Jesus in Primetime
It’s hard to avoid the sensational headlines of the periodicals at the grocery check- out line. “All the Details: Inside Beyonce’s Wedding!” “Shed Two Sizes: Your 4 Week Breakthrough Workout Plan.” “Drug Dealer to the Stars Tells All!”
I do my best to not get entrenched in the magazine covers, but yesterday, the TV Guide headline drew me in.
“A.D. How Jesus is Saving Primetime.”
For the first time in a long while, I threw a magazine in the cart.
I haven’t missed Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s mini-series, A.D. The Bible Continues, partly because I can’t get enough of the Bible, but I’m also curious to see how accurately it’s portrayed. For the most part, the shows have been right on, and have added some believable creative insight.
Burnett has had great success in the secular world, producing shows like Survivor, The Apprentice, The Voice, The Sing Off, Shark Tank, and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. However, he and his wife, actress Roma Downey, have also used their influence to create Women of the Bible, Divine Intervention, Son of God and The Bible series.
Jesus is saving primetime, partly because two followers are using their clout to place him front and center. Because of their boldness, on Easter Sunday, 9.5 million people watched the debut of A.D. The Bible Continues.
TV Guide says, “Even veteran viewers of Good Book-to-boob tube adaptations have never witnessed a wave of biblically based television and movies quite like the tsunami of Scripture TV descending on screens like so much white foam over an Egyptian army.”
So why is God parting the Red Sea in this way now?
I believe it’s a move of the Spirit.
God is using television and movies to make a final push to draw people into his kingdom. There’s no other reason why Jesus would win the ratings war, unless God allowed it.
At last year’s Christian Women in Media National Conference, Hollywood Movie reviewer, Ted Baehr, said Christian themed movies are outselling secular movies, so that’s why so many are being produced.
I wonder, Would this have occurred forty years ago?
As we see more signs of Christ’s return, the timing seems right for the turnabout.
Proverbs 21:1 says, “In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.” Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
It is God who is changing and drawing the hearts of television and movie producers.
But someone has to be willing to take the next step, and put Jesus front and center, so the message is prominent, and that’s what Burnett and Downey are doing.
We can all make a difference for Christ if we put Jesus in the primetime of our world. As the Savior of the world sacrificed for us on the cross, we must sacrifice our lives for him by giving him his rightful position at the core of our being.
Romans 12:1-2 says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Is Jesus in the center of everything you do? Are you reaching others in your areas of influence? Or is your life just another flick that gathers dust in the archives?
Never underestimate the difference you can make by putting Jesus in Primetime. (LBW)