Missional Lessons from Mr. Miyagi and Karate Kid

I recently watched Karate Kid after having not seen it in many years. It was one of my favs when a kid. I even dressed up as Daniel on Halloween one year. Anyhow, Mr. Miyagi is well known to us all as he was a transformational character in Daniel’s life. Here’s a profile of each character:

Mr. Miyagi – old Japanese widow, somewhat of a hermit, Buddhist, manages an apartment building, spends his time tending to the restoration of things, and the beautifying of his bonsai trees.

Daniel – frustrated teen being raised by a single mom, trying to fit in at school after a cross-country move, bullied, angry, wants to do well just like everyone else

So Daniel’s getting his butt kicked, comes back one night and beats up his bike, leaving it for the garbage bin, and finds it full restored the next day. Mr. Miyagi has his eyes on Daniel and can see right through the mirage of his lies and sees a hurting teenager with no father to turn to. Mr. Miyagi reaches out to Daniel and the rest is history, all the sequels included.

If an old Japanese widowed hermit can radically change the course of a frustrated teen, then the Church can most certainly reach out to others that are hurting in much the same way. I am sick and tired of Churches that think our youth need someone cool and hip. They need Mr. Miyagi, minus the Buddhism and insert the Gospel. We need to do a better job of reaching out to the hurting in our community, whether it be our Church or our neighborhood. Old folks can make lemonade for the “thugs” balling it up a couple houses down. An older woodworker can invite someone in to learn a trade. And on and on and on. Being missional is being loving in a savvy and genuine way. Is it really so hard?

Daniel did NOT need some immature cool dude giving him lessons on life. He needed a mature warrior who understands the battles of life and the pains of youth. I think that there are a bunch of Mr. Miyagi’s in the Church and I am absolutely certain that there are Daniel’s everywhere around us. Let us learn the lessons of Karate Kid and be Mr. Miyagi’s.

3 Very Different Documentaries on Christian Engagement: “Hell House”, “Jesus Camp”, and “Lord, Save us from Your Followers”

Well, with my new Netflix subscription in effect, I was able to take in a few documentaries (I am a big documentary fan for some odd reason). I saw “Jesus Camp“, “Hell House“, and “Lord, Save Us from Your Followers“. These 3 documentaries offered 3 very different pictures of Christian cultural engagement.

“Jesus Camp” essentially portrays Pentecostal catechesis of children; full of intercessory prayer, tongues, and Spiritual warfare…all intended to claim the world for Jesus. Kids are taught to go all out, to ramp up their opposition to “sin” in the cultural battles of our day, and to share Jesus with everyone. Hey, to be honest, there’s a lot good there, however watching the film grieved me in many ways. There is no dialectical aspect to sharing the faith and engaging culture. Everything is an all out war. Also, a little girl “felt led” to share Jesus with someone at the bowling alley in typical “hit and run” fashion and the parents affirmed it. The interviews with some of the kids, including a young girl reveals some expected immaturity, however it is more dangerous because their is a spiritualizing of their immaturity. In one scene, a girl criticizes churches that don’t yell to Jesus when they pray, going so far as to say that Jesus only likes worship from the churches that yell and get exuberant. What is sadder is that parents are reinforcing all of this. So, not only are these kids at war with culture, they are also condescending of the broader church.

Desiring God Film “Don’t Waste Your Life: Sentence” featuring John Piper at “Angola” Louisiana State Penitentiary

This film features John Piper at “Angola”, one of the most notorious maximum security prisons in the country, discussing the wasted life and the hope of glory. Working on details for a showing at Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Nampa, Idaho. Stay tuned!!! Here is a trailer:

The Blind Side movie; love and charity; submissiveness, modesty and Christ

My husband and I watched “The Blind Side” the last week and these are just some of my thoughts of the movie being based on a true story.  This is definitely a touching story, one of the generosity of a woman, namely (mostly) Mrs. Leigh Ann Tuohy (pronounced too-ee) and her family.  Though I wonder how much it accurately portrays Leigh Ann, who comes across as an independent, controlling, steamroller-I-will-it-it-done attitude.  While I do commend her matter-of-fact-take-charge and care of the situation posture, (I myself am a lot like that, but learning how to not be so overwhelmingly controlling though), I hesitate to commend her seeming disregard and totally brash strategies.  She was portrayed as having a hard exterior but having a soft heart.  She’s afraid of showing the “softer side” of her emotions, like crying or sadness,  which is true to some extent for many, if not all, of us- namely called pride.  She’s a strong, independent working woman who manages her home with great vigor.  She didn’t stand for nonsense (which I respect) but was also rude and obnoxious (which I don’t get away with much).  I must admit, I was cheering her on when she gave her lunch friends a what for when they were criticizing and down-playing the care and concern she had for Michael Oher’s well-being.

