"The Bible" series on the History Channel that has been sweeping the nation this month, both in ratings and discussion is still as hot as ever after last night.  

Episode 4 entitled, "Mission", aired last night and the full two hour episode focused on Jesus mission and life, show as He gathers his disciples and works miracles as people begin to discover who He is and why He is put on the earth.  

One of the biggest debates and criticism in the Christian world among people who know the bible is the fact that certain things are left out or a story is abbreviated simply for the sake of time.  

I have been surprised at how critical people have been on this issue, saying it's "watered down" or they are "mis-leading" the stories.  This is not it at all in my opinion.  

It seems clear by watching "The Bible" series how much passion, effort and energy was put into make this series as accurate and real to life as possible.  Producers Mark Burnell ("Survivor" "The Apprentice") and Roma Downey ("Touched by an Angel") have spent over 4 years working on this project to make it come alive in the best way possible.  

No one, I repeat, no one (not Billy Graham or Joel Osteen) could take the whole 66 book Bible and cut it down to 10 hours of film and get it right in everyone's eyes.  Everyone familiar with the Bible has stories they know that they would like to see re-enacted.  "The Bible" series has done an amazing job of trying to fit in every story they can, while consistently moving through the time periods and still telling a bigger picture overview of the bible while at the same time connecting people personally to certain characters.  

I feel that they have done a fantastic job of giving a great and authentic overview of the bible, while still keying in on certain stories to get us emotionally connected whether we had heard the stories before or not.  

I applaud them for taking on such an enormous project and showing it in a way that has never been seen, knowing that there would be critics ahead no matter what.  

This series has been a blessing to millions of people and is just supposed to be a conversation starter to get people into the word more or interested in checking out a church if they were interested.  

Lets pray together that many come to know Jesus as Saviour with this series being the first step in their journey.