Beyond the Gates of Splendor is a documentary which fills in the details left out of the movie End of the Spear.  It is based on the book Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot.

This is the story of the efforts of a group of missionaries to Ecuador to reach the Auca people in the Amazon basin.  The Auca people were a very violent people and had resisted all efforts to reach them with the Gospel.  Jim Elliot and others came up with a method of breaking the ice — they would fly over in an airplane, lowering gifts to the Aucas in a bucket on a rope.  They finally landed their plane and met the Aucas face to face.  However, after some time, the Aucas decided to kill the missionaries.

One by one, the widows of the missionaries decided to go live with the tribe.  Through the efforts of the women, and the men before them, the Aucas committed their lives to Christ!  Strong evidence of their conversion is that the Aucas, who formerly continually killed each other with spears, renounced violence!

If you saw the movie End of the Spear, you will definitely want to watch Beyond the Gates of Splendor.  If you haven’t yet seen End of the Spear, I would recommend that you first watch it, and then Beyond the Gates of Splendor.  Both movies are available on Sky Angel Video on Demand.

I’ve been having a great time for the past few days watching highlight programs of past Superbowl teams.  These highlight programs can be found in the Video on Demand section under Sports / NFL Network / NFL Films.

For example, it was of great interest to see the one about the New Orleans Saints, winners of Superbowl 44 (New Orleans is my hometown).  I’ve seen it all before, but it brought back so many memories to see it all again, especially the information about the devastation of New Orleans wrought by Hurricane Katrina, the success of the Saints lifting New Orleans out of her despair, and the icing on the cake, Tracy Porter’s 4th quarter interception of Payton Manning, sealing the victory for New Orleans!

Other videos of interest:

The 1970 Colts — The Baltimore Colts used to be in the NFL, and they were the NFL team in Superbowl 3.  Then, when the leagues merged, they moved to the AFC and were the AFC team in Superbowl 5.  This program explained all of those details.

The 1967 Packers — Here’s your chance to learn about Vince Lombardi.

The 1968 Jets — when Joe Namath guaranteed victory for the AFL.

The 1969 Chiefs — when Hank Stram’s Chiefs totally dominated the Minnesota Vikings.

The 1972 Dolphins — the only undefeated NFL team in the Superbowl era.

The 1981 49ers — the beginning of the 1980s 49er dynasty.

The 1985 Bears — When the Bears were totally destroying everyone.  The Dolphins were the only team to beat them that year, preserving the Dolphins status as the only undefeated team in the Superbowl era.

The 1987 Redskins — When Washington quarterback Doug Williams had the spectacular 3rd quarter.

And so on.

Watch these videos while you can.  They are available till February 15, 2012.

I just saw some very funny programs — Thou Shalt Laugh 2, 3, 4, and 5.  You can find these programs at the following location:

Video On Demand / Movies / Comedy

I was disappointed not to be able to find Thou Shalt Laugh 1, because these shows keep you laughing from beginning to end.  Each show features several comedians who (1) are very talented and (2) keep it clean.  In fact, all of the comedians seemed to be Christians, as they all included at least a little bit of “Christian humor” in their acts.

Taylor Mason is one of my favorite comedians, and he and his puppets were in all of the Thou Shalt Laugh programs.

One feature I liked about these shows was that in most cases, the host was a comedian himself; and in between acts, the host would keep you laughing with his / her own monologue.

If you’re bored, or if life is not too good for you these days, watch the Thou Shalt Laugh series.  You will definitely be cheered up!

One of my favorite shows on Sky Angel is Joni and Friends.  I saw it on Channel 126 (NRB) at 11:30 AM on Dec. 12th.

Joni is handicapped — she is a quadriplegic.  I remember years ago seeing the movie Joni, where I learned her story.  She was a competitive swimmer.  However, one day she dove off of a dock into shallow water and broke her neck.  From that point until now, she has been paralyzed from the neck down.

Joni stuggled with questions about why God would allow her to become totally paralyzed, until she was finally able to trust God with her life.  She went on to start the radio program, TV program, and the ministry,  called Joni and Friends.

In her TV program, Joni explores the hard questions — why does God allow someone to be handicapped?  However, her programs are always filled with hope and trust in God.  And she is always finding a way to help someone who is handicapped, or highlighting a handicapped person who has overcome doubt in their own life.

I am always inspired when I watch Joni and Friends.  And thanks to the video rewind feature of Sky Angel, and the fact that many Sky Angel channels carry Joni and Friends, you can watch the show at anytime!

I just saw a great movie on Sky Angel Video on Demand — Turbulent Skies.  You can find it at the following location:

• Video on Demand
• Movies
• Action / Thriller

This movie is about a new type of airplane — one which is flown completely by computer, without the need of a pilot.

Everything starts out ok, but soon things go haywire, because of a certain problem which arises.  I don’t want to spoil the surprise and tell you what it is, but let’s just say that the airplane’s computer system has some “bugs” in it.

