The Hunger Games

       What an exciting and poignant story!  The Hunger Games presents a country where twelve districts are under the choking control of the Capitol.  Seventy-four years after their failed rebellion, the districts are still being punished by the Capitol.           
        Every year, each district selects one girl and one boy from the ages of twelve to eighteen to be offered as a tribute participant in the Hunger Games.  Selected by lottery, the young participants are taken to the Capitol where they are primped, polished, trained and then forced into a large arena of wilderness where they must fight, hide and die until only one remains.  The survivor is labeled the winner and receives wealth and fame.  The entire spectacle is televised for the entertainment of the people of the capitol and the manipulation of the people of the districts.       

        Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is from District Twelve, a district used for mining and trapped in their poverty by the Capitol.  When Katniss' little sister is chosen as tribute at the annual "reaping", Katniss volunteers to participate in the games in her place.
               I'm sure there are many impressive spiritual metaphors I could find in a story as emotional and engaging as The Hunger Games.  But the feeling I get from it is simple and intense.  People in the real world are suffering under oppressive governments, unfair circumstances, scarcity, poverty and loss.  Some of us have rich and luxurious lives.  We should be doing something to help the suffering.  There are many people who have need and we have excess.  We're a match made in Heaven.                                             
Isaiah 1:17
"Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows"

 
                Like the fictional citizens of the Capitol, some of us have wonderful things and an easy life.  The characters spend theirs being self-serving, cruel, shallow and cowardly.  We should spend ours being champions for the hurting.  Money, time, prayer, encouragement, advocacy.  It's simple:  The suffering are real and important.  They need help and we can help. 

2 Corinthians 9:7 "You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. 'For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.' " NLT

More importantly, we represent Jesus and we can share the good news of His love and salvation.  That good news is what everyone needs most! 

"In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." Matthew 5:16 NLT 

"For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes" Romans 1:16a NLT
 

Confidence

     Remember that song from The Sound of Music? Maria sings "I Have Confidence" when she faces the challenge of becoming governess to the seven children of the stern widower, Captain Von Trapp.  Maria had confidence in sunshine, rain, in confidence alone and in herself.

     Confidence is a popular subject.  It's all over magazine covers and TV commercials.  But will having clear skin or good insurance really make you confident?  And even if it does, is that the kind of confidence you need?  What happens if you have a pre-existing condition or wake up with a pimple?

     The Bible talks a lot about confidence and how to get it.  But it doesn't tell you to get "confidence in me".  The problem with "confidence in me" is that me isn't always beautiful, healthy and wise.  And if "me" pretends to be, then "me" is an egotistical jerk.

     God wants our main confidence to be in Him.  "But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence." Jeremiah 17:7 NLT

     This makes perfect sense because, unlike me, God is always beautiful, healthy and wise!  And so much more!  All-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present, completely just, completely loving...  Totally trustworthy. "Trust in the Lord forever, For in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength" Isaiah 26:4 NKJV

     And if we accept His gift of forgiveness, God guarantees that we will spend eternity in Heaven with Him.  If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you're His.  He promises that He is always with you and that everything that happens to you, whether happy or sad, is for your good.  "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Romans 8:28 NLT

"In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me." Psalm 118:5-7

   He says you are cherished, protected and headed for Heaven.  And because He is one hundred percent trustworthy and Truth itself, we can have perfect, bold, passionate CONFIDENCE!

"But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation."    
1 Thessalonians 5:8

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

          This movie was so much fun!  Zac Efron stars as the voice of Ted, a young resident of the tree-free, industrialized city of Thneedville where they buy bottled air.  Ted wants to impress his friend Audrey (Taylor Swift) and for that he'll need to find a tree.  So Ted goes to the Once-ler (who sports the dramatic and entertaining voice of Ed Helms). 

          The Once-ler regails Ted with the story of his wonderful invention, the thneed.  The thneed was an all-purpose piece of clothing made from trees and was once the must-have fashion item.          
        The Lorax who speaks for the trees (Danny Devito) is a cute and fuzzy little creature with a mustache and an attitude. He warns the Once-ler not to harm the trees or something bad will happen.  But when the Once-ler foolishly decides to chop down trees instead of harvesting only the part he needs, he uses every tree in the forest and is left with nothing. 

    After all the trees are gone, the Lorax sends the animals away and leaves the Once-ler alone in the gray, barren forest with only the tree stumps and a special stone.  The stone has a word carved on it: Unless. 

          When the Once-ler finishes his story, he gives Ted the last seed.  He tells Ted to plant it where everyone in Thneedville can see so that they will know the importance of trees and free air.
               

        We may not have thneeds, bottled air or the Lorax but our world is a lot like Ted's.  Like the forest that was once beautiful, our world was once very good:

"Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!"

 Genesis 1:31 NLT



          Like the Once-ler, we got a warning:

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.' " Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV

 

          We didn't obey and something bad happened:

"For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23a NKJV

 

          And we have an Unless:

"...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23b NKJV



                  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 NKJV 

 

Christ lived the perfect life we never could and died in our place, as our substitute, taking the punishment from God that we all deserve for the wrong we do.  Now we can be forgiven and go to Heaven someday if we accept this gift.

 

And we have a seed to plant by telling everyone we can so that everyone can see the importance of Jesus and free eternal life!





Previously On

             We've all heard it.  The sixty second recap montage before a new episode.  Sometimes the review can be redundant but if you've ever watched a complicated show like LOST, Once Upon a Time or Person of Interest you can appreciate a quick rundown. 
              If you had tried to watch an episode of LOST in the middle of a season, you wouldn't have had any idea what was going on.  You'd need the recap to tell you that a plane crash left an odd group of survivors on a mysterious island already occupied by a cult of peacey psychopaths.  You wouldn't know what a "tailie" was or what "the hatch" meant.  And pressing a button every 108 minutes would just sound crazy to you.  You'd be, well... lost.

