Discovering God Everywhere
Summer is well underway and we’re embarking on a new summer series called “Movies that Preach!”
In one sense, this series is all about the unashamed fun, nostalgia, and potential God-conversations that occur when we enter the stories of the cinema.
And I love that stuff.
But more deeply, this series is about discovering God everywhere.
It’s about the overlap of the secular and sacred.
It’s about seeing God’s involvement in every story, in the myriad of Hollywood ones, in Jesus’ story, and in our own.
Psalms 24:1 declares, “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein!”
And this means God is everywhere and in everything.
In our last series, Messy Spirituality, we learned how God is intimately involved in even the strangest stories of spirituality around us in Santa Cruz.
And in this series we’re taking one step deeper toward (re)discovering our God who is everywhere, by looking for Him in places where we assume He isn’t.
Psalm 139 says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me...even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
God’s presence is everywhere.
A very, very modern translation of Psalm 139 says,
“If I go to the cinema, you are there. If I stream movies at home. You are there. If I binge watch Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, even scrolling on my iPhone, behold even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall uphold me. The darkness is not dark to you!" (PDV 2025, Pastor Dave Version).
Though God’s presence everywhere isn’t an endorsement of everything nor everyone, even those who don’t know Him can stumble into a work of art that speaks of His heart and uses the wisdom and designs of the Creator. More so, as believers who know Him, we should be the first to see Him in every story, from the brokenness to beauty, from the addiction to the redemption—our hearts cry “that thing you thought was just a powerful scene, that was Jesus knocking on our hearts!”
And it’s in this cinematic atmosphere of movies and stories, good versus evil, conflict and longing, that beckon us to see our stories and our faith afresh, and to consider if we really believe that God is in everything.
And this series is also such a natural overlap for engaging conversations with our friends, neighbors, family, and the general culture around us. So I encourage you to invite those around you who might be intrigued by conversations like these!
So let’s prayerfully engage in our new series, expectant that Jesus will show himself in a host of ways, some we’re planning on, and hopefully some unplanned and wondrous ways too!
Pastor Dave