It never ceases to amaze me that in the midst of what the world tries to make interesting and enrapturing for their audience, hides truth of Jesus Christ. Now obviously the symbolism is slightly off because man's perceptions are off, but without knowing it, storywriters in hollywood still have bits and pieces of truth in their story lines, and that to me just shows how Jesus and His salvation cannot be taken out of this life, He is everywhere and the truth of His sacrifice is everywhere.
Anyways so one night I was reading my devotions when I stumbled upon Hebrews 2:14-15: "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Now for some reason when I read that last part my mind flashed back to Pirates of the Carribean (POTC)- specifically the third one (which I had watched recently). The way it described those Jesus saves as "through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" really reminded me of Davy Jones and how those he held prisoner subjected themselves to his service because of fear of death. This got my brain turning.
I began to think about Will and how the whole third movie he is working to save his father, and how the only way for him to set those prisoners of Davy Jones free is to stab the heart, but in so doing he has to place his own heart in the chest. In the movie Will is dying, and through his dying and placing his heart in the chest, he becomes captain and conquers Davy Jones. In addition, through this act he gains immorality. So that just reminds me of how Jesus died to set us free and rose again to spend eternity with His Father. And in a way, Davy Jones job, the one he failed to do that Will now was to accomplish was to bring the dead to peace, Jesus is the only way the dead can have peace. In addition, Elizabeth, his bride, only sees him every 10 years and must wait for his return- similar to how the church is waiting for Jesus return. Also, Will was a pirate, but he didn't really every do anything that pirates did- kill, drink, plunder. Jesus was a man, but He did not sin.
After this idea, I began to think about POTC 1. So you have this crew of men that in their greed have had their life sucked from them, and they are empty inside, living without life- like us before salvation, living but dead inside. The only way for them to be 'redeemed' is to undo what was done and repay the blood. Only one person's blood would suffice, Elizabeth's didn't work. It had to be the son of the man they stole that gold piece from- will. Jesus' blood was the only way for us to be freed from sin.
After much contemplation on the second one, I thought of how Jack saves the crew through his death and is sent to the locker, where he eventually comes back "to life sorta". But I also thought about Will and how all throughout the second one, in the midst of much scheming and confusion and ciaos, He is searching for His bride, but on the way to rescue her he finds many more that need freedom before He can be with her.
Anyways maybe this is stretching it in some places, I just thought it was interesting how pieces of the truth of salvation are sprinkled throughout our movies. It makes me want to look more often when I watch movies to see truth and how the stories can relate to the most important story in history- the truth of Jesus.
Well I hope this encourages you to look deeper when watching movies and search for truth in places you may not expect to find it!
God Bless!
Friday, October 14, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Hi. yea, its been a while. sorry. :) God is faithful
I know, I haven't posted in forever. So sorry about that.
Anyways, update: I start my last year of nursing school TUESDAY! crazy crazy! I am excited/nervous. Excited about the new information and experiences, but dreading the tests. Needless to say I have been cleaning and organizing as I prepare for school and enjoying my last few days of freedom before I lay my social life onto the alter of nursing school one last time.
Spiritual update: God has been opening my eyes in a lot of ways this summer. Two of the biggest things I think have been anger and trusting His Will.
1. Anger. He has really opened my eyes to the anger that I let take root in my heart and the bitterness and hurt I let fester in my life instead of forgiving and letting go. So I have really been convicted about just letting go and giving it to Him. Not to say I have fully succeeded in doing so, hence I am still being convicted and learning what it means to really forgive, and its a lot harder than I thought it would be.
2. Trusting God's Will. God's Will is something I have really been thinking about lately, what is it, and how do we surrender to it and stop worrying/fretting/being concerned. I realized I justify worrying by saying "I am concerned about..." so I have been trying to address that and give things to Him every time I get "concerned" and trust His Will. I have been thinking about what that means, to lay down my will, and trust that His Will is best.
A friend of mine is in the marines and he said that in the marines training they train you in something and then put you in a high stress situation to test how well you learned.
God did that very thing with me. He taught me and spoke to me about Trusting Him no matter what.
