Society Haters

New Moon... A HUGE blockbuster movie that was just released as part of the continuing saga of "Twilight". I don't care for the movie personally, however, it seems as if most of teen girls in America do! In only 3 days in the theaters, the movie is heading towards breaking 2 box office records,expecting to beat out The Dark Knight. The movie is being shown in 4,024 theaters, and in 3 days the total gross for the movie is: $140,700,000... That's right MILLION! But, the "hottness" of Edward is not the only topic of discussion for this movie. I read blogs, Facebooks, and Twitters often (not to stalk...haha) and I've seen a recent trend being spread throughout church communities. So, I pose the question: is New Moon and Twilight treading on the thin line of a "work of Satan"?

There are obvious concerns for religious groups. Blood sucking vampires, scary life altering werewolves. A young woman incredibly wrapped up in the love of these two aliens. However, what is the "work of Satan"? Many say it's the pure thought of evil. That it's a glimpse into the "dark side", that we should stay away from the very thought and existence of evil. Which, I totally and completely agree, that we should. In fact, in Proverbs 6 it is said "If you have been snared with the words of your mouth...do this then, my son, and delivery yourself...deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunters hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler." (Proverbs 6:2-5, NASB)

But, let me pose another way at looking at this. Isn't evil everywhere? Think about this: We are chosen of God, born of HIS image, into HIS likeness, for HIS glory; yet there is evil all around. Why? Because of freedom of choice, REAL love! It's not real love if you can't DECIDE to love them, it's simply forced love. So, through that freedom of choice, that real love, we have been given the chance to choose grace and freedom, or an evil path. So, we live in a world where people, born in HIS image choose evil every day. So, by the reasoning presented in that of many Christians with this movie, and several other societal things, we should stay in our homes and never leave. Which is truly not true, because Jesus' last commandment was to "go into all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19, NASB)

So, is there something spiritually wrong with this movie? My personal opinion: no. It's simply a love story about 2 races that shouldn't even be discussing/talking/communicating, yet they fall in a blissful Hollywood love, breaking down racial barriers. So, if anything, I almost see it as a knock on racism. (which it also kind of reminds me of the Woman at the Well story. No Jesus didn't fall in love with her, but he helped her, and loved her, and helped her change her life, when the 2 races should never have been talking in the first place.) I could see the spiritually wrong point if Edward or the werewolf guy were out there, recruiting others to join them in the darkside in order to grow the dark kingdom or something, but that's not the point of the story. Really, it's not even the subpoint.

So, if we are to stay away from the very existence of evil, what are we to do? Here's what I think we should do, discern our OWN convictions, and what to stay away from, and not push them on others. Look, I believe we at the church have created 2 very unfortunate injustices:
1 - VERY immature, excuse driven Christians: What does that mean? Simple, we've taught Christians that if it isn't a gift wrapped, good looking package, and if it doesn't blare God's name everywhere it's not of God so we must stay away. Well, where does that actually happen? CHURCH! So, we've created people that aren't following God, they are simply following church. (If I just ticked you off, please stay with me, you'll understand in a minute) We've taught people to complain about Twilight, but not stand up against the group of Lesbians forming a group in a local High School, when we can't create a prayer group. Basically, we've failed to disciples Christians on how to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12b) Basically, we haven't taught people how to use the gift of discernment, or talk to God about their personal weaknesses. It's easier to create excuses.
2 - Church vs. Society: This one is deadly in the state of youth ministry especially. We've created such a culture of "society is bad" church goers, that we've started a mini war. Let me clear it up by saying this: ALL society isn't bad. Some is, some is out to brainwash you and your children; but not all. The Bible says all things were created in His name. Therefore, dance, movies, laughter, was created by Him... Satan just corrupted it. Here's a better solution I believe - what if CHURCH became part of SOCIETY? No, I'm not talking about conforming and taking the bad things and adopting them into church, I'm talking about learning from society. Because, let me tell you something that I even found hard to swallow a few years ago: Society is winning, and society will not leave! Let's face it, our future church is being mesmerized by lights, music, fun atmosphere,and love stories. Is it the TRADITIONAL way? No... maybe it's not how we'd like them to learn but it's a way to teach them valuable life lessons. What if the church took the opportunity to incorporate some of society's "tactics" to draw, used MTV's idea of discipleship (cradle to grave, Nickelodeon-MTV), and implemented their way of spreading the word through creating a buzz.