I was also not crazy about the way in which she was portrayed in her attire- sleek, tight and revealing clothing.  She seemingly was high maintenance in her appearance to which I’m sure her job played a big role.  She came off to me as the one who “runs the show”, while her husband sits idly for at her beck and call.  I have had some reflections on this myself as I seek to understand and honor God in how I balance the character of a Proverbs 31 woman yet submissive and honoring of my husbands role as head of our home, thus me as well.  I struggle with knowing how much to put forth without overstepping my bounds as a wife.  As I tend to be a lot like Mrs. Tuohy, much more so before I married, and as I continue to grow in my understanding and love for Christ and respect for the order in which God has created, I must learn the great balance of the Proverbs 31 woman I desire to be and the wife I am to my husband as well.  Great challenges for me indeed. 

Cloudy with a Chance of…Stewardship

I like science fiction. WAIT! DON’T GO!  From Star Wars to steampunk, I appreciate creative musings on different times.  That’s why when I heard that Sony’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs had some geek appeal, I queue’d it up (Netflix lingo).  I was delighted when what starts out as a clever animated flick about a wannabe inventor ends up a thoughtful look at not only being who you are but carefully examining what you have, and more importantly, how you use it.  Truly, a film for viewers of any age.

When young Flint Lockwood creates an airborne machine that synthesizes any food he programs, it revitalizes the small island of Paradise Falls.  What was once the center of the sardine trade, Flint’s hometown has fallen on hard times.  His new technology provides a party for everyone in the neighborhood complete with a snow day, only it’s not snow it’s ice cream, and really, can you beat that?  (Double Fudge Brownie for me kthx)  Also, everyone gets to have as much of whatever food they want and there begins the problem.

When the food that falls from the sky continues to increase in size, supply surpasses demand and the town constructs a dam for storage because, as the young weather reporter Sam Sparks tells the world, “out of sight out of mind.”  Eventually, Flint realizes that the machine is hurting the entire island and wants to turn the machine off.  The local mayor, always the opportunist, disagrees and wants to use the device to increase tourism.  Conflict ensues.

The imagery is powerful when, at the climax, the town is literally flooded in it’s excess.  When the dam is hit by the spaghetti tornado, it breaks apart burying the townspeople (and the town) in what they could have been satisfied with, but weren’t.  It doesn’t end there (it’s not an episode of The Outer Limits after all) and the people of Paradise Falls learn balanced use of their resources.

So what?

This is the hardest part to write.  How do I convey the conviction when I hear about earthquakes in Haiti and people dying of thirst when I’m trying to decide which restaurant I’m going to for lunch?    I have so much, we all do and that’s precisely where the responsibility starts: if you have, give!

“Taken” Movie Review

Spoiler Alert:

Briefly, the movie was decent…6/10…Liam Nelson shows some physical skills that I have yet to see in any of his other roles. He does suprisingly well in the overplayed “angry vengful dad recovering kidnapped kid” role.

The movie does highlight what is a very real human trafficking problem and gives some insight into how this corrupt practice operates. It does show a father willing to do everything to assure his daughter’s safety, even torturing, killing, etc. I don’t condone such acts, but you can’t help but think you would do the same thing when you know that you have apprehended someone who definitely has information that is vital in recovering your daughter before she is turned into a sex slave.

It saddens me that thousands of such young women are not recovered and that worse yet, some are sold into slavery by their very own parents. I pray for justice and measured retribution for such acts here and now, but am consoled that Christ will measure out His vengence on those who perpetuate such evil when He shall return.

Anyhow, not a must see…overplayed genre, but Liam Nelson does suprisingly well in this role.

“Slumdog Millionaire” Greatly Impresses

I watched this movie last night and am grateful that my wife picked this movie. For those who know me, I hate most movies I watch and rarely like a film. This movie was suprisingly good. I have long been dissapointed by “highly acclaimed” films. Even my wife has teased me about my past excitement to see a film because it won awards, only to fall asleep half way through.

Anyhow, I just want to say that I really liked this film. There is an underlying theme of destiny which makes the ending climatically glorious. This story reminds me in some ways of the life of Joseph. God was with Joseph every step of the way, even when things looked very gloomy. 

