When approaching the Greatest Story Ever Told, how would someone balance the reverence of the sacred text and still offer something new enough to draw a crowd? For Simon Moore and Carlos Kotkin, writers of the new Sony Animation/AFFIRM Films release The Star, arriving in theaters Friday, focusing on lovable, talking animals surrounding the holy family helps bring a new perspective on the journey to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus Christ.
Mass shootings and terrorist attacks have become so common that we tend to just stop for a moment, listen to the grim statistics and then go on with our business. Some of us don’t even stop to hear the news anymore.
“Without.” The word for orphan from the original language of the Bible simply meant “without.” Today, the United Nations defines an orphan as a child who has lost parents due to neglect, abandonment, abuse, or death. The UN definition is just an expansion of “without.”
Five hundred years ago this week, Martin Luther staged the most important protest movement in history. He was upset because Roman Catholic officials were promising people forgiveness of sins or early escape from purgatory in exchange for money. So on October 31, 1517, Luther nailed a long list of complaints on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Have you ever questioned whether you should clap when the worship team is done with its set? I know that in most Western churches, this is unheard of. But would you clap if you went to a concert and saw musicians play their hearts out with the same level of excellence and passion? Why do we separate the two? Why is it culturally acceptable outside of the church for people’s talents to be celebrated, but inside the church, that would be seen as proud or stealing glory from God?
So you pray for something for years and then you wake up one day, breathe a big sigh and say to yourself: This is crazy. Nothing is happening. God must not be listening.
