"Come With Me If You Want To Live"

       This one is an oldie but a goodie.  The extremely famous, 80's hit Sci-Fi movie The Terminator.  Very dark in tone and full of heart-pounding action, The Terminator is interesting from start to finish.
       Sarah Connor is an ordinary waitress.  Until she becomes the target of a serial killer.  Someone is murdering every Sarah Connor in the phone book, one by one.  Sarah doesn't know that she is the real target.  She doesn't know how important she is.
       In a future ruled by machines, Sarah's son, John, is humanity's only hope.  The killer is a cyborg sent from the future to murder Sarah before her son is ever conceived.  He is strong, resilient, nearly unstoppable.  The Terminator.
       But someone else is looking for Sarah too.  Kyle Reese was sent by Sarah's son to save her life.  To save her from the Terminator. 
       When the Terminator catches up to Sarah, he creates mayhem and terror.  Reese intervenes to save Sarah.  She doesn't know Reese but he risks his own life to save her.  With the Terminator seconds away from killing her, Reese holds out a hand and says "Come with me if you want to live."
       Romans 3:23 says "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Every person has failed God.  Every person does wrong.  Romans 6:23 reads "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  God says the punishment for sin is death. 
       We all die but the Bible tells us that people who have sinned are doomed to Hell after death.  The Bible says it’s a place where there’ll be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” and fire forever.  So everyone is doomed to this because everyone sins.  Everyone deserves Hell.
       Hell is like the Terminator.  It’s getting closer and closer.  On our trail, chasing us.  We all know that we’ll die sometime and every second that passes we get closer to it.  Every second that passes Hell is getting closer to us.  Like the Terminator getting closer to Sarah.
       But there is hope!  “The free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus”- that’s Heaven.  Jesus allowed Himself to be killed on the cross and allowed God to put all the sins of the world on Him so that we could have forgiveness.  We just have to ask for it. 
       When He was on earth, Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6)  No one can be friends with God and go to Heaven without Jesus. So in other words: “Come with Me if you want to live!”
       Sarah could have run away from her rescuer and been killed by the Terminator.  And we can run away from Jesus and go to Hell.  Every person needs to make a decision to either ignore Jesus, try to do there own thing and fail; or to come to Jesus and live.  Jesus is holding out His hand.  He's offering to save you.

Hell is getting ever closer, come to Jesus and live.

Romans 10:9  "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
 

Person of Interest: The "Irrelevant" List

          CBS's new crime drama, Person of Interest, is an action packed bundle of fun!  Complex cases, big reveals, exciting fights, plenty of gunplay and an intriguing premise keep my attention (unless I'm blogging at the same time!). 
          Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) is a computer genius.  He is responsible for building "the machine", a government controlled supercomputer that takes in and analyzes surveillance footage, phone calls, emails and more in order to anticipate potential terrorist threats.  But the machine recognizes more than just large scale threats.  It predicts any violent crimes.
          Without the resources to address every alert that the machine gives out, Mr. Finch created the "Irrelevant List"; a program which separates the small crimes from the public safety threats.  When the machine gives alerts for potential murders and other individualized crimes, they get sent to The Irrelevant List and are deleted every day at midnight.
          The guilt of ignoring so many tragedies that may have been prevented weighs on Mr. Finch's conscience.  Even though he is no longer involved in the government project which utilizes his technology, he decides to take action.  Mr. Finch hacks into his own machine to access The Irrelevant List.  When the supercomputer deduces that a crime is likely, Mr. Finch receives only one hint.  A social security number.  The person may be a victim or a perpetrator but either way a dangerous situation will probably develop.  Together with former soldier, spy and general action hero, Mr. Reese (Jim Caviezel); Finch fights to save those he had once dubbed "irrelevant".
          This totally fun, fast-paced, action drama makes me think about the things that Christians sometimes view as "irrelevant".  2 Timothy 4:1-2 says "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."  God commands Christians to share the good news of Jesus with everyone we can! 
          John 14:6 reads "Jesus said to him,  'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  Jesus is the only way to Heaven.  Which means that people who don't know Jesus as their Savior are headed for Hell.  Christians can sometimes forget the urgency of our job.  Yes, our job.  "Preach the word!"  God may not want us all to be pastors but it is our job to serve the Lord and share Jesus.
          Christians are often, let's just say it: Cowards!  Myself, one of the biggest cowards, I have to admit.  We tend to think:  "I love Jesus.  God is great.  I'm going to Heaven.  I'm safe.  That's all that matters."  When we let ourselves get so complacent, we're putting everyone else on The Irrelevant List!  
          We can do this with other issues too.  "God's not going to send me to Hell for it, so I can enjoy a little gossip."  You can let your marriage slide, get lazy about talking to God, form a judgmental little Christian clique... 
          Jesus has taken care of the big, terrifying threat in our lives- we're not going to Hell!  Praise the Lord!  But when we stop there, we're denying ourselves the honor of being God's soldiers, spies and general action heroes!  We could be fighting for the desperate, lonely souls who need Jesus and representing the all-powerful name of our holy, infinite God. 
          God doesn't need our help with anything, He's God.  And good works will not get you to Heaven.  But don't you want in on the action?    

