Wednesday, April 30, 2008

new addition

Here she is, Evangeline Rose Garrett, born April 29, 2008. 8lbs, 8oz, 19.5in.

Monday, April 28, 2008

illustrations

I like drawings. I think its because I wish I could draw better. I've drawn things for as long as I can remember. Come to think of it, I've probably been drawing since before I can remember. Anyways, I grew up reading comic books and I love the illustrations. Recently I've read some comics, and although I haven't became a regular comic buyer again, I do love the art.

I've also recently come across some really great artist pages. It started with this one, The Wolverine Daily. This guy's goal is to make one Wolverine illustration a day. It looks like he's fallen behind, but there are still some great Wolverine illustrations.

Then I found this guy who does The Zombie Daily. Same idea as above, but this guy was doing it first, only with zombie pics.

Then yesterday I came across a whole slew of great illustrators. I found all these when I was searching for cartoony robot drawings. I'm thinking about doing something like that as a tattoo. Each pic leads to a different illustrators site:






Sunday, April 27, 2008

happy bunny

I found these when I did an image search for 'doody'. Click the pic to check out more of these funny, cute and irreverent little bunnies.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

stupid song lyrics

"We can do it til we both wake up!" - from the song I Wanna Sex You Up by Color Me Badd. Talk about ridiculous. I mean, look at these guys. Is that guy pointing at me? I feel bad for the one black guy who got roped into this group. And is it just me or does the guy in the front look like something out of a bad Saturday morning cartoon?













Here's another stupid one from the song Sweat by Inner Circle, the same group who did the Bad Boys (Cops) song:
"Girl I want to make you sweat, Sweat till you can't sweat no more"

Oh how I do love sweaty women...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

test, fruit, relationship, obedience

Here are a couple of quotes from a book I’m reading for a class. The book is entitled New Testament Theology by I. Howard Marshall. I put some thoughts down too.

Quote #1: “Christ is also alive in the members of the congregation, and indeed his presence is the test of whether they are truly believers (2 Cor 13:1-4). Let them test themselves to see whether Christ is in them (2 Cor 13:5). Evidently, then, there is a form of Christian assurance of salvation that is related to self-examination” (p 289).

In short he’s saying that it is possible to know whether or not you’re in Christ. Add to this Jesus’ statements about trees and fruit as well as the heart and what comes out of it and you have a great set of standards by which to judge your faith (and the faith of others).

Quote #2: “Remarkably, briefly the disciples are told that they must from now onward love one another, and this will be their distinguishing mark in the world. The point is, however, repeated in John 15:9-17, where obedience to this command is the condition for remaining in the love of Jesus. The disciples are Jesus’ friends insofar as they obey his commands, including principally this one [to love each other]. This may seem to clash with the spontaneity and undeservedness of the divine love, just as his love for the Father issues in obedience (John 14:31). The point is emphasized by repetition (John 14:15, 21, 23-24)” (p 506).

Here Marshall links being in relationship with Christ is closely to obedience to Christ’s commands. They are indeed inseparable. This is what John says elsewhere:

1 John 2:4-6
The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

1 John 5:2, 3
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

No Country for Old Men

In one word, Awesome! Another great movie from The Coen brothers. These guys are fantastic film makers. They made 2 of my favorite movies (Raising Arizona, Oh Brother, Where art Thou?) and others that I like.

Starring Josh Brolin (older brother Brandon in The Goonies; Young Riders TV series; more recently, Planet Terror), Javier Bardem (who is more than creepy in his role), Kelly MacDonald (Trainspotting, Finding Neverland), Tommy Lee Jones, and featuring Woody Harrelson. My only regret about this one is that I didn't see it in the theater.

Friday, April 18, 2008

extreme breakin'

Another breaker. This guy is unreal. Sometimes it looks like the video is going backwards. He's sick with a double k!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Monday, April 14, 2008

the relational aspect of sin

A lecture I had recently highlighted the relational aspect of sin. And some things I've read recently spurred me to think about this so I've been thinking about it a good bit.

It is true that sin (wrongdoing, wickedness, evil) has a legal aspect. For example: breaking a law. When you break a law, you become guilty of a crime. Every person has disobeyed God's commands and each person deserves punishment. God loves justice and hates evil and wrongdoing. There is a need for each person to be made righteous (innocent, blameless, good). This idea of "justification" is a key doctrine of the Christian faith. It seems though that Westerners frequently emphasize this aspect of sin over and above others. But there is another side to sin.

There is a rift between God and man, and it is relational. We may have seen some Good News presentations like the bridge diagram, a great illustration of separation from God. But this separation is not just legal; it involves relational estrangement from the heavenly Father.

