It's All About Economics

It's All About Economics

 

Dear Champions,

 

A close friend of mine, Darren Moorman, recently released a movie called Unconditional (Unconditionalthemovie.com) on September 21^st of this year.  It was an excellent movie.  It was very touching, well made, and I gave it a 10.  If I had to pick the major theme of the movie, then I would say that it was a movie about the importance of fatherhood.  It was a movie that I recommend to all of you.

 

I talked with Darren this past week and asked him how the movie was doing financially.  Sadly, it does not look like the movie is going to break even.  He explained that he had people that financially backed the movie that were going to back more of them, but they won't back future movies because of the financial hit taken on this one.  "It's all about economics," Darren explained.  "Hollywood wants to make money.  If good people don't go and support good movies, then good movies will simply just go away.  If trashy movies make money, then more trashy movies will be made."

The average cost of the commercials during last year's Super Bowl was $3.5 million.  Why?  Because what we watch and listen to influences our behavior.

 

Philipians 4:8 says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  

Champions, if you remember, pray that Darren Moorman will be able to produce more uplifting Christian movies.  If he does, then consider supporting them. -David Vining

 

P.S.  Hopefully, Unconditional will soon be available on DVD, but I don't think that it can be found at the movie theater anymore.

 

Accept Me Because of Jesus

Accept Me Because of Jesus

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

Jesus is a shepherd, and He's bringing you home.  In John chapter 10, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd.  The hired hand when he sees the wolf coming; he abandons the sheep and runs away, but I lay down my life for the sheep".  Jesus is the only shepherd who became a sacrificial lamb.  He says, "I have done everything for you.  I lost my glory, I lost my Father, and I lost my life.  I lost everything, so that I wouldn't lose you."  Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! 

Salvation of the world had to come into the world in weakness and through defeat.  It's the opposite of the way that you receive any other kind of salvation that any philosophy of any other religion offers.  Every other philosophy and religion says, "Here's how to relate to God:  Pull yourself together and be strong and then say, "God, accept me because of what I've done."  But the gospel is to admit that you are not together, and to admit that you are weak.  It is to say, "God, you're going to have to relate to me because of what Jesus has done." 

The gospel saves people, not who are strong, but those who will admit that they are sinners and that they are weak.  Religion says, "I give God a record of righteousness, and then God owes me blessing."  But the gospel says, "God through Jesus Christ has given me a perfect record of righteousness which I receive by faith, and now I live for him."  The gospel message is that you are more sinful and evil and weak than you ever dared believe, but you are more valued and accepted and loved than you ever dared hope.  John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."   I didn't come to show you how to live the perfect life and then die, I lived the life you should have lived, I died the death that you should have died, I am the way!  Come ask for me, come grab me, come rest in me, reach out and say, 'Father, love me and accept me because of what Jesus did,' and you're there. 

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

A Wounded Me

A Wounded Me

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Luke 22:42-44  "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

There's no better way to intimacy with God than to have something horrible happen in your life that makes you really doubt God's love and go to Him anyway and say, "By God's grace, Thy will be done."  When it's hard, pray anyway.  When it's hard, obey anyway.  Keep saying, "Thy will be done," and it'll push you into an intimacy that you never had because you'll have to get to know Him as the good shepherd.  If you've been wounded and you say, "Lord, I want you to heal me," but it doesn't look like you are getting healed, then there is only one way through it.  You must say, "Evidently God you want a wounded me in this world to do certain things and be a certain person and get certain things done that I couldn't get done unless I was wounded. 

If in the history of the world, God has done His saving work through defeat, suffering, pain and confusing, inexplicable tragic and difficult situations, wouldn't it make sense that sometimes He'll work in your life like that? 

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Marriage

Marriage

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Matt Birk, center for the Baltimore Ravens.  It was written to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune recently in response to some other opinions shared by a couple of NFL players.  The Scripture is Matthew 19:4-6 Haven't you read," Jesus replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

Children have a right to a mom and a dad, and I realize that this doesn't always happen. Through the work my wife and I do at pregnancy resource centers and underprivileged schools, we have witnessed firsthand the many heroic efforts of single mothers and fathers -- many of whom work very hard to provide what's best for their kids. But recognizing the efforts of these parents and the resiliency of some (not all, unfortunately) of these kids, does not then give society the right to dismiss the potential long-term effects on a child of not knowing or being loved by his or her mother or father. Each plays a vital role in the raising of a child.

 

Same-sex unions may not affect my marriage specifically, but it will affect my children -- the next generation. Ideas have consequences, and laws shape culture. Marriage redefinition will affect the broader well-being of children and the welfare of society. As a Christian and a citizen, I am compelled to care about both.

 

I am speaking out on this issue because it is far too important to remain silent. People who are simply acknowledging the basic reality of marriage between one man and one woman are being labeled as "bigots" and "homophobic." Aren't we past that as a society?  Don't we all have family members and friends whom we love who have same-sex attraction? Attempting to silence those who may disagree with you is always un-American, but especially when it is through name-calling, it has no place in respectful conversation.

