"The Apostle"

I was very impressed with the movie last night and enjoyed staying afterwards for the discussion as well. While discussing the life of Apostle E.F. hypocrisy came up. I agree that his life seemed uneven as he seemed more into preaching at the beginning of the movie for his own social benefits rather than for the good of others and to raise up the Lord. It was apparent to me that he was preaching and sharing the gospel because, at the time, it was what was convenient for him. Although we all like to think we're better than this, there truly isn't anyone, excluding Jesus of course, who can say they are innocent of being hypocritical. What I found amazing in the movie was how, like Job in the Bible, when everything that Apostle E.F. deemed as important in his life was snatched away from him, how instead of falling by the wayside, he kept going and going strong for the Lord. He was no longer preaching because it was convenient, in fact, knowing that the Lord took away from you what He knew mattered most would make spreading His word increasingly difficult. But he did it even when knowledgeable about his future fate involving technical issues with the law.

I found Sonny's story to be very in sync with Paul's story in the Bible. Starting off as Sonny and changing his name to Apostle E.F. who changed drastically into a person living and working solely for the Lord. And Paul, who started off as Saul also had a complete alteration of his being as he transformed into a man of the Lord who, like Apostle E.F., was praising the Lord while in chains.

During the post-movie discussion, when hypocrisy was mentioned, the first thing that came to my mind was the set of short films titled "Vintage 21". These films demonstrate how life would have been if Jesus had been egotistical. My favorite one is the third. Imagine what life would be like if Jesus hadn't been perfect, what would we have to live for, where would we go after this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCTAgxsLE3Q