English
Korean
Spanish
The annual Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Empower Conference is quickly approaching. I invite you to join with many other SBTC churches and be blessed and encouraged, as well as be challenged to share the good news of our Savior. We have some wonderful speakers and breakout sessions that will inspire and motivate you.
Speaking of motivational, Jordan Peterson’s interview with Dallas Jenkins, the creator and director of “The Chosen,” is one of the best things I have heard in a long time. I was enthralled with the testimony Dallas gave about how “The Chosen” came into existence. Peterson said it is an excellent production and the best Christian mini-series ever.
Dallas shared with much transparency how he hit rock bottom prior to “The Chosen.” Around 2016, Dallas produced the film “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone.” In his own words, he said it was a total failure. He and his wife sat still and wept as they realized how poorly the film had been received. He doubted his abilities and even considered giving up on creating and directing.
During this dark night of his soul, Dallas told Peterson, who was absolutely fixated on Dallas and the story he was telling, that his wife told him they needed to read the story in the gospels where Jesus fed the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21). He thought that was rather odd, but Dallas went along and read with his wife the only miracle recorded by all four gospels except for the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. Jesus took two fish and five loaves of bread and fed 5,000 men plus the others. Some calculate that the number could have been as high as 20,000.
"If you know Christ, then He lives in you by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit."
Not long after this, Dallas said he was on his computer at 4 a.m. working away. He was writing a 15-page critique of all that went wrong in the film he had worked so hard on. At that time, he received a Facebook message from a friend. His friend said he felt the Lord wanted him to tell Dallas this: “Focus on the bread and the fish.” His friend wrote this note from Romania and had no idea Dallas and his wife had recently read the account of the feeding of the 5,000. Even Peterson acknowledged this was no mere coincidence.
Dallas said he got the message from the Lord loud and clear. He was to do what he was good at, and that was telling the good news of Jesus in fresh and creative ways. He felt the Lord affirming him and reminding him that he was no failure. He was not to worry himself with pleasing men or Hollywood. Rather, he was to focus on what God had called him and gifted him to do. The next year, he began working on “The Chosen.”
Dallas and his wife trusted in the Lord, he quit leaning on his own understanding, and God divinely directed his path (Proverbs 3:5-6). Millions of viewers around the world have been blessed by “The Chosen.”
Let me encourage you that you are not a failure! If you know Christ, then He lives in you by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Trust the Lord, do what He has gifted you to do, and get busy!
