A Defense of God's Law: Editing

I've taken the plunge into editing A Defense of God's Law. At first, it was a very slow process because some of the shots required extensive work to complete them. A number of shots have required compositing, color correction, digital zooms, and other various components that took a lot of time to complete. I've had several shots take over an hour to produce...each! I seem to be picking up pace, though. (I think I'm getting the hang of this editing thing!) Today was an especially good day.

I'm pleased with how things are turning out so far. The footage looks good. It's nice to see everything coming together after seeing the miscellaneous shots scattered all over the place. Unfortunately, for you readers out there in the blogosphere, it will be several months yet until you get to see the finished film. I don't want to announce a release date yet. Stay tuned!

Sodom Was Destroyed Because a Righteous Man Disobeyed

When God told Abraham that He intended to destroy Sodom, Abraham pleaded with God that the city would be spared. Abraham knew that his nephew Lot lived in Sodom and that God would end up destroying him with the rest of the city! Abraham said, “Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?” (Genesis 18:24)

The LORD said He would surely spare Sodom if there were fifty righteous people in the city. Abraham then asked, “What about 45, 40, 30, 20, or 10?” God was willing to spare the entire wicked city if there were only 10 righteous people who lived there!

I’m sure you’re all wondering where I’m going with this. You’re all familiar with the story. So, I’ll get to the point.

Lot had one wife and only two daughters. However, God commands that married couples “be fruitful and multiply”. (Genesis 1:28, 9:1)

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.” (Psalm 127:3-4)

“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them...” (vs. 5)

If Lot would have been obedient by having a multitude of children, Sodom would have been spared (assuming that Lot raised righteous children, of course). Even if Lot wasn’t fruitful in that way, he could have evangelized his neighbors and the city would have had ten righteous people. God would have spared the city and Lot’s wife wouldn’t have been turned into a pillar of salt!

Imagine this – if Lot was obedient to God’s commands, God would have spared the city of Sodom, and the wicked would have had more time to repent of their sin before Judgment Day.

Panavision to Sponsor Film Academy

Panavision, the motion picture industry leader in camera design and manufacturing, will be a sponsor of the Christian Filmmaker's Academy in San Antonio, Texas. They will also be sending a representative to teach students about cinematography. Students will have opportunity to learn about operating a standard 35mm Panavision camera. Learn more here.

Is Retirement Biblical?

Now this may sound like an unusual question, but is “retirement” biblical? Is there a time in a man’s life that God has appointed for endless leisure activities and no work?

Like I have said before, a simple question deserves a simple answer – there is simply no positive example of old-age “retirement” anywhere in the Bible. Notice, I said there are no positive examples. Now I’m not aware of any biblical examples of retirement, but if there are some, they must be negative, that is, not-to-be-followed examples. Here's why:

You see, God commands that men work by the sweat of their brow. He places no age limit on this command. Ever wonder why laziness is a sin? It is a sin because God commands work!

Genesis 2:15, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

Genesis 3:19, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Notice, the Lord says that a man must work until the day he dies! ...” till thou return unto the ground...” This is referring to death. God wants us to work until we die; this means, if you’re still alive, God still has work for you to do!

Furthermore, Paul gave a clear command about work in 2 Thessalonians:

2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

There you have it, work is not optional. Now don’t get me wrong, there may come a time in a man’s life when he is no longer physically able to work. However, this is drastically different from choosing to retire at age 65 simply because of a suposed "earned right."

Maybe these Scriptures are not very clear to all my readers, but they sure are clear to me. I plan to work as long as God gives me the ability to do so. I encourage all others to do the same.

Another thing to consider is that retirement may use up your children’s inheritance.

Proverbs 13:22, “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children...”

Rise up “good men”. Work to build wealth for your children and grandchildren. You cannot earn the right to retire until you expire.

Does God Love Everybody?

My friend, Nathaniel Darnell, has written a good blog post on the subject of God's love. I encourage all to read it, and read the comment discussions as well. Read Nathaniel's blog here.