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Living The Solution – Online Newsletter |
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December 6, 2007 ISSUE |
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Opening Thoughts:
This time of year a great number of movies are released
by the major studios. They are hoping to have a “holiday” blockbuster.
It’s no secret that a lot of people go to the movies
during the Holiday Season, and it is certainly no secret
that the goal of the studios is to make money.
I like films and I do believe the genre has the potential to inspire people and
to get us to think about things that really matter. Even though most movies lack
that substance and there is a great deal of merely escapism masked as entertainment,
I still hold out hope for a good one now and then.
I saw The Golden Compass earlier this week in a special advance
screening. This fantasy film based on Philip Pullman’s His
Dark
Materials books has its share of controversy resulting from criticism
by conservative Christians. Pullman is a professed atheist and his trilogy attacks
the institutions that he believes control people and take away their freedom,
or at least, free will. I personally didn’t see any anti-Christian themes
in the movie, but there is a struggle between those who want to be free to do
and think as they please and the group that want to control your choices and
thought (especially in young children). The movie has good special effects and
is adventurous, but it cinematically covers ground better presented in the Lord
of the Rings movies and the Chronicles of Narnia first film.
It’s also a little intense and violent for pre-teens, in my opinion.
A better film with a very powerful moral message is Amazing Grace,
now available on DVD. I watched it this week, too and wrote a review. I include
an excerpt in this issue of our ezine.
Peace and joy,
Tom Gilbert
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IN THIS ISSUE
Feature Article: Amazing Grace - the movie
In The Spotlight: World Vision
Daily Thoughts: DSelf-Improvement Doesn’t Earn
God’s Approval
Prayer & Sharing Requests
Quotable: Determining True Value |
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| FEATURED
ARTICLE |
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Amazing Grace - the movie
Review by Tom Gilbert — © December, 2007
 Amazing Grace is one of the
all time best loved Christian hymns. It was penned
by John Newton, a one time slave trader captain who
knew firsthand the horrors that countless Africans
endured, being robbed of their homeland, their freedom
and their dignity. Newton was actively engaged in the
business of slavery for a number of years, but he eventually “saw
the light” and changed his ways, due in no small
part to a shipwreck in which he nearly drowned. “To
save a wretch like me” takes on much stronger
meaning when you understand the story of the man who
wrote that verse.
Amazing Grace, the movie, is not the story of John Newton, although he plays
a part in it. It is the powerful tale of William Wilberforce (portrayed in the
film by Ioan Gruffudd) and his many years fighting to abolish the slave trade
by Great Britain. Wilberforce was as young as anyone could be when he first became
a Member of Parliament (an MP as they are known). At just twenty-one years of
age and from a wealthy and privileged family, it is perhaps surprising that he
would become a champion of the abolitionists. At first he didn’t involve
himself in any great moral cause; that changed after his sudden conversion to
evangelical Christianity in 1785. And, as the movie dramatically demonstrates,
while he could talk with great passion about the wrongs of slavery it took convincing
and encouragement from his fellow abolitionist friends to really understand the
harsh conditions of slavery. In particular, Thomas Clarkson (played by Rufus
Sewell), gave him visible evidence of the chains and harsh ship conditions the
slaves endured. And Olaudah Equiano (Youssou N’Dour), a former slave who
penned a popular book about his experience, has a brave scene of opening his
shirt to show Wilberforce the brand that owners applied to their new property.
Read the entire review here
More articles here.
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| IN THE SPOTLIGHT |
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World
Vision
How do we go about building a better world
for children? That is the mission of World Vision - a Christian
relief and development organization dedicated to helping children
and their communities worldwide reach their full potential
by tackling the causes of poverty.
World Vision helps transform the lives of the world’s poorest children
and families in nearly 100 countries, including the United States. Our non-profit
work extends assistance to all people, regardless of their religious beliefs,
gender, race, or ethnic background. You can help!
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Be sure to visit our Spotlight
Specials page for other special resources and causes.
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has resources to help you grow spiritually. It’s
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Visit our
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There is something for everyone. When you shop with us,
you support our ministry – thank you!
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DAILY THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS |
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Self-Improvement Doesn’t Earn God’s
Approval
Convinced that no human being can please
God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that
we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying
to be good. (Galatians 2:16 — The Message)
So why all of the focus on being “good”?
There still seems to be such an emphasis on following
rules and regulations, but our hope is in our relationship
with Jesus. Maybe it is because in our “enlightened” age
we find it easier to deal with a set of steps or formulas
to “a better life” than maintaining an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus. Our culture has an incredibly
difficult time with forming and maintaining intimate relationships.
Just look at the divorce rate in the church; it is the
same as the rest of the world. We are always looking for
the easy way, not the best way. We want the way that will
require the least amount of effort on our part and the
least amount from us. But to form and maintain intimate
relationships requires everything from us. We must give
our all for the other person in the relationship if it
is going to work.
Jesus did not die to have us live by a set of rules and regulations. The Jews
already had, as Paul put it, the best set the world had ever seen and all it
brought was death. There was no life in them; that is why Jesus came in the first
place, to set us free from the law of sin and death.
We can “do” nothing on our own to help ourselves when it comes to
God. We cannot make ourselves better. We cannot make ourselves acceptable. We
cannot make ourselves pleasing to God. God has already done all of that for us.
His death and resurrection have not only made us better, but they have set us
right with God, acceptable and pleasing to God. The only thing we can do, and
the thing we must do, is to believe, accept and embrace this truth by trusting
Jesus and stop trying to be “good”. Jesus already did this for us.
All we will do is mess it up if we try to add to it. That is the problem; we
feel we must do something to make amends, but we cannot! It is hard for us to
trust God. It is easy to follow a set of rules. It is hard to daily keep our
heart connected with Him, to spend time with Him, to listen to Him and talk with
Him. But that is what we were created for and that is what He died for. It was
not for rules and regulations, but for a relationship.
Live intentionally, purposely, free
and with passion,
Pete Reinbold
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Daily Thought |
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PRAYER REQUESTS & RESULTS |
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requests and we will pray for them.
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My thoughts are shared regularly on the pages of
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Quotable: Determining True Value
“The true value of a human being is determined
primarily by the measure and
the sense in which he has attained to liberation from
the self.”
— Albert Einstein
Copyright 2007 Living the Solution, all rights reserved.
Tom Gilbert
Editor/Web-servant
Living The Solution
www.livingthesolution.com
P O Box 25584
Albuquerque, NM 87125-5584
Toll free 1-800-399-2564 (US only) or 505-247-3232
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