the nature of Christ

The following passage is something I read yesterday in one of my VLI textbooks. This passage is fantastic. It is in a section dealing with the person of Christ, and specifically the fact that he is both divine and human:

"None of us is humanity as God intended it to be, or as it came from His hand. Humanity was spoiled and corrupted by the sin of Adam and Eve...The question is not whether Jesus was fully human, but whether we are. He was not merely human as we are; he was more human than we are. He was, spiritually, the type of humanity that we will possess when we are glorified. Jesus most fully reveals the true nature of humanity...As the image of God, humans are already the creatures that are most like him" (p. 239, Introducing Christian Doctrine, by Millard Erickson).

Putting this passage with some other things I've been learning, reading and thinking, here are some thoughts:

• There have only been 3 'real' people in the history of the world - Adam, Eve, and Jesus
• They alone were what humanity was meant by God to be
  
• Our sin nature is not humanity's original nature
• Adam and Eve traded some part of the image of God, their humanity, for something less than what they were meant to be
  
• Jesus in his perfection is left then as the one True Man, the sinless one
  

Why does all this matter? Jesus is changing us and making us into what we should be, bearers of God's image. He is what we will become. Or as the Eastern Orthodox tradition states: 'He became what we are so we can become what he is.' This all matters because God's desire is to restore what was lost by changing us so we can be like Jesus. He is making all things new, including us!

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

This is the sequel to Hellboy, one of my favorite movies of all time. Starring as Hellboy is one of my favorite all time actors, Ron Perlman. I've been a fan of his since I was a kid. He played the lion-man Vincent in the 1980s TV show Beauty and the Beast, one of the best shows ever. He's also been in many of my favorite movies - Alien: Resurrection, Blade 2, and an amazing French film called La Cité des Enfants Perdus (directed by the same guy who did Amélie).

Like the orginal Hellboy, Hellboy 2 is directed by Guillermo Del Toro, one of my favorite directors. He directed the recent film Pan's Labyrinth. And apart from Ron Perlman, Hellboy 2 also stars Selma Blair, (who looks much cuter with short hair than long hair. Wow, I know I've been hanging out with my wife for a long time when I start making comments about women's hairstyles!), Jeffrey Tambor and Doug Jones. It was a really good as far as sequels go. The costumes, make up, and effects were all great. The dialogue was hysterical. All the characters are so lovable. And while it wasn't quite as good as the first one, it was still action packed and just all around entertaining. I give it 4 out of 5 étoiles.

the fam

Here are some pics of Jo, Adelle and Evie. Evie is now 3 months old. What bunch of cuties I've got!!

I get to not work at all next week. We leave tomorrow for Jo's parents' house in VA. Its not really a vacation per se, but it is a break from the routine. Viva la Vida!

i couldn't resist...

recommended reading

Anne Rice is one of my favorite authors. Her Vampire Chronicles books are some of the best books I've ever read. For most of her writing years she has been identified with the horror genre of literature because of these books. In the past few years she had a conversion experience and started following Jesus. In light of this, she decided to write a series a fictional novels about Jesus called Christ the Lord, quite a departure from the Vampire Chronicles.

In the first book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, we find Jesus and his family in Egypt and follow them as they leave Egypt to return to Nazareth. Rice imagines how the events of Jesus' late childhood and early adolescence might have unfolded. The second book, which I just finished yesterday, is called Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. It picks up way after the first on left off. It skips to the adulthood of the the carpenter Jesus of Nazareth and the story goes on from there. It takes us from the days just before Jesus started his public ministry up to the beginning of his ministry.

The thing I love about these books is the way Rice portrays the humanity of Jesus. These are fictional accounts based on her research and study, but are also products of her imagination. So they and may not be accurate at all, and that's okay because they're works of fiction. But what she's doing is helping us imagine what Jesus' life on earth might have been like while he was working, laughing, dancing, crying, hungry, thirsty, etc. She does a good job of portraying the tension of his human and divine aspects without taking anything away from either either of these aspects of his being. So here are two more books to put on your summer reading list.

And finally just for good measure here is an absolutely hysterical Snickers ad featuring Mr. T. Apparently, its been banned:

Rocket Science

I watched this on a friend's recommendation and am glad I did. It was really good. I'd give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. It centers around a high school kid in New Jersey named Hal who has a really bad stutter. He is recruited by a girl named Ginny for the debate team. One of the main things I love about this I love about this movie is that it is real, or rather realistic in many ways. Another thing I love about it is that it is funny, but in more subtle ways than most movies. I laughed out loud at several parts. You could call the humor 'quirky' or some other word like that. Most of the actors were unknown to me. The only one I recognized is a young guy named Nicholas D'Agosto, who plays Claire's boyfriend on Heroes. The feel of the movie reminded me of Garden State which is also set in Jersey. Anyways, I highly recommend this one.

Coldplay!!

The true test of any musical group is its ability to perform live. Last night I saw an amazing band perform after having to sit through a really crappy band's performance . Jo and I had the great privilege of going to see Coldplay last night at the Wachovia Center. Their set was amazing. They are really fantastic musicians and the singer, Chris Martin, has an amazing voice. They are better live than they are recorded. I also like them because 2 of the guys had a very small role in Shaun of the Dead, possibly the best movie ever. And plus they were lots of fun. Chris Martin is funny and kept making jokes about different things. Coldplay is amazing (have I said 'amazing' yet?). I loved being in this huge arena with thousands of people who all knew the words to the songs and were really moved by the music.

The crappy performance came from the act that opened for them. When I found out that this band was opening for Coldplay , I found their myspace page and listened to them. I knew that I didn't like their music when I heard it there, but I had no clue how bad they would be live. They were entertaning, but not in a good way. Jo and I alternated between sheer disbelief/ wishing we had earplugs and fits of hysterical laughter at how bad they were. It wouldn't be too harsh for me to say that they sucked. They sucked really really badly. And I mean sucked with a capital 'S'. No, make that sucked with multiple letters and all capitals and lots of exclamation points like this: SUUUCCKKKEDD!!!!! The group is called Santogold. If you ever hear of them playing somewhere, run in the other direction, run like your life depends on it. Unless you want a good laugh.

Anyways, Jo blogged in detail about our concert going experience, so go here to see what all she wrote. In short, it was awesome.