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Movie Review: The Dark Knight

pros:

  • Batman volunteers himself to be the scapegoat in the end
  • Batman never compromises his ethics
  • The people on the boats choose the ethical high ground

cons:

  • Joker’s monologues are very sinister and creepy
  • very dark and violent movie

If I had seen this movie first without my 11 year old, I would have not allowed him to see it.  Unfortunately we saw it together.  We did have some good discussions afterwards about the redeeming parts of the movie.  I have decided to screen all PG 13 movies that my 11 year old wants to see before going to see them with him rather than rely on the reviews of others.

What do you think? Do you have any recommendations for tweener movies?

I have subsequently found a very interesting in depth review of Dark Knight by Greg Boyd…see what you think….

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Evil and Suffering Sermon #2 Luke 13:4

This is Greg Boyd’s final sermon on evil and suffering his preaching on Luke 13. He makes 3 KEY POINTS in this sermon:

#1. collapse the judgment–don’t blame the sufferer and don’t blame yourself for the suffering. We don’t know squat! As C.S. Lewis said to a colleague who was trying to comfort him with Lewis’ own theological answers to evil and suffering after his wife Joy died: ‘Shut up, it’s just a bloody mess.”
When we judge or look for blame for a tragedy, it forces us to conclude that God is just, and therefore we must blame the individuals involved in the tragedy.  Or we must conclude that God is unjust, and we must blame God for the tragedy.  But God doesn’t cause the messes; He brings purpose to the messes!
The one suffering often feels horrible and that they are to blame which causes us to label ourselves a murderer or a whatever and that makes us “not a verb that we did but a noun that we are!”
We must live in the now because God is in the now.  No blaming but asking God how He can bring good out of this tragedy.  Every mess is an opportunity to bring healing and something good out of it.  In a time of suffering, we must be quiet, listen and ask how would you, God, have me respond to this mess?
#2. in the face of tragedies don’t judge, just respond–Are you turned and walking in the kingdom? Don’t try to figure it out! Just bring healing! HOW CAN GOD BE GLORIFIED IN THE MESS?
#3. God’s response to tragedy is always about healing never about condemnation–We live in a demonic war zone…demonic forces play a big part of suffering….
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List of Top 10 Most Important Topics for Men

Get READY! We are starting a new adventure as men on the path together. Starting September 17, 2008 at North Park Community Center from 6:45am to 8:00am.  Look forward to seeing all your smiling faces again!!!

If you had to make a top 10 list of the most important Men’s Group Topics what would it be?  Please give me comments/feedback to help me get a top 10 list together.

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FIX for wordpress 2.6 and podpress 8.8 problem!

I have found a work around the bad blood between wordpress 2.6 and podpress 8.8 until podpress 8.9 comes out. It is a plugin: no revisions plugin. If you activate this plugin, you should be able to use wordpress 2.6 and podpress 8.8 together. Please note that you will get error messages when you try to edit or write new posts on some versions of IE.  I had to use firefox which seems to work fine.

No Revisions Plugin

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God Questions Part 1

Bucky and I did a sermon series together titled: The God Questions.  Here is Part 1 of 4.  This is an introduction by Bucky to the journey, the questions, the talking time with our friends about these life changing questions.  Please let me know your thoughts about these messages.

The 3 key themes through out our series were:

  1. Love: It is the MOST exciting adventure of our lives to explore the key questions in life.  Why not do it with love? We want to emphasize the key to any time in discussion with someone must be with love.
  2. Listen:  The best answer is a question.  Too much time has been spent NOT listening to the other person in the discussion of these important questions of life.  If you don’t know or don’t understand, then listen!
  3. Learn: This is a team effort.  We want you to enjoy and learn from the time with others in discussion on these GREAT topics.
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Dawkins Favorite Argument

Dawkins favorite argument is simply that God cannot serve as an “adequate explanation for the universe or for life or for human beings because God himself would also require an explanation.  The chain of explanations, then, cannot end in God.”-pg 42, Dawkins’s Best Argument by Gregory Ganssle, Philosophia Christi, volume 10, no. 1, 2008

What do you think of this age old argument: If God created the universe then who created God?

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Dawkins’ Best Argument

For the geeks out there, I highly recommend the journal Philosphia Christi.  It has some very interesting articles.  In Volume 10, Number 1, 2008, I recommend: Dawkins’s Best Argument by Gregory E. Ganssle. 

