J. Mitchell Lane

I’m starting to realize – and not for the first time – that everyone has some kind of motivation for whatever actions they take. The kid in the checkout line at the grocery store is screaming to get attention. He wants attention because he wants that candy bar. He wants that candy bar because it makes him feel good. He wants to feel good.

That girl lied to that guy that likes her about where she was going not because she doesn’t want to hurt his feelings, but because she wants him to think highly of her. She only wants to look good.

I think that when everything is boiled down, there are really only two motivations for making any decision. The first is obvious. It’s a motivation to make yourself look good. To have people like you. To have people look at you and say, “that person is some person.” It is a selfish motivation. The second is less obvious. There are some people (we should all be one) that live with a motivation completely towards God. Every decision they make is based on the answer to the question, “Will this glorify God?” Every single one of us should be basing our decisions on whether or not the outcome will glorify God.

There are also several things that lead to a selfish motivation. I think the most common one is a fear of suffering. Most people in the world would identify themselves as being ‘religious’ in some way or another. If you asked someone on the street whether or not they were going to hell, most likely they’d tell you they were going to heaven. If you asked them why, they’d tell you that they were a ‘good person’. If you look at every religion out there (except for true Christianity), you’ll see that every single one of them is based on earning your way to salvation. There’s always good works that you have to do to earn your way into favor with God. Most of that is based on a fear of dying, and a fear of what happens next.

Most athiests would tell you that God is the creation of man to make themselves fear better about the unknown. If a person believes there is a God, and he believes he is in favor with that God, then there is nothing to fear. Thus, most athiests believe that people created God. Athiests would also say that through some misplaced sense of morallity these people also feel they have to please him and be in his favor in order to get into this ‘heaven’ (that they’ve also created) to irradicate their fear of death. Thus, the people work tirelessly to please a God that doesn’t exist in order to avoid pain that they feel they might incur (selfish motivation).

Atheists would say that people have an entirely selfish motivation for religion. They’re right about that, but where their coming from isn’t correct.

Instinctively, man knows that there is a God. Instinctively, man knows that there is a judgment coming, and so he’ll do anything to convince himself that he can avoid that judgment. He’ll do anything to convince himself that he’s a ‘good person’ in comparison to the rest of the world so that he can feel better about himself. He’ll give money to the poor, he’ll do community service work, he’ll do ‘acts of selflessness’, but the reason he does those is an entirely selfish motivation. It’s the motivation to keep his self image. If he can convince the rest of the world that he’s a good person, he shouldn’t have to try too hard to convince God of that, right?

The sad reality is that (in the world) every good deed has a selfish motivation. (Romans 3:12) It all spurs from a desire to convince yourself that you can avoid whatever judgment is coming. Or if you’re not trying to avoid judgment, you’re trying to make yourself look good. After all, if there is no God, there is no judgment, and there is no heaven or hell. If there is no God, who is to say that there are rights and wrongs? Who are we to say what morality is, and what right and wrong is? That is exactly the crossroads that our society, and most of the world is at today. In questioning the very existence of God, we’ve also begun questioning the very existence of morality and ethics.

When we question the existence of God, there is no reason for anyone to do anything (or to not do anything). When there’s no eternal consequence (as more and more are beginning to believe), there’s nothing to stop them from doing anything and everything to be sure that they enjoy this life as much as possible, because, after all, it’s all there is. There’s no reason not to blow up the building, or rob the bank, or leave the family for a younger woman.

A reality that many are beginning to intentionally overlook, is that this world needs a knowledge of God. Without that, there’s no basis (other than a selfish one) for any decision. However, because of most people’s selfish motivation to make themselves feel better, they’ll do anything to either convince themselves they can avoid the judgment (and thus turn to a false religion and ‘morals’), or they’ll do anything to convince themselves a judgment is not coming and God does not exist. Either way, the motivation is a selfish one. Either they’ll go from religion to religion until they find one that makes them feel like they’ve earned their salvation, or they’ll deny the existence of God all together and earn the same thing.

There is another side to this. What happens when someone has the other motivation? What happens when someone focuses on trying to do things that glorify God? What happens when someone focuses on trying to have a relationship with God, and what happens when someone realizes there is no possible way for us to earn our salvation? (Romans 3:23, Galatians 3:11) This is why it’s so amazing that God has done what he has for us.

