{"id":2936,"date":"2023-06-15T18:14:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T18:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=2936"},"modified":"2023-06-15T18:14:08","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T18:14:08","slug":"blog-june-15th-i-can-only-imagine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=2936","title":{"rendered":"Blog June 15th I Can Only Imagine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"J. Michael Finley - I can only Imagine\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ok0yCrH5qGE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"I Can Only Imagine Official Trailer | In theaters March 16\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fm_zzAMuvyQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A dear friend of mine, Jimmie Guyman, an American basketball player many regard as the best to play in the UK recommended two films (he calls them movies) for me to watch. The first was \u201cRedeeming Love\u201d made in 2022 which is based on Francine Rivers&#8217; 1991 novel of the same name, The story is based on the Biblical story of Hosea, and is set in the American Old West during the California Gold Rush. It stars Abigail Cowen, Tom Lewis and Logan Marshall-Green.<br \/>\nI thoroughly enjoyed \u201cRedeeming Love\u201d but was less keen on the start of Jimmie\u2019s second recommendation \u201cI Can Only Imagine\u201d.  However, I went back to it and was so very pleased that I did.  I had not realised that the song by band \u201cMercy Me\u201d had, as of March 2018, sold 2.5 million copies, making it the best-selling Christian single of all time.<br \/>\nAs you may know I am a huge fan of \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables\u201d and was, therefore especially interested to find that the actor who plays Bart Millard, the composer and singer of \u201cI Can Only Imagine\u201d, is J. Michael Finley who was discovered for the role while playing understudy to Jean Valjean on Broadway.<br \/>\nSome words of the song I found particularly inspiring. <\/p>\n<p>Surrounded by Your glory<br \/>\nWhat will my heart feel?1<br \/>\nWill I dance for You Jesus<br \/>\nOr in awe of You be still?<br \/>\nWill I stand in Your presence<br \/>\nOr to my knees, will I fall?<br \/>\nWill I sing hallelujah?<br \/>\nWill I be able to speak at all?<br \/>\nI can only imagine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quote of the week <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/you-are-always-with-me.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2937\" srcset=\"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/you-are-always-with-me.jpg 600w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/you-are-always-with-me-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A dear friend of mine, Jimmie Guyman, an American basketball player many regard as the best to play in the UK recommended two films (he calls them movies) for me to watch. The first was \u201cRedeeming Love\u201d made in 2022 which is based on Francine Rivers&#8217; 1991 novel of the same name, The story [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2938,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions\/2938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}