Dawkins best argument according to Professor Ganssle is simply:

  1. A universe made by God would be different than one made by natural occurrences.
  2. Our universe fits better with a naturalistic universe than with a theistic universe.
  3. Therefore, our universe is more likely to be a naturalistic universe than it is to be a theistic universe.

So ultimately it comes down to which worldview is best fits the facts (and as I have said in the past, which worldview is most logical and livable)….don’t make it a shouting match but a discussion comparing worldviews to choose the one that is most logical, livable, and best fits with the facts.

Theistic worldview best fits with these 4 facts that we know to be true in our universe:

  1. The universe is ordered and susceptible to rational investigation.
  2. The universe has beings that possess consciousness.
  3. The universe has beings that possess free agency.
  4. The universe has within it objective moral obligations.

What do you think? Do we have free will? Are there objective moral obligations?  Do we possess consciousness?

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wordpress 2.6 and podpress 8.8 don’t mix

Coming soon! (If? When? the new version of podpress comes out to fix the problems between wordpress 2.6 and podpress 8.8) I plan to do a 10 part audio series on the VERY BEST men’s group topics of all time and an audio series on the best learnings from how to win friends and influence people!

Any other topics of interest? Let me know!

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Prayer Requests: Kazakhstan Missionaries

Matt and Laura are friends of mine from medical school who are now missionaries in kazakhstan. Please pray for their fellow missionaries (see below):
“This past week one of our teammates, Yoon Bae, and his family in Kazakhstan were in a terrible car accident near the city of Karaganda in which he and his family live and work. Their four year old daughter Ha Rin was killed and he sustained several broken vertebrae in his lower back. They have flown back to Korea where they are from. His wife and infant son were not severely injured. Please pray for this family as the Spirit leads you. Also pray for our YWAM family there in Kazakhstan and the team that Yoon Bae leads there in Karaganda. The team moved up there just one year ago to pioneer a new ministry with university students.
Our teammates Nathan and Carole who where kicked out of Kazakhstan for Visa problems a year ago and were just trying to return this past week are in need of our prayers also. Nathan was stopped at the airport and after and ordeal was sent back out of the country on the plane he arrived on! Carole and their two boys were allowed to enter. He was deported with no explanation. Please pray for these dear friends. Carole needs to sell all their things including their house. With out Nathan in the country to sign certain documents this seems impossible so pray that God makes a way. They have served in Central Asia for many years! Also pray for Carole and the boys as they will be saying unexpected good byes and for Nathan as he is back in the U.S. and now will have to make big decisions regarding the future that does not include Kazakhstan. ”

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John 9:3

3 great points made by Greg Boyd:

  1. Some people use this verse to say that God is sometimes the source of evil but we must look at the entire Bible and note that based on what the Bible says about God being good, this verse is the exception and not the rule
  2. There are unseen evil forces at work
  3. the original Greek of this text  states: “…But let the works of God be displayed in him…”  Therefore it does not say that God caused the man to be blind but his blindness lead to God’s goodness being displayed
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Evil and Suffering Sermon #1 Luke 13:4

Another GREAT sermon by Greg Boyd! I wish that I had heard this during my times of suffering.

KEY POINTS:

  • Evil and suffering is not from God
  • God is good
  • Don’t ask why but ask ‘to what end’ (26:45)
  • Ask God ‘How should I respond in this situation?’ & ‘How can God be glorified in this situation?’
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Movie Review: Penelope

A movie with a great message: 1 Samuel 16:7 

Penelope’s mom and society at large look at her pig nose and find her wanting.  Her mom continues to tell her that she is not her nose, but by her actions, shows Penelope that her looks are very important.   The culmunating moment in the movie is when pig nosed Penelope realizes that she likes herself just the way she is despite her mom’s constant emphasis that her outward looks are not a part of her and can be ‘fixed’, and when her pig nose gets ‘fixed’ life will finally be good.

The inward/heart is what is important and we as parents must continue to show our unconditional love and the importance of the heart and not the outward appearance.

Probably a good movie for teens and tweeners.  Does have a scary witch in the beginning casting a curse and a women committing suicide because she feels unloved (brief scene that sets up reason why Penelope has a pig nose-due to a curse).