Revisiting a classic is always a little risky. I've lost count of the number of films that I was convinced would never date which seem kind of cheesy now. Not that the twist in the movie was cheesy, but the general coolness of the entire scenario. There are those that I enjoy just as much today as I did back then while hearing smaller minds scoff at them.
There are some classics that in the mist of tipping a few tacky meters -just have to be revisited and appreciated. How can you not love the jaw dropping wonder of a classic twist or ending? As a writer I do my best to avoid exclamation marks but there’s no way to properly express the following spoilers without animated written expletive.
Charlton Heston finds the Statue of Liberty and realizes he’s been on the earth the whole time. What?! Soylent Green is made out of people? You gotta be kidding me!!
Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s dad! How’s that work? Bruce Willis has been dead through the whole film and he doesn’t know it! Good-googly-moogly!!!
The Return of the Classic.
In 1985, Coke was starting to loose the cola war to Pepsi so they ditched the original for something a little more marketable. The outcry that followed was so incredible they halted production the same week they released it on the public. Twenty-three years later we can see a revival of classic things from movie remakes to the return of the American muscle car. Most of us love classic things.
The Brewer subscribes to Classic Christianity. You know the kind that says it’s not about your history but all about your destiny. A return of Spirit-breathed living that is focused around a real life, resurrected, everything changer. The hope for Heaven yes but the pursuit of abundant life like only the guy who has slapped death in the face can offer.
I think the original Classic Christianity is totally fixated on the intimate personal on-going encounter with the King of the Universe and the result is a never ending transformation into better and better and better. Oh how the Brewer loves to gulp on that! There’s another one of those exclamation marks I am not supposed to be printing.
Anyway, Classic Christianity says I have a problem and Christ is the solution. Classic Christianity also says through Him, I cease to be the problem and play a vital role in carrying out the solution. There are just so many things I love about this incredible journey of living life naturally supernatural.
Sadly, a lot of people think a return to classic Christianity would be a return to past methods and techniques. There are those among us that really believe living a Godly Christian life means to lock in on a lifestyle of a certain era of time. This kind of accepted wisdom spills over into the ideas of dress, language and the official size and conduct of a church service. The Brewer humbly submits such thinking, while well intentioned towards an attempt at holiness, comes from a demonic spirit called stupid. Something we have always struggled with.
It is the nature of an unredeemed mind to always be looking back. Jesus mentioned this when he spoke on ‘Lot’s wife’ and even He didn’t know her by name -that’s probably not good. I am not saying we should lock arms with the world, I am just saying that we should be free to go farther and dream a different dream than others before us.
Dave Crone from the Mission in Vacaville California says the Pharisees were the dream killers of Jesus’s day and he’s exactly right. If you see somebody today, thumping a Bible the same way we did a long time ago and doing everything within his power to put you in a religious box, know that he is the same kind of person who nailed Jesus to a board and hung him up naked. For your sake, run from him, for our sake run him over.
While I believe without apology that the church of Jesus Christ is the only boat afloat, I also believe a lot of us on board don’t understand the heart of the Captain. The Kingdom is progressive. Who knew? His kingdom is without end. There are no limitations and there is no place in the fullness of the world that doesn’t belong to him. Go figure.
As long as people make methods and function the priority of Christianity instead of relationship to God first and to other people 2nd, the greatest threat to a new move of God will always be the last one.
God help us and save us from the futile attempt of doing Christianity. Propel us instead to live the adventure and responsibility of actually being Christians.
Contact the Brewer @ www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com
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