Christ came to do a whole host of things, one of the primary of which is to bring humanity into a right relationship with God. Through their disobedience, Adam and Eve broke the intimate parent/ child relationship they had with God. The problem since then has been how humans can restore the broken relationship. Through faith, and specifically in Christ, God the Father takes initiative and reconciles us to Himself (re-establishes relationship, gives us a peaceful relationship with Him).

When I do something against a loved one, my wife or daughter for example, they want restoration. We all want restoration. Its terrible to live in close proximity with someone you love and have tension arising from brokenness in the relationship. In human terms, divorce, parents cutting off their children (and vice versa) or friends no longer being friends are all manifestations of irreconcilable relationships.

God uses the sacrifice of Christ to restore the broken relationship, and the relationship is key. John 3:16 doesn't say, "For God so needed to restore justice to the universe that He gave His only Son." But this verse, maybe the most well known verse in the Bible says, "For God loved the world with such a great love that He gave His one and only Son so that anybody who trusts in Him won't die the everlasting death but will instead have everlasting life" (my paraphrase).

God loves people and thus reaches out to us in love. While it is true that "whoever believes is not judged" (John 3:18) it also true what John says in his first letter: "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God" (1 John 3:1). Jesus speaks clearly about hell and judgment, but He does so because God doesn't want people to experience these things.

Friday, April 11, 2008

dear god...

My co-worker showed me this cool site. It has prayers posted by all kinds of people from all kinds of faiths. Its interesting, heartbreaking, and inspiring:
http://www.dear-god.net/

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

too much free time

it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. these did make me do just that...



Tuesday, April 8, 2008

recommended reading


Last night I finished reading The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. It's definitely not what it sounds like. The author is not a Christian and is barely a Jew (by his own definition). He decided to try to live by the Bible for a year. So he learns and obeys all kinds of obscure rules from the Bible. Its laugh out loud funny at some points. It also challenged my view and understanding of the Scriptures at many points. And I mean that in a good way. Click on the book cover to visit his site.

Monday, April 7, 2008

my awesome pregnant wife Jo and a blast from the past

Adelle and I went to Jo's midwife appointment this morning. There are only a few weeks left until baby #2, Evangeline Rose, arrives. Here's a photo of Jo, my beautiful pregnant wife, which was taken yesterday. There is something so amazing and uniquely feminine about pregnancy that makes a woman shine. I never really noticed it until I had a pregnant wife. I'd actually never been around many pregnant women.

On a completely different subject, I found this video on YouTube the other day. Its from the very last Arsenio Hall show. Arsenio went off the air sometime in the early to mid-90s.

This video has a bunch of real hip-hoppers from that era of. I love hip hop. Not rap, but hip hop. There is a difference, a huge difference actually. This video is everything that's right about hip-hop - the energy, the creativity, and the spontaneity. MC Lyte actually gave me chills. The only thing I don't like is the last guy. I think he just jumped out the audience and started busting out; he's got like zero talent. But the rest of it is off the _____ (insert favorite adjective here. suggestions: hook, chain, rails, rocker, etc.)! I need to send this one to Soulja Boy so he can get a few pointers.


Friday, April 4, 2008

meatified

'And the Eternal Word was meatified and lived with us...' John 1:14a (the unauthorized Jamie translation).

I made up the word meatified a while back but have never actually used it before. I might not be the only person to ever think of this word, but I've never heard it before. I use because I think it sounds neat.

How did I come up with the word meatified? Mirriam-Webster defines incarnation as:
a:
invested with bodily and especially human nature and form
b: made manifest or comprehensible
Synonym: embodied


And at some point I was thinking about the word incarnate and it made me think of the Spanish phrase 'chili con carne': chili with meat. So here is where I leapt from incarnate to meatified: the Eternal Word became flesh and bone.

Why am I blabbing on about this? It’s connected to something my supervisor told me about the other day. Tenured professor Peter Enns, a professor at Westminster Seminary here in the Philly area, was recently suspended for a book he wrote a couple of years ago. The book is called, "Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament".

ChristianityToday.com says this: In his book, Enns attempts to confront issues raised by historical-critical Bible scholars that seem to compromise the Bible's divine inspiration. Enns uses an incarnational analogy, meaning that Scripture is both human and divine, similar to Jesus Christ.

The specific connection with the word meatified and the suspension of this professor has to do with his incarnation analogy in his book. I haven't (and probably won't) read it, but the controversy interests me. Why? Because it highlights important issues - the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. I don't dispute these doctrines, but I do have a problem with this: idolizing the Bible and theology. Yes the Bible is God's special revelation to the world. It is the testimony of God's saving actions towards humanity. German theologians call it Heilsgeschicte - the history of salvation. But why does Westminster take issue with Enns? Is it because he's undermining the Holy Scriptures?

