11 I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior. 12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed-- I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "that I am God...15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel's Creator, your King."
We are created in the image of God - the Bible teaches us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And when we consider our Creator, as we ponder His wonderful works, we recognize that the One who gave us life is worthy to be praised, and that He has created us for a purpose - to bring honor and glory to Him.
The choice is ours, according to Deuteronomy 30:19-20:
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."
It's a reality show premise that even Mark Burnett wouldn't develop - a post-apocolyptic, oppressive government recruits two teenagers from each district in its realm, places them in a special-effects-laden arena for a competition shown on national television, with the basic premise that these teens will fight to the death, and one will survive. And, there you have a very simple setup of a movie that premieres tonight at midnight, "The Hunger Games". The books are immensely popular among tweens and teens, but Common Sense Media, because of the violence, recommends the movie for those 13 and up.
Regarding her inspiration for the books, author Suzanne Collins, said:
"Probably the first seeds were planted when, as an eight-year-old with a mythology obsession, I read the story of Theseus. The myth told how in punishment for past deeds, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete where they were thrown in the Labyrinth and devoured by the monstrous Minotaur. Even as a third grader, I could appreciate the ruthlessness of this message. ‘Mess with us and we’ll do something worse than kill you. We’ll kill your children.’
“Other early influences would have to include watching too many gladiator movies, which dramatized the Romans’ flair for turning executions into popular entertainment; my military specialist dad who took us to battlefields for family vacations; and touring with a sword fighting company in high school. But it wasn’t until the much more recent experience of channel surfing between reality TV programming and actual war coverage that the story for this series came to me.”So, excessive violence and death as sport isn't a new concept - it's woven through mythology and was practiced by the Roman Empire. And, in our times, we are beset by the culture of death - because, quite frankly, as human beings, that is the nature of man. The Bible teaches us that because of sin, we are on a path of destruction, and the only way for that to be averted is through the power of the cross - through a Savior who died the most cruel of deaths so that we could have the most exhilirating of lives. And because of the Holy Spirit in us, living Godly lives and speaking Biblical truth, we have a most exciting opportunity to reverse the death spiral that everyone that doesn't know Christ is on.
Into a culture that has aborted 50 million babies, that has children who will see 200,000 acts of violence on television by the age of 18, that is rushing headlong into a health care concept that could ration care at the expense of those with special needs and the elderly, - the most vulnerable among us, God has sent His people. Even though so many are desensitized to the violence shown all around us, who have a thirst to consume news of violent acts that drive television ratings, we can practice the culture of life, following the One who has instructed us to "choose life".
And, one further note - I told Jon & Andy Erwin when I saw them recently that I thought it was significant that there life-affirming film, "October Baby", is premiering the same weekend as "Hunger Games" - even though "October Baby" is only on a few hundred screens and "Hunger Games" is on over 4000. I think that is a microcosm of the enormous fascination with violence today, a prevailing attitude we have to face as we, as Christians, affirm life and value the life that God has given us, recognizing all humanity is fearfully and wonderfully made. It's not a game - every life is beautiful. Praise to the One who has given us life!
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