The Importance of Hope for the Christian Walk

Personally, I think the concept of Hope is a little underrated in the Christian walk. If you know her verses, you might be familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:13. “Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.” Faith is a given, for what are Christians without faith? Faith is strong belief. Obviously, love is the strongest of these, but anyone familiar with a Christian walk of life will recognize its importance. After all, the two greatest commandments consist of loving God and others as yourself. But you cannot love that which you have no hope in, nor can you have faith without strong hope.

What is Hope? Hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope may be most clearly demonstrated in a young child in the days before Christmas. That child knows that on Christmas day, they’re getting presents. They hope that they get what they want, that what they get is awesome, as any child should.

What’s the difference between Hope and Expectation? In my opinion, it’s the desire and emotion. Someone can expect a bad grade on a test they didn’t quite understand. Someone else can hope that they get a good grade due to the work they put in. You do not desire what you expect, such as a ticket when you speed by a parked police vehicle. However, you can hope that nothing happens and you get away unscathed.

A quote from C.S. Lewis, “Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

As you read this, tell me, are you excited about Heaven? Why, why not? Yes, we know that there is perfection in Heaven, but have you ever experienced perfection? Do you know what it’s like to be truly with God, to have every one of your senses filled with his glory? We know Heaven by its lofty descriptions, not by its practicality. Can you properly hope in something you have no truly experienced? And without Hope in Heaven, why have Faith in Christianity? Why bother with selfless Love?

I’m not trying to downplay Heaven, only that I’m trying to show almost how inconceivable it is, and the disconnect that draws from that. On Earth, everyone experienced Heaven differently. But there are things on Earth that do point to Heaven that should cause hope to swell in our hearts and minds.

God created pleasure. Pleasure is not something that the Devil has created to draw us away. Every pleasure in this life is natural, only the mediums that allow certain pleasures to be realized have been manipulated and are corrupting. Sex itself is a pleasure given by God, while sexual immorality, while offering pleasure, is sinful and ignores God’s Plan for His creation. Pleasure is God-given and good.

With this in mind, know that this world is imperfect, while Heaven is perfect. Every pleasure we have on Earth is incomplete and flawed, while in Heaven it is found perfect and undeniably pleasing. The sweetness of a strawberry is only a foretaste of what you’ll sample in Heaven. The indescribable joy of a beautiful landscape, although awe-inspiring, will pale to the everyday sights we’ll experience with our Father in Heaven. Songs that move through you now will only compare to the first note of a heavenly symphony.

Acts 7:49. “Heaven is my throne, and the Earth is my footstool…” Know that whatever is good and pleasing on this Earth pales to what we will have in Heaven. When you eat your favorite food, listen to your favorite song, or dwell on a portrait, think on that.

There are verses describing Heaven from human eyes found in the Bible, and I’ll include them at the end.

Christians are often out of touch with the promise and reward that God has promised us. Our Christian payday is vague in delivery, and that desensitizes us, particuarly our American culture that is very much in demand of what’s right now. We do no hope, only work for what we can achieve right now. How do we change that? As aforementioned, dwell on how how wonderful our good Earthly pleasures may be, and the untapped potential we will experience in Heaven.

Another from the fantastic author, C.S. Lewis sums it up perfectly in one of my favorite quotes. “Indeed if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Do not settle or be complacent in your Faith, your Love, and especially not your Hope.

In communion, do not simply dwell on your wrongs and thank God for His Mercy, but celebrate! The act of Communion was based on The Last Supper, which was in itself a celebration. Focus your thoughts on the promises that God has made for you and dwell on the hope that you have that is in Heaven. God, like a parent, does not want His children to only come to him as remorseful creatures, but excited and happy for the gifts and promises He offers us.

I’ll finish with a closing thought. God created us in His Image. It’s an important distinction to make that God is not a God of rules or legalism, nor should be considered something akin to a force of nature. God is a god of emotion. Consider this, God sent Christ down to die for us. Why? He did so in the Hope that His Creation will chose Him over themselves. All of Creation centers around this Hope and God, as we know Him, thrives on this Hope. So, we too, require Hope to live, not only physically, but spiritually and in all other aspects of our humanity as well.

