God’s Not Dead/The Movie“Noah”- Flooded With Lies

                                                Christians beware!

Darren Aronofsky, a self-professed Atheist, and the writer/director of the feature film, “Noah” has staged an insidious, heinous scheme to bamboozle Christians
into supporting what he described to The Telegraph, as, “the least biblical-
biblical film ever made.” Throughout the entire film, the word “God” is not
mentioned even once. Instead God is referred to as “The Creator.”  But given the fact that Aronofsky’s impression of God is so far from the loving, merciful God that we as Christians
know, I believe that in this sense, not using God’s name, may have actually
been the least blasphemous aspect of this entire project.

 

One of the most troubling facets of Aronosky’s entire plot was his attempt to misguide and confuse his audience by implying that “The Creator”, was a heartless, cruel tyrant,
whose only interest was to torture mankind.  He also managed to turn Noah; one of the most innovative, inspired and faithful figures in the bible ,into a deranged, delusional, murderous,
mad-man.  And I suppose he decided to model Noah’s family  after some dysfunctional
reality show,  there was no unity and they were falling apart due to mutiny, jealously and rebelliousness.

 These obvious discrepancies to scripture would not poise any real issues for a seasoned Christian that reads and understands The Bible for themselves.   As Christians,
we fully believe The Bible to be the true, actual Word Of God, and  a veteran Christian would more than likely escape Aronosky’s cunning attempts at coercion.
But to the person who is unchurched, undecided or unfamiliar with The
Bible, after seeing this twisted tale, they might be more easily swayed to
steer away from developing a Christ centered relationship.

 

 Although Aronofsky lacked the imagination to author an original story that would adequately demean “The Word Of God”, all on his own. He did manage to invoke Creative License, by changing angels into rock creatures and inserting other fictitious characters, which never previously existed in s any version of original scripture. It’s no wonder he felt the need
to title this film, “Noah”, otherwise no one, especially Christians, would’ve recognized
Aronofsky’s version as all.  Not only did this movie barely resemble the chronicles of Noah, it was just a bad film.  It was also confusing, unnecessarily lengthy, sporadic and hard to follow.  As an
action film aficionado, Atheist vs. Christian component aside, I still would
not have recommended this movie and only given it a C minus.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I take full responsibility for the fact that I allowed myself to be to hoodwinked  into spending my money  through promo trailers  filled with A List Actors and promises of riveting,  non-stop action,  on a film that turned out to be just another
average piece of junk.   The thing that really ticked me off is that Aronofsky maliciously plotted against Christians in order to lure them into spending their hard earned money to line his pockets
and support his Atheist film project.   To Christians, the parables written in The
Bible are seen as the sacred, inspired words of God.  He could’ve released this movie at any other
time of the year, but he chose to release it during the holy Lenten season,
because he knew that the Christian community, starved for films containing
spiritual content, would see the title of this movie and automatically flock to
theatres to see it.  If that was not an obvious, malicious, targeted plot against the Christian community, I don’t know
what is.

 

I only hope is that I might save others from being tricked into spending their money on this
distorted piece of fiction.  But if curiosity is killing you and you’ve just gotta see “Noah”,  rent it for a buck on Redbox.

 

 And don’t  be discouraged or detoured if you still would like to take your family out to the theater to see an inspirational spiritual show.  There are still writers and directors out there who honor and respect this holy season by releasing quality films. I was fortunate enough to be turned onto just such a film.  My sister happened to come across it while reading the reviews for “Noah”.   It’s a wonderful independent movie called “God’s Not Dead”, and she raved about it so much that I went out to see it the same day. I’m so happy that I did because it did not disappoint.  It was the story of a young Christian student, (Josh Wheaton) who is faced with a dilemma that came to challenge his faith on his very first day of class as a college freshman.   His
Philosophy Professor,  the fanatical, combative, smug, Atheist, (Professor Radisson),
informs the students that they must deny the existence of God  by writing, “God is dead” on a piece of paper and signing their name,  in order to avoid a failing grade.   

This becomes Josh’s moment of truth because he must now choose between his faith or his otherwise pristine academic career and his well-planned future. If Josh refuses to admit
that God is dead, he must then prove God's existence by presenting well-researched, intellectual arguments and evidence ver the course of the semester, and engage Radisson in a head-to-head debate in front of the class. Feeling alone and afraid, Josh stands practically alone as he tries to prove the existence of God. 

