You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Movies' category.
Tonight at Community Group, we watched an hour of The Gospel of John (it came out in 2003, so it is not old and cheesy). In college we did an assignment for our Gospels class where we watched several different movies about the gospels. Then after college, The Passion came out and I went to see that along with everybody else. However, after the first hour of The Gospel of John, I have to say that it is the best movie about Jesus that I have ever seen. We could actually sit with the book of John open and follow the lines word for word. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the movie.
The scene where Jesus fed the five thousand got me thinking about Re:Hope’s situation in Scotland. Their church has found themselves in a similar situation that Jesus and the disciples were in. Re:Hope is praying for God to do a miracle and provide them a place to worship God on a regular basis. They do not have enough money to meet the asking price of the seller, just like Jesus and the disciples did not have enough food to feed the five thousand people. I was struck in the story about how Jesus responded to his Father with the food he had…
…He gave thanks. The story does not say he asked God to provide enough to feed everybody. Instead it only says that he gave thanks for what was provided, and then his Father provided for more than what he needed. This is not to say that God does not want us to bring our requests to him in the manner that Re:Hope is doing (that principle is found in the story of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8). The point of this blog is simply this: to bring our requests to the Father while giving thanks for what God has already provided.
“Does this mean that God will provide for our needs if we are thankful for what he has provided?” No, that is not the right deduction. God is the one who ultimately makes the decision to provide or not. The thing to remember is that God is also ultimately good. Thus whether he chooses to provide or not, his decision will always remain within the pattern of his character to be good. He makes decisions, according to his will, for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28).
It is my prayer that God would provide for Re:Hope, and give them a place to worship God together. However, whether he provides or not, it is remains my prayer that the people of Re:Hope would also give thanks for what God has already provided (I think they are doing this, but I am writing this just as a reminder). Although Re:Hope is the example I use in this blog, this is also the prayer I have for myself: that I would be thankful for what God has provided, and when I bring my requests to God I want to remember to be thankful for what I already have…even if it’s not much.
Amazing Grace is a film that tells the story of how the British Government banned slave trading. It follows the story from the perspective of the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce who steered the anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament. The title of the film is in reference to the great hymn written by John Newton who was himself a slave trader that later spoke out against slavery.
There is another abolitionist named Granville Sharp . His fame in politics rests in his contribution to the abolition of slave trading in Britain and her colonies. In a sense, he’s the “Abraham Lincoln” of Britain. I learned about him today in Greek Grammar where he is also famous for the Granville Sharp rule.
It was Granville Sharp who noticed the article-substantive-kai-substantive construction involving personal pronouns which were singular and not proper names. When this construction is observed, the interpreter should always note that the grammatical construction is indicating that the two substantives express unity with regard to equality or identity.
This rule becomes quite significant to texts that support the deity of Christ such as Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1. The rule is specifically seen in the phrase “our God and Savior.” In both of these examples “God” and “Savior” should be taken as equivalent, and then “Jesus Christ,” which follows, stands in apposition to the phrase “our God and Savior.” The text then is telling the reader that Jesus Christ is the one identified as “God” but also “Savior.”
…What a contribution to the doctrine of the Trinity
Thank you Granville Sharp. 