Scriptures you can read that ‘physically’ describe Heaven, our reward for our Christian life. As well, this posting was inspired by the work The Slumber of Christianity by Ted Dekker. I highly recommend the read as most of my material borrows from his work, only Dekker explains it in far more detail.

o   Luke 23:43

o   1 Corinthians 2:9

o   Isaiah 65: 17-25

o   Revelations 21:1-22:5

Psalm 147:11
“the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”

1 Peter 1:3 NIV
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Proverbs 13:12
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

Romans 12:12
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Romans 8:24-25 ESV
”For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Job 11:18 NIV
“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.”

Job 17: 13-15
“If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness, if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope—who can see any hope for me?”

Colossians 1:5
“the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel”

X-Men: Days of Future Past

A good movie? Yes. Bryan Singer’s installment handles the tricky business of time traveling well in a world full of people with super-powered mutations. He even handles the inconsistencies of the movie franchise fairly well.

The plot of Days of Future Past consist of a doomed future where an army of robots (called Sentinels) were created to combat the mutant threat and have exterminated anyone on the planet that’s even close to be genetically linked to a mutant. Funnily enough, this is all the fault of Mystique back in the Nixon era. There’s a couple things that marks this as a different entry to the X-men franchise. 1) we see the veteran X-men (in the future) and some of those from First Class in the same plot, 2) this film is considerably darker than others, including the Phoenix meltdown. You see various characters speared through the chest, ripped in half, and several others having their faces melted off. As high as the onscreen kill count is, there’s another noticeably high killed list in the background. Fans of First Class will not be seeing Emma Frost, Azazel, Banshee, Angel, or that annoying guy who tossed around tornados. Unfortunately, they were disposed off in a single sentence, mentioned having fallen in the fight of Mutant rights, which is a real shame considering how much time was spent building them up in First Class and the freshness they offered to the franchise.

The X-Men franchise largely continues to follow the path of ‘Wolverine and the X-Men.’ Every movie is focused on him (aside from First Class, of course), and while Hugh Jackman does a fantastic job in the role, it becomes a little annoying knowing that the plot was changed to accommodate one actor. In the original Days of Future Past storyline, it was Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat that goes back in time, not using her powers to send Wolverine back. However, as First Class occurred in the 70s, Ellen Page’s character was far from being born (assumedly) so Wolverine was an ideal candidate (particuarly since he doesn’t age). However, perhaps due to her rising popularity as an actress, Jennifer Lawrence has most of the plot centering around her and her constant fight scenes. They’re not bad, nor do I feel the movie suffers for focusing in on their two biggest attractions in Jackman and Lawrence, but it’s noticeable and I can’t help but feel there’s more depth and potential to be explored in other characters.

The film does a fantastic job in capturing just how hopeless the future is. The Sentinels are actually terrifying, lacking humanoid faces, taking an unbelievable amount of punishment, and they continue coming. New, relatively unnamed Mutants are used in the future sequences and are highly entertaining in the fight choreography, pulling enough charisma out so the audience feels bad whenever their well being is threatened.

The X-men franchise hasn’t done as well as the Avengers universe in establishing proper continuity. We see Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier standing upright in Wolverine Origins, only for him to lose his legs in First Class. In this movie, Wolverine has his metal claws back in the future, apparently ignoring what happened (thankfully) in the movie simple titled The Wolverine. Also, Charles Xavier died at the end of X-Men Last Stand, and while there was an Easter egg explaining that he was back, there was little more explanation than that. However, Bryan Singer does deal with a few of those problems, somehow tying in Xavier’s paralysis being dealt with mutation-suppressing drugs and other minor pieces in the story. There is a part where Magneto claims he was trying to save JFK during his assassination, not by curving the bullet into his path, by claiming he was a mutant as well that feels incredibly cheap to me, stating only that and moving on. Whatever though, it doesn’t really ruin anything.

The film is very aware of itself as well, not just some of its continuity errors, but in relation to the comics. You don’t really get any cameos (aside from the extended scene from after the credits) but you can catch them as you watch. In particular, there’s a couple tied into the character of Quicksilver, the mutant with superspeed. In the comics, he’s the son of Magneto and has a mutant sister. When meeting Magneto and finding out he can control metal, Quicksilver mentions, “Yeah, I think my mom knew a guy like you.” There’s later a quick image of Quicksilver holding his little sister, as well.

