Blog moved ...

That's right folks, to celebrate my return to the world of blogging, I've started at a new address. In time, I will look to transfer some of my best posts to that site.

To read on, click on the link below and enjoy:

garethwdavies.wordpress.com

A cute little classic you may think, but this movie is believed by many of the film industry's top story analysts to be an object lesson in story & screenplay structure.

"But sire, I can act, I promise."

"I am sorry, my old friend. But you have another talent, and it isn't acting. You were good in Lord of the Rings, but you lost the plot a bit since. Go back and tell the counsil ... something ... frankly, I don't want you messing up the finale with that daft voice you're putting on."

"Yes, my lud."

This summer's project was the Ministries Without Borders "Sowing & Reaping Report 2007"; a documentary film about what God is doing in the midst of our brothers and sisters worldwide, and where moneys have been sown and what that money has accomplished.

This year God's people sowed over £800,000 - and that's just the amount given, not the amount raised - praise God. The film was shown on the penultimate evening of Bible Week and was a great success. I was very blessed by everyone who came up to me afterwards to tell me how much it touched and inspired them.

Saw this ages ago online, and thought I'd share it with you interested people.

One of my favourite films of all time is Cassablanca. It is a timeless classic about a cynical bar manager, Rick (Humphrey Bogart), who is forced to confront the root of his bitterness and self-pity when she (Ingrid Bergman) turns up by chance in his bar looking to escape Europe with her husband, the leader of an underground anti-Natzi resistence, Victor Laslzo.

What I love most about this film is that the story and its script is so well crafted and refined that it breaks all barriers of culture and setting that can ofter make old or foreign (especially American) films seem almost inaccessable. The twin screenwriters, Julius and Phillip Epstein, in are haled among many critics to have written the best script in cinematic history.

Casablanca is an example of filmmaking and storytelling that is done to a standard that makes most audiences obivious to (and fewer to care about) the typical Hollywood cinema cliches of the are it was made (like the set blatantly being in the middle of Calafornia, for example). And yes, you probably guessed, I love black & white; it's become an arthouse cliche to some, but when a film noir comes along that is done well, you have to appreciate it.

Here's looking at you, kid.

"Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."
— John W. Gardner

This week we are very privaliged to have Erling Thu with us, a great man of God from Norway. He opened his teaching with a powerful statement: "The Kingdom of God is."

Not was. Not is coming. But is. I like that.

Having come from a pentecostal background, I would often hear older Christians ramble on about this great future event they called "revival." Now, I know that when some Christians use this word they are implying something good. But for me, it just felt like an empty word. It's like they were still waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. Like God had sent Him, but He'd stopped off on the way to go to the toilet and got lost.

Other times it was like all they wanted was 1904 all over again. The church today was ill-equpped, God's Spirit was abscent, and untill he shows up lets not bother doing anything. I found myself asking: so what about what God's doing now? Where is the Bible is the word 'revival' ever used? What on earth is revival anyway?

Revival or not, I thank God that the Holy Spirit is NOT abscent. He is with us. I thank God that 1904 will never happen again. I'm much more interested in what God is doing today in 2007. Forget yesteryear. If revival really is as most people talk about it, a temporary outpouring of the Spirit, then who cares?

Oh yeah.

The blogger is back.