My friends Ben and Nancy shared this quote from Nancy Guthrie's book "Holding on to Hope." In it she recounts losing her baby to a rare genetic disorder: "The day after we buried Hope, my husband said to me, 'You know, I think we expected our faith to make this hurt less, but it doesn't. Our faith gave us an incredible amount of strength and encouragement while we had Hope, and we are comforted by the knowledge that she is in heaven. Our faith keeps us from being swallowed by despair. But I don't think it makes our loss hurt any less.'"
My friend Lucy shared this quote on prayer by E.M. Bounds to encourage me regarding the passing of my mother. Mom truly was a woman of prayer this truth blessed me: "The [woman] who has done the most and the best praying is the most immortal, because prayers do not die. Perhaps the lips that uttered them closed in death, or the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God's heart is set on them. Prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them-outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world."
My publisher has very kindly given me permission to post another free, downloadable chapter from Dug Down Deep. But I'd love to get your help deciding which chapter to use. Here's the table of contents. Just leave a comment telling me which one you'd choose. Thanks!
Mark Batterson writes, "Numbers are a dangerous thing. They help us measure things, but measuring in the spiritual realm isn't always a healthy or holy thing. In one sense, we count people because people count. I get that. But there is a great danger when it comes to churches. Numbers tend to produce pride or jealousy. And both of those things will eat you alive spiritually." His summary: "Be careful how you count. And if it results in pride or jealousy, stop counting. The Lord will not share his glory!" Read more.
I’m a follower of Jesus Christ. I live in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with an amazing wife and three wacky, fun kids. I'm a pastor at Covenant Life Church. I’m also a writer.
4 Comments
My seventeen year old daughter described it as "Pocahontas meets modern warfare."
I was saying it's Tarzan meets the new King Kong, but I think like your description better.
There's the epic battle at the end where two or three thousand of these aliens go against the humans. I was surprised when they said only a couple thousand. I think they would have needed a couple hundred thousand to do any damage.
Also, I know they're aliens, but what's up with topless women in PG13 movies? Just saying...
Other than that (+ the propaganda + the lame story), I liked it. Anne Jackson gave it a 3.5 out of 5 and said it was pretty. I'd agree with her on that. The prettiness is intense, especially in 3D.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
Or Pocahontas meets Fern Gully.
This movie, while visually breathtaking, shines more in its message then its graphics. The sad historical truth is that, regardless of the fears of certain politicized elements of Christianity, human governments, corporations, and armies have brutalized and murdered many in pursuit of cheap things like wealth and power and trashed the lands which God gave to us all to steward and tend. Some Christians have stood idle in the face of horrifying evil, waved banners and flags in support of it, and, even worse, put on one of their uniforms or suits to carry it out. Those Christians who have risen up to oppose and decry this sin have been, largely, slandered and rejected by the rest of their brethren. Avatar gives a fictionalized representation of such a scenario, which should inspire feelings of empathy, regret, and a genuine to desire to change and resist; not be dismissed as nothing more than "propaganda" so we can continue callously living our materialistic lives, falling in Satan's lines, all the while thinking we have God's approval, when Jesus told us that if we do not care for the "least of these" when he sends them our way, he will disown us in the end.
Leave a comment