JAFAX and GrandCon 2016

Greetings Warriors and Scholars.

Nerd Chapel is currently scheduled for 2 conventions this summer and early fall.

June 26 we will be bringing our Sunday Service to JAFAX in Grand Rapids, MI. This is an anime convention that used to be run as a free event at Grand Valley State University and was run by a student organization. This year is their first year launching out into the real world and we'll be in downtown at the Devos Place. We will be in Panel Room 1 at 10am.

September 18 Nerd Chapel returns to GrandCon! We will not have a booth this year but we will be holding services at 9am that Sunday in the seminar room. I'll be hosting several games that weekend including Pandemic, Commissioned and Monsterpocalypse.

I'll let you know if more opportunities come our way but for now these are the two big ones for the foreseeable future. 

Searching When Others Won't

Greetings Warriors and Scholars!

http://realfunny.net/picture-4486-the-aliens-have-landed-but-the-zombies-don-t-care-.html

"The Truth is Out There" This phrase flashed across TVs for almost a decade. Fox Mulder and Dana Skully were the focus of a show we all know as "The X-Files". This show is an odd mix of serious episodes set in a world with a hidden conspiracy and strange episodes that were just odd and strange.

I am currently watching this on Netflix and right now I'm in the season when Fox and Mulder have been kicked out of the X-Files office and kept on menial, boring assignments. They are checking up on fertilizer orders and doing mundane background checks on people. Yet, Fox has not given up on his dreams (or nightmares depending on how you view them). He is searching for proof of aliens, of spiritual anomalies, of anything abnormal...just not with the full support of his superiors.

Another character who acts like this is "The Question." Unfortunately, I have yet to get a hold of any of his comics (which are of the DC universe). I have seen him in "Justice League Unlimited" This is a great cartoon in which I thoroughly enjoyed his interactions and watching him hunt down any clues he could get in his hands. He was the crackpot of the Justice League. Very few people liked him, but his skills got him in, even with the acknowledgment of Batman.

We have a job of hunting truth as well. Proverbs 25:2 tells us:

 "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings."

There is a lot out there we do not yet know about. God wants us to investigate. Unfortunately, the Christian church isn't doing a lot of this. Sure, we pray and seek God (as we rightly should!). But do we honestly believe that He has way more out there for us? I feel like MUFON and sasquatch investigators have more excitement for the unknown than we do...which is sad since we know a God who is literally INFINITE!

I would also add that we should not be scared of things such as aliens or bigfoot. Do we really think our God would just stop creating with us? Sure, that was a big event and we do seem to hold some sort of special place in the world/universe, but most composers and painters didn't stop after their greatest work. If anything the keep on creating. For all we know, He might create a different species every day somewhere on this planet or our in the stars. He never said anything in the Bible about stopping His creative work.

Recently, I have seen two articles about Michio Kaku stating that he believes an intelligent force had a hand in creation. He has all but said he believes in God, although I think his view of God is rather impersonal. After looking at all he is finding in physics, he feels there is to much order in the world to believe it is fully random. This is an amazing thing for a man from the world of science to say. It is also a bit risky when you have so many atheists in that world clamoring to make claims that there is no evidence of God.

Romans 1 talks about God placing hints about Himself in nature. Are you looking for them? Are you asking Him for them? The amazing thing is with all that God created, He also came to meet us in the form of Christ. He came to introduce Himself to us and is still doing so but we just walk on looking at other things. Don't be like that.

Jekyll and Regina Fail

Greetings Warriors and Scholars.

Quick announcement, Nerd Chapel is pleased to announce that we will be doing a Sunday Morning Service at JAFAX in Grand Rapids, MI June 26. If you are at the con, come join us! We'll be in Panel room 1 at 10am.

http://www.tvfanatic.com/gallery/regina-grieves-for-robin-once-upon-a-time-s5e22/

Regina had had it. She was sick of her dark side. Sick of her past as the Evil Queen. Yes, I am referring to Once Upon a Time. Disney has a penchant for showing us moments when people realize they need to change. Normally these are heroes like the Beast or Aladdin. But now the Evil Queen is joining that crowd on OUaT.

WARNING: Spoilers for the recent season finale of Once upon a Time.

A number of our heroes found themselves in a new land in the recent season finale. A land for people wandering out of other lands. I was liking it as it had a steampunk feel but yet there seems to be a lot of stories to work from in this place. In another part of the finale they had found a bunch more books just like the book that started it all, except that these books all had different stories. I want to see more of this land! I think this is what Neverland should have been in this show.

