“The 168 Film Project: A Crazy Act of Faith”

By Dianne E. Butts –

I’m going to be doing something just a little bit crazy this month. I’m a member of a team that’s going to make a movie. In a month? you ask. Well, actually, in a week. Oh all right—you should probably know it will be a short movie. Eleven minutes max. But still, acting and filming a whole movie, editing, adding music, etc., all in a week? That seems a bit crazy, doesn’t it?

What’s the movie about? Don’t know yet. How could I not know? Well, because it’s a timed contest. We can’t start making the film until 11:00 am on the production week. And the way they keep us from starting early is by assigning each team its topic. That will happen February 6^th.

What kind of a topic will it be? It will come in the form of a Bible verse.

Yep. That’s right. Our film team, one of about 80 teams, will be assigned a verse from Scripture, and it will be our task to write, film, and produce a story that “illuminates the Word of God through short film.” Through this competition, the 168 Film Project “provides a training ground for filmmakers.” They are giving pros and newcomers alike opportunities to learn about and get involved in film production. Teams are made up of people with diverse backgrounds, training, and experience in the entertainment industry. It is also an incredible networking opportunity which can open doors for future work in entertainment. The 168 says, “We encourage fair treatment of subjects, with emphasis on story and subtlety. But, more importantly, filmmakers are advised to honestly portray the tale that God inspires.”

“The tale that God inspires.” That’s the faith-walk part. Can God really help us make a movie in a week?!

There’s something strange going on in Hollywood. There has been an influx of Christians looking to make a difference. Not only do they want to make a difference in the content that comes out of Hollywood in film and television, these Christians want their presence to make a permanent impact. Every job they get, every set they work on, every person in Hollywood they encounter, will give them an opportunity to be a witness for Christ. These Christians plan to transform Hollywood from the inside out by reaching professionals in Hollywood for Christ.

Have you seen something you don’t like come out of Hollywood lately? What did you do about it? Turn off the TV? Stay away from the movie theatre?

Well when was the last time you prayed for Hollywood? If you, personally, would like to make a difference in Hollywood, a good place to start is with the Hollywood Prayer Network.

And when you think of me and this crazy thing I’m attempting this month, I’d appreciate a prayer, too. The 168 competition’s theme for this year’s contest is “Second Chances.” Our verse will be assigned February 6. We’ll have ten days to write a story script that illuminates that verse. Then we’ll be filming starting February 17^th and must turn in our film on the 24^th.

All films will premier at the 168 Film Festival April 1 – 2 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. If you can’t make that but would still like to see some of these short films that illuminate God’s Word, “Best Of…” DVDs from past years are available on their website. You will be inspired by what these up and coming filmmakers have done with one Scripture verse and 168 hours.

Dianne is the author of the new book, Deliver Me: Hope, Help, and Healing through True Stories of Unplanned Pregnancy (Connections Press, 2011), and an aspiring screenwriter. Her script, A Cowboy’s Faith, was a finalist in the 168 Project’s “Write of Passage” 2010 contest. When she’s not writing, she enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C. in Colorado. www.DeliverMeBook.com www.DianneEButts.com

The Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

By Dianne E. Butts  –

The National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is January 23, 2011. Each year, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is held on the Sunday closest to January 22, the date in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision on Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton which legalized abortion on demand.

Since then, there have been nearly 50 million abortions in the United States. Here are some more statistics about abortion in America:

• In the United States, approximately 3,700 abortions are performed every day.

• Of all pregnancies in America (excluding miscarriages), 22% end in abortion.

• About 61% of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more children.

• Of all abortions only 1% occur because of rape or incest. This means that of those 3,700 abortions performed every day, only 37 are because of rape or incest.

• What about the other 3,663? Potential health problems regarding either the mother or child account for 6% (222). The remaining 93% (3,441) are for “social reasons” (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).

• Of all abortions, 18% are performed on women who identify themselves as “Born-again/Evangelical.”

• Of all abortions in the United States, women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4%; Catholic obtain 31.3%; Jewish obtained 1.3%; and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7%.

• If you’ve seen the “Precious Feet” lapel pin of two tiny human feet, the international pro-life symbol for nearly thirty years, you may know those feet are the exact size and shape of an unborn baby’s feet at ten weeks after conception. Of all abortions, 52% occur before the ninth week of pregnancy and 25% between the ninth and tenth weeks.

• By the time they are 45 years old, an estimated 43% of all women will have at least one abortion.

Do you find anything startling in these statistics? Perhaps you thought abortion today was rare, or only needed or used in extreme cases. This Sunday, on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, how might you pray for our nation? If you’re inclined to do a bit more, where might you volunteer to make a difference? And the next time you have the privilege, how will you cast your vote?

I’ve learned that many women (and men) who have experienced abortion and now regret it, feel they have committed the unforgiveable. Think of it. According to statistics, this issue affects up to 43% of our population. Through hearing their stories, I’ve learned what a difference it makes in their lives, and their walk with God, when someone compassionately reaches out to them with mercy, talks with them about God’s forgiveness, and helps restore them in their relationship with Christ.

“For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:8-9, NIV).

Dianne is the author of the coming new book, Deliver Me: Hope, Help, and Healing through True Stories of Unplanned Pregnancy (Connections, 2011), www.DeliverMeBook.com. When she’s not writing, she enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C., in Colorado. www.DianneEButts.com

Editor’s note: You may contact the author for information regarding statistics referenced above.

God on the Spot – Part 12: Taking Us into His Presence

By Dianne E. Butts –

Besides Christ coming again, God is also still on the hook to take those who accept Him as their God into heaven. There is nothing we can do apart from trusting Christ to make God do this. He made the promises. And in the end it is God alone Who is on the spot to save us and to deliver us from this world into His presence for all eternity. But based on the fact that He has kept every promise whose time has come that He’s ever made so far, as we’ve seen in this series of articles, we can be certain He won’t fail to keep this promise as well.

But until then, we can put God on the spot today. I’m sure you’re asking how can we possibly put God on the spot?

We can tell people about Him. After that it is God Who is on the spot to live up to what we’ve told them.

We can challenge people, but it is God Who is on the spot to convince them.

We tell the truth about Him. He alone is on the spot to prove it’s true.

It’s about His character. If we truly portray His character as He has revealed it to us through His Word, then Bible, then He has to come through (or else His character has changed—and that can’t happen).

We have a responsibility to know Him. Then we tell the truth about Him. At that point, He is on the spot to take that ball and run with it…or not. It is then His reputation on the line. It is His character on the spot. Not ours.

Don’t we say God always answers prayer? If that’s true, then we can tell someone to pray about a problem they’re experiencing and to watch for God’s answer. It is His reputation on the line to answer their prayer.

Don’t we know God always acts in perfect love? Then if we tell others that God will act toward them in love, it is His character that is on the spot.

Don’t we know that God always keeps His promises? Then what promise can you show someone in the Bible today that they can challenge God to keep? It is God Who is on the spot to keep it.

What might happen if we put God on the spot more often? What if we challenged Him to keep His promises? To display His character? To prove He is all He claims?

Wouldn’t we be bolder in our walk with Him and our witness to others?

Wouldn’t we find an incredible freedom to live in that boldness?

Wouldn’t we feel an unexpected and refreshing rest in simply telling the truth about God and then leaving up to Him what He will do with it in the lives of others?

We are not on the spot to defend God. We are not on the spot to prove He exists. We are not on the spot to convince people to know God or trust Him for salvation and eternal life. We are on the spot to live faithfully, trusting Him. How might our lives be empowered if we fully recognized it is God alone Who is on the spot to do everything else?

© 2010 Dianne E. Butts

Dianne has written for over 50 Christian print magazines and seventeen books. Her work has been published in Great Britain, Bulgaria, Poland, Canada, and Korea. You can follow the progress of her current book of true stories of unplanned pregnancy here: www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com When she’s not writing, she enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C. in Colorado. www.DianneEButts.com.

God on the Spot – Part 11: The Remaining Prophecies

By Dianne E. Butts –

Even though in the last two articles in this series we saw numerous prophecies fulfilled, God is not off the hook yet. God is still on the spot to bring about all His remaining promises, which are prophecies of our future.

One day the disciples asked Jesus, “What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3; see also Mark 13, Luke 21). Jesus, speaking around 30 AD, gave a list of future events. Nearly 2000 years have elapsed. So are we any closer to these things happening?

Here are twelve prophecies God is on the spot to fulfill before Jesus comes again:

Israel back in the land: Predicted: Ezekiel 20:34 (also Isaiah 11:10-12, Jeremiah 31:10, Luke 21:24). Fulfilled: Israel had not been a nation since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD forty years after Christ. But after World War II and Hitler’s attempt to annihilate the Jews ended in 1945, the Jews returned to the land. Israel officially became a nation again on May 14, 1948.

Nations against Israel: Predicted: Matthew 24:15. In order for the antichrist to set himself up in “the holy place” (the Temple in Jerusalem) and proclaim himself God (“the abomination that causes desolation”) and demand the whole world worship him, there must be 1.) a one-world government system controlling all the citizens of the world, and 2.) a Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.

Being fulfilled?: I first heard the term “The Quartet” around the August 1, 2010, when I picked up a new book on prophecy titled, The Israel Omen by David Brennan. According to that book, The Quartet is the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Russia. Imagine my surprise when I next heard that term in a secular radio news report on FOX radio news on or around August 18, 2010. This report announced “The Quartet” had arranged for peace talks between Israel and Palestine to resume in Washington D.C. the week of September 2.

Rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem: Prediction: Matthew 24:15. Being fulfilled?: The Temple Institute (http://www.templeinstitute.org/) in Jerusalem is currently building all, and has already completed many, of the items needed for the Temple to resume its ministry when it is erected in our future.

Wars and rumors of wars, nation will rise against nation: Predicted: Matthew 24:6-7.

Famines, earthquakes: Predicted: Matthew 24:7.

