Sherlock Holmes

An entertaining night, a captivated audience, loveable characters, was I at the panto this cold winters night...

...o no i wasn't....

i was at Guy Ritchie's new film-Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law-which was very much a clash between the cluedoesc story line of the Da Vinci code or national treasure (thats a good thing in my eyes by the way), the action of Indiana Jones and the slickness of the Bourne series.

What resinated with me during this film was its search for answers-a quest we all like to go on and Sherlock Holmes did not disappoint.

With such references as being raised from the dead, the reading of Revelation 1:18 (the villian comparing himself with Jesus) and a constant battle between a faith response or fear response, it felt very much like a deep search for answers.

Along with the classic story line of the bad guy plotting for world domination (again, another way he tries to compare with Jesus me thinks), it really made me ponder about being around at the time when Jesus came back from the dead and the faith or fear response many people would have had-was it magic, just a trick.... or something more. Sherlock Holmes looks at his search for answers logically and tries to figure it out-something we should all do really if a man claims to have come back from the dead-so fair play to the old chap!

The costumes were timeless, the landscape scenes were epic, the slow motion clips were awesome, the camaraderie and humorous narrative between Holmes (Downey Jnr) and Watson (Law) all the while the music bringing you into its era made for great viewing.

As for the end... what the search for answers came to (whether taken from a biblical point of view or from this film alone), well....

that's elementary, my dear Watson!

Law Abiding Citizen

Everyone likes to think they know the difference between good and bad.

Everyone likes to think they have a good sense of justice.

That's what makes this movie so appealing-plus it has a great story line and great cast but for me, it was Gerard Butler who made the movie.

Watching the film with a Secular worldview, you see what the world likes to think-everyone has a good vibe of what good and bad is and if they ran the world, it would be all good and no problems-or even worse, we would end up like the singer Lemar with his song 'if there's any justice in the world, i would be your man, you would be my girl' (i think there's more pressing issues)

Watching the film with a Christian worldview, we all like to think we have a personally sound view of right and wrong and that we are in the right and are effectively 'law abiding citizens', but looking at the world and watching this film we see that deep down there is something fundamentally wrong with us.

The bible tells us its sin, I just wonder what people who don't have a relationship with Jesus make of this weird worldview, because in the film you are on the main characters side-even though he effectively is doing what we would classify as wrong, but yet you feel on his side at times-it doesnt make sense.

Thank God for the bible and telling us what is fundamentally wrong with us-a deeper issue than doing right and wrong or even right versus wrong but sin, and how justice for this messed up world is really achieved-at the cross-with Jesus (human-to be our substitute, and God to sort it out) taking the punishment we deserve for our sin-and not in our own redemptive plans or revenge.

In the end, it makes you question justice and right and wrong, great film, great cast, great questions brought out from it-go and watch it!

Reality Check

Yesterday I decided to join the revolution that is twitter...not because it interests me that much but because it seems to me that the God's people can't get left behind in the technological age, to keep up to date with what the world is at and because we need to raise up talented people who can make the internet a useful tool for the Glory of God rather than the glory of mindless rubbish (like blogging you may say) or for the glory of porn which has obviously made its mark in this technological age.

When thinking about Twitter, it got me thinking about facebook, bebo, hotmail and I'm sure you can think of all the other social networking websites you can get involved in, but it got me thinking.... do we need a reality check?

People, including myself it has to be said, add themselves to these sites and put across their personal information and how they want to be portrayed, however, it lessens the importance of relationships...i mean how many times have you been out but most people are on their mobile phones even though they are in a room full of real people?

Are we trying to get away from facing up to reality, reality of life, reality of this world, reality of God, reality of eternity... do we need to put the laptop, computers and mobiles down? do we need a reality of check?

rules rules rules...

'The year of living biblically' seemed like a very intriguing book that a non-Christian friend of mine had told me he had been reading and so he told me he would lend it to me. Thankful he has and I am currently reading through it. I have to say it is a very well written book (not that I'm a scholar by any means) and a lot funnier than I had first perceived.