Our friends found themselves taken by someone in an insane asylum. A servant on the premises wanted to help them but the warden wanted to keep them locked up. Although he did find a use for them so he let them escape. Here is the thing....the warden and the servant were the same man. Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hide. Perhaps they come from the land of science we saw briefly a few seasons ago? Well, the good Doctor had finally found a serum that would allow him to fully separate from his darkness and not go through transformations any more. But this meant both of them would be walking around...looking each other in the face, and challenging each other.

After they fully escaped and were back in our land, Regina was just sick of her sin and darkness. Doctor Jekyll had some of his serum left. So she took it. Facing her old self literally face to face, she reached in and pulled out the heart of her evil self and destroyed it. In a way this fits with Jesus teaching. In Luke 9:23 he tells us we must take up our crosses, die to ourselves, and follow Him. Did you notice a difference though? Jekyll's way involves either a: allowing the sin to run free or b: killing someone with your bare hands. And here is the thing, b doesn't work. The Evil Queen seemed to die at that point, but she did not.

What we are called to do is to die to our own sin, but to allow God to work in us for our own change and growth.

""I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:1-2

If you saw the  Finale, you know that now they have Mr. Hide and his friends in Storybrooke and the Evil Queen lose out in the rest of the world. Fortunately, God has other ways for us to each deal with our dark side.

The Flash, Revelation and Tragedy

Greetings Warriors and Scholars!

Did you see this weeks episode of The Flash?! This was a treasure trove of what the Geekpreacher would call Geek Theology.

www.cwtv.com

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Our good friend Barry Allen finds himself inside the Speed Force itself. But that isn't all. Someone wants to talk with him. It first takes the appearance of Joe West, but Barry knows it isn't Joe. "We were there in the beginning when the first particles came out in the Big Bang and we'll be there...in the end." Barry realizes this is the Speed Force itself talking to him. Barry pleads for the Force to send him back to help his city, but is denied. He is instructed to go catch some black figure so he starts running.

In this episode the Speed Force acts very much like God: It takes human form just as Jesus took human form. It talks about being around in the beginning and in the end which is similar to God's promise of being the "Alpha and Omega". Similar to the account in Genesis 1 and connective with the concept of the Trinity, the Speed Force refers to itself in plural saying "we..." regularly. Finally. its reason for taking human form is communication. It wants to discuss things with Barry and even help him grow as a person. Jesus had two reasons for human form: redemption through the cross and communication through teaching and healing.

Through the episode the Speed Force takes several human forms: Iris, Barry's dad, even Barry's Mom. As it turns out, this was all to help Barry deal with his Mom's death. You see, he was so focused on finding the real killer (which he succeeded in doing) and in protecting his city and so many other things. Somehow he managed to be motivated by the death of his Mom but not fully grieve for her loss. This is what the Speed Force wanted to help him with. Do you have any issues from the past you have not dealt with? A few years ago I had to do deal with something. It had been 9 years since an incident that happened, which was shortly after my Grandma passed away. When I told a friend of mine about it she turned around and walked away from me. Somehow I did not deal with the pain of that action/moment for 9 years. But, when I did deal with it, God was there with me. As I prayed over it and cried, God released the pain and brought me to a place where I was more free and I think more mature as well.

The Speed Force, while in the form of his Mom, shared something: in this life you will always have tragedy. It wanted to make sure Barry was ready mentally and emotionally to deal with tragedies throughout the experience of life and of being a hero. This is another great connection. Jesus warned us that there would be persecution and difficulty as a Christian. In John 16:33 Jesus tells us:

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Tragedy is part of life, yet Jesus is prepared to walk with us through it. There is a story in which someone comes to Jesus asking to be His follower and Jesus responds: I have no den. I have no place to lay my head. Simply put, following Jesus does not mean you will have zero pain. In fact, sometimes just because of life and sometimes because of your choice to follow Jesus, you will have difficulty. But Jesus is here with us to walk with us through this all.

In Your Anger...

Greetings Warriors and Scholars,

How goes the waiting for Captain America:Civil War? I am quite excited for this film, although I am also excited for a next weeks Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well (because of some blue characters making an appearance).

Last night's episode of S.H.I.E.L.D. was all about Hive and the brainwashed Inhuman group he is building. Also, it was about trying to find a way to rescue Daisy. They found that the parasite creates an addiction for being in its presence on a bio-chemical level. When Fitz came into contact with Daisy, it was not a reunion he could enjoy. She used her quake power to hold him against a wall, choking him. All the time she was saying she didn't want to hurt him.

I'm sure you have never done this. I mean, why would you? Why would any of us? But we do act like this. We cover our angry actions and our sin with our so called good intentions. Just today I feel like I could have handled some things differently as I was subbing at a high school. It happens to all of us.

