I avoided watching the Passion of the Christ for a long time until now. Seeing that it came out in 2004, I have avoided it for 15 years. Why did I not watch this movie earlier, being a Christian and a movie watcher? Well I usually steer clear of violence in movies as I seem to have a low tolerance for images of cruelty and bloodshed. The reason I thought about watching it this year is that our pastor decided it would be screened for a movie night at our church. Because I wanted my initial experience to be before the big night, I asked a close friend if she would preview it with me. We both were very nervous to say the least and I was tense for the days leading up to the experience. We ended up with my friend and her husband, and another friend in her lounge room- no snacks- and much nervous chatter and could I say 'avoidance' chatter beforehand and even at certain intervals throughout. There were murmurings of 'here we go', 'now it begins' and 'oh
God gives us many good promises in the bible. The promise we are mostly aware of is his promise to save us from our sins if we call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2 v 21). In our being saved, he calls us "Holy" even though we can see we are still very human and weak. He says even though our sins are as scarlet, we will be made white as snow (Isaiah 1 v 18). In Romans 4 v 17 the scripture says of God that He is the "- God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were". This scripture is amazing, because it is quoted in the context of the story of Abraham, a man who God enabled to father a child at 100 years old and his wife being 90, not exactly the peak childbearing age! It was before God enabled Abraham to father a child through Sarah, that he called him by the new name, Abraham. Until that point his name was Abram. God said: "No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a F