Then He brought the high stress situation. I would love to say I passed that test and did well, but I struggled a lot, and I worried a ton, and I came out of it seeing that there's more to trusting Him than just knowing the truth. Understanding God is in control and knowing that you need to trust His Will isn't the same as the action of trusting. In my mind it seemed easier to do so than it actually was in that high stress situation.
Anyways all that to say I have been learning to lay down my will and trust God in ALL things, because His plan REALLY IS BEST, and He is Faithful always!
So some verses He has been repeatedly bringing to my mind and speaking to me through
Matthew 26:39
John 16:33
2 Corinthians 5:7
Ephesians 5:2
1 Peter 4:8
Ephesians 4:32
Colossians 2:14
Psalm 66:12
ROMANS 8:26-27
Isaiah 26:3
2 Timothy 1:12
Isaiah 43:2 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you."
-"So let the waters rise, if you want them to, I will follow You, I will follow You."- seabird
God bless!
Anyways, update: I start my last year of nursing school TUESDAY! crazy crazy! I am excited/nervous. Excited about the new information and experiences, but dreading the tests. Needless to say I have been cleaning and organizing as I prepare for school and enjoying my last few days of freedom before I lay my social life onto the alter of nursing school one last time.
Spiritual update: God has been opening my eyes in a lot of ways this summer. Two of the biggest things I think have been anger and trusting His Will.
1. Anger. He has really opened my eyes to the anger that I let take root in my heart and the bitterness and hurt I let fester in my life instead of forgiving and letting go. So I have really been convicted about just letting go and giving it to Him. Not to say I have fully succeeded in doing so, hence I am still being convicted and learning what it means to really forgive, and its a lot harder than I thought it would be.
2. Trusting God's Will. God's Will is something I have really been thinking about lately, what is it, and how do we surrender to it and stop worrying/fretting/being concerned. I realized I justify worrying by saying "I am concerned about..." so I have been trying to address that and give things to Him every time I get "concerned" and trust His Will. I have been thinking about what that means, to lay down my will, and trust that His Will is best.
A friend of mine is in the marines and he said that in the marines training they train you in something and then put you in a high stress situation to test how well you learned.
God did that very thing with me. He taught me and spoke to me about Trusting Him no matter what.
Then He brought the high stress situation. I would love to say I passed that test and did well, but I struggled a lot, and I worried a ton, and I came out of it seeing that there's more to trusting Him than just knowing the truth. Understanding God is in control and knowing that you need to trust His Will isn't the same as the action of trusting. In my mind it seemed easier to do so than it actually was in that high stress situation.
Anyways all that to say I have been learning to lay down my will and trust God in ALL things, because His plan REALLY IS BEST, and He is Faithful always!
So some verses He has been repeatedly bringing to my mind and speaking to me through
Matthew 26:39
John 16:33
2 Corinthians 5:7
Ephesians 5:2
1 Peter 4:8
Ephesians 4:32
Colossians 2:14
Psalm 66:12
ROMANS 8:26-27
Isaiah 26:3
2 Timothy 1:12
Isaiah 43:2 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you."
-"So let the waters rise, if you want them to, I will follow You, I will follow You."- seabird
God bless!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Summer seems hesitant to arrive as I climb back up the mountain
I made it through my Nursing 150 class and second semester of nursing school and passed by GOD'S GRACE ALONE. I am so excited for the break and am taking Microbiology over the summer which I am enjoying so far.
However, the weather seems to have missed the memo that its time to bring on the summer and as a result it is May with April shower and March temperatures. :( I find this to be very irritating. However, I know God controls the weather, so hopefully He will send us some sunshine soon!
I suppose I wouldn't be so discontent with the weather if I had not spent a week in Hondurus visiting my older sister, as the weather there was PERFECT.
The visit was amazing and I had such a wonderful time that to tell the truth I wasn't ready to come home and would have been happy to stay another 3 or 4 weeks. However, responsibility prevented that from being an option and I returned to work and school the following week.
I feel like in my walk with God, that I am moving very slowly lately. I know that is in a large part my own fault. I desire to follow Him with my whole heart, but then I make an excuse to do something else instead of spending time with Him. So I guess it really is a heart issue and my prayer for the past few weeks is that God will change my heart and make me really desire that time with Him. In the meantime, I am trying to climb a huge mountain so that I can get out of this valley. In case I have never mentioned it before I think of my walk with the Lord as being a journey through some rough terrain, there are mountaintop moments where I feel close to God, and walking down the mountain which is easy, and there are valleys where I feel like I am getting nowhere and God seems far away, and most recently I have been experiencing the walking back up the mountain part, which involves gritting your teeth and pressing forward against great resistance. The resistance in this case being my flesh.