The plane ends up flying off course, and someone must step up to the plate and rescue everyone on board.  The US Air Force actually gets involved at one point.

The acting is excellent, and the movie is very believable.

When I was young, the good guys always seemed to win in the end.  Is that what happens in this movie?  You’ll have to watch it yourself and see!

There is one occurence of the “d” word, but that’s the only part of the movie to which anyone would object.

I recommend this movie.

OK everybody knows I’m a big Wretched fan. Well now my bias is even a little bigger. Todd recently introduced a new segment on the show where you send in a clip less than a minute long that you feel might bless people. Well I previously recored what I called “The Shortest synopsis on the Gospel of Mark Ever”. I put it on youtube a while ago. So I remade it for his new segment “Preacher’s Potluck”. At the bottom of my video I listed the web address to the evangelism ministry I head up. So it was kind of a “shameless plug”, as Todd himself likes to say. So all that to say if you watch Wretched for this Tuesday at 1:00am on 48hr playback you’ll see my segment giving you the shortest synopsis of the Gospel of Mark ever! God bless and enjoy!

Here’s the original clip from youtube below if you miss the show and still want to see the synopsis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqIA-ni-cOQ

If you’re like me, you love to hear good, annointed Christian music, ALL YEAR LONG.

For me, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a depressing time, because I DON’T CARE FOR CHRISTMAS MUSIC!  I just want to hear the good old basic annointed stuff.

For this reason, I was really glad to discover Sky Angel radio channel 208, All Worship.  All Worship plays good, annointed, worship music 24/7/365!  I never have to listen to Elvis and other secular artists when I turn on the Christian station!  And as much as I like Silent Night and other Christian Christmas music, I now have an alternative.

Now if I can only figure out how to play it in my car…

I’ve always been interested in archaeology and biblical history.  Years ago, I ran across the Creation Research Institute.  CRI put out lots of programs and materials showing that the Bible account WAS scientifically correct.

One of their speakers was Dr. Ken Ham.  So I was intrigued to find a program on Sky Angel called “Answers in Genesis” (channel 114 - AFA Channel - 3 AM Saturday).  I backed up to that program and played it, and, lo and behold, it was Dr. Ken Ham!

I watched the program to see what he would talk about — the topic was genetics.  Specifically, he stated that over time, we lose genetic information, rather than gain it.  In other words, you pick up dominant and recessive genes from your parents.  If you continually intermarry with people you are closely related to (that’s what they did in the early days of man), the dominant genes “win”, and the recessive genes drop out of the picture.  However, if you intermarry with people you aren’t related to, your children will pick up genes that they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.  He used dogs as an example, with long and short hair genes.  In cold climates, the long hair genes would win, because the short hair dogs would die off.  The opposite would occur in hot climates.

He concluded that this law of genetics disproves evolution, because according to evolution, we GAIN information; but in reality, we are continually LOSING information, unless we intermarry with those we aren’t related to.

Answers in Genesis is a very interesting program.  Their web site is www.answersingenesis.org.

The Little Princess, starring Shirley Temple, is one of my favorite family movies of all time!

Shirley Temple plays the part of Sarah Crew.  Her father is Captain Crew.

Sarah and her father have spent the better part of her life in India, in the British Army.  Her father is sent to England, and he immediately checks Sarah into an all-girls school, run by the mean Miss Minchen, because he is about to be sent to Africa.

Sarah charms everyone at the school, except a couple of mean girls and Miss Minchen.

Word comes through that her father was killed in Africa.  Her fortunes change immediately, when Miss Minchen makes her work for her keep.

I don’t want to give the whole story away, but I will say that it all works out ok in the end for Sarah.

This is a great movie for the whole family to watch.  You can find it under Video on Demand / Movies / Family.

Have you heard of the guy who carried the cross through some 60 odd contries on foot covering more than 26,000 miles? That is more than the circumfrence of the earth at the equator! Well that’s what this documentary is about. The man’s name is Arthur Blessit. Now I wouldn’t agree with all of Arthur’s choices or theological stances, but I am encouraged and challenged by his passion for God and for the people Christ went to the cross to save. Arthur carried this 80lb., 12ft. cross through lands both friendly and deadly. He’s carried the saving Gospel to lost people in accordance with the great commission. From Northern Ireland in war zones with Billy Graham, to sneaking into Beirut with his son to meet with and share the Gospel with Yasser Arafat, to travelling alone through the uncharted jungle of Central America, to Soviet Russia, New Guinea, across Africa, and on and on and on. I like a quote I heard from Mark Driscoll lately from one of the popular Elephant Room sessions hosted by Pastor James MacDonald where Mark said about Greg Laurie who catches alot of flack from people sitting around doing nothing while Greg is out leading thousands to Christ. So where I disagree with Arthur on some issues I whole heartedly rejoice in our shared passion for the lost and am  humbled by him literally walking his faith. May God bless you as you enjoy this film. Catch it on 48hr playback on TBN Channel 127 before it’s gone.

See the trailer here –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQFxM-zkCrY