Christians

Topher’s List of Marvel Musts

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A Brief History of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

If you’re wondering about whether it’s worth diving into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it can look pretty daunting. The Infinity Saga alone has 23 films, not to mention those about to begin releasing as the next storylines unfold.

This article is intended to break it down so you understand what is going on with the different movies as well as the greater, over-arching storyline of The Infinity Saga.

First thing to differentiate is the difference between the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the MCU) and any other Marvel-based film.
The MCU kicked off with Iron Man in May of 2008. This was the first movie made independently by Marvel Studios. Up until then, they had simply licensed out their characters to other studios and functioned as consultants. Iron Man was followed up by The Incredible Hulk a month later. Since then, every MCU film is based in a shared universe with overlapping characters and storylines. Any film based off of Marvel comic books up until 2008 is not considered a part of the official MCU.

The MCU has been the brain child of Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel studios who, with his team, has intricately planned the entire saga from the outset. Obviously, there’s been a lot of changes along the way, but by-and-large, it has followed his vision from the beginning.

Marvel releases each of their movies in what they call Phases. So far, there have been three complete phases and they make up what is now known as The Infinity Saga. In the list, I’ve also marked my recommendations and “must-sees.”

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“It’s a Jesus Story” Revisited

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Prelude:

In the wake of hearing about too many relationships devastated by immorality and its cover-ups, I couldn’t handle it any longer.

“If we have truly been redeemed and forgiven at the cross by the creator of the universe, why are we hiding our stories?” I asked myself and my family.

Frustrated to the point of anger upon hearing of men who cower in the shadows of their past (which is supposedly redeemed), I suddenly had an idea. It was one of the scariest things I had ever done. Apart from my family and a handful of friends, I had never shared it with anyone. I was sure people would reject me, that no girl would ever accept me after this, that I would lose face—but I knew I had to do it.

So on March 21, 2013 I put into practice what I had learned two months before in “Grieving” and shared one of my darkest secrets. To my surprise, it dramatically changed my life for he better and very well might have saved my faith.

It was this story that caught the attention of Brett Harris and gave him the nudge to ask if I’d write for TheRebelution.com, which has, in itself, changed my life.

I thought I was sharing my story, but in reality, it isn’t mine at all…

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Failure or Success?

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“I think our entire culture suffers to hear, ‘I love you whether you succeed or not. Whether you’re productive or not. I just love you.’”

– Donald Miller

Success. We all want to be successful, right? Our brains are trained to think that unless we measure up to such-and-such a standard, we will not make it—we will have no value in the world. When a business man invests in a company, he expects good dividends in return. Why would it be any different for a human? When teachers invest time and energy, isn’t it expected that the pupil will grow up and give back to the teacher by benefiting society? If not, either the teacher or the student has failed. If what we invest in does not return benefits to us in any way, it is a failure and not worth our attention. We are Westerners we are born and bred to think this way.

So if Christians do not bear so-called “fruit” (whatever that may be), they are failures right?

Wrong!

“When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father” (John 15:8). This is a promise, not a command. If we are Christ’s disciples we WILL bear fruit.

We have a mindset that says if something is a “failure” [that which does not fulfill our human-defined measure of success] it is worthless. This mindset causes us to look for success in others and try to copy it and we are rarely able to do so. We work and work to try to “measure up” to the talents, abilities, or success of others but we can never do good enough. We constantly fail our expectations. Why? Because our standard is falsely based on other individuals’ success, instead of God’s truth.

God created each of us individually and set us on separate paths toward success. Yes, He desires and plans for us to be successful. But what is success? Success is doing what we are expected to do, fulfilling our purposes. If someone is a mail man and he carries mail from place to place, than he is fulfilling his purpose. He is successful.

God made us with a purpose. He originally planned and still plans for us to individually worship and commune with Him. That is what we see with Adam and Eve.

So we have a function—a purpose: God created us to individually worship and commune with Him. This is our goal. This is what we fix our lives on, to fulfill that purpose. Knowing this we no longer need to measure up to the external doings of other people. When we focus on worshiping God we no longer pursue being noticed, or having such-and-such grades, talents, or status. We only pursue Jesus.

So what is failure? It is not failing a test, not getting last place in a competition, not lacking knowledge or experience, not failing in evangelism, not lacking money, or not lacking talent musically, physically, or mentally. Failure is lacking a relationship with Jesus Christ the King of Kings, the Creator, the Lover, the Savior. Jesus said “Remain in me and I will remain in you, for a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me“ (John 15:4). God does not measure our “success” by what we do, but rather by who we are.

Read this carefully:

God created you to worship and commune with Him. When you are a child of God, you are walking a path of worship and communion with God. Therefore if you are a child of God, you are a success in God’s eyes. And when you continue to pursue Him and walk with Him and open up your heart to Him, He finds you more and more successful. No amount of success is too little or too great in His mind, because He loves you and He LOVES when you are successful. It thrills His heart.

Success is not something you can emulate—copy. It is personal and individual and can only happen when you are in Christ.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Salvation is extremely simple, but it is the continued walk that can be hard. Do not worry about what you look like to other people. Focus on God. Discipleship cannot be faked, so don’t try to fake it. Just surrender EVERYTHING you have and are to Jesus—and He will do the rest. This is success.