 

A defense of marriage is not meant as an offense to any person or group. All people should be afforded their inalienable American freedoms. There is no opposition between providing basic human rights to everyone and preserving marriage as the sacred union of one man and one woman.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

P.S.  To read the entire article go to http://www.focusonlinecommunities.com/blogs/Finding_Home/2012/10/03/this-nfl-player-said-what?refcd=136901

I Don't Love You That Much

I Don't Love You That Much

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

 

The definition of marriage is cleaving.  You don't know how to go about deciding whether to be married or who to be married to unless you know what marriage is.  Jesus says in Luke 14:28, "Before a man goes and builds a tower, he first counts the cost. Before a king goes off to war, he counts the cost."  You can't even make a decision about being married unless you understand something about what the Bible says that marriage is.  The definition of marriage is a covenant.  It's a public promise.  It's a permanent and exclusive legal commitment to share your entire life with someone else.  Unless you have someone who is willing to give you a promise like that, and that same person you are willing to give a promise to, you mustn't give yourself to that person.  If you don't have a promise like that and you aren't willing to give a promise like that, you don't really love that person enough to be married to them. 

 

The modern way of talking about love is totally different.  It's a completely subjective meaning.  When people say, "Why don't we live together?  Why do we need to be married?  I love you.  Why do I need a piece of paper to show you that love?"  If you define love as feeling, that's right.  That's not what the Bible ever means when it means love.  Biblically, if somebody says, "I love you, but I don't want to marry you."  What they mean is, "I don't love you that much."  There's no way around that.  A person who says, "I love you, and I want to marry you," loves you more than the person who says, "I love you, but I don't want to marry you."  Why?  Because love by definition biblically is a commitment.  It's the ability to make an exclusive and a permanent commitment.  That's what love is.  That's what you most want, and you know that.  When somebody says, "I don't need a piece of paper to show that I love you," yes you do!  If you love a person the way the Bible says that two people are supposed to love one another in order to share their lives together, it means that you have no problem making a legal permanent exclusive commitment to them.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Lasting Value

Lasting Value

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Mark Biller, and the Scripture is Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

I love the story of Alfred Nobel, as related by Randy Alcorn in his book, The Treasure Principle:  Nobel dropped the newspaper and put his head in his hands. It was 1888.  Nobel was a Swedish chemist who made his fortune inventing and producing dynamite. His brother Ludvig had died in France. But now Alfred's grief was compounded by dismay. He'd just read an obituary in a French newspaper -not his brother's obituary, but his! An editor had confused the brothers.  The headline read, "The Merchant of Death Is Dead." Alfred Nobel's obituary described a man who had gotten rich by helping people kill one another.

 

Shaken by this appraisal of his life, Nobel resolved to use his wealth to change his legacy. When he died eight years later, he left more than $9 million to fund awards for people whose work benefited humanity. The awards became known as the Nobel Prizes. Alfred Nobel had a rare opportunity – to look at the assessment of his life at its end and still have the chance to change it. Before his life was over, Nobel made sure he had invested his wealth in something of lasting value.

 

Each of us chooses, either purposefully or passively, how we invest our time and treasure. The wise man invests his life carefully, using the temporary currencies of this life to gain riches that will last forever. As a poet once wrote, "Only one life, twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last."

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Independence and Interdependence

Independence and Interdependence

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

 

For men, the gift of independence has a tendency to become autonomy and tyranny.  The female gift of interdependence always has a tendency to become dependent.  In Genesis 3:17-18 after Adam and Eve rebel against God, God says to Adam, "You will sweat and work in the dust of the ground and thorns and thistles will come up."  He says to Eve in Genesis 3:16, "You will have pain in childbearing and your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you." 

 

When God curses humanity, He curses different aspects.  When He curses Adam, He curses his work.  He says, "Your need and desire to have an impact on the world, to be independent and to achieve is going to become an idol.  It's going to become too important to you, and you will always be frustrated because it will never give you what you want."  And He turns to the wife, and He curses her relationships.  He says, "You will want your husband desperately, but your husband will rule over you."

 

The teaching is that the wife's interdependence gift under the influence of sin will trip her up.  She will become a dependent person and will want to be taken care of.  The husband whose independent gift is now under the influence of sin, instead of being an independent person, he will be a tyrant and will rule over and master her.  When masculinity and femininity go bad, the independence becomes tyranny in men, and the interdependence becomes dependence in women.

 

The Bible teaches under the influence of sin that men will tend to oppress women, and women will tend to make it easy for them.  The fact is that men and women in marriage are supposed to learn to submit to one another, and the husband is supposed to have a loving authority.  The husband's independence becomes tyranny unless the wife pulls him back.  A man is not to be a tyrant but to be independent, and she needs to pull him back.  In the same way the wife will have a tendency to move toward dependence unless the husband in his strength pulls her back.  There needs to be a completion. 

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining