Honoring Christ In Film And AnimationSample

SEE 

All that we see in creation is in essence a video, animation, or illustration of the mind of God. Think about the visual nature of the Bible. The symbols. The signs. Even Jesus himself—creation’s Master Painter and Word. Jesus is the one who dares to come into his own painting and put on flesh to show us what the Father’s like.

Genesis begins with video imagery. The Spirit hovers over the waters, and thus speaks. Speaking takes words, and words come from thoughts, and thoughts come from being (who we are). Therefore, the very essence of God’s nature within himself spewed out onto the canvas of the formless and void. God made sense out of senselessness, and isn’t this the work of every creative? The creative takes seemingly disconnected items unrelated to one another, like lyrics, melody, rhythm, and instrument, and assembles them to make harmony—a song.

God took plot, imagery, cinematography, script, story, character, prop, and costume and combined them to make sense for us of time and history. This is the beauty of the creative act, and this is why we love film so much. It’s innate in our created being because we come from God himself.

John begins his gospel with this same imagery; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When he sees Jesus coming down to be baptized, he says “Behold, the Lamb of God.” John’s visual language tells us how we are to experience Scripture. It is to be beheld. See.

Our understanding of God begins when we gaze upon his art; his very nature, his very essence of true beauty, and goodness. Echo with me today the prayer of David; “one thing I ask, and this I seek, to see your beauty Lord.”

 Accompanying this study is over 300-Hours of video footage from 150 of today's top Christian thinkers on culture, creativity, innovation, and invention at www.makejesusculture.com and www.gardencityproject.com. We aim to help churches develop grass roots culture formation for their contexts. Go now!