Overcomer Movie

September 10, 2019 Gracie

Overcomer Movie Inspires

the Overcomer movie

Are you looking for an inspirational movie to take your friends and family to?

I highly recommend the “Overcomer” movie playing in theaters nationwide. We went to see it recently and afterwards, I came out of the theater both inspired and shedding a few happy tears.

Remember the popular Christian movies “Fireproof” and “Courageous” from the Kendrick Brothers?

“Overcomer” is the latest film directed by Alex Kendrick and produced and executive-produced by his brothers Stephen and Shannon, respectively.

One of the stars of the movie is first-time actress,16-year-old Aryn Wright-Thompson. Aryn portrays the lead character in the film, Hannah Scott. Her performance is memorable.

There’s so much more I could reveal about the storyline, but I don’t want to say too much because it might spoil it for you.

You’re welcome.

I will say this.

Hollywood: are you listening? We need more movies like this one!

Faith-based

Family-friendly

Positive themes

Heartwarming

Inspirational

A clap-worthy ending

Seeing “Overcomer” brought back some fond memories of my high school track team days.

Did I tell you that I’m a former track star?

That’s another story for another day.

If this movie trailer doesn’t get you excited, check your pulse.

Who Do You Give Your Heart To?

The “Overcomer” film is loosely modeled after the Apostle Paul’s encouraging words in the first chapter of Ephesians. These are precious reminders of who we are in Christ.

“Everybody tries to find their identity in their job, in their feelings, in their circumstances. We think the Creator gets to define His creation. When we find ourselves in Him, that’s the fullest version of ourselves.”¹– Director Alex Kendrick, Overcomer movie.

There’s so much talk about “identity” now, what is it that defines you?

Here Come the Cynics

So, what’s wrong with an uplifting, faith-based, film?

Absolutely nothing.

I’ve read some of the blistering reviews of the “Overcomer” movie to get both sides.

Then, I stopped reading.

Who needs all that negativity?

Okay, so the big wig reviewers didn’t like it.

Several were more interested in bashing Christianity as a whole, rather than being fair about the movie’s inspirational outreach.

It’s interesting to note, however, that a graphically violent, full of foul language movie like the horror film, “It Chapter 2” got a lot of positive comments.

What an upside-down world we live in now.

We all have choices.

Here’s mine: I have no desire to see “It Chapter 2″, “Chapter 3”, or any of the other chapters sure to grace our cinematic future . . . or any movies like it.

We make our own choices, so go for it if you can stand all the graphic violence and sexual themes in “It”, but for me, I’d rather watch paint dry.

Please note: I am no better than anyone else who reads this, but I just don’t want that kind of stuff cluttering up my mind.

The good news is that, despite some of the aforementioned negative reviews of the film, the “Overcomer” movie garnered a strong opening at the box office, earning an A+ cinematic score.

I hope you get a chance to see this movie before it disappears from the theaters.

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¹ Alex Kendrick quotation, courtesy of Fox & Friends. “Overcomer Brings Faith to the Big Screen With Story About Identity.” Online Video Clip. Web. Accessed 9 September, 2019.

Our Exceptional God

Answering Tough Questions About Christianity

September 4, 2019 Gracie

Have you ever had problems answering tough questions about your faith?

If you have, you’re not alone.

I’m pretty sure it’s happened to all of us at one time or another.

Before you know it, a skeptic catches us off-guard.

The end result?

Often, it’s disappointment in ourselves and a feeling like we’ve let God down.

Please remember, dear Christians: Take these challenges as an incentive to get better prepared!

It’s a constant educational process.

The more you learn, the more confident you’ll be.

If you’re struggling, it’s time to polish your spiritual armor.

Here’s Why It’s Important to Pray About It First

Remember not only who we are, but more importantly, Whose we are.

Challenges to our faith are becoming more frequent, and that’s why praying about these future encounters is so important.

Pray for courage and guidance on a daily basis. If we don’t pray about it, we’re sending a message that we don’t think we need God. We’d rather rely on our own influence and intelligence.

It’s a big responsibility but, as Pastor John MacArthur reminds us, it’s not our job to *change* men’s hearts. We’re to speak the truth in love. Evangelism succeeds in God’s timing, not ours.

Changing hearts is the supernatural work of God.

It gets frustrating at times, but we’re not failures simply because the person we’re trying to reach blows us off every time.

Don’t give up!

When you believe that every word of scripture comes from God and is authoritative and true, and you believe that God is the One, Sovereignly and powerfully, Who uses that truth to change people’s lives – that produces courage. The courage of confidence in Scripture and the courage that God will work through that. You speak that truth with courage and with love and leave the results to the Lord.¹ – John MacArthur, Pastor and Bible Teacher, Grace To You.

Answering Tough Questions About Christianity

Why do we evangelize?

Our motive is pure, despite mischaracterizations from the entertainment world.

We want to help lead people to Christ because we love them and care about where they’ll spend their eternity.

It’s up to us to get the skeptic to think about their faith challenges, but not to get them to sign on the dotted line first time out. It could even take years with someone, if it even happens at all.

It’s important to note that we don’t “win people for Christ” – without God.

Keep on gently listening and planting those seeds, then give it to God.

Please watch this excellent clip from apologist, Greg Koukl from “Stand To Reason.”

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¹ John MacArthur quotation, courtesy of Sermons Online. “John MacArthur On Courage and Confidence.” Online Video Clip. Dr. John MacArthur. Web. Accessed 28 August, 2019.

