1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: "I will sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!
2 The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.
In all of our trials, challenges, and opportunities that we encounter in our lives, we are called to exalt the Lord. And, I think it helps to build our faith and grow in our appreciation for the Lord as we come before Him with thankful hearts, hearts full of praise for how we have seen God move in our lives. We can look for ways to identify what God has done, as He writes His desired story through us.
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In Psalm 34, we read this passage that can inspire us to lift up the Lord:
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.
Actor Chris Pratt seems to have few qualms about bringing God into a conversation, and apparently on Easter weekend, he was involved in helping to display the most visible symbol of Christianity.
The Relevant Magazine website reports that Pratt, who is known for his work in the movies, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, and who is currently in The Magnificent Seven, was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he was asked about a series of Instagram pictures he posted this Spring.
Seems that on Easter weekend, Pratt posted several pictures showing him and two friends erecting a giant cross somewhere in the desert. He told Colbert that on the Saturday before Easter, he went to visit a few friends who own a ranch in Texas, who told they were planning to build a giant cross on the property. Pratt said:
He said the experience “...restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it really redefined it,” adding, “The baby was so beautiful to us, and I look back at the photos of him and it must have been jarring for other people to come in and see him, but to us he was so beautiful and perfect.”
The article describes the performance:
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.
Actor Chris Pratt seems to have few qualms about bringing God into a conversation, and apparently on Easter weekend, he was involved in helping to display the most visible symbol of Christianity.
The Relevant Magazine website reports that Pratt, who is known for his work in the movies, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, and who is currently in The Magnificent Seven, was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he was asked about a series of Instagram pictures he posted this Spring.
Seems that on Easter weekend, Pratt posted several pictures showing him and two friends erecting a giant cross somewhere in the desert. He told Colbert that on the Saturday before Easter, he went to visit a few friends who own a ranch in Texas, who told they were planning to build a giant cross on the property. Pratt said:
They had this big cross. It was on a Saturday, the day before Easter, and they said, ‘You know, we got this big cross. We gotta bring it up this great big hill at some point.’ I said, ‘Let’s do it right now … I want to do it. And, it’s Saturday before Easter, if you think about it, that’s what Jesus was doing 2000-something years before on a Saturday before Easter, was carrying a cross up a hill!' … It took us like two days. The thing was super heavy, and it was like just so rewarding and awesome.Pratt has a history about speaking out regarding faith. A People.com story recounted about the son born to Pratt and wife Anna Faris in 2012. He was born nine weeks premature in August 2012, and, according to the story, "the couple felt a helplessness with which many parents are all too familiar." Pratt said, "We were scared for a long time,” referring to the month that his first son spent in an intensive care unit, adding, "We prayed a lot.”
He said the experience “...restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it really redefined it,” adding, “The baby was so beautiful to us, and I look back at the photos of him and it must have been jarring for other people to come in and see him, but to us he was so beautiful and perfect.”
Meanwhile, a young man who professes to be a Christian but who obviously has struggles living it in the spotlight just put another mark in the public faith column...according to ChristianToday.com, recently, "...Justin Bieber surprised fans by slipping a well-known '90s worship song into his live show. The committed Christian performed an acoustic version of I Could Sing of Your Love Forever on a sofa during the Paris leg of his Purpose Tour, and fan videos of the event have quickly surfaced on social networks and video-sharing sites such as YouTube."
The article describes the performance:
The pop star's cover is more passion than polish, and as yet it's unclear whether his sudden public display of faith was planned or impromptu. What is clear from the videos however, is that the crowd clearly loved his choice of song, and within moments joined in with its simple, God-praising chorus.
These two instances remind us that God uses anyone to testify to Him - sometimes that may be high-profile, such as an actor or a sports figure. Other times, it may be a husband, wife, mom, or dad, even a child. What He is looking for is someone who is willing to exalt His name and be bold to testify of what He has done in our lives. We can be inspired by high-profile individuals who dare to refer to God and seek to honor Him.
And, by "anyone," that really means anyone - despite the flaws or the struggles. While it's easy to point fingers at a Justin Bieber for his duplicity: testifying to Christ while seemingly embracing the world, don't we struggle with that same grand conflict? There is duplicity in our lives; we suffer from wanting to do what God doesn't want us to do. Or as Paul laid in Romans 7, the good we want to do, well, we don't do it. We are all saved sinners being sanctified, or, as it's been said, we are saints who sin. None of us is exempt from the power of sin, and the challenge is to exercise the mastery over the Holy Spirit over the temptations we face.
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