This film was actually inspired by many accounts of actual occurrences at universities all
across the United States.  What I find most encouraging about this movie is that it called out to a generation that is often seen as apathetic to stand up for what they believe in.  It also reminded me that at one point or another in our lives, we will all be called as individuals to stand alone to
defend our principals.  Two of my favorite quotes came to mind as I sat and watched this film.  Malcom X said, “You must stand for something or you will fall for anything.” And Edmond Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Watching this film, “God’s Not Dead” inspired me to stand up and do my part, and for me, it was writing this article. But even if you don’t know what to do, do something!  Maybe doing your part is texting 10 friends the simple reminder, “God’s Not Dead”, or maybe it’s just to go and see the
film.  And I do recommend that you go out and see this film, but not because it defends a cause that I believe in, but because it inspires us to stand and act on our faith, whatever it is you have
faith in. And isn’t that what art is supposed to do, inspire us to contribute a change that will effectuate a positive difference around us and the universe overall?

 

Winning The Ultimate War; Life

Today I watched a game about the strategy behind winning war, “The Art of War” in the form of a film.  And it got me to thinking about life and how our lives are just like war, and how each of the challenges that we face in our lives are our battles.  The thing about our battles is that we must face, fight and win each of them, one battle at a time.   For the first time, I finally understood the meaning of the saying, “Life is not about the destination, but the journey”, up until today, I always thought that was just some crap people try to pacify you with when you lose.  But if that is true, it must also be true that if Life is like war, it’s not about just winning the war, but about how we fight and how we win the battles along the way that really make us the winners we become, when we finally do conquer our opponents.   It truly does matter how we win and not just that we win. 

The way that we fight our battles, says so much about who we are, the amount of integrity that we employ, the ethics in the execution of our tactics and how we affect everyone around us who is watching us fight our battles matters as well.  It’s important that we remember that it’s not just the soldiers on our team who will be watching us; our enemies will be watching us as well.  When we are tasked with making decisions on the strategies that we will use to win our battles, we have the power to affect those that we come in contact with in a positive way as well as a negative one; every battle is an opportunity to effectuate a positive or negative change through the impression that we leave as we walk away from the battlefield; choice is up to us. 

No one wins every battle that they fight, and whether or not you win or you lose, it really is about how you play the game.  And if you are fighting a worthy adversary, in the end, they will respect the way that you played the game, no matter the outcome of the battle. 

For me when it comes to adversaries, I know that I can face no opponent greater than myself.  More often than not, I am my own worst enemy, and the majority of my biggest battles begins, are fought and won or lost, first, right inside of my own head.  There have been so many times that I missed out on my blessings simply because I lost the battle in my head and talked myself out of ever going out into the world and onto life’s real battlefield.  Man, make no mistake about it, the battle that we have with our daily thoughts is the most fierce scuffle that we will ever fight.  What I am discovering is that in order to    successfully and consistently win our worldly battles, we must first learn how to win the tug-o-war  with ourselves that is taking place in our minds before the main event begins;  mastering this skill is what  will ultimately determine whether  or not we succeed at winning the war.

So then I started thinking again…if life is like war and each of the obstacles we face are like battles, what weapons has God given us to fight it? I believe that God has given each of us a different set of weapons to fight, since each of our battles are as different as we are.  The battles that we fight are determined for each of us, depending on what purpose God has assigned to our lives.  The battles we fight train us and groom us to be the people that we are ultimately meant to be.  Therefore the weapons that are given to us will also be designed around helping us fulfill that purpose.  For example, my gifts and talents, also known as my weapons, are centered on words.  I fight my battles as a writer by using the sword of the written word and as a radio show host and film producer with the spoken word.  I believe that God gifted me with these talents to fight each of my battles until I ultimately reach my goal, and to effectuate a positive change through each and every person that I might encounter along the way.

I am one of “Those People” that really believes that our words have power. I believe that, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” (Edward George Bulwer Lytton), and that “A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his words, from the fruit of his mouth will a man have good food in full measure”, (Proverbs 12:14).  But I also believe that, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).  And if I believe that this is true then I also know that God, in His infinite love for us, must’ve also equipped us with some equally potent weapons to fight these spiritual battles that we too often encounter.  If we read carefully, it’s easy to see that all of the clues to winning are written in God’s word, for example, Proverbs 18:21 says this; “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”.  It was only after reading that scripture that it became easy for me to deduce that through daily prayer and renewing my mind by reading the word of God that I learned how to use His words as weapons to use to my advantage in winning these types of battles as well.

The written word of God and the words of our mouths through prayer and the seeds that we plant through the words we speak,  are weapons that God has given us all access to in order to fight the self-defeating thoughts that we struggle continuously with.  But for me, words are also the personal gifts and talents that God has given me to fight the battles of my personal war and to achieve my life’s purpose.  So now I challenge everyone that takes the time to read this, to discover and to utilize their own individual gifts and talents that God has given to them in order to fight and win all of the battles that they may face, as well as winning the ultimate victory in the war of life.  And don’t forget to leave a lasting and positive impression on this world before you leave by inspiring and encouraging everyone you encounter along the way.

