It's Everywhere

I currently attended a local comic book convention called X-Con. It was great and I can't wait to go back again. What I really loved about this year was they had Sam Jones, the 1980's Flash Gordon!

I didn't get my picture with him, but I was able to attend his panel. The thing that surprised me the most was his consistent reference to prayer and letting God be part of your decision making process. He told us several stories where he and his wife prayed over a job and their prayers were answered. He talked about being humble and it being important to have Gods' hand on things when you make decisions.

All of this talk about God being involved with decisions reminded me of Matthew 6:33, "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." Sam Jones ended up with a career in security that allows him to travel to conventions and do his acting gigs while maintaining full time status. That's not an easy thing to come by and is a reminder to me that God watches over those people who follow his commandments.

The choices we make, the changes we take

While looking at the list of books I have been reading I have found myself drawn more and more to coming of age stories. The understanding that the way things were at first are no longer that way. That things change because of the choices we make. That the choices we make now will effect even our life after this one.

Part of what drew me to Christianity was the emphases on having a choice. On everything that you do being your choice. That echoed as true with everything I had experienced in life up until then. That God wanted people freely choosing to be His and live His way, that His Love was based on His choice to create and be with us. This was a defining moment for me. In Joshua 24:15 The Bible says, "But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

It's such a simple concept, but one overlooked by many people. The Bible says, "Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe." {Proverbs 2:11} This is taught to everyone by their parents and God teaches it to everyone who will listen. Such a simple concept, taught everywhere, but often overlooked when we live everyday life. It's time to choose who we will serve!

The Temptation of the Hobbit

I was able to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It is an amazing and beautiful movie. It's always nice to see your childhood on the big screen done relatively well. While I was watching the movie, I was struck by one scene in particular. The scene where Bilbo viciously stabs the white spider that comes from up from it's hide away and is heading to pick up the ring. The part that struck me most is towards the end of the scene where he yells, "mine!". It's a very intense scene. But it made me think of how sin holds us the same way.

In the movie, Bilbo turns to the ring for reassurance and refers to it as his courage when talking to Gandalf. We do very similar things when it comes to the sins in our lives. We take our security from money and end up loving it, we call drunkenness "liquid courage" and people often times turn to inappropriate sex to feel loved and happy. When we are challenged on this, we say "Mine!" and defend ourselves in many different ways. In the end though, whoever tries to take our sin and help us to do better we are ready to stab. I know, because I've been there myself.

God provides a way out of every temptation that is here. 1 Corinthians 10:13, "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure." With Jesus, we can drop our rings of power and walk away. We can let the webs of time take everything we thought we needed; because in the end all we need is Christ.