'Angels and demons' just came onto our cinema screens last week and I was busting to see it. I'm not one of these people who thinks we should boycott them because they might have something nasty to say about Christianity but to watch them (not get obsessive about them) but to see what the culture is telling people.) And I have to say, it was a great movie. 

But these two combined, the reading of this book and watching 'angels and demons', it just reinforced  one thing; Christianity is all about rules rules rules. I know some of you will read this and say yeah, but in angels and demons it is dealing with the Roman Catholic church, but I would reply, when you see the film they use phrases that portrayed Christianity... people in today's world might not see the difference.

As funny as 'the year of living biblically' is, it just reinforces rules rules rules, nothing else. That is what is demanded when living for God... apparently, to abide by the rules, to play by the rules, to know the rules.

But the good thing that became evident at the end of the movie and is becoming evident as I make my way through the book, is that old line of wisdom 'rules are meant to be broken' because that is what is shown in the end.

Regardless of what rules people try to live to, ultimately we all fail. The bible tells us 'therefore no-one will be declared righteous (made right with God) in his sight by observing the law(these rules), rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.'

The fact that we all fail at rule keeping should show how far from God we really are, how much we rebel against him and should make us 'conscious of sin'

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not rules rules rules but grace grace grace (undeserved favour, ill deserved favour, kindness).

Let us tell people that to be made right with God, it is not a life of do do do, but a life of done-because Jesus done it all through his life, death and resurrection and by trusting Him, he takes our sin, we gain his righteousness and so we have a right relationship with the one true and living God. Let us tell people about our gracious God, that we 'are justified freely by his grace' so that films like angels and demons and books like 'the year of living biblically' will not win by promoting this false gospel of rules rules rules.

'Inclusivity'

For those of you who don't know, I trust and follow Jesus Christ. I have heard alot recently of the term 'inclusivity', and how we should be inclusive, for example to allow people in openly homosexual relationships to be involved within leadership of the church. 

First thing to say is that the bible is the word of God and is the ultimate authority, secondly, according to Romans and backed up everywhere else in the bible is that we all rebel against God-Romans 3: 23 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.' and so we are all on the same playing field when it comes to God-we can't get to him without help, so he came to us...which brings me to my third point, Jesus first words in Mark's biography are 'repent and believe the good news'.

The Christian life is shown through repentance-which means a complete turn around, turning your back from rebellion to God, this doesn't mean that we're perfect but it does mean a life time of pledging allegiance to the one true and living God who can forgive us for this. 

The problem with the term 'inclusivity' when it comes to Christianity is that it doesn't involve the term repentance and tells people to come into leadership regardless of their lifestyle...I am not saying I am perfect, but someone who is in an openly homosexual relationship hasn't repented. It would be like having the president of the sky diving society being someone who has never sky dived....it doesn't make sense.

I have friends who struggle with homosexuality, I have friends who struggle with heterosexual lust...I myself am one, but it doesn't give me the right to use the term 'inclusivity' to pass over it. 

A word that closely follows this term 'inclusivity' is the word 'love', I agree we all need to love everyone. But we cannot compromise the truth for the term 'love', in the same way we can't compromise 'repentance' for the term 'inclusivity.'

I once heard the story of a dad, whose son threw a hammer threw a window... he was a loving dad, but does that mean that he says, don't worry about it son, or does he set him straight and tell him he shouldn't be doing things like that? No one would think the dad loves the child less, but with the latter he wouldn't be compromising truth for love. 

As Christians, we are to speak the truth in love, remembering the first words Jesus spoke, 'repent and believe', he also said 'no one comes to the Father except through me', that sounds pretty exclusive to me... and since he's the only way to eternity, we better listen and tell other people the same, after all, it is eternity and the eternal God we are dealing with!

WELCOME

well, hello there, welcome to the thoughts of me....please feel free to comment on anything I say and hope you enjoy....let the fun begin...