I realize, this could be a controversial blog today, and I'm ok and prepared for that. My goal isn't to say that any one person is wrong or right... it's to say, that I think we Christians are "more known for what we are against, rather than what we are for." (Mark Batterson, In a pit with a lion on a snowy day) I am against Satan terrorizing our kids, and our lives, but as I recall in 1 Corinthians 6:14 "Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up THROUGH HIS POWER." (NASB) It also says later in The Bible,that the same power that raised Christ, is the same power that is within us. So, what does that mean? We have the power to walk away from evil when evil is about to overtake us. It's not that we shun the world, because as we saw earlier evil is everywhere... it's that we stay away from evil that we can't handle at that time,because we aren't at the spritual level. It's time that we learn to discern what we need to stay away from, and what we need to engage in battle.

Jesus didn't stay out of evil society, in fact He was all up in the mix of it. I don't ever want to be so known in my community that I'm against a beer, but never known that I'm for Jesus Christ. Because if the God that raised Christ from the dead also raises us with His power, what I'm FOR will fix what I'm AGAINST! New Moon is probably NOT a tool of Satan used to brainwash your child. However, if you feel your child isn't at the spiritual place to sift through this subject, or if you just have a strong personal convition with this subject, then yes, stay away from this movie; but let's not give Satan more credit than he's due. I will not see it simply because it's not my "cup of tea". (Yes, I did really just say that...)

Let me leave you with this: I'm not for the darkness, and I'm not for everything society does; I simply stand for the thought that we could learn something from society in church, and for the thought that we as Christians don't need to wage war, we need to baptize in love.

(i hope i have not offended anyone too greatly, that was not my goal. God has just been working with me on several things, and this is one that was brought to the forefront of my mind in the past few weeks.)

My personal mission

With churches, parachurches, and many other ministries popping up seemingly everywhere pastors, ministers, or whatever other name you would like to bestow upon them are abundant. But is that any different than before?
We are all commissioned to go out and "baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." what exactly does that mean? Those compose the Trinity. Meaning they all represent the Creator, or the Father, or God. So, what do they all encompass as far as attributes? LOVE! Unselfish, neverending, non judgmental, helpful LOVE!
The kind of love the represent is the kind you and I can't fathom. It's incredible, crazy, indescribable love. It's the kind of love that respects a decision, honors a choice, embraces a fault, and forgets a wrongdoing. It's the kind of love that doesn't pay attention to your past or where you've been, but believes in your future and focuses on where you're going.
An insane love.
The word baptize is defined by my friend Merriam-Webster as: "to purify or cleanse spiritually especially by a purging experience or ordeal."
So we are to purify or cleanse people in the name of the Trinity or LOVE! The way we represent baptism today is by submersion. So we purify beginning with an experience of submersion to represent the power of the Trinity. But it goes far above physical submersion.
We are commissioned to baptize people in the Trinity or LOVE! So, while I believe physical baptism is important, I believe constant, neverending, non judgemental, insane baptism of the Trinity is also important. Because the Word doesn't say to stop after becoming physically baptized. Just says to baptize EVERYONE!
So, if we are to baptize people in the name of the Trinity, we are to help purify them with the experience of submersing them in their name- LOVE!
Your NAME is defines YOU! Gods name is love by His characteristics.
So, in saying all that I finish with this. With all the new ministries popping up everwhere, and all pastors coming into the fold- aren't we all pastors/ministers, and haven't we always been? Just because you don't preach on Sunday/Wednesday or make visits, doesn't mean you are excused to judge, hate, hurt, cripple, and be reckless with your words and actions. I commit this: what if you have a more important job because you ARENT "supposed" to?
So, baptize in the name of te Trinity.... Let's help God purify people with the experience of the submersion of the Trinity- insane, crazy, unfathomable, indescribable, non judgemental, forgetful, embracing.... LOVE!!!