A lot of people will ask, “what kind of God would make a system that no one can live up to? What kind of God would make a set of rules that must be followed perfectly (and yet cannot be) in order to earn salvation?” The answer comes with God’s character.

If you have a God who is perfect, that means that He is perfectly Holy, He is perfectly wise, He is perfectly gracious, and He is perfectly judging. If you have a completely and totally perfect God, how can he possibly mix with imperfection? If you mixed snow in with dirt, the snow isn’t going to be white anymore, is it? So God cannot tolerate imperfection. But, there’s good news. Because God is perfectly gracious, He has made a way for us to have a relationship with Him. Because Christ lived a perfect life, and is in all ways just as perfect as God (after all, He is God), He also has the ability to pay the price for all the imperfections of the world. Because God is merciful and gracious, He sent the only one who could possibly pay the price that we had built up for ourselves. He sent the only one who could possibly live up to perfection: Perfection Himself.

If God had done it any other way, He would have had to comprimse some element of His character, which would also mean that He is not perfect. His plan is just as perfect as He is. Because Christ paid the price for all of our sins, we have the ability to have a relationship with God. When God looks at a believer, He doesn’t see all the believer’s sins, He sees Christ. Through Christ, He has made us as white as snow. When we live with our motivation towards bringing Glory to God, and not towards earning our salvation, or making ourselves appear to be good people, we automatically begin to be sanctified in the other areas of our lives. When we believe in Christ, have faith in Him, and strive to bring Glory to God instead of ourselves, it is credited to us as righteousness, (Romans 4:20-22) and God enables us to grow in Him.

In other words, when someone strives to bring glory to God, they accomplish what the selfishly motivated people only appear to be on the outside. They become what the selfishly motivated try to convince themselves (and the world) that they are. They’re not focused on externals. They’re not focused on themselves at all, but only on what brings glory to God. That is what we should all be focused on. If everyone were focused on that, all the ‘complications’ and ‘drama’ of this life would melt away. Because when it really comes down to it, all of that spurs from selfishness, doesn’t it?

We have some Jehovah’s Witnesses that have put us on their list, and every weekend they stop by to talk to us. Even when we’re not here, they’ll write us a note and put it in the mailbox with a couple of their ‘Watchtower’ magazines for us to look over. They know that all of us in the house are Christians, and they are trying to increase our ‘knowledge’ of God. I don’t think they’re used to talking to some younger people that actually have strong faith in Christ.

One thing included in their mission is trying to convince us that the trinity is false. They don’t believe that Jesus is God. One of their reasons for believing this is an incorrect translation of John 1:1. In most translations, this verse is translated as “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” but in the New World Translation (the version Jehovah’s Witness uses) this verse is translated “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.” Notice “The word was A God.”

The reason the NWT translators use for translating it this way is the lack of a definite article before the Greek word for “God.”

Look at the last section in Greek: καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος. (kai theos en ho logos)

Literally translated, this sections says “and the Word was God,” but the translators slip an extra “a” in there to make the sentance say what they’d like.

There are a few problems with this. First, there are no indefinite articles in Ancient Greek. Secondly, to put this in the sentence causes the verse to contradict numerous other verses that confirm the existence of only one god, and these verses have no doubt in the translation.

Deut. 4:35-39, 1 Samuel 2:2, 1 Kings 8:60, James 2:19, 1 Corinthians 8:4

Furthermore, the Greek word for God used in these verses is the same word used in John 1:1. Now, I’m obviously very new to Greek, but it doesn’t make sense as to why this would be translated “the Word was a God,” especially when there are so many other verses in the Bible denying the existance of other Gods, but twisting this translation is their entire basis for denying the fact that Jesus is God.

I tried using this argument with the Jehovah’s witnesses, but they just seemed to shy away from the subject, or use several explanations that didn’t make sense. This left me at a loss, because I suddenly realized that I didn’t know the specific references that supported the fact that Jesus is God, so I had no more ‘ammo’ to use. I knew what the verses were, or what they said, but I was completely unable to look them up on the spot as I should have been able to, and this made me realize how unprepared I am for situations like that one.

“…sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” – 1 Peter 3:15

I missed a very good opportunity to display accurate knowledge of God. I missed a chance to help them start thinking about how hollow their doctrines are (and hopefully lead them to Christ) because I didn’t know how to accurately defend my faith by pointing people back to specifics in the Word. Luckily, in this case, they will probably be back next week, and I can point them to verses like John 1:14, John 10:30, or Colossians 1:15-20.

