Conversion Stories

Our church is doing a sermon series on the book of Acts, The Acts of the Apostles, to be precise. Written by Luke, who also wrote the eyewitness account of Jesus in the Gospel according to Luke, Acts talks about how the Good News of salvation spreads to "all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. The early followers of Jesus, mostly Jews, were persecuted and martyred for their faith by their brethren Jews and the Romans, but their faith stood firm.

This morning's sermon was on Act 9 about the conversion of Saul, a Jewish persecutor and murderer of Christians. This was recorded for us:

"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”. “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9: 1-6 NIV).

The encounter transformed Saul from a hater of Christ into Paul, the most prolific missionary in church history. He was eventually imprisoned and beheaded by the Romans, but not before he wrote a few more books of the New Testaments which are commonly referred to as the Prison Letters. Paul's life and his death is recorded to for all the skeptics who come after him.

Listening to today's sermon reminded me of the movie, The Case for Christ, which I watched about a week back. The movie is based on a true story of a Chicago Tribune award-winning journalist turned pastor, Lee Strobel. Lee was a born skeptic and was distraught when his wife became a Christian, so distraught that he set out to disprove the claims of Christ. Much like Paul of Tarsus, Lee wanted to settle the score with the Christians. He put his investigative skills to use and spoke to a number of experts in their fields of specialisation. On his journey to disprove the death, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, he ended up face to face with the truth of Christ. 

In the face of truth, both men comes to the realisation of God's love. God took a chance on us - "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). Today, we live in a world that is very hostile toward God and what God stands for. Yet when we push Him out of our lives, He remains quietly at the door of our hearts waiting expectantly for us to open it again. He gives us grace even when we choose to take a different path. He continues to pursue us even when we've made it clear to Him that He is not welcomed to our part of the neighbourhood. 

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. 

 ~ John 3:16-17 The Message

Star Wars - The Last Jedi

We were in Italy when Star Wars The Last Jedi was released. So one of the first things that we did when we got back to Singapore was to watch the movie. My eldest son watched it with his schoolmates, and then watched it a second time with the rest of us. A good movie is definitely worth a second watching. I wouldn't say that I am a die-hard Star Wars fan - to give you a sense, if the LOTR trilogy is rated 10 Wows, then Star Wars would be 8 Wows for me. At the start of the movie, I had a moment of confusion where I had to remind myself that this wasn't one of the prequels but a sequel.

Like any successful movie franchise, the movie has the key elements. First, no matter how bad things are, good will always triumph over evil. For those who have yet to watch it, it is not even a spoiler to say that Resistance overcame the Dark side is it? Despite living in a rather cynical world, the feel good factor is essential in a box-office hit. What would be the point of watching a dozen of Star Wars movies if it eventually ends with Kylo Ren running the universe? Second, good people die in the process. They give up their own lives for a greater cause. In every episode of Star Wars you are waiting to see which hero doesn't come out alive. Yoda would have quipped "Trademark to this franchise it is". 

Thirdly, the English accent makes for a good villian, which is why Andy Serkis' Supreme Leader Snoke was way more sinister than Darth Sidious. He slices his apprentice and captor with his words before he telephatically strangles them. Finally it goes without saying - fantastic props and special effects laid over dramatic natural landscape such as Skellig Michael. Now, admittedly there are some exceptions to this fourth element - in Die Hard, Bruce Willis was stuck in a office building, an airport, and then in Manhattan (I stopped watching after #3). Okay, I am giving away too much about my taste in movies. 

The kids were talking about the movie throughout the dim sum lunch. I give it 9 Wows!

Rogue One

We were probably the last few remaining fans who have yet to watch Rogue One. So we decided to do it yesterday. The 5.45pm show at Clementi 123. It gave us a good reason to wake up from our jet lag induced afternoon nap, which was long and heavy. If I hadn't made an advanced booking, we would have slept until 7pm, especially because it was raining. Going for the movie may just help the kids get over the jet lag in time for the start of the school term this week.  It is now 4.45am. Whilst I am wide awake, everyone else is still sleeping and I suspect will sleep through until 7am. (Spoke too soon, they woke up at 5.30am)

So Rogue One is Star Wars 3.5.  The Dark side recaptured a man whom it thought was crucial to the completion of the Death Star, a weapon that destroys entire planets. If you didn't think global warming was happening quick enough, the Death Star was for you. This man figured that the best way out was to play along and complete the Death Star but to build in a vulnerability at its core. The rest of the movie was about how he secretly transmits a hologram message to his long lost daughter to tell her where the Death Star blueprint is stored. She then leads a group of rebels to retrieve this blueprint. 

My daughter was still drifting in and out of sleep before the movie started. She is somewhat interested in Star Wars but not a hardcore fan. So I was surprised that she kept awake throughout the movie. She had lots of questions "Are those Stormtroppers?"  "Where is Darth Vader?" When he finally appeared she asked "How did he choke the man in white?" I didn't know how to explain it to her but minutes later she concluded that "he used the force". We would have had popcorn thrown at us or be subjected of Star Wars fans' hissing if not for the fact that the movie hall was almost empty. 

I enjoyed the movie but I found myself clinging on to the old Star Wars characters. I too wondered when Darth Vader was going to appear. I was like a little kid when C3PO and R2D2 made their cameo appearances. There was that bitter sweet moment at the end when Princess Leia appeared. It is ironic, but that was a great way to remember the late Carrie Fisher. The light saber was distinctly missing, I think. Donnie Yen's character was enigmatic but he is clearly not coming back, unless they do a prequel to this prequel, maybe to explain how he became blind and why he is always chanting.

What I thought the movie did best was to create public awareness about information security. The importance of preventing data leakages, system vulnerabilities, the importance of firewalls if you don't have force fields, how real hacking is. The argument that sufficient physical security mitigates the risk of not encrypting data-at-rest is now up for challenge. Sure worked on me - although I am not a technologist, I have a whole new level of appreciation for Information Security. Now I have a screen-life example of galactic proportions to draw on. Apologies if this is a spoiler for those who intent to watch the movie but haven't got round to it yet. I may have just double-spoilt it for you now.