Putting the Bridegroom Before the Bride

 "Leadership positions can actually distract us from the very sensitivity we are thought to be maintaining.  We can become so preoccupied with serving the Bride that we neglect our vital connection to the Bridegroom.  We live in an age when the driving agenda of so many ministers, in its raw essence, is a relationship with the Bride.  They spend more energy investing in a relationship with the Bride than with the Bridegroom."

"A paradigm of spiritual leadership that gives more attention to the body than to the Head is bankrupt.  It's true that leaders need to be faithful to feed the flock of God, but the only way to be a true witness for Jesus is to come to the word for yourself first, and then feed the flock from the overflow of what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you personally."

"The true friend of the Bridegroom doesn't come to the word primarily to find sermon material but to see the Living Word in the pages that point to Him.  He knows he will effectively serve the Bride only to the degree that he is maintaining a fiery, intimate relationship with the Bridegroom."

"The great leaders of this end-time generation will be those who have a personal, compelling relationship with Jesus, and who come to the word primarily for the purpose of encountering the Man, Jesus Christ.  If you don't demonstrate a compelling passion for Jesus in this hour, you will be bypassed as worthy to help the Bride prepare herself for her wedding day."

-Bob Sorge in "It's Not Business, It's Personal"

It's Been Awhile

Hey everybody.

It's been a very long time since I've posted and even longer since I've actually written something of my own.  I've had a very busy fall quarter that came immediately after my very busy summer of traveling and filming.  Just wanted to give an update on my life and my film.  I am very excited about how the production went for my film Why We Go and am anxious to get going in the post-production process.  I hope to have a trailer ready by the new year and am still hoping winter and spring quarter will be kind enough to me so I can finish the film by the summer of 2013.

I was not able to work on it at all during fall quarter which wasn't the easiest thing in the world.  However I learned that one can only do so much and I certainly wasn't lazy the past few months.  In fact they were probably the most productive 3 months of my entire life.  Between school, work, church and being president of a college Christian group my time was pretty much tied up 24-7.

But now it's Thanksgiving break and over the next week I'll be posting some of my fall quarter work, some more book quotes, and perhaps even some thoughts of my own. 

Stay tuned :)

Why We Go Update #1

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Why We Go

Hey everyone!! Quick life update. Many of you may know this already but this summer I am traveling with YWAM Mazatlan to London, Spain, and Northern Africa. I'm going to be filming their outreach team and making a documentary about the importance of missions. I'd say more but you can check it all out on my Indiegogo page. I'm super pumped!!! Thanks everyone for your prayers and support, none of this could be possible without all my wonderful friends and family. God bless!! Check back often for updates!

Holy Affection

"As perversion grows in a society, people begin to withhold their affection so that they won't be perceived as sexual predators. As people withhold their affection, a famine of love begins to grow in the land. In a society starving for affection, love-deprived folks begin to lower their sexual standards to obtain some affection. As they break their moral barriers to do this, perversion increases. This, of course, causes even more people to withhold their love, and the beat goes on and on. Thousands of years ago, the wisest king ever born, King Solomon, wrote, "...to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet" (Prov. 27:7). To love-famished people, even perverted affection is better than no love at all."

"People are starving for true love that is manifested through an embrace, a holy kiss, or reassuring compliments. But for this culture to be restored...we have to have pure hearts, clean motives, and healthy minds before we restore holy affection."

"I want to emphasize that you can and should have healthy, nonsexual soul ties with people, whether you are married or not. It is normal to have loving, affectionate friendships with people of the same heart."

Kris Vallotton in "Moral Revolution"

KONY 2012

So I feel out of the loop having only just watched this today, but here it is. The new video by Invisible children on Joseph Kony. This is exciting to me in more ways than one. Obviously it is exciting to have the prospect of justice being carried out on the earth. However being an aspiring film maker, seeing the power documentaries can have to change the world is also highly encouraging.

It is 30 minutes but it is well worth your time. Please note, and having done some research myself I believe the filmmakers agree, that this is a short, simple film. It is not an all encompassing detailed account of the conflict in Uganda and in Africa. It is meant as a gateway. A gateway for you to do more research on your own about the conflict and a gateway for you to voice your opinion on what you think should be done about it. I also encourage you, (as you always should) to not just accept what you see and hear. While I definitely support Invisible Children and what they are doing I think it is also important to understand why people do not support them and what they have received criticism for. Here is an interesting blogpost with a counter argument that you could check out after you watch the video. The comments and discussion below it are interesting as well. Also you can check out Visible Children.

Personally I think that no matter what, Invisible Children has already been successful. They have more people talking about this issue than ever before. There is an increase in knowledge of the subject as well as new ideas and opinions being presented that can help the world work towards a solution.

Anyway, here it is. If you don't have 30 minutes I have posted the 1 minute trailer below it. Also if you have never seen the original Invisible Children film I would encourage you to find a way to view that sometime as well.





Updated March 11, 2012
Detailed info from IC about their current status:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html

The Proposal

Here is my film for my Production Processes class. I Co-wrote the original script. I also was the Director on the shoot and did all the Editing for this version.



Here are a couple production stills from the shoot that took place back in early November.

Unconditional Acceptance

"When someone knows the good, bad, and ugly of our lives and they still choose to love us in spite of it all, we experience unconditional acceptance. Some people define intimacy as "in to me you see." People who are afraid of intimacy never really feel loved. They discredit any affection or affirmation that is given to them because they believe that if poeple really knew them they would reject them. Therefore, they conclude that the only reason poeple love them is because they don't know who they really are."

-Kris Vallotton in "Moral Revolution"

Return to Glory?

This might offend you.

I was in my prayer room this morning. I had IHOP on. They were praying and interceding like they do. They went into a time of rapid-fire prayer for orphans and the raising up of spiritual fathers; it was great. Then this guy comes on and prays that the LORD would return this country to the ways of its fathers. You know Washington and Jefferson and Madison. He went into a spiel about ending abortion and all that jazz about how America is so terrible and we need to get brought back to our former ways. Which you know sounds great…unless you’ve actually studied anything about the history of the United States. Most of our Founding Fathers were not Christians; they were deists. In other words they believed God existed but that he was super distant and didn’t really do anything on the earth. Also most of our founding fathers, including Jefferson and Washington had slaves and killed Native Americans (check out Abe Lincoln). All of them agreed that all people were created equal but women couldn’t vote or own land.

So pretty much what this guy was praying was LORD end abortion and return us to the days when slavery was rampant, genocide of the Native Americans was a daily and celebrated occurrence, and women weren’t really seen as people. Now I’m all for ending abortion, but we (especially as a church) need to stop glorifying the old days of our country. We were NOT morally better people then than we are now. It just looked different. Instead we need to wake up and realize that God doesn’t want to go back. He wants to do something new. He wants to do something He hasn’t done before; he wants to bring a renaissance. It’s not going to look like it did before it’s going to be a “new birth.” “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).

Wake up Christians, I know you think America is God’s chosen country…it’s not. That’s Israel. However, if we repent and we go after the new thing that God is doing, if we allow God to change the way we think and bring us into a new way of doing things, a new way of doing “church,” a new way of doing government, a new way of doing business, a new way of doing media, a new way of taking care of the poor, a new way of doing community, then God will use us. He will use us in a BIG way. But it’s not going to come from going back to what we had before. It’s got to be something new.

You are Beautiful

It's true.

Moral Revolution

Here are some more quotes from Kris Vallotton's book Moral Revolution:

"Virtues help us to live from the inside out instead of from the outside in.  No longer do I live by other people's rules.  Instead, I live by values that guide my attitudes, which, in turn, determine my choices.  Choices dictate my behavior.  My behaviors become manifestations of my personhood, and my personhood leads me into my destiny."

"Hiding your flaws only allows your dysfunctional cycle to continue.  It is only when you are real with God, with yourself, and with others that you begin to become healthy and find freedom and wholeness in your life."

"When we have a vision for our lives, we restrain our options to capture the vision.  But if we have no vision, we perish or stumble because we end up spending all of our energy either trying to find pleasure or working to stay out of pain."

"I don't mean that other people can't encourage us, but if we live to fulfill someone else's vision for our lives, we transfer the responsibility for our personal choices to someone else.  This begins the unhealthy pattern of behaving to please people instead of living out of the virtues that are rooted in our personal vision."

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I did want to reflect a little bit on a the last quote.  One thing I've noticed been noticing lately about myself is that I really like to please people.  I'm just not very good at saying no to people.  Now all in all this isn't bad and it actually stems from the compassion and love I have for others as well as the fact that I want them to be happy.  However I've noticed lately that I really hate conflict and I will do a lot to avoid it even it if means overextending myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  It also means that I will lie and/or keep my real emotions and feelings covered up in a situation in order to keep peace.  This is usually not good.  Jesus called us to be peace makers not peace keepers (Matthew 5:9).  Why am I sharing this?  Not sure I guess.  I guess I just want to encourage you as I encourage myself to please God and do his will for your life rather than trying to do what everyone else has planned for you.  Have vision for your life and restrain yourself from certain things so that you can reach that goal.  You can't do everything.  So find your role in the Kingdom, find your assignment, and do that.  Just make sure you are doing it out of intimacy and love and that you are a lover before you are a worker.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30

Momentos

This is such a good short film

MOMENTOS from Nuno Rocha on Vimeo.

Religion

Good explanation of the difference between religion and Jesus

Love Yourself

"People treat you the way you treat yourself. If you treat yourself like crap, you are inviting other people to do the same. If you carry yourself like a prince or a princess, others will relate to you like one...So learn to love yourself because God does, and He is always right." -Kris Vallotton in Moral Revolution

Reformation Through Loyalty

Gifts

"Anyone can give away something expensive, but only those who understand sacrifice can give away something valuable." -Kris Vallotton in Moral Revolution