Speaking of Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters of American Horror Story fame, anytime this character is on the screen, he steals the show. His characters stand in such thick contrast to the rest of the cast, being a kleptomaniac without really a care in the world. Everyone else in this movie is literally so stern and morbid, and they have reason to be. Not Quicksilver. Granted, being as fast as he is, they used him as a plot device and moved on. His inclusion to the ‘big ending’ would either be it to an anti-climatic end, or just be nonsensical. I have no problem with how short he was involved.

All in all, it was a pretty great movie. I cannot say if it’s better than Captain America: Winter Soldier or The Amazing Spiderman 2, but it definitely triumphs over and above some of the more worrisome titles in the X-Men franchise, with potentially good things to come.

About the Potential Future of the X-Men Franchise. Spoilers abound here.

Apparently most of the cast was revived through actions in history. This doesn’t include just the characters who died within this movie, but also mutants who died in other films, such as Cyclops and Jean Grey. With both of them, does that mean we get their offspring? And what about Havok? We know he’s Scott’s brother and that he appears to have survived Days of Future Past, so will he get a role? Does that mean Jean will become Phoenix again?

And speaking of Pheonix, there will definitely need to be some extra firepower to take down Apocalypse. We all know that Apocalypse is going to be the villain in the move, also titled Apocalypse. It’s pretty obvious. But currently, Apocalypse is to the X-Men like Thanos is to the Avengers. Way overpowered. Of course, there could be some kind plot device used, as lame as that may be. One can hope that Rogue will finally come into her own, being able to draw some power from Apocalypse to make for a proper duel. Chances are, though, Wolverine will probably solve it in some way.

Also, I am quite sad that so many supporting characters in First Class were killed off, as if there wasn’t a good enough reason to say they were captured or detained or something. It worries me, as Bryan Singer is back at the reigns for all things X-Men, that he decided there was no room for those characters in his great scheme and merely wrote them out of existence. And if that’s the case, what’s his plan for the younger, more fresh iteration of mutants? Will Days of Future Past be the last we see of McAvoy, Fessenberger, and Lawrence? I hope not, but then again, much of the cast was already cut out.

I suppose time will tell. There are directions that I personally believe that would enhance the X-Men universe and make itself more of a competitor against the film owners of Avengers and The Amazing Spiderman.

Godzilla (2014) Review

What do you think of when you think of a Godzilla movie? Lots of giant monsters, people in rubber suits hitting one another, that terrible movie from 1998? All apply when contemplating seeing the new Godzilla movie. My opinion? It’s good, picking up where appropriately where a proper Godzilla should be, but with a whole lot of fluff that doesn’t necessarily entertain.

If you came to see giant monsters fight (which, thank goodness, they included because Godzilla fights other monsters while people look on scared. Anyone who watches the older Godzilla movies knows this), you’ve gotta wait about two hours. There’s an undeniable focus in building up Godzilla, which they do well, but even more of a focus designed around the actors. The actors don’t do a bad job, but I didn’t necessarily care about their fates (after all, I came to see giant monsters fight one another). Then again, how could one expect to put out a movie about giant monsters and don’t focus on people acting and expect it to do well? Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabee are among the actors, but you probably won’t care if they, or anyone else, dies in the movie, which brings me to the next point.

This movie has quite the kill count. Obviously tons of people died in the original Godzilla movies, as buildings would collapse with people inside, but it was indirect. This movie changed that for the better. You see people actually being killed, not necessarily in a gory way, but it still resonates in the film. It’s not just monsters fighting, but people dying because of it. You may not connect to the characters (they’re very one dimensional, serving to occupy one role and that role never changes), but you may flinch at some of the turns of the story.

The film is also a little self-aware, and because of that, a little pompous. THe first time you actually get to see Godzilla fighting is on a television set for about 20 seconds. By the time you get back to the action, Godzilla is heading back out into the ocean. It comes off a little cheap as the movie decides to continually dangle the real reason you came for the movie further away once again.

