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Posted on 12/31/2023 5:00:34 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska
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Bonne et heureuse année!
🎊 HAPPY NEW YEAR 🎉
... 
Bible in a Year :
See what great love the Father has lavished on us.
“I’m not who I once was. I’m a new person.” Those simple words from my son, spoken to students at a school assembly, describe the change God made in his life. Once addicted to heroin, Geoffrey previously saw himself through his sins and mistakes. But now he sees himself as a child of God.
The Bible encourages us with this promise: “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). No matter who we’ve been or what we’ve done in our past, when we trust Jesus for our salvation and receive the forgiveness offered through His cross, we become someone new. Since the garden of Eden, the guilt of our sins has separated us from God, but He has now “reconciled us to himself through Christ,” “not counting” our sins against us (vv. 18–19). We are His dearly loved children (1 John 3:1–2), washed clean and made new in the likeness of His Son.
Jesus liberates us from sin and its dominating power and restores us into a new relationship with God—where we’re free to no longer live for ourselves but “for him who died for [us] and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15). On this New Year’s Day, let’s remember that His transforming love compels us to live with new identity and purpose. It helps us point others to our Savior, the One who can make them new people too! .
Reflect & Pray
What does it mean to you that a new beginning is possible with God? How can you live as His “new creation”?
Abba, Father, thank You for sending Your Son to save me. Please send me to someone who needs You too.
Thanks, Publius, for the “stars” of the 80s. Love reading the stories.
And Hello, 2024!
Thanks, unique, for the countdown to the new year.
You’ve been missed, Dolly! (((hugs)))
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Jim! Hope 2024 is the best year yet for your family and FReeREpublic! :)
The end of the Soviet Union. The former Yugoslavia. Bill and Hillary. Lewinski. The tech boom. Microsoft Windows.
This film was a financial and artistic success. Madonna took singing lessons to learn how to breathe properly. The film had gone through development hell until Warren Beatty stepped in to take charge. “He has a vision, “said Dustin Hoffman.
Walt Disney had attempted to work on this story in the 1930s but put it aside. The original concept in 1991 was for a straight animated drama, but the first attempts were killed by Jeff Katzenberg with the order that the team start over with a musical. It was the right call, and the film was wildly successful, both artistically and financially.
Angela Lansbury nailed it on the first take. Leave it to the pros!
Robin Williams wasn’t sure about taking the role of the Genie, but the producers took one of Williams’ comedy routines and animated it as the Genie doing his act. “Williams laughed his ass off,” said one witness to the screening, and he took the job. The producers told Williams to do his usual stream-of-consciousness, and the animators would keep up with him. The result was hilarity and financial success.
Howard Ashman had died, and Tim Rice, who had started his career as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lyricist, teamed up with Menken.
It was the first film to portray homosexuality and AIDS in a sympathetic manner, with Tom Hanks playing the gay lawyer who gets fired for his sexuality. Denzel Washington, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, Antonio Banderas and Joanne Woodward round out the cast.
Disney’s animation division struck gold once again, becoming a dominant force in the 1990s. What started out as a documentary turned into a Disney musical that became the highest grossing film of the year.
Elton John and Tim Rice provided the music.
Disney was on a roll, and this movie, which was not about Elizabeth Warren, may have been sloppy when it came to actual history, but few cared. It made a fortune for all concerned.
The concept album came to the big screen after 15 years in development hell. Madonna teamed with Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas. A whole lot of studios put money into the film, which didn’t impress either critics or audiences.
Tim Rice rejoined Andrew Lloyd Webber for this effort, and the chamber music arrangement of the song is striking, worthy of Schubert or Samuel Barber.
This film was so expensive that it took two studios to finance it. It ended up as one of the greatest financial successes in history. It’s a magnificent film.
James Cameron didn’t want to attach a song to the movie, desiring to break the MTV mold, but when James Horner played Celine Dion’s recording, Cameron relented.
Jeff Katzenberg left Disney to co-found DreamWorks with Spielberg, and in doing so he took this idea with him – along with a large number of Disney animators. It featured an all-star cast rather than the usual voice-over artists, and it was the first non-Disney animated feature to become a major success. Over the years its reputation has only grown.
While there were many versions of the Tarzan story, this Disney effort was the first animated version, and it was a massive success. Having Tarzan break into song struck everyone involved in the production as ridiculous, so they brought in Phil Collins as the narrator and let him handle the songs.
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