There are a lot of ‘what if’s that pop into my mind when I realize how unprepared I am to defend certain doctrines that I believe in. What if I run into an influential person and get into a conversation, but can’t defend what I’m saying? What if I’m called out on my beliefs, and can’t defend them. Worst of all, what if some of my beliefs have no grounding what-so-ever, and I just believe them because someone told me to?

It is beyond important to have backing for all of our beliefs, and to be able to defend them with sound reason and scripture. That incident inspired me to go back and research many of the doctrines I believe in to find the supporting verses to go with them (and write them down). I am far less solid in being able to defend my faith than I thought I was. I was unable to effectively defend this very basic Christian doctrine. There are so many opportunities to share the gospel, but we (and I) miss many of them because we don’t know where the truth on any given subject is in the Bible, and we can’t point someone straight to it.

Often times, we don’t bother to look up the verses that support the most basic things (like the fact that Jesus is God), because they’re basic, easy to understand, and no Christian quesitons them. I am probably too busy focusing on the doctrines that I may have to defend within the Church, and I forget about the basic doctrines that I need to defend when I’m at work. I need to keep in mind that I should be well versed in both areas, not just one.

I need to strive to have a complete knowledge of God (even though I never will), and not one that is limited to small group of doctrines that I like to debate with my Christian friends just because they are more comfortable to talk to about Christianity than non-Christians. That reminds me. Limiting my conversations to people I’m comfortable talking to is a blog for another day.

Hopefully next time I’ll be to do what is in 1 Peter 3:15 .

I always say it, but yes, I am horrible at being consistant in sending out e-mails, or posting updates about what’s happening out here in Los Angeles, so here it goes. Hopefully this is the last “what I’m doing in general” posts, and I’ll be able to get to the specifics consistantly without months in between the posts.

I’m getting extremely excited and motivated about producing Fault. There is so much that can be done with the concept (both from a plot point of view, and from a message delivery point of view). It could end up serving as a tremendous launching point for a variety of different moral subjects that I’ve been itching to cover in some way. That usually leads to me diversing into 10,000 different screenplays because of the messages that I want to get across. This idea looks like it will allow me to focus on one plot while at the same time addressing several extremely different points and messages.

So, Fault tends to occupy a lot of my thinking time, because there’s a lot that needs to be decided when it comes to how certain points will be approached, and whether or not they’re actually approachable. I tend to think everything is approachable, but some of the concepts may just need to be introduced more slowly than others. Needless to say, if this actually takes off, and I don’t have a lot of people angry with me by the time that it’s finished, I haven’t done my job right.

But then there’s everything else.

The past two months or so are almost a complete blur to me because of everything that’s been going on. For a month and a half, we were ramping up to shooting a nine page section of the script, so that took a lot of mental energy. At the same time there’s the 40, 50, or 60 hour a week full-time job which takes up a lot of time. Once you add in Church, starting a business, starting to get involved in politics, and attempting to have a social life, you end up with one very confused Jeremy that’s running around with no idea which way is up… or down.

There is a lot that I want to say when it comes to Church, but I think that is probably going to come out in book form (longer than this book-length post), so i’ll save that for the ‘specifics’ that I’m going to get to later. Same goes for Politics. I’m really hoping that I stay consistant and actually get to posting about these things, because I’d really like to hear what other people think on the subjects as well. If I don’t continue post, feel free to pester me. I’ll deserve it.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Me and a couple others are going to be taking a road-trip out to Colorado at the end of the month to see the play that basically my entire family will be in, so I’m pretty excited about that. Oh, and I’m sure we’ll get in a couple days of snow boarding. No, this isn’t California snow, and it’s not North Carolina snow… or Georgia snow. This is the real thing. I like the real thing.

If you’re still reading this by now, I’m thoroughly impressed, so I’m going to let you go do something much more important than reading my blog. Good night, and beware the furture blog posts that may be lurking around the corner.

We had a chance to go through the footage and start the rough-cut process this week for the pages we shot on February 28th. I thought it would be great to post some screen captures and get some feedback. I had a few frames exported so I could upload them for you to see in all their pre-color correction glory.

Let me know what you think!