However, once the proper fighting does begin, it kicks in real hard. The scale of the monsters is fantastic and the CGI is truly well done. Godzilla is massive, as he should be, and doesn’t resemble the T-rex that he did in 1998. The first monster we see is far smaller, and, well, here’s a spoiler, the second new monster is nearly as large as the big guy himself. The scale remain consistent for the movie and it really demonstrates Godzilla’s power and instinct. Yes, he’s a big lizard, but he’s ridiculously smart in combat, grappling with foes and bowling them over and using the environment around him in order to control the battle. The atomic breath receives treatment similar to the actual fight scene, but it’s done very well.

So, final verdict? I wouldn’t go see this in the theatre if I were you. You’ll wind up waiting quite some time to see the fight scene, and I don’t feel you should pay to sit through all the 2 hours of build up and plastic characters just to see what you paid for. Rent it on Redbox if you’d like. The movie and its fight scene are really good and I look forward to the next one, but I probably will continue waiting until it becomes available to rent.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 Review

Granted, this blog will be separated in two parts, spoiler free and with spoilers. I’ll mark appropriately.

To give you, my reader(s), some perspective, I watched and enjoyed the first Amazing Spiderman, and took the time (and money) to see the new one in Imax 3-D. I’m not really a believer in 3-D films, but I feel like the technology is coming around, finally. Anyway, on to the spoiler free part of the review!

Amazing Spiderman 2 was fantastic, and if I may dare say, better than Winter Soldier. I literally laughed and even cried a little, believing in full the progression of the story, having my interests satisfied, the choreography being fantastic, and the fact that it’s a movie based on a comic book doesn’t get in the way at all. Honestly, superhero movies are really doing a fantastic job so far this year.

The chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone is every bit as real and raw as it was in the first Amazing Spiderman. Sure, it can get a little sappy at times and at times cute enough to get gross (this coming from a 23 year old married guy), but it’s completely believable and gets the viewer emotionally invested. A lot of the movie is focused on their future together (will they, won’t they), and the writers do it right.

Fight choreography is fantastic. A couple times during the original Amazing Spiderman I was impressed (usually whenever Spiderman used his unique athletic ability to outmaneuver his opponents, but aside from that, the fights between Doc Ock and Spiderman in the second film were my favorite), but this movie blew them away. The scales have increased dramatically as soon as the first fight between Electro and Spiderman. Buildings were destroyed effortlessly where in the first movie, a school took some heavy structural damage. It’s not necessarily on the scale of Man of Steel, but the feeling of the impact of the battles is definitely huge.

I don’t usually talk about soundtracks, but this movie boasts one that is bone shaking. Every score compliments the scene it’s in wonderfully, and there are times that the soundtrack even takes center stage without being blatant or obtuse about it. I don’t recall many movies like that (aside from the trademark song from 28 Days Later). Also, as a nice little addition, fights with Electro frequently incorporate dubstep-like elements, which is seemingly awkward at first but personally grew on me in short order.

Sony may not have access to such a great universe that Marvel Studios has retained, but it’s expanding without any real restriction. The Sinister Six is a very real possibility, almost painfully obviously so, and the references in this movie are beginning to near that of the early Marvel Studio films. It causes a fan to become very excited with which direction the series will take. In this regard, the Amazing Spiderman series trumps the original trilogy; the Amazing line isn’t limiting itself to the greats of Spiderman’s Rouges gallery (literally Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Venom), but it’s expanding the world to incorporate much more potential. We’re not looking at a series that wants to grab all the highlights of a trademarked series, but one that’s creating a full universe. We’re already seeing what they’ve done with Electro’s character, and I’m eager to see further sequels at this point.

Speaking of how they’ve dealt with Electro’s character, the film is very much aware of itself. Originally in the comics, Spiderman was stopped by Electro simply because he couldn’t touch him, the electricity overpowering him. To fight back, he wore rubber gloves, and was effortlessly able to take him down. There’s a short scene talking about how Spiderman was able to go toe-to-toe with Electro, regarding his apparently rubber suit. There’s more instances of how aware the movie is of itself, but I’ll get to that later.

