Some often cite this quotation when the topic of troubled youth comes up:  The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders… They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers.” This was said by Socrates around 400 BC!

However, as more and more of these Biblical signs become more and more prevalent all at the same time, those prophecies come into sharper focus and take on more significance. I immediately thought of one such prediction when reading a recent news story. The headline reads: “89 Kidnapped Infants Rescued in China.“ The story details how a major human trafficking ring was cracked and 369 people were arrested and 89 infants rescued from being sold to others in China. This has become a growing and persistent problem in China and areas like Viet Nam.

If I had read a story about one person kidnapping children and selling them I would be horrified and would think: that’s just one sick individual. But as soon as you have more than one person working together, condoning one another’s actions and helping each other (like it’s a regular profession), to steal children away and sell them, it takes evil and sin to a whole new terrifying level.

The apostle Matthew writes in Chapter 24 verse 12 about the end-times:

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.“

I find it difficult to think of love growing more cold than this.

- Blog by André van Heerden, President of Film and TV at Cloud Ten Pictures

When I was in college a friend of mine got some heat for saying the Women’s Studies major should be abolished in an article he wrote for the campus paper. I gave him some heat too. We exchanged some emails and I finally realized his vision. The reason he said this is because he feels Women’s Studies is just another program that separates people instead of bringing them together. It’s true. We seem to dwell on our past hurts instead of moving forward as one. He and I had an engaging and fulfilling dialectic that got results.

Driving home from work a few weeks ago, I noticed a billboard with the quote “I can be moral without religion.” This is sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Now, I agree that a person can be “moral” without belief. It may be meaningless without a spiritual element, but morality is achievable. This billboard is trying to do more than make an obvious statement however. It’s a harsh declaration from an impassioned atheist culture: We’re done talking to you.

On FFRF’s website, they claim “most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion.” Now I don’t claim to be a historical expert, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t true. The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to scientific research during the late Middle Ages and Enlightenment period than any other institution. And wasn’t Martin Luther King, Jr., a devout Christian, considered a progressive? Also I’m pretty sure our current moral attitudes are mostly from religious texts (i.e. the Golden Rule). Regardless, I found many other billboards and posters on their website that ranged from mildly humorous to pretty offensive. Some of them just say, “There is no God”. I have had brief encounters with this foundation in their Duluth chapter, again back in my college days. A gentleman would come up to our Chi Alpha table and say, “You know that stuff isn’t true right?” Not exactly tact.

Here we have a foundation that is unapologetically trying to put religion in its place. There is no humility or mutual respect or tolerance in an organization like this. Sure, one of its goals is to spread the ideas of the foundation to people who will listen, but another goal, practically inherent from the first goal, is to smear believers. And perhaps some of this is our fault. Somewhere along the line the dialectic between atheists and theists became derailed. Both sides don’t talk to each other anymore, at least not in any sort of constructive way. As a result, more organizations spring up that continue to separate people instead of bringing them together, even if unity is a supposed goal. The danger is how arrogant and hateful we can become when we get too caught up in this. I know I can get caught up in a debate pretty easily, if I get too worked up it just destroys me. This is when I need to refocus myself on Jesus, specifically His compassion and loving-kindness. If we truly live like Christ, which should always be our goal, people will see we are different. Then, just maybe, we can start talking again. We can be moral without religion, but we can’t be free without Jesus. Spread the word.

- Blog by Travis Else

Living in Canada you have to get used to the fact that you might not see the sun all that often for a few months of the year. Winter is not only cold but it is usually quite dark. There is a very real syndrome called “SAD” (Seasonal Affective Disorder – also known as the “Winter Blues”) and I know a number of people who say that they are affected by it.

Unfortunately, when it’s cold and dark it’s often difficult to keep on the right track. It’s much easier to focus on problems and feel sorry for ourselves. So while the new year may come in with lots of good wishes and the best intentions, by the end of January, many people have abandoned their New Year’s Resolutions and have fallen back into the old rut. I was recently sent some “Rules from God for 2011” and I’m so happy that they didn’t come on January 1st. They probably would have been overlooked and forgotten about. Instead they arrived at just the right moment and can act like two giant heart-paddles to resuscitate our daily lives!

