Category: Movie Monday

Find your identity

I’ve mentioned dieing to self, having an intimate personal relationship with Jesus, and being a willing vessel. All of which are essential to our lives as Christians. But what does that entail? What does it mean? It means that we let God lead. We look to him to tell us what to do and say, when to do and say it and to provide all that we need to do what he asks us to do.

Sounds scary right. And it would be if God is distant to us. If we don’t really know him. Then of course trusting him sounds scary. But he is the one person in the universe who we can trust for everything. Because he is love and his loves is patient and kind. It does not envy, or boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. His love always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.

Want to know more about finding your identity is Jesus. Watch or listen to this video.

Love doesn’t hurt

When we’re hurt by the people that are supposed to love us or ashamed of the scares they left, it leaves us afraid to be loved by anyone else. Because to us, love hurts. But that’s not love.

Just because people in our lives who were supposed to love us, didn’t, doesn’t mean that is what love is.

Love is patience and kind, its not rude or self seeking, its not easily angered and does not keep a record of wrongs.

God is love.

And He would never hurt us, neglect us, abandon us or stop loving us.

He is always there, always wanting and waiting to be with us, to love us and take care of us, if we let Him in.

Give God a chance to show you His love, I promise you won’t regret it.

If you already know God’s love share it with a kid who needs it. Check out Royal Family Kids

Prayer makes an Impact

We never know the impact our prayers may have. In Facing the Giants a faithful man prays over the lockers at the local school for years and doesn’t see the impact till revival hits the students.

Prayer makes an impact, whether we see the results immediately or never.

My friends and family prayed for me for years during the time in my life where I ignored God, but their prayers made an impact. There were key moments during that time when I know their prayers made an impact.

When I was in Uganda, speaking at a women’s conference, at the end the other speakers and I prayed for many of the women there for healing and many other things. We each had a translator that gave us a quick snap shot of their requests for prayer. But there was still a language barrier. As I prayed, I prayed in English and in tongues.

I didn’t understand everything the ladies were saying to me and they didn’t understand what I was saying, but God understood it all; lady after lady came up and they were either healed or their prayer was answered. It wasn’t about the words, but about our hearts and the openness to allow the Holy Spirit to work through me and in them.

Prayer is a conversation with God and we may not always like or understand the answers, or we may be completely astounded and overwhelmed by the answers.

But the one thing I hold true, is that prayer is not something to be afraid.

Pray for those you love and pray for those you don’t, you never know the impact.


Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

True Fulfillment Isn’t A Quick Fix

Temptation is attractive. That’s the reason it’s tempting. Just because something is fun or enjoyable for a moment doesn’t make it a good choice. Especially if we feel guilty or worse after.

Temptation leads us slowly to make compromise after compromise to fulfill a growing need that is never really satisfied. So we go deeper and make sacrifices, push aside responsibilities, neglect family and friends to try to fulfill our need but never find satisfaction. Because we are trying to fill our lack with the counterfeit. 

Like Edmund in “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.” He craved being important which is why being a king appealed to him. Aslan made him to be a king but Edmund tried to achieve it on his own. He listened to the White Witch because she offered an almost immediate answer to his need. Edmund even uses his own family to achieve his selfish desires. When if he’d only waited his need would of been fulfilled by Aslan when he makes him king the right way without compromise or guilt. 

This is what God does in our lives. He places in us desires but we often look to fulfill them on our own. When if we would only look to him he will fulfill the needs he put in us beyond anything we could of achieved on our own.

God created us and he is the one that fills our needs, wants and desires without guilt, regret or shame. If we would only look to him to fulfill the desires he has placed in us, instead of the counterfeit quick fixes. We would find fulfillment in Jesus. What he has for us is always so much better then anything we could think, dream or imagine and its always more then we deserve.

Never underestimate an Open Door

Run the Race is a movie about the power of forgiveness and the bridges that forgiveness can build. It’ a great story of how no one is beyond saving and we should never give up on people.

My childhood friends from the church I grew up in never gave up on me. They were always there for me and never stopped praying. They never compromised themselves or approved of my choices during my time of ignoring God. But there were always there.

When I finally made the decision to change my life. They immediately jumped in to help and encourage me to stick with my decision.

My friends and my mom never gave up on me. Which made my choice to change free of fear or condemnation.

Extending forgiveness and keeping the door open, creates a safe place for people to come when they have questions or choose to make a change.

Never under estimate the power of prayer and an open door.

Like leaving the door open when you baking cookies, eventually someone is going to smell the warm comforting sweetness and come in.


Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

Second chances

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.  They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.  Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

 “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

-John 8:3-11

We have all done something wrong in our lives and none of us is without blemish. None of us could cast the first stone at the other for their mistakes because none of us are without mistakes. But that’s the beauty of why Jesus came to redeem us.

He came to do what we could not, to live a life without sin.

That’s why second chances and believing in the others is so important because we all were given a second chance from God so how could we not do the same for others.

I watched a movie the other night about a basketball coach who saw potential in his players to not only do well as athletes but he saw beyond that, that they could exceed the expectations of others around them in their education too.

That’s how God is with us. He sees way more potential in us then we or others see in ourselves. That’s why he never gives up on us and he is always our biggest cheerleader because he made us and he knows that we are capable of far greater then we can think or imagine. If we will just trust him to guide us to it.

Love and respect can’t be forced

We can’t change other people. But we can choose how we treat and react to other people.

I recently watched a great movie on Pureflix called ‘How to train your puppy husband‘ I thought it would be funny as we have two dogs I am training and I would never train my husband. But it reminded me of an important lesson.

We can’t change other people, but we can choose how we treat and react to other people. When you’re training a puppy you are actually modifying how you treat and react to what your puppy does.

You should never try to train or change your spouse. But you can change how you treat them and react to them. We are to love God and love others as ourselves. So think about how you would like to treated and treat your spouse that way. If you want to be loved and respected, love and respect them. You can’t get what you don’t give. When has demanding, berating and manipulating ever really resulted in exactly what you wanted.

Forced behavior is never really what we want, what we want is for others to do things for us because they want to, so we must do that for them. If we want others to care for our needs and wants, we need to put the other person first and care for their needs and desires.

Love and respect can’t be given by force.

We Have a Choice

“You can either run from your past or learn from it” Rafki  The Lion King

One of the greatest gifts God gave us was choice. We have the choice to choose our actions and reactions. We can choose to let things in our past dictate how we act, speak and interact with others or we can make a conscious choice not to let our past determine our future.

The amazing thing abut Jesus sacrifice is that he gives us a choice. We can choose to continue to live our lives for ourselves. OR we can choose to believe in his sacrifice and accept the forgiveness he freely gives us. But the choice to follow Jesus means we die to our selfishness, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and put others before ourselves.

Every moment of everyday we can choose to follow the Holy Spirit or we can choose our own selfish desires. I’ve tried both and for me Jesus is always the better choice. What will you choose?

Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash

Is it really worth it

Lord of the Rings exemplifies how we all struggle with choosing good or evil and the temptation for shortcuts to what we want in life. The ring represents those shortcuts that we are so often are tempted to take in life; it causes us to compromise who we are to achieve what we’ve been working toward in an instant. But the problem is we will no longer be who we are if we choose to compromise to get the power or control or upper hand that we so desperately think we need.

Gandalf, Galadriel and Aragorn all knew this and refused to compromise who they are in exchange. There may be options or opportunities that we are presented with in life that could skyrocket us to what we want out of life. But at what cost? Is it really worth throwing away the journey you’ve taken so far, be it a day, an hour, a week, or years for the moment or that instant gratification that will sullen who you’ve worked to become.

If any of these characters had taken the short cut to increase their power or position they would have ceased being who they were and become something they never wanted or intended.

We have to realize that the quick fix is never the answer.

God made each and everyone of us and he loves us all. He knows who he made us to be and the journey to become that person is how we become who he made us to be. It’s the journey that makes us who we are.

What influences YOU?

It’ amazing the difference of negative influences on our lives verse positive influences.

If we let people tell us lies and influence our every decision.

We can be old and almost dead if we let the wrong person speak into our lives. Like Grimmer Wormtongue with King Theoden in Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers. 

I’m sure that King Theoden’s demise was slow and over time as he let Grimmer lie to him about his friends and family, slowly till the point where Grimmer was making all his decisions for him.

We can become like this too, if we allow the wrong influences to be the predominate voice in or lives.

Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

But that doesn’t have to be true of us.

We can choose who we allow to have influence over us. We have a choice of who we listen too, what we watch and how we let those things affect us.

If we let the Holy Spirit be the predominate influence in our lives. He is always with us and always has something encouraging and uplifting to say. Even moments when he correct us can be encouraging.

A few years ago when my now husband and I ere first dating. I was in a book store and the Holy Spirit corrected me in how I was acting towards my him.

That moment was one of the most loving and intimate moments I have ever had with God. Even His correction is loving.

Trust God.