Regarding Electro, Jamie Foxx playing Max Dillon was hilarious, strange, and at times off-putting with his incredibly awkward character. Personally, I thought it was fantastic, and his whole desire to feel needed and remembered was believable in his evolution into Electro.

My only issue is Harry Osborne. I believe Dane DeHann is a very strong performer, and he did a fantastic job in Chronicle. However, I never envisioned him having the build to play the part of Green Goblin. It’s not that DeHann performed badly (he didn’t), but I just had an odd feeling about his portrayal. I mean, Andrew Garfield isn’t built like Tobey Maguire was, but he’s still believable. I can’t really put my finger on why I’m having trouble with Dane DeHann…

Spoilers. This is the part where I discuss more about what actually transpires in the movie in detail. Reading this will surely spoil some of the experience if you haven’t seen it. However, there’s some really good stuff in here, I feel, so go watch it, as it’s a great movie, and come back if you’d like.

I mentioned it earlier that the movie is very much aware of itself in regards to the comics. What I am speaking of, and you knew it was coming, Gwyn Stacey’s death, which I believe was fantastic and depressing despite being somewhat obvious. There’s constant foreshadowing, even in the first movie, of her affiliation with Spiderman inevitably causing her injury, as well as her outfit she dies in the comics, the threat of her leaving Spiderman’s life, and not to mention her speech at the beginning about loss and hope.

Well, obviously it happens, as we were thinking for quite some time. She’s on a bridge shortly after the Green Goblin appears, but it’s not until he materializes in all his green, mad glory do we really begin to feel the pit in our stomach. As the insane villain attempts to kill her to get back at Spiderman, you see the whole scene playing out before it even happens, with extra zest. Spiderman manages to catch her, but ultimately fails to save her. We see the webbing grab her at her stomach, but the movie further creates the ambiguousness of what actually kills her by having her more than graze the concrete floor after falling through a clock tower. Andrew Garfield’s response is amazing, in the most depressing way, of repeatedly telling her corpse that everything’s alright. Despite knowing she was dead, I couldn’t help but hope that she was still alive. The treatment of restoring Peter Parker’s faith in being Spiderman is handled well, or at least well enough that I have no complaints.

There’s also the foreshadowing of characters. Doctor Octopus is obviously one, as is the Vulture, due to the showing of their mechanical enhancements in Oscorp’s Secret Projects. We’ve also obviously got the Rhyno, who made his true appearance at the end. Green Goblin is far from out of the picture as well, bringing the total to 4 for potential Sinister Six characters.

We’ve also gotten hints of other characters who make appearances in this film. While not named Adiran Toomes, Colm Feore as Donald Malken could very well become a Vulture due to his older look (not quite elderly, but approaching) and the fact he’s played other fantasy-like roles in Riddick and Thor. We are given thoughts about Dr. Kafka (the original character, a female, dies when a villain breaks out of Ravencroft, which we’re shown that this Kafka does not) may become a villain as well. Mr. Fiers, a figure apparently working for Harry Osborne (and before that, spoke to Conners about Parker’s knowledge of his parents at the end of the first Amazing Spiderman), will definitely be continuing his appearance, although we’re not sure in what regard, as his character is one that hides behind the shadows and has nothing but high intelligence to make him a threat.

There’s also the sure ticket of Felicity Jones playing Felicia Hardy (hilarious, right?), otherwise known as Black Cat, the inspiration for the character of Catwoman. Without an immediate Mary Jane, and the death of Gwen Stacey, who’s Peter Parker gonna love? Perhaps nobody, but that’s not to say Spiderman won’t be getting any kind of action. Black Cat and Spiderman were a constant on-again, off-again relationship. Also, since the whole Oscorp’s Secret Projects division was created for bio-weapons, perhaps Black Cat will actually have super powers, instead of being just an incredibly athletic vigilante/thief? Only time will tell.

Also, Conners (The Lizard) isn’t dead, and well, we’re not sure if Electro is either. After all, how many times did he dissipate and re-materialize as a technique? Surely exploding may have beaten him, but who’s to say he won’t re-materialize again?

Regardless, this movie may be the start of something big with the Spiderman movie franchise, perhaps even something big enough to rival that of Marvel Studios. If it is, I think it’s safe to say we all win, right?