             It's the same thing with the Bible.  If you just pull one verse off of a random page and don't read the surrounding verses or look at God's Word as a whole, the message you get might be confusing or you might interpret it wrong.
             Being confused about an episode of LOST is one thing- LOST is just a TV show- but being confused about the basic messages of the Bible is another.  The Bible is God's message to humanity.  It's all about life, death, Heaven and Hell.  The most important things for any person.  And even if you don't believe it yet, it is so important to understand it clearly.  So don't take it out of context!  Make sure you look into the "previously on".

WALL-E: For The Love

WALL-E.  One of the most charming animated characters ever.  A cute little robot in the not-so-distant future.  Earth has piled up with garbage and all the humans have evacuated to live aboard enormous cruise ship like spacecraft.  WALL-E was left on Earth with a directive: clean up trash.  He's the only working robot left on Earth and his only company is a cockroach who likes twinkies.

 

Until WALL-E meets EVE.

EVE is an advanced probe sent from one of the spaceships to search Earth for signs of life.  WALL-E falls in love.

When WALL-E shows EVE a plant he found while cleaning up trash, EVE takes it back to the spaceship and WALL-E decides he has to follow.  Aboard the ship, WALL-E is friendly to everyone.  He helps EVE and together they cause a chain reaction that brings the humans back home to Earth.

It might sound crazy but, in a way, I want to be like WALL-E.  His love for EVE made him throw away his old directive and chase after her no matter what the cost.  I want to be that in love with Jesus Christ.  So in love that everything else in my life is affected by Him.  I want Jesus to be my directive.  I want my love for Him to make me be friendly to everyone, showing and sharing His love wherever I go.  I want to help Him as He causes a chain reaction that brings people into a saving relationship with the Savior of the world.

"This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard and understood the truth about God's great kindness to sinners."  Colossians 1:6 (NLT)

"So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God."  1 Peter 4:1-2 (NLT)

" But may all who search for You be filled with joy and gladness in You. May those who love Your salvation repeatedly shout, 'The Lord is great!' " Psalm 40:16 (NLT)

 It is a tall order to put Jesus before yourself but I could never be good on my own anyway. God is the one who gives Christians the ability to please Him, we just have to let Him do it.  

      

        "So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better." Colossians 1:9-10 (NLT)

Song Recommendations: Motion of Mercy by Francesca Battistelli  

Side Effects

   Dizziness, fainting, blood clots, stroke, heart attack...  These are just a few of the possible side effects of the many prescription drugs that are advertised every day on TV.  Whether you sit down to watch a shark week special, a mini marathon, your favorite drama or the news; you will probably see a prescription drug ad or two.  Sprightly music plays while cartoon animals have a picnic and the voice over announcer uses a hushed tone to warn you about what could possibly go wrong if you take this medicine.
            The Bible talks about side effects. Galatians 5:22-23  "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"
            Love, joy, peace, patience...  This is what Jesus offers.  These are the side effects of having Jesus as your Savior.  And these side effects don't occur in rare cases.  This is what you have when you have Jesus.  If you sincerely accept Jesus as your Savior, you get the Holy Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit gives kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control...  A world of unimaginable wonder and purpose.
            Christians still disobey God and do stupid things sometimes but if a person sincerely accepts Jesus as their Savior there will be... side effects.  If Jesus is your Savior and you're letting yourself get in the way of His side effects- stop it!  If you don't know Jesus, don't go another second living without Him.  You need Him to rescue you from God's punishment.  The joy and fulfillment He will give you isn't available anywhere else!  You don't have to talk to your doctor- ask God to prescribe Jesus this very instant and start living like you never could before!

Mid-Season Break

         So I've been off the air for a while.  I haven't published an article in over a month!  I've been on a bit of a "mid-season break".  That's what TV networks call it when a series plays reruns or goes off the air for a month or two, right in the middle of the season.
         Christians sometimes take a "mid-season break".  At some time in their life they realized they needed Jesus Christ.  They put their trust in the message of the Bible.  That no one is good, that they deserved God's anger- Hell- but that God sent Jesus to die in their place so that they could someday spend eternity with God in Heaven if they just trusted in what Jesus has done.  They started their new life as a member of God's family!  An exciting life of hope and peace. 
        And then, at some point during this wonderful new season of their life, they take a little break.  Life gets the best of them.  Busyness or stress or trajedy rise and they forget that they have an amazing Savior who cares about every aspect of them and wants to help them get through the tough or hectic times.  Or they want to do something that they know God doesn't want them to do and they feel guilty so they ignore God for a while.  They forget Who saved them and Who deserves their attention.  So they don't listen to what He has to say in the Bible, they don't talk to Him, they stop getting together with other Christians.
         The Bible talks about growing as a Christian.  How we need to act the way God wants us to act and feel the way God wants us to feel.  2 Peter 1:8-9 says "The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins."
         Maybe you've trusted Jesus to be your Savior but right now you're in a mid-season break.  I've had some times like that and so did some of the Christians that God talks about in the Bible.  King David was a "man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14) and more than once he took a break from living the way he should and was disobedient to God in big ways.  The beauty of salvation is that if you truly, sincerely put your faith in Jesus Christ, from that moment on you belong to God and you will never lose that salvation.  You may have taken a break when you shouldn't have but God will never "cancel" you.
         Now is the time for your return!!!!  Time for new episodes.  And even though I wish the show had never stalled, the mid-season premiere is the most exciting episode yet!
          
         "By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,  and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone."    2 Peter 1:3-7

And if you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior, now is the time!  Time for your "Pilot" episode.  God guarantees you'll never be "cancelled"!  2 Corinthians 6:2b "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."