"Fair Use Educational Purposes"

(This week, I read this devotional, this discussion guide. Only two mornings ago, I read Discussion 6, from which I'm posting the excerpts below.)
________________________________________________________________

“Tell me another story!”

We begged for stories when we were children. We couldn’t wait to crawl into bed and hear our favorite fairy tale. Stories helped us cope with fears or escape from reality into our dreams. They captivated us with thrilling characters, dramatic conflict, dangerous missions, and narrow escapes. Stories were a safe introduction to the big, wide world. Through them, we understood a little bit about good and evil, adventure, and heroic deeds.

Even as we become adults, stories still enlighten us about the world around us. They still teach us about good and evil. They reveal profound insights about human nature or remind us not to take ourselves too seriously. They give us themes to cheer about and causes to root for. It seems every good story offers something about life and love. Something about truth.

These days film has taken the art of storytelling to a whole new level. Through technology we can watch dramas unfold on an enormous screen, complete with musical scores, special effects, and digital sound. Like the tales from childhood, these productions make lasting impressions.

We watch film after film and laugh about a slapstick scene, quote a memorable line, or ponder a thoughtful premise. Then every once in a while we stumble on a truly inspirational story—one so moving, so gripping, that it transforms us. That’s what we’ve been looking for our whole lives. We long for the story that seizes us at the core of our soul.

Two great storytellers talked about this very thing one dark night in England a few decades ago, as biographer Humphrey Carpenter recounts.

“Just as a word is an invention about an object or an idea,” said J. R. R. Tolkien as they walked the grounds of Magdalen College, “so a story can be an invention about Truth.”

“I’ve loved stories since I was a boy,” responded C. S. “Jack” Lewis. “You know that! Especially stories about heroism and sacrifice, death and resurrection…But when it comes to Christianity, well, that’s another matter. I simply don’t understand how the life and death of Someone Else (whoever he was) two thousand years ago can help me here and now.”

“But don’t you see, Jack?” persisted Tolkien. “The Christian story is the greatest story of them all. Because it’s the Real Story. The historical event that fulfills the tales and shows us what they mean…not just a verbal invention.”

Lewis turned. “Are you trying to tell me that in the story of Christ all the other stories have somehow come true?”

Ten days later, Lewis wrote a letter to another friend: “I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ—in Christianity. My long night talk with Tolkien had a great deal to do with it.”

The Passion of the Christ is the moving film version of the very same story that Tolkien and Lewis discussed all those years ago. Tolkien claimed it is The Story that satisfies all stories. It’s the one powerful, historical event that fulfills all our deepest hopes and longings. It gripped Tolkien’s soul. It revolutionized Lewis’s life. It has transformed countless others throughout history. And it continues to impact people today.

Maybe it’s the story that you’ve been looking for your whole life. (excerpt from Discussion 6: "How is This Story Relevant to Me?", Experiencing the Passion of Jesus: A Discussion Guide on History’s Most Important Event, by Lee Strobel/Garry Poole, ©2004)

Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis. (ibid)
________________________________________________________________

I watched The Passion of the Christ only yesterday, on DVD. Have any of you watched it? Just curious.


Kathy G.

Kathy

I think c s lewis is a brilliant Christian writer. I had some of his book and he has a unique way of writing.

I know what you mean. I haven't read any of Lewis's nonfiction, but I have read his Chronicles of Narnia. The marvelous thing is that it was devout Catholic and fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien who led him to Christ, and then God went on to use him in the ways that we who know of Lewis's writings are aware of.

Kathy & Tom,

I too, watched The Passion of the Christ, but not on my DVD copy...but on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network).

I also saw The Greatest Story Ever Told on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) too.

Maranatha!
Tammy

That's great, Tammy! I have both movies on DVD, and I've watched them both. I watched the Jesus movie on Easter Sunday.

I think this would be a good time to bring this thread back up.

"Fair Use for Information & Educational Purposes"

With Holy Week approaching, I think this would be a good time to post an excerpt from another book to this same thread.

In Greek, there are two differrent words for "time": the first, chronos, refers to simple, chronological time; the second, kairos, points to a temporal convergence, a critical, opportune moment when all the strands come together. For Christians, the birth of Christ in Bethlehem marked just such a kairos, one for which the faithful yearned and longed. [C.S.] Lewis himself experienced just such a kairos during a late night stroll he took with [J.R.R.] Tolkien. At the time, Lewis was a theist but found himself unable to accept the seemingly mythical tale of the incarnation of Christ. That is, until Tolkien suggested to him that the reason the Gospel story sounded like a myth might be because Christ was the fulfillment, not only of the Jewish prophecies, but of all the highest yearnings of the "virtuous pagans"--in short, a myth that came true. This simple but profound truth galvanized the skeptical Lewis and served as the final, culminating signpost to guide him home to his Journey's End. It was a truth that neither he nor Tolkien would forget when they constructed their epic fantasies. (p. 116, Chapter 10: "The Eyes of Faith," On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis, by Louis Markos, © 2012

Bump back up for Good Friday.

Kathy,

I think that the reason why lots of athiests think of Jesus' birth as being a myth, is due to Him being born by a virgin...the virgin being His mother, Mary.

They just can't seem to accept it, that with God, ALL things are possible. And that was precisely the way He chose to bring His Son, Jesus, into the world.

Mary wasn't the only woman to have conceived her son this way. She is in the same company with Sarah/Sarai, the wife of Abram/Abraham; for which they (at an elderly age) was able to bring forth their son, Isaac. And then Elisabeth, the wife of Zacharias (also elderly parents), who also conceived their son, John The Baptist, that very same way too. He came before Jesus.

If only the athiests would read God's Holy Word in the Bible. If only they would. Then they would learn "the" truth and believe, wouldn't they?

Maranatha!
Tammy

So true! Of course, Isaac and John the Baptist were conceived in the natural way. Jesus's conception, on the other hand, was like no other: His Father was God Himself! Not even Isaac and John could make that claim.

But, as you say, all things are possible with God. Even siring His own Son Himself, instead of using an ordinary man to do the job.

Bump for another Easter weekend!

Well, Easter Sunday's approaching again, so I'm bumping this back up!

Well, since Good Friday is tomorrow, I think I'll bump this thread back up!

Kathy, I want to thank you for 'bumping' this.

I have seen "The Passion of the Christ" and have the DVD.
A graphic reminder of the cost of our salvation, as each communion is.
I am sitting here contemplating, a selah moment.

Thank you again for reposting,
God bless you.

You're welcome, and thank you, too!