Bare... as a Believer

Occasionally I participate in 5 Minute Friday.  Today's topic-Bare.

Begin 5 minutes......

I keep hearing this word.  Bare.  To me it means to lay open, to expose something, to get to see inside.  Sometimes I just want to bare it all on the inside, the pain, the passion, the grief, the excitement.  But if all that emotion overwhelms me, what will it do to others? 

Sometimes I feel like Elijah who has just seen the fire fall, and later is like, "Lord, just let me die."(1 Kings 19:1-12) Other times I feel close to God like David, and in the next breath am uttering his same words, "Why are you downcast oh my soul?" (Psalm 42:5) I also feel like Peter a lot who was physically with the Lord for 3 years, and in the garden, cut the soldier's ear off, anger blazing within. (John 18:10) But in the next moment, I am running on the beach, toward the Lord, and when He asks me, "Do you love me?", my heart melts and my reply is "Yes Lord!"(John 21:15-17)

As a believer, my faith is supposed to be laid bare, but what about the rest?  Is it to remain hidden?  Can  we as people of faith not handle it all?  I think not.  When we experience other's emotions laid bare, it makes us uncomfortable, or like we/they are doing something wrong.  What if, just what if, we looked up to God, the maker of our souls in these times of bareness, for comfort, peace, and direction as a small child would to a Father?  He is able to handle the bare.

End of 5 minutes.

Movie Review: Brave (2012) [PG]

"Our fate lies within us.  You only have to be brave enough to see it."

Love the final quote of Brave.  There will be some spoilers in my review, so if you don't want to know what happens, please don't read any further.  I am also writing this review from my own Christian beliefs, so that will be reflected as well.  There were parts of the movie I liked, and parts I didn't.  I am just going to make a fun little list that will make it easy and simple to sift through.  Okay?

What I liked:

I liked that the animators for Brave chose a female character for the lead.  Merida  is a fiery young girl, with flowing red hair, who doesn't want to have her path chosen for her and be a princess, but would rather choose her own path. She is energetic, brave, and skilled in archery

 I liked the setting.  The setting is in Scotland and the animated scenery is breathtaking and beautiful. 

I liked the family chaos.  There is a mother and father who are the king and queen, Merida who is the oldest, and three little boys who appear to be triplets.  The boys are a little mischievous, which is sort of cute and very realistic. 

The soundtrack is gorgeous.  I might buy it and listen to it.  I need to check out some of the song lyrics first.

I liked the story...to some degree.  There is a conflict between mother and daughter, which is not unusual for Disney. It is about a young girl longing to find her way and be who she was meant to become.  Merida is very brave. (Conflict between a mother and daughter is not always a good thing, but it does have a happy resolution in this case.)

 What I didn't like:

 I didn't like the mysticism in the movie.  There are these little things Merida occasionally follows which always get her into trouble called will-o'-the-wisps.  They "lead" her into bad stuff.

I didn't like the witchcraft.  They made the witch kind of gnarly, which is good, but she was funny, which made her appealing, which I didn't think was so good.  Merida is led to the witch and decides to employ the witch to help cast a spell on her mother to change her mother's mind about her fate.

Brave is a little too scary for little kids.  There was a little girl behind me who became frightened frequently and hid her eyes.  The bears are very vicious and large.  I even jumped at one point during the movie.

There was a lot of talk about destiny and fate which is common among secular movies.  They are all referring to something they cannot see, but lies within the heart of everybody, because God has a plan for us all.

A few final thoughts....

Although I didn't like the witchcraft in the movie, it did have very severe repercussions for Merida and backfired on her, which taught a lesson.  I am not sure of the age of Merida, but she is old enough to be given in marriage, but still a young girl....so I didn't know how this would be appealing to little children, even though it is a cartoon.   There are also other elements to the movie which I didn't really go into surrounding a curse and the kingdom.

Brave was unlike anything Pixar has done up to this point.  I have enjoyed a lot of their movies in the past, as have my children.  I probably won't let my children watch this one for a while.  It is a little too dark and scary and I want to be certain they understand when I explain to them about spiritual things of this nature.   If you are a believer, and you want to teach your children from a Christian point of view, then Brave will lend itself to some lessons for you.  The quote I began my post with was a final quote in the movie, which I thought was brilliant and very scriptural for the believer.

 If you want to read a more in depth review of the movie, go to www.kidsinmind.com or  www.pluggedin.com.

For another perspective on the movie Brave, please check out my friend Heather's post here at Upside Down Homeschooling.

Have you seen the movie?  What are your thoughts?

It's All About Jesus

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.-Ephesians 4:4-7

This has been on my heart for so long. This whole life is about Jesus. Everything we do should come back to Him. When this thing is all over, what will stand is God's Word and the things we did out of love for each other, and out of our love for Him. The body of Christ really needs to start looking for what we have in common, Christ. We need to quit focusing on the differences. It is dividing us and reducing our effectiveness. Let's start loving each other. That is how He said all men would know we belong to Him.

Everybody has been called to do something. I read a lot. One of the things I have been enjoying recently while reading is seeing how God uses these writers to paint a picture of Jesus. It is not a literal picture, but you can see Jesus there, within the pages. Whatever your call is, teacher, doctor, grocery clerk, waitress, Jesus should be pictured there and people should be able to see Him.

Greek Words

As part of my daily devotional, I have been reading Sparkling Gems From the Greek by Rick Renner. This morning's devotional discussed grieving the Spirit of God. In his text, Mr. Renner examined the Greek word used for grief which is lupete and comes from the word lupe, which indicates a grief that might be caused in a marriage relationship in the case of infidelity. When God said in Ephesians 4:29-32 not to grieve the Spirit of God, He was making reference to our closeness to and how the Holy Spirit feels about us. That is so amazing to me. How would I have ever known that without the examination of original text?

There are so many important things to know in the Word of God, things you can know and learn by just reading. But there is also a level of depth that cannot be achieved without knowing some history and some of the language originally used when penning the Word of God. I wonder often why people don't get healed like they did in the New Testament or even the Old Testament. There is a depth of knowledge that must be achieved for some to receive what God has made provision for in the area of healing. There are many provisions for healing in the Old and New Testament. All are because of Jesus. But people won't know this without some study. For example, as New Testament Believers, Jesus is our Passover. Everything the Passover meal was to the Hebrews leaving Egypt, Jesus is to us. That includes healing. It would require some study for a person to learn and recognize that healing is included as a part of our redemption through Jesus. The fact that Jesus is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) and what that means is visible through study. How much more can we develop our faith through diligent study of the original language and history and customs of the time?