A Thought

As a house near-by was playing loud christian worship music I was thinking on how that made me feel. I don't like it. I don't like that sort of good feely feelings stuff that often comes with ....well....playing christian worship music loud. But then I'm not going to look down on someone who does i.e. the people in the near-by flat. I find myself perhaps a bit too post-modern for that. Rather, if it works for them, and they are enjoying a closer relationship to God through playing loud christian worship music, then do it.

However this also brings up images of church, christian social groups, small groups, and church life. I'm not really into that either. I wonder if it's cause it takes more time to be involved in stuff like that than it does to build friendships with other non-christians? I mean I like church, and I go to church. But should we be spending more time in church than with non-believers? Christian religion can often become a comfortable ghetto. The cheesiness of christian religion reeks of complacency, and it is this that I guess I react to. Perhaps I react too strongly though and don't give some areas of christian religion enough time to prove itself. Most of the time though I'm just thinking about how there is still more good to be done in the world. Especially in some sermons. But then, unavoidably, I am a hypocrite.

Could Anything Flabbagast Jesus?

Could someone render Jesus speechless? What is there that someone could say? What is there that someone can do? Is it possible? I think so. But there is something necessary to understand first. You see, Briar (my wife) can be an all or nothing chick - which is great (especially in photography). Things get done really well. So, for example, when the house gets a clean, it's not a simple vacuum and dishes wash. Nope, the house gets something just short of a makeover. Everything gets done. When a photo is getting taken, it gets taken perfect. When a fish is getting filleted, every last piece of flesh is utilised. When a tree is chainsawed, she will get it done perfect. From the place of cut, to the place the tree lands, to the size of the wood to be carried - each piece cut to the specifications of the carrier. This is my wife.

So can something make Jesus speechless? Well I was thinking the other day, I could see him speechless. In fact, this was the closest scenario I could think of. Imagine that Jesus has come back, and has been back for sometime. Forget a complete rapture of the saved. Rather, a world-wide protection by God from Satan and his minions. What has been going on is an epic battle between good and evil. One much anticipated for all history. I mean, when Jesus died on the cross, that was him throwing the gloves on the floor, looking Satan in the eye and saying "I'll give you an hour to gather your best team and let's take this outside." The hour is up, and the fight is in full swing. Not just for humans, but for all of God's good creation. This fight is global, from NZ to America to Scots Base. But there are two arch-enemies dueling it out on Mt Zion. It's Jesus vs. Satan and Satan is getting the beat down. No one else, angels nor demons, are fighting. But all are transfixed on this fight. Finally with Satan lying on the ground prostrate, absolutely beaten and his sword metres away, Jesus holds back the historically expected killing strike, blowing the minds of everyone watching. And instead he stands there and takes in the moments he has as he prepares himself to show Satan and the world a love and grace that only God can, and does harbour. And when all are silent, and an atmosphere of anticipation is present, from out of no where leaps Briar. She scoops up Satan's sword, and in the flash of an eye drives it through his throat dealing a killing blow. Stands up, brushes her fiery red hair back, looks Jesus in the eye and says "Look, like I tell my husband, no half measures! Either do it properly, or don't do it at all!" And with that, I think Jesus would be flabagasted. The most anticipated moment in all of history, one that makes Jesus' redemptive death look a miniscule blip in the life of it all, taken by my wife Briar.

I know I'd be shocked.

Cheers.Jimmy.

That Abominal Thing Called 'The Recession'

So as most people within the Western world, we are in a market-wealth crisis, otherwise known as the recession. For the rich people it means a possible bad mark on their records, a lower performance pay out and a good dose of despise. For the lower-rich it means their identity is messed with as they have to pucker up their life style, adapt to a [s]lower income and perhaps deal with a bit more despise than those above them due to their closer relations with those below them. For middle class and down it means possible unemployment, hard times, and hopefully general, mutual sympathy between ourselves. For the poor, destitute, homeless, bums and the like (can never think of a nice PC word for this class) it's just life as normal, and perhaps suffer a bit more ignorance as those above them become more concerned with their own families, lifestyles and financial issues.

I'd like to draw a point or two out of this. Firstly, I think that if we want to move through this time easier we, particularly the middle-class down patrons, have to resist the urge to think for ourselves and look for more ways to support each other. As the larger portion of society I believe we have the potential to pull through this pretty well if we look after each other rather than just 'numero uno.' I can't do much about the powers that be and what they decide to do e.g. Job Summits. But I can look out for those around me and be aware of not just their financial circumstances, but them as people. Comradery, I'd like to think, will be one of the winning elements of the day.

