As this holy week gets under way, and I keep hearing that The Passion of the Christ is being shown in various places, I wanted to share another "Jesus" movie and it's companion book with you.  They changed my life.

The Matthew Movie, taken word for word from the NIV version of the book of Matthew, stars Bruce Marchiano as Jesus.  Out of all the "Jesus" movies I've ever seen, this is by far my favorite. This "Jesus" is not somber, sad, or judgemental, but bursting with overwhelming love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, etc. A perfect picture of the fruit of the Spirit.  I fell in love with Jesus all over again.  I wanted desperately to be like Him, impacting my world with His love and grace.  Then it hit me, if He lives in me, I am His hands and feet.  He is walking around in my body.  These are things I knew in myhead, but this movie left me feeling not only that I'd seen a wonderful account of His life, but that I actually saw Him in a life-changing way. 

I've always wondered if the men who portray Jesus in all those movies were even really Christians.  Marchiano's book In the Footsteps of Jesus, makes his love and devotion to Christ abundantly clear. The book tells how he came to play this role, how he memorized the entire book of Matthew by "accident" and the many ways the Holy Spirit was evident throughout the filming process.  Whether you read the book or watch the movie first, I recommend doing both if you want to see Jesus in a fresh, new way.

Marchiano's Home Page is here.

Making of the Matthew Movie is here.

Life-Changing Books

Through Gates of Splendor and These Strange Ashes

Both by Elisabeth Elliot

On January 6, 1956, five American missionaries were speared to death in their attempt to bring the Gospel to the Waodani, a brutal Indian tribe located in Ecuador.  Through Gates of Splendor is the poignant retelling of that story by one of the widows.  Later, that widow (Elisabeth Elliot), her daughter, and a sister to one of those killed lived among the Waodoni eventually leading them to Christ. 

I don’t remember how I discovered this book, but it was my first glimpse into real lives 100% totally sold out to Jesus regardless the cost.  It left me awestruck challenging my own level of devotion to the cause of Christ.  It built upon what God had been stirring in my heart with In His Steps.  I also feel it planted the seeds which eventually grew into my own heart for missions and our family’s two year service overseas.  In some ways that service was disappointing, leaving me empty.  Elliot’s These Strange Ashes – another incredible book about self-sacrifice- helped me put that experience into perspective which is this: it’s all about Christ and my relationship with Him.

(These Strange Ashes is a must read for anyone going through a severe time of testing.)

The Through Gates of Splendor story has been retold in a new film scheduled to be released on January 20, 2006.  My husband and I were privileged to a free screening last night.  You won’t want to miss End of the Spear.  It is rated PG-13 due to violence.    (Let’s face it, spearing to death is not a pleasant thing to watch.) There is also quite a bit of flesh showing, however, if you’ve read Elliot’s The Savage my Kinsman you will quickly realize the film covers more flesh than the real tribe did.   It is told from Mincayani’s perspective. (He’s one of the killers.)  All the Indian dialogue is in subtitles creating a greater sense of realism.  The film is a must see and is evangelical in nature, though not pushy.   My only disappointment is that it left, in my view, the conversion of Micayani underplayed.  In reality, a church was planted among the Waodani people and Micayani baptized Nate Saint’s son, Steve, in the same river where he murdered Steve’s dad.

Another outstanding telling of this story is is Fate of the Yellow Woodbee by Dave and Neta Jackson. (A trailblazer book and great children's read-a-loud.)

Under the Overpass

by Mike Yankoski

What would God show you, what would He say to you, how would He change you if you forsook your upper-middle class college life to live on the streets for five months as a homeless person?  Sounds crazy, doesn't it, to leave all and follow Christ into a dying, lost word? 

In the spring and summer of 2003 Mike Yankoski and Sam Purvis did just that. You can read about their life-changing experience on the streets in Under the Overpass. 

Prepare to be shaken, challenged, and changed.

       It may seem odd that a set of children’s books should be on my list of life-changing literature, but as I began composing this list I realized just how much the Ingalls family shaped my view of what family should be.  I read this series through at least six times before graduating high school.  Then I read it to my two oldest children and now to my youngest.  And this is what I learned about family:

Pa and Ma should be totally devoted to each other and the family through thick and thin. They create an atmosphere of love and safety for their children. They should be kind and gentle, but lovingly firm when necessary.

Pleasure should be found in a job well done and in simple things like a sunrise, wildflowers, striped gophers, and sliding down a haystack. 

A wonderful day of family fun consists in going to the swim hole and having Pa dunk you, or reading aloud together while Ma does handwork. 

Christmas is about selflessness.

Pa should work hard but still have time to play with the children at night and tell them stories. 

Ma, the perfect example of the Proverbs 31 woman, should be devoted to her family, making sure they are properly clothed and fed, etc, and is respectful and submissive to her husband.  She should also be resourceful.

Children are taught how to read, write, and do arithmetic at Ma’s knee.  They learn how to respect their parents and each other and to love God and country.

Everyone in the family should contribute to the well-being of the family. 

Hospitality is a virture.

A family works together, plays together, eats together, and sticks together.

Living in 2005 is much different from living in the late 1800’s.  I’ll admit that I’m thankful for air-conditioning, automobiles, and Wal-mart, yet I somehow feel that we have lost something very valuable in our fast-paced society.  The “Little House” books inspire me to recapture something of that gentle era leaving me with a warm fuzzy feeling of contentment.  After all, in my mind, that’s what family should be.

            To some extent, everything we see, hear, experience, or read becomes a part of us, influencing our lives, thoughts and actions, molding us into what we are and will become.  This is why God tells us to be careful with our thoughts (see Philippians 4:8).  I have read quite a few books in my life that made me laugh, cry, angry, inspired, and challenged.  But there are only a select few (not counting the Bible which is the ultimate Life-change source) that have impacted my life so powerfully I can clearly see, and still feel, the mark they left. I’ve begun a list of those books, and the impact they made on me, for posterity’s sake, so to speak. Periodically I'd like to share them here, most probably in the order in which I read them through the years.

One of the first Life-Changing books I ever read was In His Steps by Sydney Sheldon – I must have been a young teenager when I first read this book, and that was many years before "WWJD?" was popular “Christianese”.  I had never before given much thought to “What following Jesus really means”, to quote a character in the first chapter.  I’d never really even considered “What would Jesus do?” in any given situation. In the pages of this book I saw, for the first time, the cost of discipleship and its impact for the Kingdom.  I can’t say my actions drastically changed immediately, but it planted the first seeds of desire to “be” Jesus in the world and honor Him.  That changed my life.