Posted on 03/09/2004 10:17:36 AM PST by aculeus
Bears repeating.
Thanks for this great post, aculeus.
Yes, I feel it too, A-G -- down deep in my bones. We humans are reaching a crisis point; things are coming to a head. One senses the "threshing floor" looms just ahead. We must take our stand and pray God for strength.
He was an alcoholic, and was virtually a bum. Pictures of him were almost unrecognizable as the man in The Holocaust and Law and Order.
I was aware that he had made a recovery recently but di not know the details.
It is apparent from this essay wherein lay the source of his rebirth.
Praise God.
Yes, Praise God!
In the words of the great hymn, "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see."
Thank you for this information, happygrl.
MOST glad to know that this man made it Home.
Marxism is still less than 150 years old, but until quite recently it was winning the popularity contest with the liberal leadership class and media opinion-makers. The Marxist machine demonized Christian faith with increasing success.
President George W. Bush has so far failed to capture bin Laden. Gibson, however, has struck more forcefully at the heart of al-Qaida's spiritual armory than the American ground troops who drove Saddam Hussein into a rathole.
The stakes are now even higher than those of World War II. A simple inventory of the world's arsenal will tell you that.Could there be a non-violent response to our enemy's ultimate goal? There is now. The fallout from this metaphysical bomb will be endless. ~ Michael Moriarty
It is odd that Moriarty has linked the movie, and 9/11. I have too, I'm not sure why. There are gears turning, this is our moment to stand or not stand, and I sense, feel, like we are in one of those hinge moments that determine the course of everything to follow. I feel like we are face forward into the storm, but God is with us, if we will only stand. ~ 16 posted on 03/09/2004 10:52:21 AM PST by marron
[Could Gibson's "the Passion" cause backslidden believers to turn back to Christ? Yes, I believe so. Could it cause a whole lot of people to start checking out their local churches? Yes, I can certainly see that happening. It is a very powerful film, and I believe God desires to use it greatly.
But here is the crux of the problem. The churches simply cannot carry the 'weight' of this movie. By and large, they represent a different "Jesus" altogether from the one that we see torn and battered in the gospel accounts. A church that has bent over backwards to make its services a "Seeker-friendly" mix of warm homilies and entertaining slickness, has nothing to say to those seeking the true Jesus of the Bible.
On September 11, 2001, people flooded into the churches seeking a faith that could bear the 'weight' of the momentous events unfolding around them. And they found we had erected a plastic imitation - a shallow, lightweight "Jesus" - complete with ambient 'muzak' and mindless appeals for money. A comfortable Western counterfeit of the real thing. They did not stay for long. And why should things be any different this time?
Every day we hear reports of big churches buying up large blocks of tickets and urging their people to use this film as an "outreach opportunity". I believe it is an 'inreach opportunity'. -A chance for us to look into the face of Christ and find that our shallow pretense of Christianity bears no relation to the real thing whatsoever.
As I said, today's Western church simply cannot bear the 'weight' of this movie. It stops our mouths, just as it stops theirs. Our "Jesus" comes out looking like a cheap used-car salesman - for that is what we have made him. We invented him to perfectly fit our 'Laodicean' lifestyle. And so we sit in our lovely buildings with our lovely music and our lovely smiles, wondering why the world cannot get as excited as we do by this plastic Jesus of ours. Meantime, all the earth sighs and groans for the real thing.
Tell me, church, don't you think it is possible that God intends this movie to challenge us,just as it challenges the unbelievers? Will we be deaf to the voice of God, or will we allow him to begin to dismantle this plastic edifice that we have built - this prison of our own making that prevents us from representing the real Jesus as He really is?
Surely the time has come for another 'Great Reformation' in the church. May this movie be just one of many "shakings" that is sent to remove the blinders from our eyes.
God bless you all. -Andrew Strom. "THE PASSION - A Challenge to the CHURCH" ]
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