Filming God at Work

Sunday morning retuning:  We face overwhelming circumstances at times, but we can do so with the confidence that Jesus understands because He did too.  He also gave us a model for what to do when we face those circumstances, “Cry out to the Father!” as He did in the garden of Gethsemane. If you missed Pastor Myron walking us through Luke 22:21-38, you can find his message and some other helpful resources here

There was a great excitement at church on Saturday.  Yeah, that’s right I said Saturday.  The time would come for a film shoot, and everything seem to be in place, everything except for the cigarettes.

I will admit it felt a little strange handing Todd money to go buy cigarettes for this film we were shooting...

After my gaffe of forgetting one of  Our props, the morning went really smoothly.  There were some great moments being captured, but the best was yet to come.

The moment in the story was when Shayla, played by Michaela, would surrender to Christ.  This is a difficult thing to act out and capture in the believable way. I was really curious how it would go considering Mikaela had told me she simply couldn't cry.  Later I learned of a God moment that really needed to happen.  When they shot this scene, Mikaela cried...The transformation was so significant that her mom told me later that she barely recognized her own daughter.

God has been at work, is at work, and is not finished yet…

I want to give you the thumbnail sketch of how I have seen God’s hand on this.  As I was selecting songs for our upcoming recording project, a song called "The Gospel Changes Everything" looked like it would make the cut. I started working on that with Mikaela in voice lessons thinking maybe we could share it on Easter Sunday morning.

I asked her if she could develop a story out of which the song could naturally emerge, not yet telling her I was thinking about Easter. She came back a week later and share the story with me that I felt had great potential. I told her I wanted to use it at Easter would like for her to convey the idea to Sherry Woods who agreed to serve as our playwright.

Sherry wrote a drama to be acted out on Easter Sunday morning, but had a much broader scope than my original concept. It seemed immediately obvious to me it needed to be a video. I approach Todd with that idea and he was skeptical, and some part because of the compressed timeline, but after some discussion he felt inclined to give It a shot.

The excitement that I have sensed with each participant, at every point on the way, which climaxed in a sense on Saturday, causes me to have a great sense of anticipation for how God is going to use this on Easter and beyond.  God is at work!

Jesus, we want to see more of Your activity.  We want to be a part of it more often.  We want more of You working more in more of us.  Do it for Your glory and the good of those who will see You in us and through us.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy