Basking in the Son – Episode 3

We’ve completed the third episode of Basking in the Son!  This time we take a look at Rapture/End Times films, discussing the idea of the Rapture, when it was introduced and its effect on Christian film-making.

00:00 – Intro
00:50 – Sonlight Pictures Update
07:00 – Rapture/End Times Christian Films
     11:23 – Omega Code 1 & 2
     12:58 – The Moment After 1 & 2
     25:17 – Left Behind 1,2 & 3
     30:15 – In the Blink of an Eye
36:17 – David A. R. White for Halloween
37:49 – Messenger Update
40:44 – Sonlight Pictures Angel Spotlight: Ashley Henkle
1:04:58 – Closing

Enjoy the show!

Basking in the Son – Episode 3 Almost Complete

The next Basking in the Son has taken a little longer than we anticipated because of the amount of research required.  Next time we’re focusing on past and future rapture-themed Christian movies.  We’ve watched seven films and done a lot of online research about the creation of the rapture theory.  We’ll also have an update on the Messenger CD as well as an inspiring interview with Sonlight Pictures Angel Ashley Henkle.

So, come back and we’ll have the podcast uploaded here in the next few days.

Merry Christmas!

To all of our fans and our Sonlight Pictures Angels, to all of those of you just stopping by and to all of God’s creation, we, at Sonlight Pictures, want to wish you all a blessed and holy Christmas!

The Lord has been very good to us this year.  We’ve worked hard and put our faith in him with our diligence and our persistence.  In these tough economic times, the Lord has placed below our Christmas tree gifts of spiritual substance, not worldly possessions.  He’s offered us gifts of sacrifice, of peace and of love.

May the love, guidance, blessings and graces of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you from now until he greets you in Heaven!

God Only Wants 100%

The good news is that God does not want from us more than we can offer.  He doesn’t expect us to give 110%.

He does, however, expect us to give 100%… of us… to him.

God wants us entirely, mind, body and soul.  He wants us to embrace him with our every goal, hope, aspiration, need, desire and challenge.  He wants to lead us down the path we need to take to reach salvation and live eternally in his presence.

Like his chosen people in the Old Testament, that journey may not be an easy one, but a necessary one.  When Moses led them out to the wilderness it would take 40 years of a level-setting spiritual boot camp for his people Israel to purge their 400 year connection to the gods of Egypt.  God forced them to rely solely on his own mercy to provide food everyday.  And when they lost faith, like building the golden calf, they had to pay the price for their spiritual weakness.  Even Moses, who answered God’s call time and time again, failed to do as God spoke and was punished by not being allowed to enter the land they were promised.

It was not until the Egyptian generation had died away, and their children only born in the wilderness with the strong reliance on God’s mercy, did his chosen people finally make it into the land of milk and honey.

The funny thing about offering ourselves up to God is that, well, he will take it.

My daughter, for example, had been struggling with managing her stress level this year in school.  We had prayed often and asked for God’s guidance.  As we neared her final exams and prayed we realized this final exam was not a test of math, but a test of faith.  My daughter understood that and accepted God’s guidance and went to bed, ready to trust God’s will.

The next day, the day of the exam, she awoke with a high fever.  She opened her eyes and said “Thanks, God.  Still testing my faith, huh?”  And he was.

After she took the final exam she waited for the teacher to let her know what was her final score.  The teacher scored the test and told her she had failed.

My daughter left the classroom devastated.  The result of the test would require her changing her entire college plans.  She had prayed and put her faith in God and she failed anyway.  She knew God must have had other plans for her.  She wept to herself, but knew it was God’s will and accepted it.  She didn’t like it, but she accepted it.

However, it was another test of faith.

As she walked outside of the classroom the teacher ran out after her and told her she had given her the wrong person’s results.  She had actually passed and received a B.

As her faith grew, God’s test of that faith grew.  The more she was tested, the more she had to offer more faith.  The more she offered faith, the more she was tested.  She started giving 10%, God wanted 11.  When she gave 11, God wanted 12.  Why?

Because God wants all of us.  100%.  Nothing less.  We are his creation, after all.  Why would he want less?

The saints have often complained about God’s continual and growing moral tests of faith.  I can’t remember the saint’s name, but one of them said to God, after a very hard moral challenge,  “if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies.”

Think of Mother Theresa.  After giving her life to Jesus, she did not feel his presence again, except one brief moment.  For fifty years she felt nothing, but lived everyday for him.

Why?

Because God wants 100%.  Any amount of ourselves we do not give to God is tainted by our own imperfection.  When we offer ourselves up, God must purify us from our own sinfulness by testing us, forcing us to rely on him.

For my daughter, she did not have faith when it came to school work.  Her fear was interfering with her faith.  When she offered that up, God had to push her more and more until he had finally forced the fear from her where she could replace that void with faith.

Our moral journey, our path toward heaven will not be easy because it can’t be.  We are holding on to too many percentages of our lives, not giving God all of us.

We are his children.  He wants all of us.  Not just once a week on Sundays.  Not just when life treats us poorly.  He wants us when we work, when we talk to our kids, when we mow our yards, when we wash the car, when we face illness, when we lose our jobs or lose a relative close to us.

God wants us all.  Whatever you can give him, he will take… and wait for the rest.

Nikki & Babs

Our web series, once called Purgatory, USA is now titled Nikki & Babs.  Our distributor, Cloud Ten Pictures, which is the leader in Christian film distribution, suggested a name change.  We worked together over the last few months and agreed that the show will be called Nikki & Babs and that the first DVD will be titled Nikki & Babs: Dos and Doubts.

They’ve created a wonderful website located at nikkiandbabs.com so check it out.

We’re updating our trailers and quick takes with the new title and will update our Sonlight Pictures website with the changes as well.

Thank you all for your support, especially the prayers of our Sonlight Pictures Angels!  We hope this project will help young teens evaluate the simple ways they can make good moral decisions.

Listen for the Whisper

“The reason it’s so hard to find quiet time with God is because it’s so important.”

We were inspired to put that line in our Purgatory, USA web series after hearing from a guest speaker at our church.  Before Eucharistic Adoration, we had a local youth group leader from another parish talk about how important it is for us to embrace quiet time with God.

Our world is full of distraction and noise.  Our world is full of technology that keep us connected and busy.   But, do we take a step back and stop to listen, to pray?

In a previous post we talked about the need to be active, to overcome our sedentary lifestyle to live a holy life.  Part of that holy life is to stop, pray and listen.  Praying is not inactive, it is not idle, it is an active experience with our Almighty.

Yes, God already knows what you need and what you’re going to say, he simply wants you to say it.  He wants to hear your voice.  He wants you to rely on his guidance.  He wants to point you in the right direction and give you the grace to overcome what struggles are awaiting your journey.

He wants you to want to speak with him.

Remember the story about Elijah?

After forty days and nights, Elijah takes refuge in a cave.  God instructs Elijah to stand outside the cave to “stand before the Lord.”  What follows is a loud wind, a terrifying earthquake and an intense fire.  But, God is not in any of those noisy things.

Elijah, instead, hears God’s voice in a whisper.

How will we be able to hear God’s whispering voice if we are distracted by the wind, earthquakes and fires?  Will we hear God’s call when we are bombarded by television, video games, cell phones and internet?

Satan does not want us to hear the whisper of God’s voice.  He wants to keep our focus in eighteen places at once, wearing us out, so that we never stop to pray and, most importantly, listen.

We end our day mentally tired and emotionally spent.  We think to ourselves “I’ll pray more tomorrow.”

You may not have a tomorrow.

Don’t let Satan win by allowing him to pull you from God’s voice, from God’s grace and from God’s love by overwhelming you with unimportant noise.

Close down your web browser and turn off your computer.  Turn off the television and cell phones and radios.

Sit quietly down and offer your Creator 30 minutes of your life for which he created, and thank him, and praise him and pray to him and listen.

Listen for the whisper of his voice.

An Active God

For most of our human existence God has made us to move, to remain active.  Up until recently in our human history, when we were hungry we had to run down, kill our food, then eat it.  Or we had to till the soil all year long in order to be able have enough food to survive.

He did not design us to sit eight hours a day at work, then to pick up our food at a drive through, then continue our idle existence at home watching television eating snacks.  He did not design us to be static and sedentary.

He designed us to run, to exercise, to flex our muscles, to raise our heartbeats.  When almost all of the common health problems in our society can be solved by eating right and exercise, then you have to know we are not living the life that God created us to live.

The same goes with our spiritual experience.  God did not design us to be surrounded by man-made wonders and place other idols before him.  He did not create us to become so enamored with our own creations that we forget the Creator for which all creation exists, including our ability to formulate new ideas on our own.

Instead, he designed us to create in unison with him in appreciation of his creation, to use our talents with his grace to touch lives with his holy example.

Think of how hard it is to place much importance on yourself or mankind when you are laying on the ground in the wilderness at night looking up at a canopy of stars.  Or how hard it is to put yourself above the Creator of all things when your very life is dependent upon the gift of that creation to give you life through rain, through crops and through live stock.

When we remove ourselves from our creations and surround ourselves with God’s creation, we quickly come to realize our place in this universe and the special relationship we have with God, who provides for us and loves us.

We need to take a step back and think if we are following God’s plan for us.  Are we are taking care of our temple called our human body in the manner in which God so lovingly created us?  Are we pushing back the growing noise of man’s inferior creations and distractions and, instead, putting our faith and our daily needs in God’s hands as he has requested of us?

We are created in God’s image and asked of only a simple request from our Creator.  To love him above all things… above our work, our hobbies, our passions, our family, our children, our sports teams, our friends, our goals.  To love him because without him we do not exist.  To love him, for without him we are literally nothing, empty space in a cold universe.

Is it asking too much to love him first?  To thank him first?  To ask for his guidance first?  To trust him first?

At the end of our life, God will ask us what we did with our time here and judge us on our faithfulness and our discipline.  Did we treat his creation, our very bodies, with respect and humility?  Did we treat his creation, this beautiful world around us, with respect and humility?  And did we first worship God, our loving Father, with respect and humility?

We are made in God’s image.  God is not an idle God.  God is not a sedentary God.

He is an active God, a loving God, a nurturing God and a just God.

All of his creation is in a constant state of movement.  Our physical and spiritual lives should be equally active.  Embrace that part of your existence and get off the couch.  Move your body and offer up your time, your talents and your treasure in his honor.  Love your neighbor as yourself and help others around you.

Don’t say you’re a Christian, live as a Christian, as an active disciple of Christ.

Stay mobile, active and continue to move toward our heavenly father everyday from this day forward.

Basking in the Son Ep 3 Coming Soon

We’re in the process of putting together our next Basking in the Son podcast. We know, we’re late on this one.  We apologize.

Things have been so hectic lately.

• We’ve had to get a bunch of deliverables ready for our distributor for Purgatory, USA.  There have been some compatibility issues with the video file formats I’ve submitted, so we’re having to redo a lot of that work.  No fun.
• Plus, we’ve been sick with a minor flu bug.
• Plus, there was the Thanksgiving Holiday.
• Plus, it’s the end of the semester for Basking in the Son host Dorothea Bauer, which means a bunch o’ studying.

So, please be patient with us.   We’ve been putting a lot of work into this next podcast, watching a lot of films and trying to get as much good info as we can.  We’ll have the next episode out in a few weeks.

And thank you, Sonlight Pictures Angels, for all of your prayers!  They are so helpful to us.  We pray for you everday!  We really do!

We’ll get this next podcast completed as soon as possible, we promise.

We’re Sponsoring 90.5 Spirit FM Today!

In an on-going attempt to give back to the Lord what he has given to us, today we are a day sponsor for our local Christian radio station, 90.5 Spirit FM.  Combined with a morning Mass for the Immaculate Conception of Mary, well it’s a great start to another day!

Funny thing is that Dea Bauer, our Producer at Sonlight Pictures, actually volunteered for 90.5 about 20 years ago when it was called WBVM.  They had just started a contemporary Christian music block called Teen to Teen and Dea was one of the teen DJs Saturday morning.

Since those early years the station has continued to grow.  When our childrens were younger we would listen to 90.5 to hear Veggie Tales songs and other wonderful children programming.  It now has become one of the leading Christian radio stations in the country and also has a Satellite radio presence.

We’ve always felt that 90.5 has been both a blessing and an inspiration to us.  The way that small station 20 years ago has evolved into the influential force for Christ through music is a model we hope to emulate with Sonlight Pictures with cinema and television.

Thank you 90.5 Spirit FM for all that you do to touch lives everyday.  May God continue to bless you and your mission!

I was able to capture a clip of the station announcing our sponsorship (or course, they mispronounced Dea’s name).  Praise God!

Tribulations

For our next Basking in the Son podcast, we take a look at tribulation/rapture films.

Because of the popularity of the subject matter in both books and film, the idea of a rapture, of being taken before the tribulation, has become ingrained within our society.  During our research I was surprised to find out that the concept of the rapture is a relatively new idea, theologically speaking.  It is based on but a few bible passages and was not totally in the mainstream thinking until recently.

As I look at the rapture concept, I am forced to ask a question… when in the bible does God ask us to avoid a necessary sacrifice to live our faith?

From the very beginning, Genesis, God asks obedience from Adam and Eve.  When they fail, and commit the first sin, he says he will teach them the value of sacrifice and the rewards that go along with it.  He will show us that obedience to God’s will necessitates sacrifice and sometimes hardship.  We’ve talked in previous blogs about the sacrifices Jesus requires to be his follower and how difficult it is to achieve them.  We’ve talked earlier about God’s call to rise above our human weakness and attempt to achieve holiness.

So, the idea that we will be spared the greatest test of faith by being snatched from the earth in a blink of an eye, seems to me, to contradict the lesson God has been teaching us throughout salvation history.

Everyday we are faced with various hardships that challenge our beliefs, whether it be financial, health related or spiritual challenges.  Even if one were to live a life without great turmoil, the mere requirement to dispense with the world’s priorities and embrace God’s is a challenge beyond measure.

Why, when it mattered most, when the challenges were at their greatest, would God not require our faithfulness?  If God were to simply snatch believers from the earth to avoid great tribulations, would not the Christians being brutally persecuted under Nero qualify?  Or the Jews and Christians under the Nazi’s?

Why are we so special as to not require as much of a sacrifice as Saint Perpetua or Saint Maximilian Kolbe?

Would not our example of holiness during the greatest of tribulations perhaps bring a few more people into union with Jesus Christ?

So, sure, rapture stories are great cinematic story devices and I’ve enjoyed quite a few movies that tell that idea, but the weight of salvation history seems to tip the scales toward our continued sacrifice as opposed to being rewarded with a “Get Out of Tribulation Free” card.