This is a powerful movie about the true meaning of not just being a Christian, but being Christlike. It’s about how Church isn’t just a place where everyone goes to look good and check a box, but a place where we are called and commanded to do good. And it’s about how even good people can struggle with bad things. And whether it’s in a Church, or the workplace, or on the side of the road, we must strive daily to truly do what Jesus would do and help the least among us become the best among us. And yes, there are some spoilers in these thoughts, but if they help spare you spoiling in your life and marriage, then it’s worth it.
The biblical story of the Good Samaritan has been told a thousand different times and lived out a thousand different ways. This story has come to life in the lives of modern-day Samaritans, the lives of robbers and those who are content to not get involved and pass by on the other side. Which one are you? Which one have you been? Which one would you like to be?
There really are good and great people in this world, even if we don’t recognise them because we’re too busy focusing on their past more than on their future. Which one do you think Jesus is more focused on?
A new pastor needs to keep things moving, but the vision on how to do so needs to come from God, not just what the congregation thinks they need and want to carry on. Sometimes church leaders need to shake things up, or shake up the congregation, in worthy and righteous ways, as to keep them more aware and alert on the straight and narrow.
Do we stop going to church because it gets boring or full of the same old things? Do we stop breathing because it’s boring? Are we truly believing and living what we’re hearing perfectly enough to say we don’t need to hear about it anymore?
How do keep your love (marriage) alive? How do you nurture and nourish your emotional, romantic, physical, and spiritual happiness and connection with your special spouse? When you feel distant or you wonder, wander, or worry, do you let each other know? And when someone gets too caught up in their work or themselves, do you trust (and allow) the other person to rescue you and pull you back, closer to them and to God? This is a promise and covenant we fulfill, even in times of weakness.
I never want my life’s work to be something I cannot do with my wife sitting right beside me and working with me, not just next to me, or in the same room, but with me.
If it’s important enough for you to bring into your life, because you believe it will make your life better, then you also have to fight for what you have! Especially when it’s something, or someone, that the adversary is trying to take it away. If they truly are a blessing to you and you to them then I promise you he is trying to take it away.
What separates the good guys from the bad isn’t just where we get help, but how we give help. Whether it’s at church, work, school, or home, we each are called to serve and to bless those around us, even if they don’t recognize or acknowledge Jesus…yet.
Speaking of which, I love how his wife was waiting for him when he got home…not inside, but outside—to be the very first thing that welcomed him home. If we were each to treat our spouses in more such special ways, I’m confident that there would be more unity, less infidelity and far less arguments, loneliness, separations and divorces.
Would you kick the Savior out of your life because He wasn’t dressed appropriately, or didn’t speak the same words like you do? Yet, how often do we not let Him in because of how we’re dressed and how we talk and how we’re choosing to live our lives? Let Him in, fully!
What are you searching for in life? Are you content with the content you’ve found on this continent? Do you believe there is still more out there for you to find? To become? Do you want to acquire more, or to become more? Do you want life to be just filling, or truly fulfilling? That which ye seek, if ye do so diligently, ye will find. Yes, that means that sometimes we have to start out our successful career by washing dishes, parking cars, delivering newspapers and cleaning houses, but it’s all teaching and preparing you for greater opportunities and advancements ahead.
Pastors (church leaders) aren’t perfect. They may get beat up, tore up and even filled up with despair and sin…but God still loves them and will help bring them back to life.
Even Pastors can become poisoned if they partake of evils found on the Internet and life. And no matter your calling in life, pornography is no respecter of persons and it will not only distract you from good things, it will wear down, and wear out your true love for yourself and for others. For when you spend your strength with harlots in person or online, it neutralizes natural love when you seek porn for self-gratification.
No matter how many times you wash your hands, or watch clean things, only the Atonement of Jesus Christ can wash away the stains and give you comfort and peace to replace our sins.
If even bars and brothels welcome everybody (legally) then what makes the Lord’s church different, better? Both offer help—though one is only temporary over the counter counterfeit comforts. One offers a destination to overcome and be healed from evil, while one offers only a place to succumb to and numb pain. Another divine and defining difference is our desires and choices of who we choose and trust to turn to for help and healing.
Dang it! She caught him going astray online. By “Dang it!” I mean it’s a good thing! But dang it also meaning that he has come to the place where he must now face some serious pain and repentance…or his marriage and life will fall.
True, now she knows why he’s been so distant and not as loving. And yet, how loving and merciful she is to still pray for him in these times of need; instead of leaving him because he has gone astray—praying for God to remind him not only who he is to God, but who he is STILL to her, his wife. And even though she locked him out of the house and out of her heart, it doesn’t mean things are over. Trust can be restored, bridges can be rebuilt, love can be renewed through forgiveness.
There’s hope because she hasn’t taken off her ring yet. But more than that, there’s hope because she still loves him and payed for him! And he didn’t take his ring off! Even though he did emotionally.
Men more often than not don’t tell their wives of their struggles because they’re afraid to look weak, or they’ve heard too many stories about women getting upset and leaving their husbands because they make a mistake, instead of seeking to protect them and help them fight the demons and monsters attacking their hearts. This makes the problem worse and the void and avoidance even greater.
Women feel dirty, worthless when their boyfriends/husbands replace them for the world. Even if it’s only temporarily, or occasionally, they still feel ashamed, not good enough, not pretty enough. I don’t believe men seek pornography and other affairs because their wives aren’t enough.
Yes, we all need to help maintain and protect ourselves and our marriages, but I think pornography has its own power to distract, deceive and destroy for no other reason than to cause misery. So, not to justify it, but to express my love and hope that if women (and men) whose spouses have committed adultery with pornography or even people, please don’t forsake each other in each other’s greatest times of need! Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, your love can will live again and be even stronger than before!
What a twist that the Pastor wouldn’t let the sinner in, but then the sinner saved him and let him stay at his house, gave him transportation, clothes, food and his own bed to sleep in.
Church is for everyone! Don’t ever let the devil, or gone astray pastors, or other church leaders tell you otherwise with their wayward words or actions. The sad thing is that his wife was ashamed of him being the new pastor, but telling someone that “Jesus” doesn’t want “certain people” in His church because they might make the congregation feel uncomfortable.
If God looks at the heart first and the most, then shouldn’t we also do likewise? As True Believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we should be loving the broken people more, not condemning them because of how they look, dress, or sound, especially if their hearts are striving to become pure and striving to be in the right place and seeking a better life through Jesus Christ. As I pray we each are striving to do every single day!