SPOILER ALERT: While this movie doesn’t really attribute God’s providence as the cause of such events, there is an ironic mentioning of God being great by the dying brother Salim at the end. It may be a normal thing to say when dying as a Muslim, however I found it owing to Salim’s recognition that someone greater is orchestrating events in his, his brother’s, and Lakita’s life. Letting Lakita go free, to the cost of his own life, was his surrender to Divine agency…thus the “God is great”!!! or so I would like to read it.

Fellow Blogger Chad Bishop suggested that Slumdog Millionare was Calvinistic and that the Wrestler was Arminnian. I have yet to see the Wrestler, but I agree with Chad that if Calvin were to so grace us with a screenplay, it would be similar in strain to Slumdog.

A Robust Review of Rob Bell’s NOOMA Series

About two years ago, our 20s and 30s group at church watched most of the NOOMA videos from Rob Bell, pastor at Mars Hill in Michigan.  I liked them as we watched them, but I didn’t realize until later that Bell had his share of critics as well as admirers.  Greg Gilbert, director of research for the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminay, writes a comprehensive, 3-part review of the series.

A lot of times in our culture, you see commentators pull out a careless or offensive phrase in order to take the object of their criticism to task.  This is particularly evident in the politics of soundbites (Oh no!  John McCain said he doesn’t know how many houses he owns!  Howard Dean said capturing Saddam didn’t make us safer!).  Gilbert refuses to do this in his review.  He gives Bell credit for his talents and even some of the messages of the videos (see part 3 for his comments on each video).  He seeks to get a whole picture of Bell’s theology (see especially part 2), which makes his critique that much more powerful.

Gilbert writes that NOOMA ultimately presents people as imperfect creatures that don’t realize that God has already forgiven us and relates to us; once we do, we can begin to live like Jesus.  Without highlighting the necessity of God’s wrath, the Cross, or repentance, Gilbert contends that Bell reduces Christianity to “a banal moralism.”

Reading Gilbert’s review, I can see why I liked the videos when I first saw them.  When Christians are watching them, the focus on Christ’s life can be very edifying, and Gilbert points out some of Bell’s successes in this area.  But I think that Gilbert really makes a cogent point that Bell doesn’t present the full gospel in a way that helps unbelievers come to Christ.  I want to wait on committing to an opinion on Bell generally because I haven’t read his books, but I think that this critique of NOOMA is spot on.

Gilbert is apparently the “reviewer extraordinaire” at Mark Dever’s 9Marks website.  I have to say that I am excited about the growing Reformed  movement in evangelicalism today.  As my friend Rick said in our conversation a couple of weeks ago, Reformed theology has an intellectual weight and engages culture in a way that modern evangelicalism often doesn’t.  I think that many of the most exciting things in evangelicalism in the coming years are going to come from what Time Magazine dubbed the “The New Calvinism.”  See Rick’s comments on this trend, which introduced me to Time’s article, here and here.

Hat tip for the Gilbert article: Justin Taylor’s link to another Gilbert comment on Bell

“The Case for Christ” Documentary Review

This is a high quality documentary that highlights the greatest evidences for the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. This is a credible alternative to the History Channel documentaries that are usually done from an extremely biast position.

“To End All Wars” Movie Review

I won’t go into all of the details regaridng the plot, etc. You can get that on Wikipedia. I just want to say that I enjoyed this film and the raw humanity it was able to portray. 

I liked the evolution of Jim Reardon’s character, played by Kiefer Sutherland, as he learns how to deal with suffering and becomes a better person because of it.

This story is also a testimony of how one can glorify God no matter what  the circumstances. These POW’s were able to let their light shine even while facing imminent death. My sufferings pale in comparison to those of these POW’s and this film helped give me some perspective on what it means to endure hardship.

I give the film an A+

“Collision” Film Teaser Trailers, Christopher Hitchens vs. Doug Wilson

Review: “Skeeter and the Mystery of the Lost Mosquito Treasure”

 Okay, so I watched this flick with the kids the other day and thought I’d share some thoughts on it. It’s a short animated film for children. The plotline basically centers on two brothers, Skeeter and Sinclair, who are very different in makeup, with Skeeter feeling inferior to his adventurous brother Sir Sinclair. Without giving away the entire story, I will summarize by  stating that these two brothers need to find a treasure and realize that they need one another. They realize that their unique gifts actually complement one another.

Though the story is an advertised reinfircement of Psalm 139, where we are told that God uniquely makes each person, it is also a basic reminder of 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul likens the Church to a body with various parts. The Corinthian Church struggled with various issues, one of which was a galvanizing superiority among some who were rich or endowed with certain Spiritual gifts. Paul essentially says that God is sovereign in the distribution of Spiritual gifts and that none should boast over whatever gifts they have. We need each other in the Body of Christ and I can personally attest to how I have been most edified at times from certain saints in the Church who had what some would consider insignificant gifts. This story reminded me of the beauty of seeing two people complement each other in a common goal. I commend the story for kids and pray that all kids would realize that they are all uniquely gifted and I pray that those tempted toward bullying would refrain in light of the fact that God made us as we are.

