NEW SITE AND BLOG

Life Center of Brandon - Pastor's Blog

Full Armor of God Illustrative Video

Revival in Mississippi?

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

Many families were tremendously blessed this past Sunday at our 2007 Christmas Banquet and Toy Giveaway.



Thank you, members of Life Center of Brandon for making it a success.
We also would like to thank the Brandon, FL Wal-Mart on Causeway Blvd for giving us the opportunity to collect toy donations from its customers during the month of December.

If you happened to be one of the many who made a donation toward our toy drive this year, we pray the Lord will bless you for your generosity!

Click on the link below to see pictures of the event:

(Photos by Sarah Matthewson)

Monday, December 17, 2007

Marriage is not Football

Baseball, football, hockey...

There are many competitive sports in the world. Marriage is not one of them.


Ephesians 528-31

So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself.

No one ever hated his own body. Instead, he feeds and takes care of it, as Christ takes care of the church.

We are parts of his body.

That's why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one.

Friday, December 7, 2007

The Golden Compass: BRING IT!

First, I just want to say that New Line Cinema's "The Golden Compass" is IN NO WAY CONNECTED WITH Walden Media's "The Chronicles of Narnia" series.



I say that because someone I know erroneously mentioned that "The Golden Compass" was written by the 'same guy' who wrote "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

C.S. Lewis wrote the entire Narnia series.

Philip Pullman, who wrote the book upon which the "The Golden Compass" is based, was no fan of C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia".

According to Focus on the Family:

Pullman represents the polar opposite of Lewis. Pullman has repeatedly—and with apparent glee—lashed out at both Lewis and the faith he represents. "I hate the Narnia books, and I hate them with a deep and bitter passion," he told one interviewer, "with their view of childhood as a golden age from which sexuality and adulthood are a falling-away."

You can read that entire article here.

Here is brief synposis of the "The Golden Compass" from Wikipedia:

The Golden Compass is a fantasy film based upon Northern Lights (titled The Golden Compass in the US), the first novel in Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials.The story concerns Lyra, an orphan living in a fantastical parallel universe in which a dogmatic dictatorship, the Magisterium, threatens to dominate. When Lyra's friend is kidnapped, she travels to the far North in an attempt to rescue him.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Compass_(film)

So, should you take the young-uns (or yourself) to see this movie?

Focus on the Family had this to say in their review of "The Golden Compass":

This epic journey to a world in which a theocratic agency [the Magisterium]kidnaps and tortures children is grim and joyless. The violence may be generally bloodless, but the tale's tone is anything but inviting. No matter what the ads may say, it fundamentally lacks the wonder and the splendor of C.S. Lewis' and J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy creations—not to mention their grasp of spiritual truth.

Read Focus on the Family's complete review of "The Golden Compass".

Christianity Today offers this insight:

And so we come to the film's treatment of religion. Serafina [the witch who serves as the films narrator] says the coming war—which, in the second and third books, is revealed to be a war against the Judeo-Christian God—will bring an end to "destiny" and establish a new era of "free will." What that means exactly is not spelled out, not in this movie, but we can get a sense of it from the fact that nearly all of this film's villains work for the church-like Magisterium, which spends much of its time "telling people what to do."

Read Christianity Today's complete review of "The Golden Compass".

Movieguide (Dr. Ted Baehr's organization) wrote:

THE GOLDEN COMPASS is not a great story like THE LORD OF THE RINGS or THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, after which it is purposely patterned. Many of the themes of atheist Philip Pullman’s book are merely reactionary devices to the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA that try to express his hate for parents in general, his hate for Christianity and its leaders and people, and his hate for authority. The book is also designed to motivate the reader through fear and self-gratification.

Read his full review here.

Some other troubling concepts arise in this film.

From Focus on the Family:

Every human being in Lyra's [the films protangonist] world has a dæmon, an external animal representation of their souls. Dæmons shift form while a child is growing up, settling on one particular animal in adolescence. Even though dæmons are a part of each person, they have a functionally independent identity and personality, appearing to be something along the lines of what our world refers to as familiar spirits.


Dr. Ted Baehr adds this:

...in the interest of self-satisfaction, it motivates children to seek to be joined with occult, demonic powers and principalities to get their own way. The official website has an area where children can meet their own daemon. It says: “To discover your very own Daemon, look into your heart, and answer the following twenty questions openly and honestly. Your true character and the form of your Daemon will be reveled…”

Not cool.

On the secular front, most reviews have been less than stellar. So far the film has only garnered a 44% positve rating from Rottentomatoes.


The attacks on Christianity from Pullman in his writings are hard core, but we serve a very big and very real God.

This is but one sign that the fires of adversity are being stoked against the American church.

But we are about to enter our finest hour.

This adversity will only help to burn the idolatry, laziness, nihilism and complaceny that has has gripped us through false prosperity (materialism and greed).

So if men like Pullman want to turn up the heat...BRING IT!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

That Crazy Golden Compass


Seems there's a bit of controversy surrounding New Line Cinema's upcoming movie "The Golden Compass".

Below is a link to an article on the film's source material by our friends over at Focus on the Family:

http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0003516.cfm

Saturday, December 1, 2007

It's Black Friday, What Would Jesus Buy?

Well, Black Friday came and went a couple of weeks ago and for the first time in years, I decided not to participate.

No standing in lines, no waking up at 2 am to get somewhere to buy something.

It's not like I didn't know what was on sale. You can find those sales ads online (http://bfads.net/).

It's just that I didn't care.

Yes, in the world of Wal-Mart altars and consumer created gods, this is heresy I know.

But it's at the point for me, that what the most powerful retailers in America have to offer, doesn't add up to a hill of beans.

In Luke 12:15 we read what Jesus said:


"Be careful to guard yourselves from every kind of greed.

Life is not about having a lot of material possessions."

Stuff doesn't make us happy. Jesus does!

Stuff breaks or ends up in garage sales. Jesus never does!

My relationship with Christ is eternal and valuable beyond the big screen trinkets of life.

I was shocked to see that people were camped out in front of Best Buy since the day before Thanksgiving this year.

But am I against stuff? How can I be, since I myself have my fair share.

Am I against Black Friday? Not really, I know retailers have profits to make and employees to pay.

What I stand against is the never ending hunt for bigger and better stuff in an attempt to fill the empty void in our lives.

Stuff can't do that. Only Jesus Christ can.

There will always be bigger TV's, faster computers and cooler I-Pods.

Jesus is the only constant that never changes.

Jesus is the only one who can truly add value and purpose to our lives.

Only Jesus can fill the aching void deep within.

With Jesus, everything changes.

Historically, Jesus was crucified and died on a Friday. That was the day he purchased us from the mastery of sin.

That was his Black Friday.

He went shopping that day on the cross of Calvary.

What he bought was you. The currency he used was his own life.

If you don't know him, today is good day to invite him into your life.

A simple prayer is all it takes:

"Jesus I need you, give me a new life, a new start.
Forgive me of my sins...of all the wrong I've ever done...
I believe you died for me...
paid the price of my wrongdoings and sin...
I believe you rose from the dead and are alive today.
I believe you are who I need right now to change my life for the
better."



God bless.