Category: Movies

A Dissertation on White Wall Tires

Hands down, Cars is easily one of my favorite movies. It falls in somewhere behind Forrest Gump, but ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Cars is a sentimental piece evoking nostalgia for Route 66, the Southwestern lifestyle, and for the relationships of small-town life.

There’s a moment in the film, as Lightning McQueen is preparing to return to his normal life of racing for Piston Cup glory, where he decides to patronize the businesses of the cars that hosted him in the fictitious small Route 66 town of Radiator Springs.

First stop, Luigi’s tire shop.

Luigi, who hasn’t had a customer in years, is overjoyed at the prospect of fitting Lightning for the perfect set of tires. (The scene is reminiscent of the old days of buying shoes in an actual shoe store with a salesman who not only helped you find the right fit, but the right look as well.)

Lightning, being as good a customer as possible, asks for the best set of black wall tires Luigi has, to which Luigi iconically replies, “No, you don’t know what you want, Luigi knows what you want.”

Lightning replies, “You’re the expert,” and completely goes along with whatever Luigi suggests. The same thing happens when Lightning visits Ramone’s paint and body shop.

The result, a shiny, sparkling Lightning McQueen that radiates on a main street that has just been repaved, with the neon signs fixed, and its Route 66 glory on full display. For a moment, the people, er, cars of Radiator Springs enjoy a beautiful time reminiscent of their former glory.

Lightning McQueen, a modern racecar, had only known racing tires, black wall, slick tread, and made by Goodyear. Yet, when he followed Luigi’s advice, he was introduced to a whole new world.

Out on my walk today, I got to thinking about how often we fail to understand what we really want, defining our desires around things that we’ve already known, and missing blessings that we’ve never seen.

You see, we don’t know what we want. God knows what we want.

Just like Lightning thought black wall racing slicks would meet his need, as it is all he has ever known, we think that our desires can be fulfilled with a better job, more money, better health, or maybe we’re just wishing that our one main problem would be solved.

And as Lightning so innocently asked for black wall tires, we pray to God asking for those things. Asking for the new job, the financial solution, for healing, or for God to resolve our conflict and win our battle once and for all.

But, unlike Lightning, who was fitted and placed into a set of white wall tires within a matter of seconds, often, our requests seem to go unanswered for days, weeks, months and even years.

What strikes me about this is that scripture says in Romans 8:28 that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

The premise of this verse is that God is good. Not only is God good, but God does good. Not only does God do good (for the greater good), but He does what is good for us personally.

Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for our good. Our own good. Everything that life brings you, God uses it for your good.

That doesn’t mean that everything that happens in your life was God’s idea, neither does it mean that everything that happens in your life is good.

Some things happen in your life that are horrible, things that were perpetrated upon you by people who had the worst intentions. Yet, God, in His infinite wisdom, knowledge and goodness, saw a way to turn the evil done to you into a blessing. So, the road may be paved in suffering, but God drew the map and the road is taking you someplace amazing.

And the wild thing about this concept is that the good God is leading you to is something that you may never have imagined. That thing may be better than the solution or the desire you have imagined.

Sometimes, we get what we think we wanted, only to find out it’s not what we really wanted.

But, with God, we get what we didn’t really think we wanted, only to find out it’s what we really wanted all along.

The thing that helps me get through tough times, and gives me hope even when my prayers go unanswered, is that God knows me better than I know myself. Therefore, even if I don’t get what I ask for, I will come to realize that the answer that I do get will be good, and will probably be better than I could’ve imagined.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

What Water and Wine Teach Us about God’s Power

The account of Jesus turning the water into wine is a popular passage of scripture for many reasons. For some, it shows how Jesus is concerned for the things in our life, even if those things won’t matter much to everyone else.

Others celebrate Jesus’ reverence for His mother, Mary.

And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the effect that this passage has on wine enthusiasts. And for that reason, it’s often referenced in pop-culture, like in the scene from Percy Jackson posted below. Dionysus makes a reference to this miracle as he suffers his punishment from Zeus.

However, to truly understand this miracle, we have to understand the Apostle John’s purpose in writing his Gospel. Only then can we interpret what we are to learn from the wedding in Cana.

The Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John in response to various theories, doctrines and ideas that had arises from Hellenistic thinking about our Lord Jesus Christ. His aim was to settle the debate as to the identity of Christ, demonstrate Who He is, so that we may believe and be saved.

With that in mind, we can only conclude that the purpose of recording the miracle of the water into wine is to demonstrate the divine power of Jesus Christ.

In fact, if you read the entire chapter, John 2 demonstrates the miraculous power of Jesus, the authoritative power of Jesus, and the resurrection power of Jesus.

The miraculous power of Jesus is demonstrated in that Jesus simply willed the water into wine. Had you not been a servant who witnessed the miracle first-hand, you would have no clue that it was divinely-created wine (except for the taste, as the master of the feast complimented the groom later).

Jesus didn’t need special ingredients, magic words, or convulsive motions. All He needed were pots of water and the will to turn the water into wine, and the transformation happened immediately.