Listen to the Holy Spirit about the influences in your life and trust that if He asks you to give something up that He has something even better to replace it.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Unsplash

Find freedom

In ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ movie, when Aslan lays down his life in place of Edmond, I can hardly watch and it always makes me cry. Because Aslan represents Jesus and Edmond represents humanity. It reminds me of what Jesus did to give us relationship with him.

Jesus laid down His life willingly for us. All of us and He knew it wouldn’t be easy or quick and that some would even rejoice in His unjust suffering. But he forgave them even as He was dying. He forgave all of us.

Jesus paid the price for everything we have even done wrong. So that He could have a relationship with us. So we could be forgiven and find freedom from guilt and shame.

Thank Jesus today for his sacrifice and find the freedom he paid for.

Photo by Aditya Saxena on Unsplash

The Love Dare

The Love Dare is a fantastic book that helps you to put your spouse first before yourself as all good marriages should. But I will be the first to admit that it is easy to put the other first when your feeling good, and things are going well. But it is so much harder when things are hard and your not at your best.

Marriage isn’t about just the good times, it about how you handle the hard times. It’s about sticking together and loving one another even when you don’t feel like it or even want to. Marriage is a commitment for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. That means you don’t bail when things get tough or you don’t care for each other at the moment, because the moment will pass and things will get better.

But that doesn’t happen by accident you have to have God at the center of your marriage. Because if your happiness and well being depends on another person you will never be fulfilled. Only God can do that. Only he can truly make you feel 100% fulfilled.

When you get your identity from God, you draw on him for strength, perseverance and perspective. To see things from the perspective of the other opens the barriers you may have put up as a defense, and when you trust God to guide you, you can drop those barriers to bring reconciliation.

What are you sacrificing?

Star Wars is a great example of the battle of good and evil we all face.

Selfish choices, even if they are for someone else, they change who we are for the worse are not worth it. We devalue the person we are trying to protect because we compromise ourselves to do it.

Anakin changed the selfless path he was on, to save Padmé but his decision to compromise actually ended up being what harmed her.

Even in what seems to be the worst circumstances we need to trust God to lead us out of it.

God knows us and knows what best for us, His plans is not to harm us but to give us a hope and a future.

I can’t even count the number of times God has brought me through valleys.

Losing our faith in Him is what got us into the valley and it will never help us move forward.

How we fight

How do we fight for our families? Prayer!

Sounds wimpy and ineffective. No.

Praying is the second best thing you can do. Loving them is first.

But if you love them you pray for them.

Prayer is what my friends and family did for me when I made bad life choices.

And prayer is what I do for my friends and family that I love and even for the people I can’t stand. I pray for them!

I pray for God to show them His love for them.

Prayer is a conversation with God.

Prayer is where I hand my friends and family over to God and say I can’t change them but you can.

Prayer is where God changes me and my view or perspective of those I am praying for. Prayer is where He shows me how He sees them.

Prayer is how God changes me

Prayer is how we fight


Don’t quit

I grew up as a Christian, but I had periodic God encounters, instead of a relationship with him. So I quit for six years. I didn’t have an everyday relationship with God, I just went from experience to experience and fended for myself in-between.

That is no way to live, of course I sought other alternative, because I didn’t really know him. I knew about him and had a few amazing moments with him, but I didn’t know him.

But once I realized I couldn’t do life without God, I began that journey into a daily relationship with him. That’s what matters, that’s what makes the difference, that everyday conversation with him.

God compares our relationship with him to marriage. You wouldn’t have much of a marriage if you didn’t at the very least talk to your spouse everyday. So how can you have a healthy relationship with God if you don’t talk to him everyday.

I don’t mean for this to feel exhaustive. Because having relationship with God is anything but, because he is the one the fills us up, restores us and makes us new.

So no matter how tired, how exhausted or even how unwell you feel you can always talk to him, because he is enough in our weakest moments he is all we need.

Hearing God

I often talk about listening to God, and following his direction, but how do you hear God? Below is a great movie with real life testimonies about hearing the voice of God. I pray you blessed and encouraged by it.

Be a miracle to someone

The Christmas Candle is a great movie about miracles in many different ways. (I know it’s not December yet.) But God does provide miraculous miracles of helping and provision and sometimes we are the miracle to someone else.

As Thanksgiving is fastly approaching I want to encourage you to look outwards instead of inward, with your thanksgiving. Who are you thankful for? Is there something you can do for them that we be a miracle for them?

Talk with the Holy Spirit and let him lead you to someone you can be Jesus too and bless them with your help, time or service.

You never know the impact you can make till you let Jesus be a miracle through you.