And another slightly different point. The government should subsidize comedian shows and/or comedy events. For example, a subsidy for those in financial hardship so that they are able to go to the likes of Billy Connolly. It's easy enough to get worn down in life and end up in the dumps. It's much harder to keep an optimistic attitude and maintain a higher morale in seemingly desperate situations. I think that spending the night out and having a good laugh can do worlds of wonders for people and their morale. While it wouldn't improve financial situations, I would argue that it would help improve a persons well-being as well as their relationships with others.

So in one sentence comradery, optimism, high morale and comedy.

Cheers

Jimmy

Two Interesting Points

If anyone watches Battlestar Galactica here is a review posted by Christianity Today.

For anyone else who doesn't care about Battlestar Galactica and/or Christianity Today, I read these two interesting points of view on the TV series 24. The question asked by Scot was "Is there any point in watching 24? What sort of conversations does the program start?" Thus one person replied:

Bob Robinson

There is absolutely NO reason to watch 24

...Unless you want to give up your commitment to nonviolence

...Unless you want to endorse torture as a means for dealing with terrorists

...Unless you want to consume entertainment that glories in killing and destruction

...Unless you want to want to disavow your Christian commitment to loving your enemies

And another person responded in kind:

Mike

There is every reason to watch 24

....because a commitment to nonviolence doesn’t extend to those who only understand violence and won’t stop their violent acts

....because torture as a means to dealing with terrorists when innocent lives are hanging in the balance is understood

...because entertainment that reflects the noble reality of good triumphing over evil can be understood just as well in modern cinema as in the Bible

....because Christian love of my enemies does not give me permission to let my enemies violently take human life. Life is sacred.

I'm more with Mike than Bob. You can read it here.

Jimmy.

Another YouTube Vid

I forgot this one. This is the original Darth voice. Click Here.

Lastest YouTube Vids

The lastest I have watched in interesting YouTube vids.

A home made slide. Click Here.
A new Heineken commercial. Click Here.
A Guiness (yuck) beer commercial. Click Here.
Some hard hits in 2008 AFL. Click Here.

Bits and Pieces of Interest #2

1/ I've recently been watching comedian 'Jon Reep' on YouTube. He's funny and pretty clean about his jokes. Another guy has been 'Jeremy Hotz' who has an interesting way of being funny. If anyone hasn't seen 'Pablo Francisco' then check him out too, he does a wicked 'movie preview guy' impersonation.

2/ So I eat alot of kiwifruit - happily without the side affects that more 'older' people get. It has recently been announced a 'super fruit.'

"ZESPRI™ Kiwifruit is full of nutrients, with high levels of vitamins C and E, anti-oxidants and fibre. It is considered to be one of the new 'superfruits' because of its added benefits to the body over and above basic nutrition."

Read the rest of the article here.

3/ I'm thinking about changing to KiwiBank, and apparently this guy needs a funny bone transplant.

4/ Here is a bunch of info on driving over the next week. Includes stats and other stuff like on average 14 people die in car crashes over the next week.

5/ For all those spiritually experiential driven people there is a peace Labrynth setup in Latimer Square in Christchurch for the next wee while.

6/ Some top spots for road trips.

/7 and finally, Turitea wants a new windfarm. She is a pretty on-to-it lady and so far I respect her.

A funny blog I read.

Titles I would purchase.

NZ Education Report

I was interested to see that the amount of people studying at level 4 and above has increased over the last year. I had heard that this was a trend in recessions, people get laid off so why not do a bit of study for either fun or re-training. 51% of NZers apparently have a tertiary qualification, but I was surprised that only 18% hold Bachelors or higher qualification!

Since NZ doesn't have alot of natural resources to trade with, nor alot of land to build lots of cities and sweat-shops to keep up with larger economies, perhaps NZ could become one big agricultural think tank. Where if you want to get educated in the world, you come to NZ! But that's about a million years away, and am sure there are much better plans out there.

Read the Article Here.

Monopoly - the devils game.

I went through a phase a few months ago where I wanted to play monopoly. I couldn't find anyone else who would want to play so ended up getting it out of my system by downloading it on cellphone. Since then I've come to realise that it is in fact the devils game. It represents everything that Christians are supposed to be against; power, cheating, monopolizing, getting rich at others expense that often contributes to poverty, acquire land by any means, high rent, backstabbing and a player can even buy their way out of prison. So my monopoly fever has died, now I just need to find another one.

Philip

Urban Word for the Day: academic bulemia

Academic Bulemia:
When someones memorizes copious amounts of info leading up to something like an exam. Once they have spewed all the answers out onto the paper they pretty much forget straight away what they memorized. This is academic bulemia.