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As We Forgive

Rachel and I finally sat down to watch As We Forgive this week. It’s a movie made by Laura Waters Hinson, a great Christian that we know in Washington, D.C. We’ve been waiting to watch it for a long time, but finally bought it last week. 

The movie is about reconciliation. It is a documentary about two women in Rwanda and two men. The men were killers during the genocide of the 1990s. The women are victims, they lost many family members to these men. Rwanda was ripped apart as murder covered the country. Thousands and thousands of men were imprisoned after the genocide. But years later there was a huge backlog of court cases and these men were still rotting in jail. The government decided to release the murderers if they confessed their crimes and reconciled.

So the murderers went home. And this is the story of two of them and how they try to reconcile with the families of those whom they killed. It is short, about an hour. It is moving, you will probably cry. It is challenging, you think, ‘could I do that?’ Something like this could probably not happen in America. Rwandans still live in an agrarian society where they know all of their neighbors and have to see each other every day. When a killer returns, he doesn’t get to live in an anonymous townhouse, he has to live next to the people whose lives he destroyed. 

Ultimately, this movie is a vivid, vivid picture of the tangible grace of God in Jesus the Messiah. What enables forgiveness to happen in these murder victims is the reality that God forgave, so they must forgive. I don’t know that there is a more real testimony on the earth today to the forgiveness of God for us than the people of Rwanda. Watch this movie!

The Pro-Life Message in Horton Hears a Who

Just finished this cute movie and was shocked when the following words were uttered by Horton:

“They may be little and live on a speck, but A Person’s a person, no matter how small”

WOW!!! That is as pro-life as you can be. When the wicked kangaroo would like to kill the “speck” because of disbelief and the relative insignificance of the size, Horton the elephant sticks up for the lives on those in Who-ville. The kangaroo repeatedly says that if you can’t see it or hear it, then it isn’t there. I think this sums well the argument of those who support abortion on demand. Planned Parenthood would prefer not showing moms the babies in their stomachs and certainly are helped by the fact that the babies cries are muted in the mother’s womb. Not seeing and hearing certainly numbs one into thinking you really aren’t killing something significant.

When the kangaroo later realizes Horton was right, she shows remorse, and when reconciled by Horton’s initiation, she extends a umbrella over the “speck”. It is my prayer that those who would like to snuff life out will one day acknowledge that they have been destroying life and instead repent and extend an umbrella of protection over the unborn. I also pray that Christians will be gracious and merciful enough to go to the kangaroo in kindness.

“Bella” Movie Review…One Minute Can Change Your Life Forever

Spoiler Alert: The movie opens with the words “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him what you’re going to do with your life”. The rest of the movie proceeds to tell a story of how God’s providential hand intersects the lives of Jose (a promising soccer star turned chef because of a tragedy) and Nina (a frustrated waitress who finds out she is pregnant). Anyhow, the two intersect and a third person emerges, Bella, who is born to Nina.

There would be no Bella if Jose had never intervened in Nina’s life with love and his own story of tragedy. He is haunted by a past accident when he fatally struck a little girl with his car. Needless to say, it was tragedy. Jose wasn’t forgiven by the mom and took the tragedy to heart so much so that he had even visited the grave-site of the little girl he had killed. He was never the same from that moment.

Nina finds herself with an unwanted child and simply tells Jose that she is going to “take care of it”. Jose couldn’t comprehend how a mom could just kill her own child…especially in light of the emotional turmoil that has haunted his accidental killing of a little girl. He remembers the mother crying and pushing Jose away, blaming him for the death. There is much me to be said about the movie….it was well written, well directed, and well acted, but I want to focus in on the defining message of the film: LIFE.

I have a couple questions that stem from the following question: What is the difference between the value of the life of the little girl that is accidentally struck by Jose’s car and baby Bella in the womb of Nina?

Of course, there is a difference in the development of each respective girl, but does development determine the value of life?

Of course, the mother of the little girl that was struck didn’t want her daughter dead and mourned her loss, while Nina was going to “just take care of it”; but does the desirability of life from the mother determine the intrinsic worth of the two girls?

If your answer to the previous questions were: NO, NONE, NONE, then you will understand this movie and connect with Jose’s worldview that compels him to do all in his power to persuade Nina to have the baby.