I have also been thinking about something that a friend said after hearing a sermon on easter sunday in spanish. She was explaining the sermon to me since I had understood absolutely NONE of it. lol. and she talked about seeking the Lord, searching for Jesus, and how when we do that, we aren't afraid.
Anyways, I think the biggest thing on my heart has been the verse about Seeking the Lord with your whole heart, I have really been thinking about that lately and just how to do that and why I don't do that etc.
So cool story. I was flying from Atlanta home and was seated next to a woman. Well when the lights went out as we took off and it was dark outside, I couldn't really continue reading my book, so we began to talk. About halfway through the flight I bolstered my courage and prayed for God's strength, then asked if she was a christian. AND SHE WAS. I was amazed and for the next 45 minutes I was being encouraged by her testimony. God is so good. She talked about how the words of the Lord can't flow out of us if we don't constantly place them in us by reading His word. She talked about how our spirituality is pointless if it doesn't change our reality. She spoke of how God's plan is so much bigger than our and how she had never expected to be where she is now and it was in no way what she had imagined for her life. Yet she knew God was in control and was content with where He had placed her. She also spoke of her witness to others and how people at her work know if something's up that they can come to her and she'll pray for them, right then, not later but pray WITH them. Anyways I was just REALLY encouraged by her and her words and it is amazing to me how God places people in our lives like that and if we just listen to the spirit's beckoning how we can be changed.
Kinda on the same vein, I have just been really being stretched to draw nearer to the Lord and not just stay where I am and do the same things. So I have been asking myself what I need to do to seek the Lord with my whole heart. And then God reminded me that first I have to get rid of what is keeping me from doing that. So I have been examining what seems to distract me, and how I can better surround myself with the truth of the Lord, whether in my car, my room, and my heart, I want to so fully immerse myself in the Lord that I don't become distracted. That;s my thinking anyways.
Well I am beginning to ramble. I would just like to ask that you (if anyone is reading this) pray for me, that God would just bring back my desire for His word so that the climb up the mountain wouldn't be so tedious, and that I would lean on His strength, because I am so prone to hold myself back (instead of being vulnerable) and try to do it on my own. Also if you would pray for those around me at my work and school who are so lost that God would just reach out to them and bring them to the knowledge of His Son, and that I would be a true testimony of who God is.
However, the weather seems to have missed the memo that its time to bring on the summer and as a result it is May with April shower and March temperatures. :( I find this to be very irritating. However, I know God controls the weather, so hopefully He will send us some sunshine soon!
I suppose I wouldn't be so discontent with the weather if I had not spent a week in Hondurus visiting my older sister, as the weather there was PERFECT.
The visit was amazing and I had such a wonderful time that to tell the truth I wasn't ready to come home and would have been happy to stay another 3 or 4 weeks. However, responsibility prevented that from being an option and I returned to work and school the following week.
I feel like in my walk with God, that I am moving very slowly lately. I know that is in a large part my own fault. I desire to follow Him with my whole heart, but then I make an excuse to do something else instead of spending time with Him. So I guess it really is a heart issue and my prayer for the past few weeks is that God will change my heart and make me really desire that time with Him. In the meantime, I am trying to climb a huge mountain so that I can get out of this valley. In case I have never mentioned it before I think of my walk with the Lord as being a journey through some rough terrain, there are mountaintop moments where I feel close to God, and walking down the mountain which is easy, and there are valleys where I feel like I am getting nowhere and God seems far away, and most recently I have been experiencing the walking back up the mountain part, which involves gritting your teeth and pressing forward against great resistance. The resistance in this case being my flesh.
I have also been thinking about something that a friend said after hearing a sermon on easter sunday in spanish. She was explaining the sermon to me since I had understood absolutely NONE of it. lol. and she talked about seeking the Lord, searching for Jesus, and how when we do that, we aren't afraid.