Change Your Default Settings-Change Your Life

Recently I just celebrated my birthday, and I’ve always hated the fact that my birthday comes in January.  Because my birthday comes right after the holidays, people are broke, tired and at least 10 pounds overweight.  Everyone has already started their New Year’s resolutions , so no one is able to spend money, eat and they are by now, all partied out.  Many times, I’ve vowed to change the date that I celebrate my birthday; I have always wanted to celebrate my birthday in some warm weather.  I’ve always envied people who are born in the warm summer months, they have it made, everybody is in the mood to party and have fun in the summer.  Next year maybe I will just go celebrate my birthday by throwing a party for all of my friends and family in Miami or better yet Hawaii….

Anyway, it turns out that this year, as in years past; my birthday was one of the coldest days of the year yet, here in Atlanta.  And since I hate, hate, hate cold weather, I celebrated my birthday indoors.  This was good for me, because I’ve decided to use this time to do a little reflecting and reconciling.  This is something I do every year at this time; it seems to be the one advantage of being born in January.  Every year for the past several years, on my birthday, I look back over my life and evaluate my progress in accomplishing my goals, my relationships, my areas of weakness, and my mistakes(so that I can learn from them-NO REGRETS THOUGH).  I do this to make sure that I’m headed in the right direction,  and that I’m not wasting time and energy on people and projects that are not in line with my purpose and with my  ideology.  I don’t just do this in January, I do it as often as possible, but it’s especially important to me on my birthday. I need just to make certain that I don’t roll all of my old mistakes over into the New Year.

 For example, in the past, I’ve wasted valuable time by allowing the wrong people into my inner sanctum, and more often than not, I wound up getting off the track of my intended purpose.  This process usually occurred in a very insidious facet.  Most of the time, it was so gradual that I didn’t even realize that it was happening.  When you let someone into your life (at least for me) and you care about them, naturally you want to make them happy. But if you don’t have goals and purposes that coincide with one another, and that’s where the problems begin.  If we aren’t careful we can mistake supporting someone else’s goals for adopting their goals, and what started off as supporting a friend,  can turn into extreme compromise of your own values, principals or ideas, and eventually abandonment of self. 

There were many times when I tried so hard to please people who were impossible to please, and didn’t appreciate my efforts.  As a result I wasn’t true to myself, and I wound up unhappy anyway.  One of my favorite performers; Chante’ Moore said it best, “Why do we give ourselves away, until only emptiness remains?”  

And let’s not forget those people whom are constantly causing drama, chaos and turmoil in their own lives and simply by means of association, their havoc starts to spill over into your life as well, causing you to expend valuable energy that you could have been using elsewhere in your life.   At least that’s how it has happened to me.  When I decide to let a person into my life, I give it my all to make that relationship work.  The way I see it, this can be both a blessing and a curse.  But this is why I must constantly evaluate my relationships, to make sure that I don’t allow them to pull me off of my destined path and onto theirs.

Another area of my life I need to watch closely is taking on too many projects or activities that just keep me busy, but don’t put me any closer to attaining my goals.  Taking on unproductive busy work has proven to prematurely exhaust my most valuable resources, which are my time and my energy.  I call these my most valuable resources because these are the only two that I cannot retrieve.  Unlike money, which, ebbs and flows, comes and goes, like the currents in the water, money is supposed to move, it’s a conduit, its very nature is to come and then go. There’s no doubt that money is an expression of energy.  But time, as they say, waits for no man and like time, energy, once it’s wasted, it can never be regained.  

In the past I’ve wasted lots of both, by getting involved in the wrong projects, opportunities, ventures and get rich quick schemes.  Until I discovered my purpose, I would just throw paint against the wall hoping that something would eventually stick. 

But today as I sat and reminisced on this past year, I realized that I had overlooked a very significant pattern that I had developed in my life.  This pattern involved a certain stubbornness that I had around changing some of my daily habits and my procrastination in severing stagnate relationships.  What’s so amazing is that I didn’t recognize those tendencies  until  today.

