Light In A Dark Theater: A Christian Filmmaker's Journey

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.   Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.     And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.   (Leviticus 25:8-10 KJV) As we count down the moments to sundown tonight.  It's potentially a real life Jubilee in the Hebrew calendar.  Because the Jubilee begins after 7 cycles of 7 years.   The Jubilee according to Scripture begins with blowing a ram's horn on Yom Kippur.   Nobody knows for sure which year an actual Jubilee begins since the Temp...

This is not a devotional per say - just an encouragement to my Christian brothers and sisters. 2015 has been an interesting year. This year I was blessed to bring in the new year at the most magical place on earth. Many of us had dreams and hopes for this year. Don't give up and keep the faith. There's still time to press on until the year comes to a close in a few months. Remember that moment when you saw the fireworks or hugged your loved one at the strike of midnight on December 31st? Remember what you were dreaming for? May all the dreams God has given us come to pass... even this year. And so if the dreams in your heart or mine were really given by him it means it's His gift to us and it's time to shake the dust off our selves and continue pursuing them. Jeremiah 29:11 has a very encouraging verse for all of us: For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope ...

Source: The Huffington Post "...For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required... " -Luke 12:48b A recent post on Facebook from a Christian friend shared that War Room, the latest film from the Kendrick Brothers is still at number one at the box office and adding more theaters - which is a good thing I think and opens doors for other Christians to make faith based films or films with more expressions of our faith.  It's fair to speculate that it might hit number one or two this weekend as well... which would certainly be praise worthy.... especially for this being the third week as it continues to climb to stay at the top of the Box Office.   So then a well meaning Christian commented on his post: "Look out Hollywood... we're nipping at your heels"  (an ironic reference to the villain of Facing the Giants.. which I think is honestly ironic in what came to my heart) Lately there have been some pretty harsh criticisms of War Room by...

20th Century Fox This week's devotional for Christian filmmakers is by Norton Rodriguez, who runs The God of Moses Entertainment and it's on a very important subject of self distribution.  I've known Norton for many years.  Not only is he a skilled filmmaker who excels at his craft;  he is also a visionary who has been encouraging and uniting Christian filmmakers for more than ten years.  Like John the Baptist and Moses of old - he began as a lone prophet in the wilderness.  Long before there was a Christian Film Industry, he started a website called www.christianfilmmaker.com.    So much has changed since he first followed the call of God to provide a place for us as Christian filmmakers to come together.   Today we've grown tremendously and expanded to this and other Christian film communities and it all goes back to Norton originally listening to God's voice in something that was unheard of.     Over the years as I've ...

20th Century Fox Recently I invited my good friend, Calix Lewis Reneau, a fellow Christian, filmmaker, and author, to write a devotional just for you about the power of telling stories and why we as humans need stories.  Over the years I've watched Calix talk about this subject and I really think he's gotten a real nugget of truth regarding the importance of stories to all of humanity.  It's why I believe more and more that Christian filmmakers need to focus less on crafting a great message and start focusing more on crafting a great story.   I believe in this devotional Calix gets to the heart of what audiences who watch movies really are longing for and what they need.  I'm more convinced than ever before that why people love to watch films is because at its essence it's rooted in the need of people to experience a good story which brings order to the chaos in our broken world.  And it has something to do with a deeper thing God is doing corp...