Tuesday, July 16, 2013

On Despicable Me 2

  I love writing movie reviews. I think movies are very powerful tools that communicate ideas, thoughts, and morality to a wide range of people. Movies are some of life's great joys, but I do believe that movies need to be viewed and understood for what message they are trying to communicate. With all of that being said I think we need to encourage movies that support Christian values and be very cautious of those that don't.

  One of the more enjoyable movies I've seen recently has been Despicable Me 2. This is the sequel movie from the 2010 smash hit, Despicable Me. In this film we are centered around the story of Gru, former master criminal who turns good guy once he adopts three orphan girls: Agnes, Edith, and Margo. The story centers around the AVL, Anti-Villain League, recruiting Gru to work at a local mall and discover who in the mall has a syrum that can create a pack of ruthless killers. (The movie is a cartoon) Well Gru is assigned to work at Bake My Day, the local bakery, and he is partnered with Lucy an agent with the AVL. The movie follows the hilarious hijinks of Gru and Lucy as they attempt to find who has the serum. The viewer gets to see some of the craziness of Gru's minions, the little green guys who speak in a funny language. We are also treated to Gru's adorable girls as they are more grown up in this film, and his oldest, Margo, is even interested in a boy!!! But, the race is on between Gru and Lucy and the conniving villain who is using the deadly serum on his minions! You'll have to watch the movie to see who it is, and if they're able to catch him or her in time!!!!

  But Despicable Me 2 does stay true to its form. If you like the first movie, I guarantee you will like the sequel. It stays true to the first movie with lots of cute lines from all three girls, lots of big cartoonish explosive, exciting super hero and villain scenes and weapons, and the minions are absolutely hilarious. I don't know if they are speaking Gibberish or Pig Latin, but they are really, really funny. In terms of family and moral values the movie is rated PG. It does have a somewhat scary scene that might scare really little ones. There are moments when light crude humor is displayed (they use a fart gun, laugh at someone's butt), but other than that the movie is very clean and a very enjoyable flick for the whole family. Despicable Me 2 does show the importance of one's family and sticking together no matter what, standing up for what's right, and it shows us very clearly that we need to let the people we care about know how we feel. I give it 4 out of 5 stars on family friendliness and 5 out of 5 stars overall. I really liked the movie, and I would highly recommend it if you liked Despicable Me.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

On Purity

  The verse we're looking at for this particular post is one of the Beattitudes found in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God." Such a simple verse, but if lived out this verse has seriously powerful implications. What this is essentially telling us is that God is absolutely, 100% pure. What we're talking about when we say purity is something or someone that is 100% clean. There is no defilement, blemish, or anything wrong with them. In the Old Testament when someone made a sacrifice to God their sacrifice had to be pure/perfect containing no blemish or defect.
  Of course we know of the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice made for us is Jesus' death on the Cross. Jesus is the embodiment of purity. He is in no way affected or tainted with sin. His love is perfect. God forgives perfectly, and God cannot or will not be able to have a relationship/fellowship with those who are sinful. This verse is absolutely 100% HUGE. It's the problem in one verse: sin is separating you from God. But, the incredible news of the Gospel, is that separation can be removed, but it cannot be removed by your own doing. Jesus makes you pure. All your trying, effort, education, etc. is good but it won't fully ever do the job. Your purity comes by the grace of Jesus Christ. So, the question remains: now what? Well, there are many aspects and thoughts about purity. There is no way we can wrap it all up in one blog post, but we will hopefully start the conversation. Here are three things that come to mind when I think about purity.

  First, purity is very hard to maintain but very easy to lose. I would use the metaphor that purity is very similar to a house of cards. One must use a lot of concentration, focus, and determination to build a house of cards. I've tried it, it's not easy. But, as soon as someone sneezes, bumps the table, or anything happens that house of cards comes tumbling down. Well, purity works in a very similar way. In our ever increasing technologically advanced society, where we can see anything or anyone at the push of a button people now have access to information, resources, opportunities, and temptations they've never had in the past. I'm saying all of this to say that with more opportunity for temptation, access to ideas, information, sinful opportunities, one's purity can be compromised very easily. For some of you this thought rings very true, purity takes a long, long time to build up and master, but can be lost in an instant. So, I want to encourage you to guard your heart, be very careful about the friends you associate with, the movies you watch, what you look at on the Internet, etc. Because, once impure thoughts enter your head it's very difficult not to act on them, so be very, very careful.

  Second thought is purity is something that God cares a lot about. In the Garden of Eden we are told that God was able to walk and fellowship with Adam and Eve and they enjoyed a closeness and intimacy with God that we will experience in Heaven. But, then disaster struck as the evil one took on the form of a serpent, deceived Adam and Eve, and their eyes were opened to good and evil. Their purity was forever taken, God banished them from the garden, and the relationship would never be the same. As we all know that decision to listen to the evil one and eat the forbidden fruit had absolutely disastrous consequences for all of us throughout human history. But, one thing it did do was it forever made the purity God requires unattainable on our own. But, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus attains that for us. But, if we are people who claim to be in love with Jesus, care for and desire what Jesus desires, then it is very easy to draw the conclusion we would want to be pure in everything we do.

 Third, purity should be something we strive for together. It's not just an individual thing. One of the biggest mistakes I think the church makes is that we see our purity and our sanctification as a private thing. We don't want to get involved in other's lives. We don't want to share what's going on in our lives for fear someone might not approve. Well, I'm writing today to suggest that if we want to see a radical new desire to be pure, to be holy, and to see a revival in our land and in this generation it can't happen by individual people trying their best. It's a thing the entire community needs to get excited about and then with the power of the Holy Spirit we will be a nation that shines brightly the light of Jesus Christ.

We're beginning something really, really cool soon, so stay tuned.