Another issue at stake is tradition. The reason they give for suspending him was that his book, "was outside the bounds of the standards of Westminster Seminary, namely the Westminster Confession of Faith," (chairman of the board John White quoted in Christianity Today). White goes on to say, "The essence of the question is, ‘Does the book fall within the parameters of the orthodox, Reformed understanding of the doctrine of inerrancy?’"
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/aprilweb-only/114-24.0.html

It seems that professor Enns said some things that couldn't be reconciled with Reformed tradition and theology. I love Reformed thinking and theology; my formative years as a young believer were in this tradition. What bothers me about all this is that tradition and theology seem to be the basis of the judgment. Is the tradition being defended? Is that the real reason for Enns suspension? The CT article makes it seem that way.

Maybe his book is undermining Scripture, I don't know. But even if he was attacking the Bible itself should that frighten us? Yes. I care when the Bible is put down. And I care even more when Jesus Himself is attacked. But, we shouldn’t be moved too much by mockers and attackers. “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). The Bible and Jesus Himself are always under attack and have been attacked for ages. One handicap the church has developed is not seeing God’s power and His willingness to still speak today. The word of God, both oral and written, is powerful and strong.

Here's a great thought from Leonard Ravenhill which he said about Spurgeon:
"Somebody once asked Mr. Spurgeon if he would join a society for the defense of the Bible. He said, ‘You don’t usually walk before a lion with a sword.’ Why do you need to defend the Bible?"

Spurgeon says we don’t need to defend the Bible. It can withstand scrutiny, criticism, and attack. So if Spurgeon has this view of the Scriptures, where does that leave Westminster in its defense of Reformed tradition? Should they defend it so staunchly? Is the ruling on professor Enns justified? Who knows? To me though, it doesn’t seem justified. But I don’t know the whole story, and probably never will.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

old school breakin'

Its the New York City Breakers. Old School!! Oh how I wish I was a breaker...

30 Days of Night

I am a sucker for vampire stories so I was chomping at the bit to see this movie. Plus its an adaptation of a graphic novel, which usually makes for a good film. It stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George (Vaughn's wife on Alias Season 3). It took me awhile to get over Melissa George's overdone American accent (she's an Aussie). But there were some great scenes in this movie.

Overall, this is what I thought of it:
One word review - Good
Three word review - Good but slow
Expanded review - Good but a little slow at points, at least until the last half hour

Here are some other vampire flicks I like:
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Blade
Underworld
The Lost Boys

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Proposition

My friend Dave let me borrow this movie called "The Proposition" a few weeks ago, but I just got around to watching it a couple of days ago. If I were giving out stars, I'd give out as many as the star system would let me.

Written by Nick Cave (Aussie rock star from'Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds'), "The Proposition" is a Western set in Australia (or as the Aussies say, 'Stralia). The story is awesome and the cast is fantastic. Guy Pearce (Momento) is the man! He plays the lead role and just blows me away (pun intended). The outlaw characters are dirty (literally and figuratively) and the lawman aren't much more appealing. Its a very gritty, sometimes brutal story - the kind of story that makes you glad you didn't live in Australia during these times.

Iraq - just the facts

Brief time line of the 5 year war in Iraq and statistics from CNN.com
  • March 19, 2003 - President Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq after months of warnings that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was concealing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and efforts to build a nuclear bomb
  • U.N. weapons inspectors found no sign of banned weapons before the invasion, and the CIA later concluded that Iraq had dismantled its weapons programs in the 1990s
  • early April 2003 - Hussein's government fell
  • December 2006 - Iraq's new government executed Hussein
  • Late March 2008 - the 4000th American death in Iraq
The American death toll - 4,000+ deaths
    • 3,263 have been killed in attacks and fighting
    • 737 in non-hostile incidents, such as traffic accidents and suicides
Iraqi death toll and displacement of Iraqis (source: U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees)
    • from about 80,000 to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead (20 times more than the number of American deaths)
    • Another 2 million Iraqis have been forced to leave the country
    • 2.5 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq
Etc
  • Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq
  • $600 billion - cost to U.S. taxpayers (source: the House Budget Committee)
  • The conflict is now widely unpopular among Americans:
    • Only 32 percent of Americans support the conflict.
    • 61 percent said they want the next president to remove most U.S. troops within a few months of taking office (source: a recent CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/23/iraq.main/index.html