Persecution of God’s people: Predicted: Matthew 24:9.

Many will turn from the faith: Predicted: Matthew 24:10. Called the great apostasy or the apostate church.

Many come claiming to be Christ, deceiving many: Predicted: Matthew 24:5, 24.

False prophets deceive many: Predicted: Matthew 24:11, 24.

The love of many will grow cold: Predicted: Matthew 24:12.

The gospel of the Kingdom of God will be preached in the whole world: Predicted: Matthew 24:14.

“This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened”: Predicted: Matthew 24:34. The generation that witnessed Jesus did not all pass away before the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD. The generation that witnessed the attempted annihilation of the Jews by Hitler and the rebirth of the nation of Israel could be the generation that will see all these things occur.

December: “God on the Spot – Part 12: Taking Us into His Presence” Besides Christ coming again, God is also still on the hook to take those who accept Him as their God into heaven for all eternity. But until then, we can put God on the spot today. In the final part of this series in December, we’ll see how.

© 2010 Dianne E. Butts

Dianne has written for more than 50 Christian print magazines and seventeen books. Her work has been published in Great Britain, Bulgaria, Poland, Canada, and Korea. Follow the progress of her current book of true stories she compiled to bring help and hope to those who have experienced an unplanned pregnancy at www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com. When she’s not writing, she enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C. in Colorado. www.DianneEButts.com

God on the Spot – Part 10: Providing the Sacrifice

By Dianne E.  Butts –

Have you ever thought about what it would take for God to prove to us that He exists? It seems like there should be an infinite number of answers. But I swear to you, I can only think of two:
1.)    Come down here and show Yourself.
2.)    Do something only God can do.

(If you can think of others these two don’t cover, I’d be interested in hearing from you.)

Even these two are inter-dependent because even if God did #1, how would we know it was Him? He would still need to do #2 to prove it was Him.

Jesus claimed to be the Christ: the one God promised to send and God Himself coming down here in the flesh. Question: But how can we know it was Him? Answer: Over and over again He did things only God can do. You know, change water into wine, calm the storm, make the blind see, make the lame walk, walk on water, raise the dead…that sort of thing.

But then something happened that seemed really unbelievable: He died. And at the hands of humans, no less. If Jesus was God, then how could this happen?

Again it was prophesied hundreds of years before it happened and then God was on the spot to bring all of His predictions to pass. Below are just ten prophecies God was on the spot to fulfill.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus were recorded by all four men who recounted the biography of Jesus in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Below we’ll compare these accounts with two Psalms written by King David, who lived 1040 – 970 BC, Isaiah (740 – 681 BC), and accounts by Moses (1526 – 1406 BC) showing all ten of these things were predicted hundreds of years before they happened:

He remained silent. Predicted: Isaiah 53:7. Fulfilled: Matthew 27:12-14.

Sacrifice of the Son and the lamb is provided on Mount Moriah. Predicted: Genesis 22:1-18. (Compare Genesis 22:2, Genesis 22:14, and 2 Chronicles 3:1.) Fulfilled: Mark 10:32-34. (Mount Moriah is the hill on which the Temple stood within Jerusalem.)

Pierced His hands and feet. Predicted: Psalm 22:16. Fulfilled: John 19:18, 20:25.

They put gall in His food and gave Him vinegar for His thirst. Predicted: Psalm 69:21. Fulfilled: Matthew 27:34, John 19:28-30.

Mocked and insulted Him; challenged God to deliver Him. Predicted: Psalm 22:7-8. Fulfilled: Matthew 27:39-44.

Divided and cast lots for His garments. Predicted: Psalm 22:18 Fulfilled: John 19:23-24.

Our Passover Lamb; not a bone would be broken. Predicted: Exodus 12:43, 46. Fulfilled: John 19:31-37.

He was pierced for our transgressions and by his wounds we are healed. Predicted: Isaiah 53:5. Fulfilled: Hebrews 9:27-28, Romans 4:25.

Assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich. Predicted: Isaiah 53:9. Fulfilled: Matthew 27:57-60.

“Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and …the LORD makes his life a guilt offering.” Predicted: Isaiah 53:10-12. Fulfilled: Acts 2:22-39.

When Satan connived through humans to have Messiah killed, it was God on the spot to preserve His life even though He died. God requires death for sin, and so God provided the death He required to pay for the sins of anyone who will accept it. But because Jesus never sinned, death could not keep hold of Him.

We cannot atone for our sins and live. So if God wanted to save us, He was on the spot to do it all.

November: “God on the Spot – Part 11: The Remaining Prophecies.” God is still on the spot to bring about all His remaining promises, which are prophecies in our future.

© 2010 Dianne E. Butts

Dianne has written for over 50 Christian print magazines and seventeen books. Her work has been published in Great Britain, Bulgaria, Poland, Canada, and Korea. You can follow the progress of her current book of true stories of unplanned pregnancy here: www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com When she’s not writing, she enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C. in Colorado. www.DianneEButts.com

« Previous Page — Next Page »