HOPE AT THE MOVIES // LINCOLN

You can view the clip from “Lincoln” on YouTube by clicking here.

Can we choose to be born? Are we fitted to the times we’re born into?

• Esther 4:12-14 (NIV) | ¹² When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, ¹³ he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. ¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Lincoln on Euclid – The Self Evident Truth

• John 10:30 (NIV) | I and the Father are one.

Begin with Equality

• Galatians 3:26-28 (NIV) | ²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

What Does the Lord Require?

• Micah 6:6-8 (NIV) | With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Reflection Questions

1. What do you think prompted Lincoln to ask about the times when we are born? What do we see in the Scripture about how God works in the world through our lives?
2. What is self-evident truth? What is it Jesus taught about the same?
3. Why was beginning with equality important for Lincoln? What must this mean for the Christian today?
4. What is it the Lord requires of us throughout history even until today?
5. How can you commit to living for the Lord with justice, mercy, and humility today when our culture outright rejects Christian faith?