{"id":1034,"date":"2016-06-28T02:37:38","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T02:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takingeverythoughtcaptivetoobeychrist.wordpress.com\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2016-06-28T02:37:38","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T02:37:38","slug":"million-dollar-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/million-dollar-gospel\/","title":{"rendered":"Million Dollar Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The movie, Million Dollar Arm<\/em>, is one of my top five favorite baseball movies. I recently re-watched the movie for the first time in a while. As I re-watched the film, I caught on to a few details that I had overlooked before. Primarily, I noticed two little quotes that were brilliant. I noticed that these quotes contained a quick taste of the gospel \u2013 unintentional by the writers, of course. I always get excited when I get little gospel tastes in movies and such.<\/p>\n

The main character in the movie is sports agent J.B. Bernstein \u2013 played masterfully by Jon Hamm. Throughout the movie, Bernstein is a class-A jerk. He is an extremely self-centered man who holds everyone around him to ridiculous standards. However, there are several characters that continually treat Bernstein with grace. They decidedly don\u2019t treat him as he deserves; but instead show kindness over and over to him – regardless of how much he doesn\u2019t deserve it; or notice it for that matter. As the end of the film nears, Bernstein finally realizes just how awful of a person he has been to all those around him. He is at the end of himself. But there at wits end, grace breaks through his stone wall of pride.<\/p>\n

Bernstein had been in charge of the training of two young boys (probably in their early twenties) from India, who were completely out of their element in Los Angeles, California (where the training took place), being that they had never stepped foot out of their humble villages in India. Bernstein had viewed these boys simply as hopeful checks to cash in on \u2013 as people to take advantage of. The boys\u2019 first Major League tryout had been a complete disaster and Bernstein was on the verge of losing his livelihood because of it. But the boys\u2019 kindness had finally led Bernstein to repentance. After a heart to heart moment, Bernstein reveals to the boys that he had landed them one final tryout. In that moment Bernstein utters these words, \u201cNo matter what happens, there is nothing you can do to let me down.\u201d The grace he had been shown had changed him. But there was something powerful in those words. It was a non-works based acceptance. Why is it that there is nothing they can do to let him down? – Because they could certainly perform terribly in the next tryout, causing Bernstein to lose everything. Bernstein had learned to love and accept these boys simply for being fellow humans. He had come to the realization that human dignity is not found in our performance, or the value we can contribute to society; rather it is found in simply being human.<\/p>\n

Aside from that, there is something else powerful in the words of J.B. Bernstein, \u201cNo matter what happens, there is nothing you can do to let me down.\u201d Do you see the gospel there? For those who have come to Christ in repentance and faith, no matter what happens, there is nothing you can do to let God down. He is not let down by your repeated failures. He is proud of you. He accepts you. He approves of you. He loves you. Not because of your works or your \u201choly\u201d contributions; but because he has chosen you before the foundation of the world to be his.<\/p>\n

The striking thing is, when Bernstein uttered those words to the young athletes, it didn\u2019t cause them to have an apathetic attitude toward their next tryout. In fact, it caused them to give it their all. Why is that? It\u2019s because grace motivates action. Acceptance that is not based on our success frees us to give our all in our actions without fear of losing that acceptance, should we fail. So it is in our relationship with God.<\/p>\n

There is another gospel element in the movie, I wanted to bring to light, but I have decided to do so in a future post. Stayed tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The movie, Million Dollar Arm, is one of my top five favorite baseball movies. I recently re-watched the movie for the first time in a while. As I re-watched the film, I caught on to a few details that I had overlooked before. Primarily, I noticed two little quotes that were brilliant. I noticed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,31],"tags":[150,177,200,274,392,557,562,567,580,668,678,679,693,698,699,822,843],"class_list":{"0":"post-1034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-film","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arm","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bernstein","11":"tag-christ","12":"tag-dollar","13":"tag-god","14":"tag-gospel","15":"tag-grace","16":"tag-hamm","17":"tag-j-b","18":"tag-jenkins","19":"tag-jesus","20":"tag-jon","21":"tag-josh","22":"tag-joshua","23":"tag-million","24":"tag-movie","25":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1037,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/million-dollar-gospel-pt-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1034,"position":0},"title":"Million Dollar Gospel, Pt. 2","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"June 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In my previous post I talked about some gospel that I saw in the movie,\u00a0Million Dollar Arm.\u00a0There is one more gospel picture in the movie that I wanted to write on. I didn't feel that it fit with my last post, thus I've given it it's own post. In the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":981,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/the-impossible\/","url_meta":{"origin":1034,"position":1},"title":"The Impossible","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"June 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night my wife and I watched the movie, \"The Impossible.\" Sound the spoiler alert alarm! The movie is about a family who vacationed in Thailand during the time of the Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 that caused massive tsunami's in several different countries around the Indian Ocean, including Thailand.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":465,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/book-review-the-story-of-everything-by-jared-c-wilson\/","url_meta":{"origin":1034,"position":2},"title":"Book Review: The Story of Everything by Jared C. Wilson","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"November 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently listened to a lecture where the professor noted that only 9% of professing Christians live their lives according to a biblical worldview. While I am not sure on the complete accuracy of the statistic, I am sure that it is not far off. This is an epidemic. Too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/storyofeverything.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":470,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/book-review-onward-by-russell-moore\/","url_meta":{"origin":1034,"position":3},"title":"Book Review: Onward by Russell Moore","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"November 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Bible Belt is teetering toward collapse, and I say let it fall.\" You cannot even escape the introduction to Russell Moore's,\u00a0Onward\u00a0without hearing canon blasts of gospel truth. This book takes on the nature of the gospel in the sense that the gospel is both offensive and life giving.\u00a0Onward\u00a0is chalked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"book\"","block_context":{"text":"book","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/tag\/book\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":915,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/how-the-spurs-showed-me-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1034,"position":4},"title":"How the Spurs Showed Me the Gospel","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"May 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2015-16 San Antonio Spurs were built to win a championship. 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It can be tempting to look online at your favorite preacher\u2019s church and see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christ\"","block_context":{"text":"Christ","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/tag\/christ\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}