Twilight: A Personal Confession and Holy Correction

Alright...confession time. I didn't want to do it..and really had all good intentions of not doing it, but caved in the end. When offered a chance to see the movie Twilight, I gave in.

"What's the big deal" you ask?

Doesn't seem like one to most people, but I have personally been trying to give up my love of tv and movie watching (especially romance stories) and although this one peaked my fleshly interest, I had wanted to obstain in favor of protecting my innocence.

"But it's only a PG rating....again....what's the big deal-y-o"?

Alright, I also have to admit that since seeing it, it has been on my mind almost all of the time!!!! Most people would just say that it was a good story line that clicked with me, but it's more than that. I started conversing with Holy Spirit about the movie and came up with a few things that I feel are note worthy. Now, before I get into that, I want to be clear on one thing....my husband really, REALLY doesn't like this movie. He feels it is a demonic attempt to pass off evil in the guise of a love story... an opinion I can understand him having. I can see it as part of a very slow process to erode our morals and understanding of what Godly Truth and Good really are. I mean, it use to be that the movie "good guys" were really good and the "bad guys" were really bad (think Superman). Then movies started coming out where the new good guys were essentially bad guys who did some good deeds while opposing a Really Bad Guy (think Blade). Enter Twilight, a whole new level of deception where the romantic love interest, the "Knight in Shining Armor", the new heart throb for countless, aching women across the world, is a vampire... a symbol right from the pit of darkness. I'll admit, the movie did it's job well. Coming from a perfectly satisfied, happily married, CHRISTIAN woman....the allure of that "love story" is still with me. At first I just touted it to be a worldly depiction of the love every person is created to long for....the perfect love of God, seen in a "beauty and the beast" setting. Big stretch, but it soothed my mind for the time being. Later, while driving to Asher's appointments and listening to a Misty Edwards track entitled "O That You Would Rend The Heavens" which sings about Misty's/the Church's desire to see the glorious return of a Bridegroom Jesus to reign as King on Earth, I started to truly see how misplaced my/our affections have become. Here I am thinking about this movie's main character...his elegance, his strength, his "eternal love" for the mortal heroine (since Vampires are immortal) and I start to see the contrast between what this world depicts as "true love" and what true love REALLY is.

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This is true LOVE and only one man (Jesus) has achieved it without sin to make way for us to be reunited with God!

Later, while thinking on it some more, I started realizing that the "desire" that movie created for the main character was misleading me... away from my husband AND Christ. I was actually thinking about that movie more than I was meditating on the Word. I was defiling my mind rather than washing it clean... (and my thoughts were pure....just longing for romantic adventure with a super human)

Eph 5:26 That he (Christ) might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Now, I can hear the critics now...pointing out that I'm comparing apples and oranges. A movie dealing with human love as apposed to the love of God and cold ole Religion. Well, I remember being a love sick teenager, longing for Mr. Right to come along and draw me up into his "adventure". To fill the emptiness I felt inside...the ACHE I felt for True Love. It was only after getting married to a wonderful, Godly man that I realized the ache was still there. Not that he wasn't fulfilling me, but he can only do so much. We were created with a God size longing deep in the heart of each of us ... one that only a GOD can fill. These movies do their job to pacify that desire, but they are short lived which means they become addictive. Meanwhile, we never get closer to truly filling the ache with the One who created it. We were made to commune with God almighty! Think on that for a minute. The God of Revelations (1:13-18 and God's thrown in chapter 4) where John sees Jesus in his full redeemed glory... "his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters" This all beautiful GOD is IN LOVE with US and is returning to wage war on those who persecute and kill us ... yet we are wooed and pacified by WAY lesser versions of Him. i.e., the beautiful, White, porcelain skinned, immortal vampire with super-human strength and timeless love for a mortal. Sounds familiar doesn't it. I guess that is the point of my literal brain rant. I hope I at least got the point across.... lets set our sights quite a bit higher than we currently are and seek to withdraw from this worlds seductions. That is my personal goal at least, even if I'm nearly alone in it.....or am I? What do you think?

Blessings!
~Erika~