C.D.

What Makes Me Angry Infuriates Me

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I am angry. I am angry at the fact that thousands of people die every day and enter into an eternal state of complete separation from God. From God who is the source of all that is good. I am angry at the fact that slavery is still very much alive in our country and that my city is in the center of it all. I am angry that sin and immorality are rampant in the world. That people—even children!—all over the world are without clean water and humane living conditions.

That makes me angry, but what really infuriates me is that so many Christians are doing nothing about it. It infuriates me that the only thing many Christians think about is themselves. It infuriates me that many guys cannot reach beyond their own weaknesses. It infuriates me that many Christians are so self-conscious that they are not willing to abandon all to follow and obey Jesus. It infuriates me that Christian men tear families and churches apart because of their pitiful beliefs. It infuriates me that personal convictions have become a bigger issue than the Gospel. It infuriates me that godly people throw themselves into useless head-butting discussions on social networks knowing that their arguments will not change anybody. It infuriates me that Christians care more about their rights then they do about the souls of their fellow humans. It infuriates me that people are content with their shallow lives. It infuriates me that many people think rightly, but actually do very little.

It infuriates me that I see much of this attitude in myself.

So many Christians are chasing the wind. So many men think their only job on earth is to provide for their families and be comfortable, and so many young people are obsessed with their next date or party: all they think about is themselves. I wish I could ask them if they are really content with the shallowness of their lives? Don’t they want to make a difference in the world? To utterly spend their lives for Christ? Or is their selfish flesh and peer pressure so great that it keeps them from having any meaningful life at all?

It is easy to look at shallow people and judge them, but what about those who are religiously shallow? Do young people simply walk away from God? Or could it be that personal convictions and doctrines become too important and regulated that they strangle any life out of church? Are the particular beliefs people hold dear so important that they are willing to sacrifice the souls of young people, and the souls of those who have never even heard the Gospel?

I hope not.

The only thing that matters in life is that we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Any conviction, any social work, any significant choice should be born out of that relationship. Jesus is the holy, perfect, just, loving King of the Universe. We are sinners completely lead astray and deserving of Hell. If we want a relationship with the perfect King, we, the very imperfect humans, must play by His rules. Let’s read the Bible and obey it! Let’s not try to reason it all out, legislate it, add to or subtract from it, just obey it. Let’s remember that Jesus is holy and perfect, but vehemently loves you and continually forgives you when you repent. Let’s remember that our purpose as Christians is to proclaim the Gospel. To do anything “Biblically” yet forsake the Gospel is worthless, but to proclaim the Gospel and forsake the Bible is like trying to run a business without money.

Let’s focus on Jesus. Just love and obey Him.

C.D.

What Would Jesus Do?

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Wow, imagine this, Christopher Witmer is actually updating his WordPress! SURPRISE! Life has been good and God has been good, as always. That is the interesting thing about life, it can be either negative or positive, but when God is walking alongside, one can usually look back and say it was good.

I just recently ate my first full Chick-Fil-A meal on August 1st. (I wonder how many people remember the date of the first time they ate at a fast food restaurant . . .) I and the group I was with did it mainly to show support for the organization and its employees in light of the attacks they have come under from many who support gay rights.

I am intrigued by the modern discussion of homosexuality and the stark difference between the two worldviews. Unfortunately, both sides of the argument can sometimes come through very hostile to each other. As a Christian, I hope that I am known as a safe and accepting person to be around, even though I believe homosexuality is a sin, just as I believe adultery, period, is a sin (adultery including: sex before or outside of marriage, lust, et cetera). Many times the very thing these people are longing for is love and acceptance and the only place they can find that is in a perverted way of relating to each other. I find this very sad because what they truly long for is Jesus and His powerful love, but many Christians have turned them into a spiritual and political enemy, which is not giving them the love they need and desire.

We all want love. Love is an amazingly powerful force. When a person feels loved, he has a sense of worth and dignity; and he  can begin to see from the lovers point of view, and will listen to what the one showing the love has to say. God is not a heavy-handed old man sitting in a booth upstairs just waiting for us to make mistakes so He can call us out and punish us. Rather, He is compassionate and extremely long-suffering. He loves us with an everlasting love. Not a cheesy love, no, but a love that will change one’s life. It changed and is still changing–transforming–my life.

I wonder if maybe the reason it is so hard for Christians to demonstrate love is because we often do not fully realize the extent to which God loves us! How can one give what one does not have? The reality is that He loves us so much that He died to live inside of us! – Do not resist it! – But He is a holy and jealous God and we are completely sinful–there is no way for us to have fellowship with God and receive His love and blessing: except through Jesus Christ, glory hallelujah! God sent His own son, Jesus, to make a way for us to be connected to the Father who loves us.

Realize, Christian, that there is nothing that can separate you from God’s love, yet there is nothing “lovable” about you, and yet He loves you passionately. It’s called grace. It’s called amazing. Now live it. Show some love to your homosexual neighbor–it will probably change their life. . .and yours.

C. D.