For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… John 3:16

Why? Because he believes we are worth saving.
How thankful we should be that he places that kind of value on us; that God would value us enough to give his son for us; that Jesus would place more value on us, and on the hope of restoring us to fellowship with himself, than he placed on his own life.

God thinks you’re worth having in his kingdom and in his very own family.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:17

Merry Christmas

It’s now the day before Christmas and all the last minute shoppers are scurrying about looking for presents for everyone on their list. To be honest, I’m really not into that scene. Besides, most of you really don’t need me to buy you any more stuff to fill your closets with. So this year, I’m giving the following recommendations as my gift that I hope will brighten your Christmas and bring meaning to your holiday.

Where’s The Line To See Jesus?

This is a new Christmas song inspired by a real story. While observing a line of people waiting to see a shopping mall Santa, a young boy who had been taught what Christmas is really about asked his mother, “where’s the line to see Jesus.” The mother related the experience to her father who promptly wrote up the lyrics to a song, then added the music. After some revisions, recording a demo and doing some more revisions, they submitted the song to some music industry people in Nashville. After getting no response from Nashville, the family decided to produce the song on their own with the boy’s aunt (the mother’s sister) performing the song. A couple of cousins produced a video of the song that now has over four million views on YouTube.

This is a good song with a great message that deserves to become a Christmas classic. I hope it will bless you this Christmas season.

• Watch the video here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OExXItDyWEY
• Visit the website and purchase the CD here – http://wheresthelinetoseejesus.com/

The Christmas Candle

A good movie is primarily a good story told well and supported with good production quality (acting, directing, cinematography). The Christmas Candle is a movie with all of that and more.

Some may call this a “Christian movie.” I don’t. I just call it a “good movie.” When we hear “Christian movie” we typically imagine a Bible story, a witnessing tool or something that attempts to present movie goers with the salvation message. Now I’m all for Bible stories, witnessing and salvation, but I’ve always been a little bothered by evangelism tools masquerading as movies, it just strikes me as a bit disingenuous. I’m not condemning or faulting anyone, I’m just pointing out that The Christmas Candle isn’t that kind of movie – it’s simply a good story that is told well and is supported with good production quality.

Nevertheless, some will call this a Christian movie because the story does center around a minister and his congregation in a village in the English countryside. They may point out that some Bible verses are quoted and that most of the characters attend church. But since when does intimating the existence of God or depicting the presence of Christian people in a society discredit a movie, make it unrealistic or require it to be branded a “Christian movie?”

In reality, it’s movies that ignore the existence of God or deny the presence of Christian people or religious faith in society that are being unrealistic, and therefore, illegitimate. My biggest complaint against the entertainment industry is not the sex and violence as much as it is the failure to even hint at the existence of a God, acknowledge the presence of any Christian people in society or treat religious belief as playing a role in people’s lives or stories. This creates the false image of a world in which God has no part, no place and no relevance. That’s far more dangerous than sex and violence.

Suffice it to say that I found The Christmas Candle to be a good, fun and entertaining movie – the first since the days of Jimmy Stewart and Bing Crosby that deserves to become a Christmas classic.

• See The Christmas Candle website and official trailer here – http://www.thechristmascandlemovie.com/
• I also enjoyed this video that I found on YouTube that features comments from some of the actors – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjHBLb0SwKs

I’m sorry to have to say that you probably won’t find The Christmas Candle in your local theater this Christmas week. If you do, please attend. I was made aware of the movie through an email from a ministry that I support which arrived just a few days before the movie was shown in my local theater. Sadly, the film only played for one day in my city. So if you want to bless your family with this new Christmas classic, you will probably need to signup for the movie’s mailing list in the hope of being notified when the DVD becomes available, then you will be able watch it next Christmas.

We complain a lot about Hollywood and immorality in the entertainment industry, but to be honest, Hollywood’s only agenda is to make money. Oh yes, there are some immoral and anti God types who overtly interject their views into what we see on the big screen, but only so long as they can make a living doing so.

The bottom line in the current state of the entertainment industry is that it’s simply a reflection of the condition of the church. With 43% of American’s claiming regular church attendance (a 2004 Gallup poll), Christians could turn America upside down if we backed our complaints with corresponding actions. Imagine if even a fourth of the country turned off the TV channels, quite buying the newspapers and did not attend the movies that we complain about as being liberal or immoral. Imagine if that same quarter of the population were buying music and attending movies like the ones above. The fact is that we, the Christian-conservative-right, have the television, news media, movies and entertainment industry that we deserve, and in great part, have created through our support.

I hope you will listen to “Where’s The Line To See Jesus” and attend, or purchase, “The Christmas Candle” and I hope you will be as blessed by them as I was.

Then, as we go into the new year, I hope you will consider what types of things you’re supporting with your dollars and your time. I hope you will be compelled to begin withholding support from things that do not comport with your professed values. Yes, it may mean depriving yourself of Friday night at the movies or of listening to the popular music. It might mean not giving your money to that newspaper that you complain about and not watching the TV news that you accuse of being a bunch of biased liberal brainwash. It might mean looking rather odd in the eyes of the world around you as you disengage from entities and activities that have become corrupted. It might even mean having to explain your actions to others and telling them why you’re different. Perhaps that’s part of the problem with the unsaved world around us is that they’re not seeing a Christian population that is substantially different from themselves.

I hope you will also consider giving your time and support to things that really do represent your professed values. If enough of us did that, we could see things like The Christmas Candle, Where’s The Line To See Jesus and maybe even the Constitution Party, begin to rise to prominence and be a light shining in the darkness.