © 1969)

An officer in the Russian army, dancing around the room because now he truly knows Christ! Knowing God cannot be limited to a purely academic exercise. Yet, we do need to know about Him; this Biblical knowledge leads us to having a personal relationship with the Lord. It leads us to the cross of Christ, to salvation and regeneration, to glorifying and delighting in Him here on this earth, and living throughout all eternity in His presence.

In the end, a balance is needed - both having a Biblical theology, and knowing God. In the coming posts, we'll look at both of these aspects in greater detail.

News Flash: Defacement of Scripture

Regrettably, an art exhibit in Glasgow, Scotland has facilitated the defacement of the Bible. You can read the news articles covering this on the following news websites:

Fox News

News.com.au

The Bible as you are aware is the divinely inspired Word of God, you can read A Generation for Truth's position on taking God's name in vain here.

The Glory of The Lord

Normally in the middle of the week, we post another hermeneutics post, however, the research that I have been doing for my weekly post (and my schoolwork) forces me to delay that, so instead I will post my weekly post.

In our world today, the number one attribute of God that is discussed is His love. In fact, modern “Christians” seem to focus on God’s love to the exclusivity of any other attribute. The modern church in its infatuation with nothing but love, have forgotten one of God’s most striking, awe inspiring, and majestic attributes: His glory.

The Bible discusses God’s glory quite often and seems to lift it up as the most important aspect of our God. 1 Corinthians 2:8 refers to Jesus as the Lord of glory. In several verses Jesus makes it clear that He will return with power and glory. In fact the glory of the Lord is said to be our highest goal and what we should strive for above everything.

In the next few articles, I’m going to be exploring the glory of the Lord and how we as Christians are responsible to give as much glory to God as possible in everything that we do.

The Clipboard: The Words We Choose to Use

Regrettably, our culture has become littered with filthy language. The decline of vocal purity displays the impact that culture has on communication as the meaning and implication of words make a myriad of tongue twisting obstacles for speech. Today I would like to address a biblical approach to what words we chose to use, expanding on a point that Anthony mentioned last week. I would like to begin by noting an interesting definition of profanity:

Profanity thus includes filthy speech, false swearing and cursing, and also polite and courteous speech and action which is outside God and which does not recognize His sovereignty (R.J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, Vol. 1, Pg. 107)

We will now look at what Scripture says about foul language and euphemisms.

Scripture

The 3rd Commandment

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7)

To take the name of the Lord in vain is to commit blasphemy and to profane the name of the Holy.

Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you, (Leviticus 22:32)

We should not swear by anything according to the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. (Matthew 5: 33-36)

Euphemisms

Regrettably, due to social pressure many people use euphinisms for profanity. These so-called minced oaths, Christian curses, or sentence enhancements do nothing except reveal the heart of the black tongued speaker.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (Luke 6:45)

It is important to note that we will be held accountable for every word.

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)

Summary

We can see that both minced oaths and outright profanity is to be avoided. I have listed some discussion points and questions that may spur some conversations.

• What motivates people to use profanity?
  
• What are some examples of worthless or idle chatter that is present in our culture?
  
• How can we encourage edifying speech?
  
• Do you or your family have certain standards for speaking?

Knowing God

This afternoon, I read the daily devotional from Our Daily Bread - not something I make a habit of, but once in a while it makes for a refreshing change of routine. Today’s devotional - entitled “Biography of God” - is about knowing God by examining three areas: what God says about Himself, what the God-inspired writers in Scripture say about God, and the countless and glorious things God has done in infinity past, is doing at the very moment you read the words, and will continue to do throughout all eternity.

Reading Dave Branon’s short devotional led me to think about what exactly it means to know God. The answer to this is critical to our relationship with Him, and the way we live in this world. Thus, may this post serve as a very brief introduction to a series of posts that I will be writing in the coming weeks about this subject.