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This week . . . the Song of the Lamb proclaimed at a historic Olympic victory, the revelation of God’s heart to an orphaned generation, the dramatic rise of Christianity throughout the globe, and a future filled with driverless vehicles.
A big, friendly God…
Last month, Disney released The BFG, a movie based on a Roald Dahl book (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda) about a young orphan named Sophie who meets a Big, Friendly Giant. Though naturally scared at first, Sophie ends up befriending this giant, realizing how gentle, charming, and extremely kind he is. She discovers that the giant took her from the orphanage because he had heard how lonely she was. Watch the powerful trailer here.
More recently, Disney released another film about a young person who stumbles across a character who appears terrifying at first, but then becomes his closest friend and ally. This is Pete’s Dragon. The story centers around another orphaned child named Pete who becomes intimately acquainted with the large green dragon who cares deeply for Pete.
Both of these films (and many others before them) carry a strong prophetic message to this generation. The imagery of orphans speaks to the soul of this generation; the loneliness, the sense of rejection and abandonment. But the orphan spirit is being crushed by the revelation of the friendship and love of God. Unfortunately, there is a perception of fear surrounding God, which is typically due to religious ideas that have polluted the world’s knowledge of the Father. But these ideas are being exposed and dispelled! God’s true heart of grace is being unveiled. This generation is about to discover, like never before, a Big, Friendly God.
The Lamb exalted in amazing Olympic victory
We have been looking at signs of redemption and glory flooding this year’s Olympic games. This past week an incredible scene emerged, which some have called the highlight of all the games. Fiji won their first gold medal ever in the Rugby Sevens. After the win, the team joined together in a victorious song and later bowed on both knees to humbly receive their medals. The lyrics of their song was as follows:
We have overcome! We have overcome!
By the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony
We have overcome!
All redemption lies in the blood of the Lamb…in what He accomplished at the cross. As we have profusely noted, the Christ the Redeemer statue stands over these games prophesying a message to the world. How perfect and how incredible that a small team from a little country playing a seven-man game (7 is the number of completion and biblically relates to the victory of Christ) declared the power of Christ’s blood before millions of onlookers!
Washington Post: Christianity dramatically shifting
Earlier this year, the Washington Post published an article dismissing the perception amongst some that Christianity is dying. They acknowledged a decline in the United States, but went on to discuss the dramatic rise in Christian faith all over the entire world, including Latin America, China, and Africa. It is the geographical nature of Christianity that is shifting. The expression of the faith is changing as well. Ever since the Asuza Street Revival in 1906, the Pentecostal and Charismatic branches of the church have been the main points of extension and growth.
The article goes on to mention that one of the greatest areas of Christian growth in the US and Europe will surprisingly come from immigration. Though many media sources fail to highlight this, a large amount of migrants traveling across borders hold to a Christian faith.
A call to speak identity and destiny into people
News broke this week about a 4-year old girl in Arkansas who was found by police malnourished and abused. When asked for her name, the little girl responded by saying “idiot.” She believed this was her name because of all the times it was spoken to her by her mother’s live-in boyfriend.
We share this article first of all to pray for this young girl’s emotional and spiritual healing. But we also share it because we believe the reporting of such stories can be pivoted towards incredible good. If these kinds of news stories boil your blood and make you want to strangle the perpetrators, our encouragement to you is to turn your anger into a fiery passion to speak life and identity over others. Ruin the works of darkness by countering it with a love that spreads deeper and wider than hate. Whether its your own children, or other children in your life (or an adult, it doesn’t matter), go out of your way this coming week to speak truth over people. Call them beautiful and precious and speak to their destiny!
A fleet of self-driving cars arriving in Pittsburg
The world is headed towards driverless vehicles. Just as there was trepidation and resistance over a hundred years ago to the shift from horse and buggy to these dangerous and mechanical things called auto-mobiles, so is there some worry about this next shift. But the shift is coming regardless and Pittsburg is one of the first places that will experience it in full blast.
This month, the online transportation company Uber will be sending a whole of fleet of self-driving vehicles to Pittsburg in order to launch the first phase of a driverless pick-up service. The cars will initially be monitored by human co-pilots who will study the vehicle and take over if something goes wrong (the cars’ GPS system has difficulty with bridges–and there are lots of them in Pittsburg). The idea is to iron out the kinks and move more and more towards a complete driverless system in the very near future.