OK – I love watching lightning. Always have. Something about it just amazes me. I’m not sure if it’s the beauty, the inherit danger or what. A few years back we lost a tree in our backyard to a lightning strike. While that was a bit close for comfort it’s still amazing. A few years back we were at Kalahari resort and I was able to capture some pretty amazing lightning pics with my camera.
But then I came across this today. Absolutely amazing video captured by a guy out in Chicago.
He also posted a follow-up video a few days later of some more video he took during another storm including the formation of an amazing rainbow over the city.
Tomorrow Pastor Chuck is preaching a message entitled “Noisy Love”. After hearing the description of his sermon I decided to put together this video to “set-up” the sermon (i.e. play before it).
It was pretty fun to do as I created a layered “noise” sound track from some stock sounds I had and also used effects to reduce the noise on the video while superimposing the heart\cross image over top (the first version had the heart\cross with a background but I didn’t like that so I did a quick photo edit to remove it). Whole thing took about an hour to put together. There was a text element I was hoping to add but didn’t have the time on this one.
Doing this stuff is a lot of fun. Hoping to do more in the future.
Today I headed out to the movies to see the new movie “To Save a Life” with some of the members of my youth group. After watching it and having some brief discussion afterward I can say that this is a movie that I would have no problem recommending to youth, to those that work with youth (either in a school setting, church setting or anyplace else) and to parents of teenagers.
Is the movie perfect? Nope. They try to cram in a bit too many things in the two hour running time (suicide, drinking, drugs, sex, pregnancy, abortion, divorce, cutting). However, everything they do put in is handled well. This is NOT an ABC after-school special. It does not hold anything back with depiction of any of these things….you see teens drinking, smoking, cutting themselves and the suicide scene is replayed (as a memory of Jake’s) a number of times. It can be a bit much for some kids. That being said, it is all handled very well and in a way that I don’t feel dishonors God. It doesn’t get overly preachy…and it even challenges the church on a few points.
I know that my youth were still talking about it tonight before and after our evening worship service. I think they all enjoyed it and I’m praying that it really gets them thinking about their own lives and the lives of those around them and the impact they can make. I challenged them to go home and reflect on the movie and how it made them feel, what it got them thinking about. We’re going to be talking about it this Wednesday night at youth group and I’m looking forward to the discussion as I really think it’s going to be a good one.
As I mentioned earlier, there are also some great challenges thrown out to both teens AND the church in general. At one point while at a youth group meeting the main character is upset about the way that people made his girlfriend feel when she came (and soon left). He gets up and goes on a little tirade but then says this line to them, “What’s the point of all this if you’re not going to let this change you?” How many of our own congregations need to hear that question?
Do yourself a favor and head to the theaters to catch this movie before it leaves. I can’t deny that I was a bit discouraged that the theater we saw it in was empty except for our group. I’m hoping that word of mouth from the youth that saw it will help get people back in the seats this weekend but I’m not expecting that it will last in the theaters a long time.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1 NIV)
Tonight the kids and I went to see Disney’s new movie “Earth”. This movie is from Disneynature and was released on Earth Day. It “tells the story” of three families – polar bears, elephants and humpback whales – and the Earth over the course of a year. None of the animals talk, the only voice you hear is that of the narrator – James Earl Jones. It follows the trials and triumphs that these creatures face as they fight for survival. Taylor and Allyson loved it, Brooke – got a little bored and scared. You see, when I said trials – I meant it. The meaning of “the circle of life” is shown in a couple different scenarios. It can be a little rough on the little ones (though there was very little blood shown – most shots were cut away at just the right moment).
From the opening image of the movie (which is what you see in the picture above) the thing that just took my breath away was the beauty of the planet we live on. The photographers did an absolutely breath-taking job of capturing the world we live on and the animals that we share it with. From the image of a polar bear cub poking it’s head out of the snow for the first time, to a very strange little bird’s mating dance (which is absolutely hilarious) we see the wonder and beauty of God’s creations. We see the grace of seasons changing through time-lapse photography and the beauty of a flower rising up from the ground after the spring thaw. There is a large “supporting cast” of animals as well from new-born ducks, to penguins, to monkeys.
There are images of thousands of birds in flight together and migrating caribou. The photographers were able to get some amazing shots of things that we rarely ever get to see and used slow motion photography to great effect with things like a great white shark breaching the water as it hunts.
One of the images that lingers in my head is a shot that took you down a river that ran through a gorge as it dropped over the edge of a cliff that was just massive and the camera pans out to look at the valley far below and then spins around to see the waterfall and then continues to zoom out to see the whole picture. It was absolutely stunning!
It’s just a wonder to me that our Creator God – took the time to make so many unique landscapes – from the cold white artic to the dry dusty desert to the lush green forest. Not only that but to make the amazing variety of creatures that inhabit this planet. That takes my breath away!
If you haven’t been able to tell – I would recommend the movie. You will laugh a little, you may cry and you may cringe in your seat at times. There are no special effects or explosions to wow you (every shot is 100% real) but through it all you can’t help but continue to come back to think what an amazing God we serve that he would create all of this and then allow us to share a part of it.
Here’s the trailer for the movie – be sure and click the HD in the bottom corner for a better quality video.
Have you ever wondered where your church finds some of those videos they use on Sunday morning? Maybe you’re looking for something a little on the humorous side to use with your youth group? While there are a ton of sites out there with some great stuff, Sermon Spice is the site that has been the one with one of the largest collections of videos. Just check it out. You can preview all of their videos on their site. I’ve used a number of their videos over the last year or two for different things.