Anyways, I think the biggest thing on my heart has been the verse about Seeking the Lord with your whole heart, I have really been thinking about that lately and just how to do that and why I don't do that etc.
So cool story. I was flying from Atlanta home and was seated next to a woman. Well when the lights went out as we took off and it was dark outside, I couldn't really continue reading my book, so we began to talk. About halfway through the flight I bolstered my courage and prayed for God's strength, then asked if she was a christian. AND SHE WAS. I was amazed and for the next 45 minutes I was being encouraged by her testimony. God is so good. She talked about how the words of the Lord can't flow out of us if we don't constantly place them in us by reading His word. She talked about how our spirituality is pointless if it doesn't change our reality. She spoke of how God's plan is so much bigger than our and how she had never expected to be where she is now and it was in no way what she had imagined for her life. Yet she knew God was in control and was content with where He had placed her. She also spoke of her witness to others and how people at her work know if something's up that they can come to her and she'll pray for them, right then, not later but pray WITH them. Anyways I was just REALLY encouraged by her and her words and it is amazing to me how God places people in our lives like that and if we just listen to the spirit's beckoning how we can be changed.
Kinda on the same vein, I have just been really being stretched to draw nearer to the Lord and not just stay where I am and do the same things. So I have been asking myself what I need to do to seek the Lord with my whole heart. And then God reminded me that first I have to get rid of what is keeping me from doing that. So I have been examining what seems to distract me, and how I can better surround myself with the truth of the Lord, whether in my car, my room, and my heart, I want to so fully immerse myself in the Lord that I don't become distracted. That;s my thinking anyways.
Well I am beginning to ramble. I would just like to ask that you (if anyone is reading this) pray for me, that God would just bring back my desire for His word so that the climb up the mountain wouldn't be so tedious, and that I would lean on His strength, because I am so prone to hold myself back (instead of being vulnerable) and try to do it on my own. Also if you would pray for those around me at my work and school who are so lost that God would just reach out to them and bring them to the knowledge of His Son, and that I would be a true testimony of who God is.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Sorrow may last for the night, but Joy comes in the morning
So I haven't written in a while. Things have been...hectic, insane, stressful, etc. I think the warm weather is finally almost here and I am so thankful. Sunshine just makes my smile come back out. I am almost through this semester of Nursing school by some miracle. Its been a rough ride and keeping the faith hasn't been easy. I feel like the waves are crashing down on me, trying to drown me and I am clinging to the life jacket Jesus has thrown to me, but I can't see the boat, the rain and wind and darkness blind my eyes, so I just cling to the life jacket in faith that the boat is still there. I don't know where that analogy came from, but it describes how I have been feeling. God has shown me this semester, how far I have to go, and yet that no matter how bad the storm, I can trust He is there. He has also shown me how when I don't make Him the focus and spend time with Him, I make it much harder on myself. I want to make a difference, but I don't know how.
I definitely feel those verses 2 Corinth 4:8 "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
But I can't forget the rest of the passage, "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”[a] With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
:)16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
So as I finish the next 6 weeks of this semester I just need to remember that God is my strength and He will guide me to light at the end of the tunnel. So i will continue to hold tight to His hand each and every day and follow Him, and not forget to spend time just sitting at His feet.
"Sorrow may last for the night, but Joy comes in the morning"
"I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me"
May you all walk in Him wherever in life that you are. I am beginning to see that walking the narrow path is all about clinging to Him and letting Him lead me, cause the twists and turns confuse me and on my own I stumble, but His word is the light to my path, and His hand is my guide.
God Bless.
I definitely feel those verses 2 Corinth 4:8 "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
But I can't forget the rest of the passage, "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”[a] With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
:)16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
So as I finish the next 6 weeks of this semester I just need to remember that God is my strength and He will guide me to light at the end of the tunnel. So i will continue to hold tight to His hand each and every day and follow Him, and not forget to spend time just sitting at His feet.
"Sorrow may last for the night, but Joy comes in the morning"
"I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me"
May you all walk in Him wherever in life that you are. I am beginning to see that walking the narrow path is all about clinging to Him and letting Him lead me, cause the twists and turns confuse me and on my own I stumble, but His word is the light to my path, and His hand is my guide.
God Bless.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
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