Recently I’ve been contemplating a question that has confused people for a long time. What is Christianity? There are so many people, even within the ‘church’, that have no idea what Christianity really is.

People who are outside the Church look at Christianity as a giant list of rights and wrongs, or a bible of dos and don’ts. The same can be said for most of the people who claim to be Christians. They become so focused on living the “Christian Life” that they forget why (or even how) they’re living that life in the first place. Being a Christian has become much less living your life to Glorify God, and more of living life to put on a display of you living it ‘correctly’.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” – Galatians 1:10

Many Christians are too intently focused on what people see. They go to Church on Sunday morning, not because they want to, but because if they don’t someone will ask them why they weren’t there. They ‘serve’ at an event because they’re always told they should, not because they want to glorify God through doing it. They feel that if they don’t do these things, they are not a ‘good Christian’. They don’t stop to realize that no one is a good Christian. Not a single one of us is ‘doing this’ correctly.

‘Walking the walk’ is evidence that Christ lives in us, not the reason he does. However, there are many Christians that are trying to put the evidence there, trying to show people they’re ‘saved’, before they work on the more important part: their relationship with Christ.

I’m very reminded of the second chapter of Galatians.

” ¹¹When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹²Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. ¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

¹⁵“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ ¹⁶know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

I put those sections in bold for a reason. None of us can be saved by putting evidence of the faith in place of the faith itself. Living the ‘Christian life’ is not what makes us Christians. Christianity itself has nothing to do with following the ‘rules’.

If Christianity isn’t a list of rules, and if it’s not merely displaying the evidence of salvation, then what is it? What’s the point? To answer that question, we need to back up.

Humanity is flawed. People are flawed. God is not. People struggle with decisions, and have a limited understanding of life. God set out everything perfectly, He understands everything perfectly. We, as humans, are totally depraved. When given the choice, without God’s help, we will always make the wrong one. When left up to us, we will always choose sin. Every time.

Why is this bad? Why does this condemn us?

God is a Holy God. He is also a Just God. And being so, he cannot tolerate sinfulness. He cannot tolerate anything less than perfection. It must be judged. But there’s something else, too. God is a Gracious God. He is a Loving God. He loves us, His creations, and so He made a way for us to be with Him, to live with Him, and to have a relationship with Him. When you take all of His attributes into account, there is only one way that having that relationship is possible, and God, being the perfect God that He is, provided that for us. He sent His only son, His perfect Son, to die for our sins, to be punished for our failure to obey his laws, and to pay the price that we cannot pay.

No matter how much we try to live our lives according to the rules, no matter how hard we try to follow them, it is completely and utterly impossible to do so. So obviously, that is not what saves us. It has nothing to do with salvation, and it is not sum total of being a Christian. If it were, not a single one of us would have a chance.

Yes, we need to grow in righteousness, and grow in holiness, but we don’t do that by just following a list of dos and don’ts because people tell us it is how a Christian is supposed to live. We don’t follow a list of dos and don’ts because ‘that’s what makes us holy’. Let’s look at this a different way.

I don’t do what He says to make myself look good to the people around me, or to make the people around me think that I’m a strong Chritian. I don’t do what He says to gain their approval. It really doesn’t matter if some people think that I’m doing the wrong thing, as long as I’ve searched my heart, I know that it is in the right place, I’ve asked God for wisdom, and I’ve searched the Bible for the truth. If after all that, I’m still confident I’m taking the right path, then it doesn’t matter what the people around me think, because it is still pleasing to God. I’m making whatever decision I’m making to bring glory and honor to Him, not to myself, and not to the people around me.

When our hearts are in the right place, we’re not doing the right thing because it makes people look favorably on us. When our heart is in the right place, we’re doing the right thing because it makes people look favorably on God. We don’t have God’s approval because we follow the rules. We believe in Christ, and so God sees Christ when He looks at us, and not our deeds. Doing the ‘right thing’ is an effect of having a healthy relationship with the Lord, it is not the other way around. I can’t have a healthy relationship with God by just following the rules, and you cannot be a Christian from the outside in.

I’m not a Christian because I follow the rules. Christ died as a perfect sacrifice for my sins, and paid the debt I can never pay. I believe He is God, He rose three days later, and is fully sufficient to cover all of my short-falls, which bridges the infinite gap between me and God. I have a relationship with God.

I am a Christian. Following the rules is just a side effect.