Spy Kids 3: Game Over

Spoiler Alert: The following article contains a spoiler.
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I was called away from my little cave (aka: Pastor’s Study) to watch my two younger sons while my wife ran an errand. Still too hot in the middle of the day to go outside, my sons and I sat down to watch Spy Kids 3: Game Over on the Disney Channel.

The movie contained just enough animated special effects to keep the attention of a 4 and 2 year old and contained barely enough substance in its plot to keep the attention of a 38 year old dad. However, at the end of the movie, something amazing happened that I never expected.

The movie was heading toward the typical ending where the good guys overcome almost insurmountable odds to kick the butts of the bad guys. But at the very end, one of the good guys who seemed to have every right to enact revenge on the chief bad guy in the name of justice chooses not to do so. Rather, the two are reconciled.

I find it interesting that Dimension Films (which is not exactly a bastion of tameness when it comes to movie making) can produce a movie that ends with a message of forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation which are all aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that I, as a member of the body of Christ, the Church, can illustrate Christ’s redemption in my own life as well as Dimension Films in Spy Kids 3.

Billy Belk

National Treasure: Guest Feature by Dr. Larry Doyle

Dr. Larry Doyle is Director of Missions for the Piedmont Baptist Association in Greensboro, NC. Dr. Doyle included this article in his weekly "encourage_" email, and with his permission, I reprint it here. I told Dr. Doyle I felt like this piece was in keeping with the goals we established when we started this blog. Without further ado, here is Dr. Larry Doyle with "Our National Treasure."

This week our thoughts have turned to our nation, our history, and our future. As I was channel surfing this weekend, I caught the end of a Disney movie titled National Treasure. Watching this fictional story of a quest to discover, and protect the national treasure, made me ask the question, "Is there a real national treasure?"

My answer is yes, but I'm not thinking of a cache of gold, hidden somewhere beneath the streets of Philadelphia. This treasure is not measured by financial standards, or even in terms of our great heritage and history. Our true national treasure is found in these words, "In God We Trust."

If this is our treasure, what does it mean to trust in God?

The Bible says, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into our hearts, to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in an earthen vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of ourselves." (2 Corinthians 4:6-7) The NLV says " . . .this precious treasure - this light and power that now shines within us - is held in perishable containers . . ."

In other words, our national treasure is our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. In the movie, the national treasure was hidden in a tomb, beneath an old church in downtown Philadelphia. Our treasure can become hidden beneath our traditions.

The code for rediscovering it, as the movie suggests, is not found in some ancient document written by men, such as the Declaration of Independence, but rather in God's Word. Further, we do not need "rose colored glasses" to see the hidden words, just the Holy Spirit to lead us to recognize the truth. We simply have to read the Word of God.

Just like in the movie, the path to encounter our treasure is also through a tomb. Someone paid the ultimate price for our treasure by giving His life. This tomb, however, is empty, because death could not hold Him there. His resurrection secured the treasure for us, and for everyone who believes in Him.

It is also important to remember, our treasure is intended to be shared with the world, not buried in our church buildings. Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere." Mark 16:15 NLV.

As citizens of perhaps the greatest nation in history, we do have a national treasure! Share the treasure! You can never give it away too many times! Tell someone about Jesus today!

Good News for Movie Lovers

If you are a movie lover (as I am), then I can't encourarge you strongly enough to look into ClearPlay (which I discussed in a previous post entitled "Watching Movies Without Violating Your Conscience"). ClearPlay is a DVD player with a built-in software that "filters" objectionable content from most DVDs (see www.clearplay.com for a full list of movies; the list is expanding every day). The great news is that these DVD players are now available at Target stores, where you can buy them at a great savings over the ClearPlay website. What's more, the Target deal also includes the "Filter Stick" (a USB flash drive you use to download movie filters), a free trial membership to the filter subscription service, and over 2,000 filters (which I assume are pre-loaded onto the USB drive). So, if you love movies, head out to Target and get one of these things. We got ours from ClearPlay last fall, and now enjoy watching movies together as a family without worrying about what the kids (or adults!) will see or hear.

A Song That Points Us to God

Faithful readers of this blog (if there are any) will remember that our initial post here concerned a song written by Bob Dylan called "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall." In that post, I talked about how that song drives more deeply to the heart of God than much of what we hear in contemporary Christian music, even (if not especially) that which is often mistakenly called "worship music." This gave us the title for the blog -- "The Sacred in the Secular." I can't speak for my S/S teammates here, but for me, the dichotomy is a bit artificial and often stretched. I believe that part of the image of God in us is an insatiable longing for Him. As Augustine said, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until we rest in Thee." C. S. Lewis referred to this as sensucht. This comes across in our culture in the music, film, literature, and other arts of humanity. And often it comes through most clearly and certainly inadvertently in that which would be called "secular" by many evangelicals.

