Jim Carrey is many things. He is the Grinch who stole Christmas, he is Bruce Almighty, he is the ruthless Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events, and he is Stanley from the all-time classic movie, the Mask. We will never get tired of Jim Carrey and his wonderful characters. Here’s one part we never thought we’d see him play – a preacher.
Our favorite comedian and Hollywood actor preached the word of God and the hope of Jesus to former inmates. He also said that in his personal experience, he has found that suffering will always eventually lead to salvation. The star from Ace Ventura visited downtown Los Angeles California last month for a Homeboy industries event. He talked to people who used to be incarcerated and former gang members while he was there. These ex-cons are trying to better themselves through the program by redirecting their lives and becoming contributing members of society.
He was initially introduced to the group by the founder of Homeboy Industries, Father Gregory Boyle. In the very emotional speech that Carrey gave, he said, “I want to speak to the fact that I believe that this room is filled with God and that you are heroes to me and I admire you. You’ve made a decision to transcend and to leave darkness behind, and it takes a champion to make that decision. I really wanna speak to the fact that I’ve had some challenges myself and ultimately I believe that suffering leads to salvation. In fact, it’s the only way. We have to somehow accept — and not deny — feel our suffering, feel our losses, and then we make one of two decisions.” According to Carrey, one of these decisions is choosing between two different gates. He said one of the gates will be filled with resentment, which, in turn, leads to self-harm, vengeance, and a danger to others. The second gate is forgiveness. Which will always, without fail, lead to grace. He explained that “Your being here indicates that you’ve made that decision already. You’ve made the decision to walk through the gate of forgiveness, of grace, just as Christ did on the Cross. He suffered terribly and He was broken by it to the point of doubt and feeling of absolute abandonment, that’s all that He felt.” Despite all things, Jesus still managed to look down on the people that prosecuted him with forgiveness, kindness, and compassion. It is big for someone to be able to do that. It truly is a gift that no one can give to you – the gift to be able to forgive. Carrey said, “That’s what opens the gates of Heaven for all of us.” He then added that although he has gone through some things, he is aware that the people in attendance have gone through worse and suffered greater losses. He said that he admired and respected each and every single one of them. Before making his conclusion, he reminded the crowd that the word omnipresent, that’s mentioned in the Bible means that God, is in everyone, in all. The power of knowing that is life-changing and he asked everyone to think about that for a while.
In his conclusion, he said, “When you decide to transcend the negativity and attempt to do something positive for you and your family, you are the heart of God, you are the eyes of God. When you speak from that place you are God’s voice, serving the world with your work that is the Eucharist that is the Body of Christ.” During the past, Carrey has publically expressed his distrust and distaste for organized religions. He was brought up as a Catholic, ventured briefly into Presbyterianism, and was inspired by Buddha while looking for spiritual answers as a child. Through all that, this speech that he gave to ex-convicts just shows that he has stayed true to Jesus through it all. Source: http://www.jesusdaily.com/inspire/actor-jim-carrey-preaches-grace-jesus-former-inmates/ x
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