Or as the site put it:

The process of learning or memorizing by rote, subsequently followed by the regurgitation of that knowledge onto an exam answer sheet. Just as with the serious eating disorder, this form of bulemia results in no real retention of substance. This term is frequently applied to describe a common practice of young medical students. "I can't remember anything that I learned last night. It's like I grabbed the answer sheet, puked out all the answers and forgot everything immediately. I'd say that's academic bulemia."

See article here.

Bits and Pieces of Interest

The following is just a few things I've watched over the last few days.

I wonder if anything deconstructs humanities hypocrisies better than robots. I watched this video of a young robot learning and making judgment calls. You can check it out here.

This is an interesting way of killing off invasive fire ants with brain eating flies.

This is a photographer who almost dies when a car hit the wall next to him but brushes it off. "Take it like a man."

Mario Kart love song.

And finally, one of my favourite people - Bruce Lee - as he lights a cigarette with his nun chucks!

Hope you guys enjoy them!

Couple of Funny Items

I found a couple things I thought I'd share.
1) Bringing back the extinct. They reckon they can create a mammoth from an elephants egg for a mere $10 million. If I had that much to spare I would consider it, imagine being the first person in thousands of years to have a pet mammoth to ride.

2) Deep sea oil divers found this large squid trawling the ocean sea bed. It has long as tentacles, pretty cool to see something like this as actual video footage!

3) And what I got a big laugh from, a perfectly executed flower-in-the-hairdryer prank. Just watch it yourself!

Cheers

Philip

The Sleepy Bear...

A mate Dean posted this on Facebook and I thought I'd re-post it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5c0X4MW_zE

Cheers

Philip

We Call Him Skinny...

We call him skinny; but that's only cause the other turtle he lives with is fatty.

"Wat chya lookin at..."

I think he burnt his nose on the heater.

Bird vs. Straw

"It's a showdown between Bird and Straw..."

Actually he was just checking me out through the window and my camera focused on the straw. He always comes by at night and cleans out our bark garden of any bugs hiding in there. He(or her?) leaves the bark over our lawn.

The Emergent Hitler....

If anyone follows the Emergent Village, or anyone like Tony Jones or Scot McKnight then this video might be amusing. To anyone sensitive about Hitler and WW2, perhaps don't watch.

View Video

Jimmy

Thomas Spurgeon

Hey I just found this while reading some stuff on Wikipedia. Thomas Spurgeon, the son of the famous Charles Spurgeon, was a pastor/preacher at the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle. Talk about a small world.

Philip

Rome and the T.V.

As I was driving to Blockhouse Bay last night I was thinking about the media and violence.  How long has the T.V. been around for? 1961 I think it was created, and then it would have been a few years before it was common in everyones house.  Now it is a given part of the furniture, like it comes with the wall.  I can't help but think about the naivete and stupidness of 'tough people' in films set in the 70's, 60's or earlier.  I mean, how tough were those T-Birds from Grease!  Compared to the senseless gang activity today they haven't got much of a show.  While it was definetely present back then, it feels like violence is always round the corner now.  I remember getting told off by some Islander mates one night after work for walking home in the dark.  So what's the difference between then and now?  Is there a difference? I think the media has had a large part to play in the perpetuation of action and violence. The T.V. is like the modern day Colloseum. Back in the day of the Greeks they ran the Colloseum.  At first watching two men kill each other was fun, but then the crowd got bored so the organizers had to up the ante.  Next thing you know they are chucking in Lions, Tigers, big armoured men, Chariots and anything else they can throw into the mix.  Consider the T.V. today, there used to be stuff like Get Smart, Cheers, Dad's Army, Freddy Kruger, Jason X, and IT.  The last three were frightening horrors back in the day.  Many young people today would find the first three boring and laugh throughout the last three.  Now the T.V. peeps are having the same problem the Colloseum organizers did back in the day, the crowd is getting bored with the same old, so up the ante.  Hence the large reception of the Saw movies!  A movie of a sadistic twisted genius and his disciples who conjure up ingenius killing contraptions.  Once the crowd get bored of this, what next?

These are just a few thoughts.  I watch movies alot, but perhaps the media is having a bigger impact than I'd care to admit.

Philip

258 Questions and Answers: Theology

Found this page by Michael Patton that has a large range of questions and answers to do with theology.  The few answers I have clicked on have come up with a guy talking to a bunch of people in a lecture type setting.  Easy to understand and helpful.

Check it out here.

Jimmy