The Dog Whisperer: Calm Submission to Our Heavenly Pack Leader

       The National Geographic Channel's The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan features misbehaving canines who get a visit from the highly successful dog trainer.  He shares his dog psychology philosophy which centers around the pack.        
       Dogs are pack animals and need direction.  When the owner is not the "pack leader", dogs develop problems like insecurity, fear, obsession, and aggression.  Cesar teaches pet owners to practice "calm assertive energy" and to nurture "calm submissive" energy in their dogs.
       The show is both exciting and soothing.  Exciting because it presents out of control situations and soothing because a confident authority figure, Cesar, comes in and corrects the situations with the best intentions for everyone involved.  Cesar is all about being calm so it makes sense that the show, even though it's full of crazy barking and wild behavior, is strangely calming.
       Cesar occasionally brings his favorite dog with him on cases, a pit bull named Daddy.  Daddy helps Cesar by modeling calm submissive behavior to other dogs.  No matter what happens when he and Cesar visit problem dogs, Daddy is unfazed, curious, with tail wagging.
       On one episode, Cesar is dealing with a territorial dog.  Cesar has to enter the backyard gate with the dog ready to attack.  Cesar brings Daddy to help him as he enters.  Cesar opens the gate and the dog goes crazy, lunging at Daddy.  But Daddy doesn't respond.  Cesar explains that even though the other dog was showing aggression towards Daddy, Daddy won't return the aggression or run away because he is with Cesar, his pack leader.
       Cesar and Daddy remind me of Christians and God.  Of course, God loves us more than a person could ever love a pet.  He loves us infinitely more than we can even understand.  But God wants us to be "calm submissive".  To trust Him no matter what is going on around us.  To obey Him even when we don't understand, it's difficult or it hurts.
       No matter what "dogs" are attacking us.  Whether they are hostile family members, coworkers or strangers.  Whether they are blatantly aggressive, snide or arrogant.  God wants us to be like Daddy and just- not react.  Not with insecurity, fear, obsession or aggression.  Because we're with Him.  We don't have to be afraid.  We don't have to defend ourselves.  We're with Him.  Every moment.  We need to trust Him to handle the situation His way.  And obey.

Psalm 27:1
"The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear? 

The Lord is the strength of my life;

 Of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 55:22
"Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved."

1 Peter 3:17   "For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good then for doing evil."

2 Timothy 2:23-26
"But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will."
       

The Point of This Blog

       My name is Emma. I love Jesus Christ! I am also an entertainment enthusiast: TV, movies, books and even commercials. As I enjoy my hobby, sometimes a similarity to a Biblical truth will come to mind and vice versa. Comparing Biblical truths with entertainment helps me understand and remember them.  God's truth is the important part, the movie scene or book plotline is incidental and just plain fun. The principle is the same as playing the "Bible Version" of a popular board game. 
       Once I started making these connections, I found myself doing it more and more. Suddenly I was focusing on God while doing something as frivolous as watching tv. And that's exactly how it should be.  Being a follower of Jesus is not supposed to be one part of you. It's who you are. So it makes perfect sense that I should use my fun hobby to help me grow closer to my favorite person, Savior and Lord: Jesus! 
       Please understand that nothing can replace prayer and studying God's Word and that these thoughts are just meant to be helpful and interesting.