Our Exceptional God

Christian A Cappella Music

August 28, 2019 Gracie

Christian a cappella music

Singing For Joy

A long time ago when I was a television reporter, the news director once said I had a “mellifluous” voice.

Yeah, I had to look that one up. Lol!

It means, “flowing like honey.”

That was a pretty nice compliment, but I’ve been flowing like honey for several years now and have yet to be discovered.

I digress. 🙂

Singing is a big part of me.

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned how much I love singing, especially singing in church choirs.

It’s pure joy knowing that God hears us praising Him.

It also excites me to think that, sometime in our future, we believers will be together praising the Lord for all eternity.

⁶Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord! – Psalm 150:6, (ESV).

Christian A Cappella Music

A few days ago, I was searching for beautiful and inspiring Christian music to share and I came across David Wesley’s YouTube channel.

Eureka!

Talk about heart-stirring Christian a cappella music, I found some real treasures.

David Wesley is a talented vocalist and music producer. In many of his YouTube performances, he’s a one-man-choir, recording himself singing the different vocal parts of a chosen worship song.

In a few other standout melodies, he created a virtual choir – bringing together people who have never met each other from all over the world.

I can’t wait to share this song with you. It’s a favorite Christian song of mine, “In Christ Alone,” written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. Wesley’s arrangement of it is genius in my opinion.

I don’t know how he did it, but his arrangement features singers not only from the USA, but also from Germany, Poland, India and Australia – to name just a few of the countries represented.

In my humble opinion, listening to this virtual choir is a foretaste of Heaven.

I suggest you turn this one up, close your eyes and let these lyrics defining God’s grace flow over your soul like the still waters in Psalm 23.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Singing for an audience of One Who deserves our highest praise.

You can find other beautiful arrangements on David Wesley’s YouTube channel and, for purchase, on iTunes and Amazon.

All glory to God!

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Christian Music

Heaven Is Our Eternal Home

August 21, 2019 Gracie

Destination: Heaven

Home sweet home

“Are we there yet?”

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who, as a child, asked their parents that question during a long family road trip.

Those road trips seemed to stretch on and on for miles, didn’t they?

Remember how happy we were when we finally got to where we were going?

Heaven is our Eternal Home

How much more wonderful will it be when we, as believers who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, will live in Heaven with Him forever.

Heaven is our eternal home

The main reason why I write this blog is because I love to encourage people about what’s in store for those of us who love Jesus.

Why should we delight in God?

Because Heaven is our eternal home.

We have so much to look forward to!

Like this:

Most people know that we’ll worship God in Heaven. But they don’t grasp how thrilling that will be. Multitudes of God’s people—of every nation, tribe, people, and language—will gather to sing praise to God for His greatness, wisdom, power, grace, and mighty work of redemption (Revelation 5:13-14). Overwhelmed by His magnificence, we will fall on our faces in unrestrained happiness and say, “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” (Revelation 7:9-12).¹ – Randy Alcorn, Bible teacher and author.

And this . . .

I love these reassuring words from Bible teacher, Dr. Ed Hindson.

Dr. Ed Hindson

Heaven is Beautiful

Have you read some of the descriptions of Heaven in the Bible?

As beautiful and magnificent as Heaven is, now hold onto this, nothing will surpass seeing Jesus face-to-face for eternity.

We’ll be in the presence of our Redeemer and King!

We can only imagine for now, right?

My hope is that we can all grasp the magnitude of the blessings in store for us.

Do you know who Fanny Crosby is?

She’s a well-known composer who wrote many wonderful gospel hymns back in the 1800s. A little research, and I found this jewel of a story about her.

hymn composer Fanny Crosby

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¹ Randy Alcorn quotation, best-selling author/ Bible teacher/Founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries. [Blog post]. Retrieved from Let’s Anticipate The Incredible Experience of Worshipping in Heaven with All God’s People/June 14, 2019., para.1.

² YouTube. “The Believer’s Exciting Future.” Online video clip. Dr. Ed Hindson. Web. Accessed 7 August, 2019.

³ Fanny Crosby quotation, courtesy of Grace To You. [Blog post]. Retrieved from Will We See God’s Face?/June 14, 2019., para.10.

Sharing Your Faith

August 14, 2019 Gracie

Sharing Your Faith

Courageously Sharing Your Faith

To “share” or “not to share”, that is the question.

At least on this blog post. 🙂

Seriously though, does the idea of sharing a favorite Christian meme or Bible verse on social media give you pause?

If it does, I certainly understand.

Your “friends list” may consist of believers and unbelievers.

With that in mind, you just might get a negative reaction you didn’t expect. How should you respond?

If it were me, I would invite that unbelieving friend to take the discussion offline. It’s better to have a one-on-one conversation than to have it play out in a public forum.

Why Not Be Prepared?

We have to be prepared for resistance to the true gospel message, both online and in person.

Fortunately, there are some online sources for you that are helpful.

Here are a couple of resources for you to consider:

Why not devote a portion of time each week to learning how to answer the hard questions?

You may get questions from someone like:

Why is there evil and suffering in the world? You can find the answer to that here.

Can a Christian lose his or her salvation? You can find the answer to that here.

I’m a student of Apologetics myself. I will never know all the answers, but my heart yearns to learn as much as I can. It’s an insatiable thirst.

The Courage to Share

Always use grace when sharing your faith, an encouragement well-expressed here by Christian apologist, Sean McDowell.

I hope it is helpful to you.

God bless

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Our Exceptional God

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