I'm nearing the end of my spring break, and had a long, productive and exciting day at school getting ready for next week. Yet after putting in an 8-9 hour day (after having two weeks off) I was exhausted and my brain was fried. I called up my Aunt Mj, because we haven't had a "G.N.O" -> girls night out<- in awhile and we ended up going to Johnny Rockets and a movie…wanna take a wild guess what one? Did you say Do You Believe? -if so, you are correct! I want to start this off by telling about Johnny Rockets…you'll see why.
Mj, arrives first and gets a seat while I'm parking. When I get there, our waiter, Nate, is going over his favorite items on the menu, as my aunt is trying to decide. He gets our drinks and stuff while us ladies chat, at one point he looks down at the table and see's my phone and proceeds to tell me he liked my case which is one of my favorite and one of the first verses I memorized: "I can do all things through Christ." - Philippians 4:13. I said thank you, and it my head I'm like "That is so cool!" As dinner is nearing it's end, Nate brings us our ticket as he knows we're headed next door to the theater. He proceeds to ask us what movie we'd be going to. We say "Do you believe?" He tells us he hadn't heard of it, and I say, "It's by the same people who made 'God's Not Dead'" and we start to have a conversation in which he brings up the movie "Heaven is for Real" and how good it was. He mentioned another story like that he read about, and "90 Minutes in Heaven" came up as well. To me it was so cool to just have a conversation with our waiter about some fantastic faith-based films, where conversations like that don't normally come up, so that is completely a "God-spot" (God-moment) of the day!
I don't want to say too much about the movie, without giving too many things away so I'll just give you the general idea of the movie and the trailer. Hopefully you can see it and then feel free to comment on the movie. So as the movie starts it a verse flashes on the screen…which ironically (or not ironically) I had talked to 4-6th graders at church last Sunday about while talking about Nehemiah. The verse was:
"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead"
James 2:17 (NIV)
When you think about that verse, it is powerful. How often do we say, "I believe"…yet our actions and how we live our lives don't show it. If we find ourselves in a situation where it would be easier to deny our faith no matter how extreme or not, do we tend to deny it. Do we tend to only claim our faith when it's convenient? If we claim something when it's beneficial to us, or doesn't affect us it's easy, but do we really believe that. God didn't call us to a "convenient faith." In fact Jesus says in Matthew 10:22,(NIV) "You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." Then later in II Timothy 3:12 Paul reiterates, " In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Both of these verses are saying that following Jesus won't be the "easy" road, but if we persevere we will be saved. Persevering is the hard part, especially if what we're doing isn't the "cool" thing according the world or pop culture. Following Jesus requires sacrifice. One of my favorite lines from the movie was, "If you were ever accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"- ponder that a moment. I love when God has things tie together, just last night at 923 (our college/young adult group) Jon Moton was talking to us about adversity and how following Jesus means there's going to be adversity, and about perseverance. A big point he mentioned was to think of adversity as an opportunity. Take a second. Think about your life right now…maybe things are going great, maybe they aren't going so great…but guess what!?!?! You can find the opportunity in any situation to give glory to God, praise God, share God with others! Pray for God to present you with opportunities, and that you will listen and be receptive…no matter what is going on in your life. It's something I want to work on to. -> off topic…but if you've seen the new "Annie" and you have the "opportunity" song stuck in your head…this is a secular example, but that girl always had a smile on and looked for the positives, no matter how mean Miss Hannigan is, whether she's with Mr. Stacks (new version) etc…she looks for the positives at is thankful for the opportunity she's gotten. God presents opportunities for us all the time, we just need to realize it. What opportunities are unfolding? Will you listen?
What starts the whole "Do you believe?" movement in the movie, is when this guy asks a person (who we find out is a pastor). "Do you believe in the cross of Christ?" -along with the follow up question "What are you going to do about it?" That goes right with James 2:17, faith requires more than just believing, it requires action. As Bob Goff would say, "Love Does." What are you going to do to wear your faith on your sleeve? To be the hands and feet of Jesus? The story follows 12 different people and how the "cross" brings them all together. The movie is fantastic, and is filled with many emotions! If you're prone to crying- happy or sad tears- I won't tell you what…bring some tissues =) As the movie is leading to the credits, I can feel the moment building as Newsboys song "We believe" starts to build up and eventually starts to play. One of my favorite parts of faith-based movies and seeing them in a group of believers is the clapping at the end of the movie. That seriously gets me all emotional. It's like at Sonshine Music Festival when I look around and see people all over with their hands raised singing worship songs to our Lord and Savior…it is an overwhelming moment of God's love for us and our love for Him. I really want to say more about the movie, but I can't give it away…and James 2:17 is a great verse to focus on to get an idea of what the movie will be about =)
Check out the trailer down here, go to the movie and I'd love to hear what you think!
Closing Quesetions:
Do You Believe?
What are you going to do about it?
Love your sister in Christ,
-Jalynn (Jessica Lynn)
p.s.
This is completely off topic, but if you're still reading here's a few fun facts that will make my generation feel old…even though we aren't.
* remember the Carmen Cortez from Spy Kids, yeah shed's all grown up in this movie…and is married in real life…no longer Alexa Vega but Alexa PenaVega
* remember The Game Plan with the rock and the cute little girl names Peyton played by Madison Pettis…yeah she's 16 now and also in this movie…crazy and super cool!
* The little girl who plays Lily is the cutest little actress and completely steels the show, and her undying faith throughout the movie is a great example of "faith like a child" which would go wonderfully well with this post: YLS & SB2K15
* Samwise Gamgee is in it too for all the LOTR fans!
* Everyone was fantastic in this movie!!!
1 comment:
I really enjoyed reading your blog regarding this movie. I totally agree, it is a powerful and moving example to people. How lives can intersect, and be changed, but basically one simple thing, but paid for by one huge sacrifice.
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