Rules from God for 2011

1. Wake Up! Decide to have a good day. “Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up! The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

3. Shut Up! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. “He who guards his lips guards his soul.” Proverbs 13:3

4. Stand Up!….. For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. “Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good…” Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up!.. To the Lord. “I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

6. Reach Up!… For something higher. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up!.. Your Prayers. “Do not worry about anything; Instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING.” Philippians 4:6

- Blog by André van Heerden, President of Film and Television Production at Cloud Ten Pictures

Treausure Blind, written and directed by Brian Shoop and released under Cloud Ten Pictures

I made a movie and now I’m trying to understand why.

After battling through the melee of fund-raising and filming and marketing and margins and critics and crowded retail shelves, I’ve reached an oasis that brings peace and clarity again. A thought into which I can retreat and find safety – though it is not without danger. Just this: movie making is an act of worship. It is an offering, a sacrifice, made to the god of the filmmaker’s soul. This conclusion brings clarity because it defines one discipline to master rather than the clamoring myriad of details that constitute the filmmaking process. It also means that making movies is much more than a hobby, or a career, or even art. For the Christian moviemaker, the craft has inescapable eternal dimensions – and consequences.

This thought occurred to me as I was examining worship in Scripture. The foundation begins early in Genesis; God creates man in His own image. And, in His image, each of us was created to worship. It’s what we do. Just as a camera was designed from the drawing board to take pictures, we were designed and built to worship the Creator. I would go so far as to say that man cannot NOT worship. The problem is, mankind fell, sin entered a perfect Creation, and man began to worship… well, anything and everything but God, and ultimately…himself. In fact, that was Satan’s temptation wasn’t it, “You will be as God”? Isaiah says it this way, “All we like sheep have gone astray and have turned every one to his own way.”

In our culture, we hear people refer to their “moral compass” as the basis for decisions. I am the final authority in my world. And that sentiment has always existed in the church. In the earliest recorded worship service, the bulletin included no singing, no responsive readings, no preacher and no sermon. Just the offering. Abel brought a lamb; Cain brought fruits and vegetables. God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s. Cain’s response highlights the reason: Abel worshiped God, Cain worshiped Cain. All of history has been an account of how many different ways man can twist and pervert a good thing until it’s a “god” for him (an idol) and he worships it.

Take food. Food is a good thing, a blessing from God. It’s necessary to life. But, food can become my god, my idol. I can worship food. Art is also a good thing, a blessing from the hand of God. But art can become the god of the artist. There is no end of examples. And the really frustrating bottom line is, as a fallen human being, my natural tendency, my default state, is to worship the creation rather than the Creator. It happens quietly, unnoticed, and constantly. But at least there are ways to recognize when it’s happened.

Worship means literally to assign “weight” or importance to someone or something. So, the object of my worship is the person or thing to which I attach the most importance. It’s my favorite thing to think about when I have a choice, the first thing in the morning, last thing at night, you get the idea. Two main responses define my worship activities: I want to be identified with the object of my worship, and I sacrifice for it. I’m a “fan” of my worship object. If it’s athletics, I want to dress and walk and act like an athlete or at least a fan.

If it’s being a moviemaker, I emulate that image. I want to be recognized that way, identified with the object of my worship. Then, I sacrifice for my worship object. I take time away from other activities or people because I have to give it to my worship object. I might invest money, sacrifice relationships, even good important things for the sake of the one thing I worship. I am built that way. I can’t help it. But what I can decide is whom I will worship. Paul said to the Christians at Corinth, “…do all to the glory of God.” And John said to his spiritual children, “…keep yourselves from idols.”

The regular adjustment I have to make as a Christian moviemaker – or a Christian anything – was summarized by Christ himself: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” First, I deny myself the place of god in my life. Then I follow, or imitate Christ, who always submitted to the Father’s will. I immerse myself in the Truth, the Bible. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “…true worshipers will worship me in spirit and in truth.” Finally I choose, by an act of my will, to make Jesus the most important thing in my life and to do whatever I do – even make movies – to the glory of God. Even if I’m not making a “Christian movie”, I should make my movie for the glory (or weight, or preeminence) of God.

Movie making is an act of worship because as a man created by God, worship is what I do. What makes a Christian moviemaker unique is that he can select Jesus as the object of his worship, the one with whom he is identified, the one to whom his offering is made. After all, as a Christian I know that only Jesus is worthy of my worship.

May God find moviemakers who worship Him in spirit and in truth through these offerings: our movies.

- Blog written by Brian Shoop, Writer/Director of Treasure Blind