Posts Tagged ‘faith’

Remember When?

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Remember when God could do anything?

The Old Testament speaks of a mighty God.

Seas were parted and bushes spoke.  Plagues.  Floods.  Giants falling.  A nation delivered.

The promised land.

And what about the three who wouldn’t bow and worship an idol, saying, “our God will deliver us….but even if he doesn’t, we will not bow”?  They were thrown into a fiery furnace, only to come out unharmed, not even smelling like smoke.  Awesome.

I remember thinking how unstoppable the power of God was.

Then I got older.

Life calmed me down.  The idea of God doing amazing things was overshadowed by the view of suffering, poverty and war.  How could I miss it?  One needs only to look around.  It’s easy to get the idea sometimes that God is on vacation, or that he’s simply not moving as he once was.  Somehow I made him like me and you, and I forgot that he is the great God who holds all things together.  I was reminded in a great way lately when reading Psalm 33 (one of my favorite Psalms) about God’s power.

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
he puts the deep into storehouses.
- Psalm 33: 6-7

He’s powerful.  He speaks things into existence.  He raises the dead.  And the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that’s in those of us who believe on him.

He can still do anything.  That’s good news.

I now remember.  May we all remember.

Hollywood Faith

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Christ – Avatar – Satan: Is it possible to have them in the same sentence?

The answer is yes.

Let’s do a quick test.  Think about Jesus.  Now think about Satan.  Think about what Jesus did, what He has done in your life.  What feelings come to you when thinking about Him?  On the other hand what did Satan do?  What do you feel or relate to Satan?  My point here is to make us understand that maybe Satan is not what we have in mind and is more related into something that we might think is “not that bad”.  As I grew up (both in years and in Christ), I started to realize that Satan was not this red guy with horns in his head telling me in a clear voice to do this or that.  I wish it were like that!  Instead I am starting to recognize that Satan has a very subtle and even beautiful way of talking and convincing.

So when do we relate Avatar, Christ and Satan? We relate them in that very special way of Satan trying to get into our way of thinking, our principles and our faith.  God has taught us His way.  Satan wants to taught us his.  As I watched Avatar, I was meditating on how the world is trying to find God into different places and how Satan is trying to convince everyone that you can create your own god and find it wherever you want.  I was surprised on how the movie was a glimpse of our society on how we look to spiritual things in the wrong places.  Every spring solstice a mass of people in Mexico would go to ancient pyramids or death volcanoes dressed in white to “receive” good vibe or good something… we are changing mother’s nature name to goddess nature.  We are forgetting about Jesus and thinking more and more in ourselves or the way we think we should do things.  There is no such thing as a giant tree keeping all our souls and thoughts for years and years, nor the ocean or the sun.  This is Satan’s delicate voice telling us to turn our focus into something different than Jesus.  Even though I love nature, nature in itself is NOT God.  We don’t have an inner god either.  We only find God through our faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:26).

Should we stop going to theaters?  No!  I love watching movies.  What I’m encouraging you to do is to avoid getting “caught” into this huge wave of thoughts that the world is bringing and take hold of Christ’s principles.  To be careful and alert to Satan’s subtle voice trying to convince you of “bending” your faith.  Do not believe in what you are told or think but in what Jesus says in His word (The Bible).