This is the same miraculous power the Lord used to create the universe, and to perform the miracles He has done in this world. It is because of this power, plus the knowledge that He is good, that we know we can completely trust Him, even when everything around us falls.

The authoritative power of Jesus is recorded later in John 2 as Jesus cleanses the temple of merchants and money changers. The Temple was built according to the specs of the Tabernacle, in which every measurement and implement foreshadowed Christ in one way or another.

Since the design and construction were ordered by God, then it was Christ Who had authority over how the Temple should be kept.

God’s will was for it to be a place of prayer and reconciliation between God and man, but the merchants and money-changers turned it into a chaotic market place where little prayer or meditation would be possible. Their presence may have also created a financial barrier to entering the Temple.

So, by His authority, He cleared the Temple and restored it to its original intent.

Seeing the authority of Christ, we would do well to remember His will and instructions, and to do what He called us to do. It is important that we keep the church on the mission He commissioned, and to not re-brand or re-create the church into something we think is more relevant.

Churches are institutions of teaching, discipleship, fellowship, and evangelism.

Furthermore, we need to remember the Lord’s authority in our own lives, and follow His will for our lives, as opposed to determining our own will and demanding He bless it.

And finally, we see the resurrection power of Christ, as He tells the Pharisees, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” John notes that Jesus was referring to the temple of His body, which He did resurrect three days after they crucified Him.

The resurrection proves the power of God, the authority of Christ, provides us with eternal life, and secures our salvation.

The Jesus Revolution’s Frisbee Problem

Let’s face it… for fans of The Chosen, Jonathan Roumie sold The Jesus Revolution. Roumie’s portrayal of Jesus in The Chosen has earned him a following, a ministry, and has contributed to a national conversation about Jesus, leading many to seek the truth about Jesus, and many have professed faith in Christ as a result.

So, it comes with a bit of irony that in The Jesus Revolution, Roumie portrays a young Lonnie Frisbee, whose emotionally compassionate outreach and charismatic preaching sparked The Jesus Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, thus sparking a national conversation about Jesus which led to many salvations.

Neither man (Roumie or Frisbee) is without controversy, as is neither character portrayed. Jesus was controversial in His day, and remains so to this day. And with a resurgence of post-morten fame on the heels of Jesus Revolution, Frisbee finds himself in the middle of controversy as well.

At the center of Frisbee’s controversy are his theatrical antics, and his struggles with homosexuality. Critics point to the former to discredit his ministry, and they point out the latter to discredit Christianity in general.

To their credit, the filmmakers of The Jesus Revolution were open about the character flaws of each of the leaders of the movement. Smith was a bit opportunistic and judgmental, and struggled with seeing the church blossom under someone else’s leadership. Laurie struggled with drugs early on and struggled with faith toward the end of the movie.

Frisbee demanded the spotlight, neglected his wife, and stormed out in a hissy fit when the spotlight was taken away. Yes, his struggles with homosexuality were omitted from the movie, but were not an issue during the time portrayed in the movie.

Frisbee was raped as a child, and as many who endure that atrocity do, experimented with homosexuality during his adolescence and early adulthood. Frisbee reported coming out of that lifestyle when he came to know Jesus, but relapsed in the 1980s. Frisbee confessed that his behaviors were sin, and were as sinful (but no more than) other sins.

When confronted, Frisbee confessed. He prayed for forgiveness. He tried to help others find forgiveness. He did not cling to the lifestyle, and did not advocate that others live the lifestyle.

It would be sinful and unproductive to try to determine Frisbee’s salvation status, or whether his faith was real, and his ministry motivated by faith and a genuine heart for the Lord. We leave the judging of the living and the dead to God.

However, a quick internet search into Frisbee’s life reveals a struggle with sin which is not unlike the struggle with pornography, addiction, anger, gluttony (I confess that!), hate, covetousness or dishonesty.

As Christians, we often find ourselves easily ensnared in sin that rapidly gets out of hand and gruesome pretty quickly. Sometimes we deceive ourselves into thinking that our sin isn’t that big of a deal, but it is.

And we can usually find a worse sinner to point out to make ourselves feel better about our sin. And in this case, that worse sinner is Frisbee.

However, the political fireball surrounding his sin neither discredits the Bible, the Gospel, nor the film, because all three uphold the fact that God works through the broken, and through weakness we are made strong.

Frisbee struggled with homosexuality, but Abraham committed adultery, Jacob was a crook, Judah hired a prostitute, King David committed adultery and murder, and Solomon dabbled in idolatry. Yet, Scripture holds those men up as patriarchs of the faith, and some even wrote scripture.

Scripture does not affirm their behavior, but God used them in spite of their brokenness, and God uses us in spite of our brokenness.

Why would God do that? He does that because the premise of the Gospel is that the broken can be healed, the sinner can be cleansed, and the condemned can be redeemed. Further, this all happens not because of how great the person is, but because of how graceful and powerful God is.

