Rand Rambles

This generation is a bit upset with religion. A new generation of Christians is rising up with ideas to make Christianity more like it was meant to be, living like Jesus. In the midst of that they have turned against religion. Wearing shirts and all sorts of propaganda stating things like: “Religion Kills” and “Religion sucks”. And while I understand where they are coming from and how they state it as a way to say that religion can keep us away from God and a relationship with Him is what really matters, I believe there is a lack of understanding in this.

I have heard many times that religion is just our way to trying to reach God, while he has already reached out to us. Sounds good. But what does God have to say about this? In the book of James there is a certain type of religion mentioned, an acceptable one.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27.

I believe this is God’s view of religion. I believe as Christians this is what we have to strive for. Don’t get me wrong, it all starts with Jesus, he has reached us and made it all worthwhile. But that’s the important thing, true, undefiled religion is born from a close relationship with Jesus.

It is through that relationship with Jesus that we start to care for what he cares the most, and is through being close to Him that we desire to be more like Him. Holiness and purity are part of a pure and undefiled religion, as fallen human beings this is only attainable by surrendering all to the one that already surrendered the most precious thing, his own life.

Religion… Your life unto others and unto God.

originally posted on 11/03/2008.

I like dreamers. What I like even more is people that stick to their dreams when everything tells them their dream is impossible. I have dreams, some are so big that I won’t even share them with most people, but I believe something is brewing and I will put the pieces of the puzzle together soon enough.

Having said that I read this article that I want to share. I am not the biggest fan of Avatar, saw it twice mainly because the first time I had just finished dinner and was so full I was falling asleep. I think the movie is a masterpiece in its technology and beauty, I love colors and there were plenty of colorful things there. Now, after reading this article I appreciate the movie even more. Avatar was a dream that if the dreamer had been too fast in making it there’s a chance it would’ve been a huge mistake.

In 1977, a 22-year-old truck driver named James Cameron went to see Star Wars with a pal. His friend enjoyed the movie; Cameron walked out of the theater ready to punch something. He was a college dropout and spent his days delivering school lunches in Southern California’s Orange County. But in his free time, he painted tiny models and wrote science fiction — stories set in galaxies far, far away. Now he was facing a deflating reality: He had been daydreaming about the kind of world that Lucas had just brought to life. Star Wars was the film he should have made.

It got him so angry he bought himself some cheap movie equipment and started trying to figure out how Lucas had done it. He infuriated his wife by setting up blindingly bright lights in the living room and rolling a camera along a track to practice dolly shots. He spent days scouring the USC library, reading everything he could about special effects. He became, in his own words, “completely obsessed.”

Read the rest of the article on Wired.