Occasionally, when God wants to lead me in a particular direction, He will often do it through something someone may say to me.  This time He led me to listen to a sermon by my spiritual father; T.D. Jakes (although he doesn’t know he’s my spiritual father, in my mind, I’ve adopted him and given him that title…lol) he pointed it out to me.  His sermon was entitled, “There’s nothing as powerful as a changed mind.”  And it really spoke to my spirit; it’s definitely worth checking out.

 http://youtu.be/-SiLaF0ijOo

In this sermon, Bishop Jakes talked about “Changing your default Settings”.  And after listening to his thought provoking lecture, I was then led me to read chapters 12 and 13 from Genesis. These were the first two chapters where God first called Abraham and told him that someday he would be the father of many nations. 

When God first called Abraham, He told him that he was to first, pack up all that he owned and leave his home and relatives and go to this unknown place that He would reveal to him later.  Now obviously, that would not be an easy thing for any of us to do, including Abraham, even though he is called the father of our faith, because Abraham only partially obeyed God.  Yes he did pack up and leave as God had instructed him, but he took his nephew, Lot with him, when God clearly told him to leave his relatives behind.  Over the next two chapters of Genesis, Abraham had physically moved his entire household, his servants, his belongings and livestock, no less than six times.  And Abraham wasn’t done making mistakes yet, while fleeing a famine he lied to the king of Egypt and basically sold his wife as a concubine to the king out of fear for his own life.  But what I noticed was that even though Abraham continued to make all of these mistakes, was disobedient and didn’t always exercise the best judgment, God continued to protect him, provide for him and increase him financially.  In fact, God blessed Abraham as well as Lot, simply as a result of his association with Abraham.  God had blessed the two of them so much that they had both become very wealthy with livestock and servants. The ironic thing was that their wealth is what eventually almost tore their relationship apart; it did separate them physically.  The land that they were sharing could not continue to support the multitude of all that they had both accumulated, while they were living so close together.   Abraham gave Lot the best part of the land, and Lot took it and went on his way. 

I’m sure this too was hard for Abraham, because although God did promise him that someday he would have children, he didn’t yet have any of his own, and Lot was like a son to him.  But it wasn’t until Lot had left Abraham that God allowed him to stop the seemingly aimless wandering that he was doing.  It was then that God allowed Abraham to settle down, so that he could develop the intimate relationship between the two of them that He had intended from the beginning.  Abraham was now free to focus the attention and energy that he was putting into his relationship with Lot into his relationship with God.  God needed this one on one time with Abraham to prepare him for the blessing that He had promised him.  God needed to retrain Abraham’s thoughts, and the behavior patterns that he had carried with him that he inherited from his family.  It was very hard for Abraham to break his old habits and patterns while he was still hanging out with his family members that were still practicing those same old behavior patterns.  Basically, he needed to strip Abraham of his old ways, build new habits and remold him all over again. 

This process went on between God and Abraham for several more years. For a while, Abraham continued to repeat his old habits and fall into some of the weaknesses of his past by rescuing Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah, and conceiving Ismael with his servant girl outside of his marriage.  Until one day, at 99 years old, it seemed as though Abraham just woke up, and one day and decided to do things differently. After many years of moving around in circles and repeating the same mistakes, time after time, he learned how to “Change His Default Settings”, and he finally got it right.  And the good news is that just one Year after Abraham implemented the changes necessary in his life, the promise that God had made to him so many years ago, was manifested and he and his wife Sarah birthed Isaac. 

It was after reading Abraham’s story, that I also understood that changing one’s default settings is a process, it doesn’t happen overnight.  While studying Abraham’s saga, a light bulb suddenly came on in my head that connected his narrative with my own life journey.   Through the clarity of my “Ah ha moment,” I could clearly see Abraham’s mistakes and the patterns that caused him to continue to repeat those mistakes.  I could also see why God’s intention from the beginning was for Abraham to leave his family of origin and their patterns behind him, before to setting off on the journey God needed him to take to become the man he needed to be, before making him the “Father of many nations”. 

At the same time, it was easy for me to see why God needed to remove the wrong people, habits and behavior patterns out of my life as well.   Like Abraham these were the obstacles that were preventing me from becoming all I was intended to be.  It also gave me such great comfort to see how good God is to us, even when we screw up and make mistakes and even when we are purposely, blatantly, disobedient, He still doesn’t give up on us.  He is still there, faithfully, mercifully, guiding us, protecting us, and not just providing for us, but surprisingly, He still abundantly blesses us. 

I also know that any real, lasting change is a process, we live our life in stages and fortunately, God never wastes any of our experiences, He uses all of our experiences, the good and the bad, our triumphs as well as our mistakes, to work for our good.  But honestly, I will share with you that my prayer and wish on the day of my birth was, “Lord, please help me to “Change my Default Settings”, starting today, because I don’t want to spend my entire lifetime, and wait until my 99^th birthday before I finally reach my fullest potential and become the person that I was put here to become.