Last fall, I was exasperated because of a number of pressing frustrations I was dealing with. It caused me to have frequent paralyzing anxiety attacks, and produced bitterness and a crusty shell of lovelessness in my heart for others. I know all the verses, I have read all the books and heard all the sermons, but the fog would not lift. Yet, on Thanksgiving Day, I arose early to sit with my son for one of our annual traditions that I used to enjoy as a child with my father -- watching the parade on television. Anyone who has watched the parade for a number of years will know what I mean when I say that it has become more of a song and dance show than an actual parade. Usually that frustrates me. I want to see floats and balloons and marching bands. I don't want to see kick-lines and Broadway troupes and the stars of the new fall lineups. But I decided to endure a performance by Josh Groban. I had heard him sing before, and thought he had a tremendous voice and a good taste for timeless songs. On Thanksgiving Day, he sang a song called "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)." And listening to the words of that song, I felt the embrace of God over me, and was lifted up from my despair to apply all those spiritual truths which I knew, but which I had ignored, avoided, and given up on during those stressful days.

Since that time, I have kept that song in the playlist on my iPod and find myself listening to it often. I am not a music video fan. I have never seen the music video for the song, and don't even know if one exists. But every time I listen to "You Are Loved," a series of images passes through my mind. These are the images I see on a near daily basis. I see the desperation on the streets around my church -- lives ruined by drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, mental illness. I find the scenes of families mourning at gravesides; lonely people lying in hospital beds on ventilators with no loved ones at their sides; people all around us trying to pretend to have it all together, when inside they are falling apart.

If I was to radically obey the words of the Apostle Paul when he says in Epehsians 5 that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," then I would be pointing people to the 34th and 91st Psalms and singing these words to them and encouraging them to feel the loving embrace of their Father in Heaven as He comforts them with these promises. The singer isn't citing scripture, and I don't even know if the writer of the song had God in mind when he wrote it. But every promise in this song parallels a promise God has given us in His Word. As I copy the lyrics here, I will insert in parenthesis some of the places God has made these comforting promises of assurance to us:

Don't give up; It's just the weight of the world
When you're heart's heavy, I will lift it for you (1 Peter 5:7)

Don't give up; Because you want to be heard
If silence keeps you, I will break it for you (Matthew 10:19-20)

Everybody wants to be understood
Well I can hear you (Philippians 4:6-7)
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up
Because you are loved (Galatians 2:20)

Don't give up; It's just the hurt that you hide
When you lost inside, I will be there to find you (Luke 19:10)

Don't give up; Because you want to burn bright
If darkness blinds you, I will shine to guide you (Psalm 119:105; Matthew 5:14-16)

Everybody wants to be understood
Well I can hear you
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up
Because you are loved

Watching Movies Without Violating Your Conscience

Frequent readers of this blog, and my other one, Searchlights from the Scriptures, will readily recognize that the art of film is one of the most influential mediums for modern messages in our day. Every film that is made is made for a purpose, and rarely is that purpose merely entertainment. Usually, there is an underlying worldview that is being advanced through the film. Surely, there is much entertainment value in watching films as well, and we don't want to minimize that. It is an absolute delight to curl up on the couch together with my wife and our little ones to watch a movie. However, most Christians would also recognize that seldom are the offerings of Hollywood suitable for Christian family entertainment. Vulgarity, sexuality, and brutality often detract from the enjoyment of film. For many years, we had to just steer clear altogether of movies unless we knew for sure (from the reliable testimony of others who had seen the film) that the particular movie we wanted to watch was free from those things which would violate our consciences and Christian convictions.

Last year, a landmark court case put the kibosh on family friendly "edited" versions of popular films. In that case, the only two companies (CleanFilms and CleanFlicks) who were producing "cleaned-up" versions of DVDs chose to cease operation rather than appealing the courts rulings against them. When I read about this, I was embarrassed that I never even knew of these companies! If I had, I would have been a customer. But through all of this, I learned of another company which has opened up movie viewing for my family.

ClearPlay makes a DVD player that uses "filters" for DVDs that have adjustable settings for filtering out language, sexuality, and violence. We purchased one of these in October of last year, and have truly enjoyed watching movies again without having to keep our fingers in the kids' ears or our hands over their eyes.

I commend this to you for your own enjoyment. Certainly there are still films which would be inappropriate even if filtered. Some films would be little more than opening and closing credits after all the objectionable content was removed. However, many which would have been "off limits" for us in the past are now easily enjoyable because of the ClearPlay filters.

If you are interested in learning more about it, visit www.clearplay.com.