Friday

~ birkland8 ~ 1 Comment

V100025D

While Dick was in Spokane this weekend, the girls and I decided to watch our new video,
The Gospel of John, part of the Visual Bible series. We have watched other movies based on the Bible, but most of them include their own ideas about what might have been said or done in Bible times, rendering the account more “historical fiction” than Bible. The Visual Bible does things a little differently, taking only the actual words from the Good News Bible and using them as dialogue and narration. The effect was riveting. I had planned on watching half of the three-hour DVD, but decided in the middle to keep going.

The man who portrayed Jesus did so with a ready smile in the movie, though not so much for the Pharisees. I was struck by the number of times Jesus said “I am telling you the truth…”, and I think that all three of His invitations to us to ask God for things in His Name were included. The gospel message was given in a quotation of John 3:16. But there were also a couple of omissions that I would consider significant: First, Jesus’ words “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by Me,” were left out, and also John’s reason for writing his gospel: “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

It’s time well-spent. Get the video—-or you can borrow mine!

Wednesday

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dangerous-journey

Marcus, Lilah and I have been reading Pilgrim’s Progress together when they visit.  Actually, it’s a children’s version called Dangerous Journey.  The illustrations are pretty graphic, enough to arrest a seasoned gamer I would think, let alone 7-year-old Marcus.  Next to the monster Giant Despair there’s a mountain of skulls.  And the narrow ribbon of a path the main character, Christian, must navigate through the darkness of the Valley of the Shadow is downright unnerving.  The kids and I are almost at the end of the book now, approaching the Dark River.  But on the other side, above the clouds is the Celestial City, and Christian has his eyes on this, his goal.  We are all on a path to somewhere . . . where is your path headed?