Every month they even have a free video that you can download and use – free – everyone loves that!
And they even have their own blog which is pretty cool. They’ve also got a podcast interview with the Ragamuffin himself – you can check that out here.
The family and I went to see Prince Caspian. While I felt it was probably about 20 – 30 minutes too long and I could have done with the Telmarines having a little lighter accents I did enjoy it. The action scenes were very exciting and they did an interesting job of interpreting most of what was in the book and getting it into the story. While they took out some of the more direct references that C.S. Lewis had made to the Bible such as the healing of Caspian’s near death nurse they kept others in.
Probably my favorite scene in the movie was when Aslan and Lucy were talking after she had finally left the others to seek him out. When Lucy has to look Aslan in the eyes and explain why she didn’t have the faith or the courage to leave her brothers and sister and follow after him even if they didn’t see him. How many times do we decide to just follow the crowd instead of following Christ as we know is right. The other interesting thing about this scene is that Aslan was always there – just waiting for Lucy. He didn’t get tired of waiting and leave her, he continued to call out to her until she finally realized that she needed to seek him out. In the same way God continues to wait for many of us to realize that it is only through Him that we are saved – the good news is that he will continue to call us and wait for us.
But the image that continues to stick with me is the scene at the river. After the trees are awakened and set upon the Telmarines they retreat back to the river. Once there Aslan appears on the opposite bank and roars – sending ripples across the water and awakening the “river god”.
There were a couple of things that struck me about this scene. The first was the way in which Aslan “awoke” the river god – he breathed over the water. In essence, Aslan breathed the breathe of life into the water. Once Aslan awoke the river god I couldn’t help but notice how much the face in the water reminded me of some of the images of Jesus that I’ve seen in the past. What I saw was Aslan (God) calling up the river god (his Son) in the form of Living Water. I couldn’t get this thought out of my mind as the water crashed over the Telmarines and engulfed the evil captain of the guard. Here was an image of Christ as the Living Water defeating and engulfing his enemies.
Maybe that’s not the way Disney intended it – maybe it is. I have no way of knowing. But I do know that’s what I saw. God showed me that only by following what we know is right – by following the one true God – will we ever be satisfied. We will never know true peace and we will never know ultimate victory over evil unless we put aside our own ways, our own desires and listen for His voice and follow him. May we all find the time to sit quietly and follow the one true God to wherever He is calling us.
This is a follow-up to my post below about Eli Stone so read it and then come back and read this one.
Tonight’s episode – which you’ll soon be able to watch online at ABC – dealt with prison overcrowding and the abuses that can happen inside the jail. As some of you may know this is a subject that strikes very close to home for me as my brother is currently serving a sentence in the Federal Prison System.
The thing with this episode is – it’s true. Our prisons are horribly overcrowded. In this episode the person that Eli represents is being abused in prison because he was spekaing out against the living conditions. From talking with my brother this is the case – overcrowding that is. There are at least twice as many guys in a single cell as what it was intended for.
The other issues in the episode is that this person, and others, are basically put into situations by the warden to “shut them up” where they will be put into physical harm. Now – I am NOT saying that this is true – but it does make me wonder. I know from talking with my brother that not every correctional officer is nice. Many of them are and they treat the inmates like they are human beings, but not all of them do.
So I can’t help but wonder if this really happens. I know one day I’ll have the chance to sit down with my brother and just talk about what he went through and I can’t wait for that day. But for now all I can do is pray for his safety and for all of those in the prison system. So, would you join me in saying a prayer for all of those in prison – both the inmates and the correctional officers? Pray for safety, for repentance, and most of all for them to know that God is there with them, beside them and that he loves and forgives them. I think of Paul and how he was bound in prison but how he was able to be a light for God and minister to those he came in contact with – like the jailer in Acts 16 who came to know Christ and be saved because of Paul and Silas’ witnessing.
So…there’s this show on ABC called Eli Stone. Have you seen it? If not I encourage you to check it out. The premise is there’s a lawyer who isn’t the nicest of guys. Then he starts seeing things – hallucinations – George Michael singing to him among other things. The visions seem to “guide” him to take on certain cases, to help people in need. He visits a Chinese acupuncturist who is actually a main of faith and suggests there could be a divine answer for why he’s having delusions of grandeur – Eli may be a prophet. Eventually he gets an MRI and finds out he’s got a brain aneurysm. He also remembers that his father had the same thing happen to him. Of course, Eli is torn between believing that the visions are inspired by God or his medical condition. By the end of each episode Eli’s visions have guided him to take on a case he would never have taken on in the past (many times pro bono) and help someone less fortunate. There is also a romantic arc (or two) that go on in the show and quite a bit of humor around all of it. Many times Eli’s visions come at rather, in opportune moments and cause him a rather large amount of embarrassment.
I personally love the show. I like that it isn’t raise the question of whether God speaks to us today. I like that it shows a law firm who’s original goal was to serve only the biggest clients and make the most money and now they get behind the case of the little man. That the cases Eli takes aren’t about making money but making people’s lives better. Yes, it does have a few moments that may make you cringe (like tonight’s sub-story about gay chimps being lovers – seriously). I guess what I’m wondering is if anyone else watches and what you think. A few shows lately have tried to bring faith into our living rooms – Joan of Arcadia being the last one – which I also enjoyed. While these shows by no means should replace reading the Word of God, they do open the door that could allow us to strike up some interesting conversations around the office.
What do you think about prime time TV trying to tell a message?
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