And that’s the power of the Gospel, that the death and condemnation of our sins was placed on Christ when He hung on that cross, and when He died, that death and condemnation were sent to Hell instead of us.

And because of that redemption, because Jesus took it all on our behalf, we can go free. We can place our faith in Him and make ourselves available for God to use to do big things… or maybe small and simple things. Either way, it’s a blessing.

So I’m not offended that one of my favorite actors portrayed a man who struggled in homosexuality, and I’m not discouraged that such a man was a key figure in a national revival, because I have routinely seen God use broken people, including myself, to lead others to redemption and healing.

God uses the broken to advance the Gospel, and He is glorified in it. Or as the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3, “For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?”

So let’s review. God is good. Redemption is real. The Gospel saves. The Jesus Revolution is a good movie. And God has used the broken to spark a national conversation about Jesus. Let’s have that conversation, and point people to the redemption in Christ Jesus that is found at the cross, and not let ourselves be distracted by one man’s sin from 40 years ago.

Why the story line of Little James in The Chosen resonates with me

Have you ever prayed to God, and not had your prayers answered? Or perhaps you’ve seen the Lord tangibly bless those around you, seemingly passing you over.

If this is you, good news! There is a Chosen character just for you.

The Chosen is a TV series offered through online streaming services like Prime, Angel Studios, and their app. The series is funded through crowdsourcing, and depicts the lives of Jesus and His apostles as they begin the Lord’s earthly ministry.

One of the great, yet controversial, aspects of the show is how it humanizes the apostles. Instead of being static figures depicted through stained glass, they each have personality quirks, and physical attributes.

The great thing about the way the apostles are humanized is that they become more relatable, thus more believable. In essence, The Chosen makes the Gospel come alive off of the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and provide some tangibility and credibility.

The controversial aspect to this is that much of the characterizations of the apostles is fiction. We don’t know that Matthew was on the spectrum, and there is no scriptural evidence to support that theory. Furthermore, many of the scenarios depicted in the show happen between the instances recorded in scripture, meaning that many of the events in The Chosen are completely fabricated and are fictitious.

However, these portrayals humanize the apostles and make the Gospel real and relatable.

So while The Chosen may be good for making the apostles relatable, and communicating the gracious and loving nature of Christ, as well as His divinity, those seeking truth are still well advised to open the Bible. Enjoy the show, but read the Bible.

Which brings me to my new, favorite character. Spoiler alert… if you keep reading, you may come across some plot information.

Little James, like Matthew, is depicted with a quirk. Again, no scripture that I can recall right off hand supports this portrayal, but such is the approach of The Chosen.

While Matthew’s issue is being on the spectrum, Little James suffers from a limp. Partially crippled, he relies on a walking stick he uses as a crutch. He struggles during travel, and believes his gait slows down the company as they travel.

So, the apostles travel, witnessing the miraculous healing our Lord freely performed for the masses. Multitudes, many of whom had the same disability as James, were suddenly healed and able to walk with little to no effort.

So, here’s Little James, crippled while everyone else around him is healed. He wants to ask, but he does not want to offend the Lord. He wants to understand, but does not want to be disrespectful to Jesus, and certainly doesn’t feel as if the Lord has withheld anything from him.

But, he desires healing. He desires understanding, and it’s breaking his heart. So, near then end of Season 3 Episode 2, he tearfully approaches Jesus, who gracefully understands, and encourages him.

Not gonna lie, that scene got me. It ranks right up there with the final scene of “Field of Dreams” for me.

Jesus told Little James that he could be healed, and someday he would, but what made his testimony so powerful was that he believed even though he had not been healed. And that through his testimony many would come to faith.

Modern Christianity has wrongfully turned faith into a transaction. You believe, then God gives you what you want. Therefore, if you do not have what you want, there must be something wrong with your faith. This is wrong and contrary to the scriptures, but leads to the following situations.

How many times have I sat with a weeping woman who couldn’t understand why God would not give her a child. A weeping man who doesn’t understand why God would allow his wife to have cancer, and why the miraculous healing still hadn’t come.

They had prayed, trusted the Lord, and called out to Him in ways we probably couldn’t imagine. Yet, no baby, no healing, no response. Yet, they still believed in the Lord. And yet, others continued to accuse them of imperfect faith, secret sin, and whatever else they could think of to explain the lack of a miracle.

Yet, these believers remained faithful, for their faith was in the Lord, His goodness and grace, regardless of their outcomes.

And I can not only admire that, I relate to it as well. I have lived knowing that God has forgiven me and cleansed me of all my sin, even while others tell me how awful I am. I have seen others receive tangible blessings from the Lord, while observers tell me that the lack of tangible answers to prayer in my own life reflect a flaw in my faith.

Yet, I live, with the peace in my heart knowing Jesus loves me, and that I have been blessed and forgiven. And nothing will take that away from me, nor will I ever be deterred.

And that’s why the story line of Little James resonates with me. How about you? Have you seen The Chosen? If so, what character resonates with you?