Life-teen update (08-12-2007)

Friday Night Flix- Batman Begins and Sola Fide: This past week we watched Batman Begins. In my humble opinion this was one of the better batman movies that has been made over the last two decades or so. My favorite quote from the movie is when Rachel looks at Bruce and tells him, “It’s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you.” Ephesians 2:8 tells us “For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is a gift from God; it is not from works, so that no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” God has prepared for us a life of good works. I am not saying that we should all don a cape and cowl in order to become crime fighting heroes. Not at all. What I am saying is that the Bible speaks of salvation in many places. Many of our protestant brothers and sister mistakenly believe that we are saved by faith alone. They are often times quite disturbed if we cannot tell them the exact time and place where we were “saved.” The truth of the matter is our salvation was purchased for us over 2000 years ago by Christ on the cross. He gives us the grace to live in him and do good works for the sake of his kingdom. We make a choice on a daily basis whether or not to accept this grace, or reject it. The idea behind Sola Fide is that Faith is completely separate from actions. Once you have accepted Christ as your savior, it no longer matters what you do. There is no need for the sacrament of confession because you are covered in the blood of the lamb. Unfortunately this leads to a very false and shallow Christianity. Under this view you can do whatever you want and not care or be repentant, because you have already been saved. Batman gives us a bit clearer view of the playing field. If we truly believe everything that Christ taught us, it must have a dramatic effect on the way we live our lives. “It’s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you.” In other words, what you do is what really defines who you are underneath. Our actions reflect the inner core of our being. If we say that we are against abortion or sexual promiscuity, then we must show it. When we know that people are engaging it actions that are sinful, we are tempted to let it pass and just say, “Oh well, I guess it is a personal choice. I am a good tolerant Christian who loves everybody and doesn’t want to offend, so I won’t say anything. Besides, if I say something they might not like me anymore.” : ( (That was a frowny face, not a punctuation error) What this really troubling is that we care so little about the real person. If we truly care, then we must do something. That person’s soul is in great peril and we must not walk on by. We don’t have to be Batman or Superman to change the world. We just have to be ourselves, and by “ourselves” I mean the men and women that God has created us to be. Created for the good works that he has prepared for us. Don’t forget to join us on Friday nights at 7:00pm for our weekly movie night. This weeks movie will be a surprise, but I think all of you will enjoy it.