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From: "ANZAC Prophetic List" <[log in to unmask]>
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Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 11:12 AM
Subject: [anzac] "PASSION" CHALLENGES THE CHURCH - A. Strom


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> "THE PASSION - A Challenge to the CHURCH"
> -by Andrew Strom.
>
> I had the privilege of seeing an advance screening of
> the 'Passion' movie at a local cinema last night. It is
> strange, because yesterday I started getting emails from
> Christians claiming that the film is a kind of  'Catholic
> conspiracy' and vowing that they would never see it.
> What hogwash! GO SEE THE MOVIE!!
>
> Sure, there is the odd moment when there is a slight
> 'Catholic' tinge to things, but it is almost nothing. This
> film is a majestic and powerful viewing experience that
> will cause a lot of people to truly consider the claims
> of Jesus - perhaps for the first time.
>
> Could it cause backslidden believers to turn back to
> Christ? Yes, I believe so. Could it cause a whole lot of
> people to start checking out their local churches? Yes,
> I can certainly see that happening. It is a very powerful
> film, and I believe God desires to use it greatly.
>
> But here is the crux of the problem. The churches simply
> cannot carry the 'weight' of this movie. By and large, they
> represent a different "Jesus" altogether from the one that
> we see torn and battered in the gospel accounts. A church
> that has bent over backwards to make its services a
> "Seeker-friendly" mix of warm homilies and entertaining
> slickness, has nothing to say to a generation that is
> seeking the true Jesus of the Bible.
>
> It is just like what happened after 9-11. The people came
> flooding into the churches seeking a faith that could
> bear the 'weight' of the momentous events unfolding
> around them. And they found we had erected a plastic
> imitation - a shallow, lightweight "Jesus" - complete with
> ambient 'muzak' and mindless appeals for money. A
> comfortable Western counterfeit of the real thing. They
> did not stay for long. And why should things be any
> different this time?
>
> Every day we hear reports of big churches buying up
> large blocks of tickets and urging their people to use
> this film as an "outreach opportunity". I believe it is an
> 'inreach opportunity'. -A chance for us to look into the
> face of Christ and find that our shallow pretense of
> Christianity bears no relation to the real thing whatsoever.
>
> We are nothing like Him - we really aren't.
>
> How incongruous that we plan to use this blood-spattered,
> shatteringly 'real' movie to invite people back to our
> comfortable, plush-seated crematoriums - there to be
> wooed by our utterly "unreal" Sunday pantomimes. I
> don't think they will be staying long this time either.
>
> As I said, today's Western church simply cannot bear
> the 'weight' of this movie. It stops our mouths, just
> as it stops theirs. Our "Jesus" comes out looking like
> a cheap used-car salesman - for that is what we have
> made him. We invented him to perfectly fit our
> 'Laodicean' lifestyle. And so we sit in our lovely buildings
> with our lovely music and our lovely smiles, wondering
> why the world cannot get as excited as we do by this
> plastic Jesus of ours. Meantime, all the earth sighs and
> groans for the real thing.
>
> Tell me, church, don't you think it is possible that God
> intends this movie to challenge us,just as it challenges
> the unbelievers? Will we be deaf to the voice of God,
> or will we allow him to begin to dismantle this plastic
> edifice that we have built - this prison of our own making
> that prevents us from representing the real Jesus as He
> really is?
>
> Surely the time has come for another 'Great Reformation'
> in the church. May this movie be just one of many
> "shakings" that is sent to remove the blinders from our eyes.
>
> God bless you all.
>
> -Andrew Strom.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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