Dear Prayer Partner,
I have tried to keep these very short, but I have a lot on my mind right now.
I have just seen so clearly how confused and hungry our world is for answers to the "God Question."
If you have time there are links here for you to dig deeper into tv show and movies I talk about.
Otherwise, just jump to the end, and pray that our culture would keep looking for answers, until it finds the truth.
Our world is very religious. Everyone has ideas about heaven and hell and God and church.
It is very difficult to sort the lies from the truth and the half truths. Three things in this last week have pointed to the searching that is going on in our culture.
First - the last episode of LOST. Not sure if you watched it our not, but it was full of good vs. evil, and even depicted an after-death/heaven/purgatory scene. The answers it presented were not theologically accurate, but it showed that our culture is hungry for answers. Here is a link to a three minute summary of the final season.
Second - I was in Evergreen this evening and watched the ends of two shows with my parents as we sat around after dinner.
We saw the end of the movie, The Big Kahuna, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189584/
(Spoiler alert) Here is the plot summary:
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"On the last evening of a convention two seen-it-all industrial lubricant salesmen and a youngster from the research department gather in the hotel's hospitality suite to host a delegates party. The main aim is to get the business of one particular big fish. When it becomes apparent that it is the lad who has developed a direct line to the guy, his strong religious beliefs bring him into sharp conflict with his older and more cynical colleagues."
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I first was exposed to this Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito film by some of my post-modern, emergent pastor friends. They said it represented what they found most frustrating about Evangelical Christianity. The young man in the movie is a zealous Christian, who goes to a party and talks to the "big fish" business client about Jesus instead of presenting the sales pitch.
The reason I bring this movie up is the religious content in the movie. Our culture is hungry for answers. If you ever see the film, I would love to talk to you about it.
Finally, we saw the end of Religulous, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815241/
Plot Summary:
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With quotes from major figureheads like Thomas Jefferson, George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden, Bill Maher, with a Jewish-Catholic background, sets out to prove that having faith and seeking directions from God is basically ridiculous and may be due to a neurotic disorder. Interviewing Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, scientists, gays, and atheists, he cites that the number of non-believers is increasing in North America. He attempts to prove his point by citing inconsistencies in the Bible, the controversial birth of Lord Jesus, the inability of religious heads to account for His absence for over 18 years, as well as the absence of any concrete evidence that disproves the theory of evolution.
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The thing that strikes me as I think about these three works is this: this is my mission field. These are the people I walk and talk with every day. The people who wrote these stories might as well be my neighbors. Particularly when it comes to the cynicism.
The only way to make progress in a society that is this jaded by the power of prayer! We need God to break through hard hearts and skeptical minds. We need to continue to preach the gospel to a world that does not understand what we are saying.
Paul said it this way in the book of Romans
1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Action items
1) Pray that we would find ways to talk to our neighbors about their own doubts and questions
2) Pray that we would "preach the gospel" well by living it in front of a cynical society
Thanks for reading this "longer than normal" prayer request.
You may want to discuss this one further. Please feel free to comment on my facebook page or just email me.
Peace,
mark
Mark Kraakevik
The EDGE Colorado - live the message
720-308-4051
We all have demons, don't face your alone***
"Faith is our relationship to and with God. And it is given life and meaning in our relationship to and with each other."
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