{"id":719,"date":"2015-12-14T15:41:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T15:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=719"},"modified":"2015-12-14T15:41:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T15:41:14","slug":"star-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2015\/12\/star-wars.html","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, you have to live under a rock not to know that the new Star Wars, The Force Returns, will come out later this week. People have camped out for weeks at theaters to get a seat with pre-bought tickets. The excitement is at a fever pitch. Why? Perhaps we liked the other movies in this franchise &#8211; I think I only saw the first one and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I will go see this one when the crowds thin out. Perhaps we are eager for a distraction from the horrible events of this past year. We want to know the good guys to win.<\/p>\n<p>But I read on the Internet\u00a0that there is a new religion named, &#8220;Jedi ism&#8221;. I am not kidding! They even have a &#8220;church&#8221;. They believe in a unifying force that exists within, around and always return to. There is a 10-part training course. They believe the movie, Star Wars,\u00a0was fictional and meditation is an important element to rid one&#8217;s mind of the negative force. Belief in God is optional. They believe in freedom &#8211; there no restrictions on your life.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s interesting. A man-made religion based on a fictional movie. Wonder if it works for them.<\/p>\n<p>Well, I believe in the good force that created all things (Genesis 1 &#8211; 2:7) and by His will we all exist. (Acts 17:24) I believe in the Holy Spirit who lives within, around me (Acts 1:8, Matthew 15:9). There is a training course based on the Bible and it is important to mediate on it day and night. (Joshua 1:8)<\/p>\n<p>The story of the struggle between good and evil is as old as Genesis 3:1. We can certainly see signs of that struggle all around us in today&#8217;s world.<\/p>\n<p>I believe in the evil force called Satan. I believe there will be an epic battle between God and Satan. And I know who wins! (Revelation 20:7-10)\u00a0Defeat of Satan is assured. The victory is ours. \u00a0Every wreath, every tree light, every gift, every cookie, every candle, every carol points to the One who defeated Satan. Jesus Christ is Lord.\u00a0We can start celebrating now!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, you have to live under a rock not to know that the new Star Wars, The Force Returns, will come out later this week. People have camped out for weeks at theaters to get a seat with pre-bought tickets. The excitement is at a fever pitch. Why? Perhaps we liked the other movies in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18,16,3,96,98,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-commentary","category-personal-thoughts","category-safe-place","category-star-wars","category-war-between-good-and-evil","category-winning"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Star Wars - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2015\/12\/star-wars.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Wars - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, you have to live under a rock not to know that the new Star Wars, The Force Returns, will come out later this week. People have camped out for weeks at theaters to get a seat with pre-bought tickets. The excitement is at a fever pitch. Why? 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No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her life Bible verse is John 1:16.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ruthgrahamministries.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/author\/rgraham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}