Monday a class I was subbing in watched part of a documentary on stress. They had watched half of it earlier and we were just finishing it.In the study of stress one man has been using Baboons. One of the groups he watched went through a big change years ago. Baboons tend to be very angry and nasty creatures. The males that lead the pack tend to be violently aggressive toward other males and females. In this group, a bunch of the aggressive males found a dump of bad meat, tainted with Tuberculosis. It killed them all, leaving the group with gentle males. As time progressed and other males came to join the group, they would try to stay aggressive and mean. But within six months they learned that this group doesn't act that way. You change or you leave. The guy doing the study made this interesting evaluation: if baboons can change a whole culture like that, we have no excuse as humans.

Scripture warns us about our behavior in so many ways. One proverb takes a lesson from ants. James uses many natural observations as analogies. A different proverb warns us about sinning in our anger. James warns us about how our words can be dangerous weapons. Think about how all this can get bad as you are watching Civil War. I have a feeling "it is all connected" as Marvel keeps saying.

My Experience at Midwest Media Expo.

Greetings Scholars and Warriors!

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the Midwest Media Expo in Dearborn, MI. This was held a hotel that was recently renamed the Royal Edward Village. This put us close to a mall, which was nice as it meant restaurants were easily available, although I had a rather frustrated stomach so it wasn't much of a food weekend for me.

Gaming!

Overall, it was a good con. They had both a table top gaming room and a video game room and the gaming kept going pretty well. The video game room had a mix of arcade set ups (mostly dance and music related) and consoles which mostly had Smash Brothers playing. I did not see any shooters at all. The table-top room had 3 different groups providing opportunities, including the games library that is found at both Gen Con and Grand Con. There was a secondary table top area upstairs with a couple of miniature game demos and some RPGs.

Yes, that dinosaur is a cosplay, not a prop. He had fun with this.

Cosplay was a significant part of this con. It was fairly varied and a lot of fun. Lots of Rey and Kylo Ren. It even went outside where I found a Jurassic Park jeep driving around with a dinosaur in it.

There was a dealers hall in an L shape so I didn't get a good pic of it, but I did get one of half the dealer hall. The artist alley was in another room and fairly nice. Both had a lot of anime related items but there was also some leather work and comics related items. The on thing missing was prose books. They also had a "main events" room, a room with some community groups like other cons and cosplay groups, and 8 panel rooms.

Nerd Chapel was there in an official capacity. We held a Sunday morning service with 5 people in attendance. I shared a message about coming to Christ from a place of penitence and experiencing the "Word of God made flesh" in this. Indiana Jones was part of this message. Our request for a booth had been turned down but I think it was still a successful weekend.

I got to spend some time talking and praying with Jon from Portal Games. He is a fellow Christian who loves games and is on the worship team at his church. Right now they are kickstarting "Zephyr: Winds of Change". Go check it out!   

Games I played: Sheriff of Nottingham, Fortune and Glory, Dominion and Commissioned. I did not cosplay this con.

More than a Blog

Greetings Warriors and Scholars

Well, Nerd Chapel is continuing our event line up. Next weekend (15-17) I'll be at Midwest Media Expo (M2X). It looks like Nerd Chapel won't be able to have a booth there but I'm still hoping to get an acceptance letter about that. We will be holding a worship service there Sunday morning in panel room 7 at 9:30. The message is looking at the real life versions of the challenges faced by Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade. In Sept. we will be doing a service at Grand Con at 9:00 in the seminar room. It is listed under the "other" category of events. Tonight is our monthly game night at All Shores Wesleyan Church and we also have a game night set for May and June on the 2nd Saturday of each month.

Last Saturday we held our "Gaming for China" event that helped raise money for my trip to China this summer. we had around 13 of us in attendance. A guy named Cory won the grand prize of the 10th Ann. Edition of Ticket to Ride. The prize was donated to us by Out of the Box Games and Puzzles. I've been to all 3 of their locations and met them at GrandCon. They are a great company that is Christian owned and it is always a pleasure to hang out with them.

For those who are not familiar with Nerd Chapel events, here is what we do:

For our monthly game nights I'm trying to keep them fairly diverse. Tonight I'm making a point of not bringing games we played at the March event. I am also bringing a mix of light games and heavy games. We have a prayer time at 6:00 and gaming at 6:30. I always bring some snacks and we tend to just hang out and be a fairly easy-going group.

The worship services at cons always include a few songs with some being traditional and some not so traditional. I am not a musician and I hope a volunteer who is MI based can join in and help with that. I normally do the message myself and have an analogy from somewhere in nerdom to help us look at scripture and Jesus. We often have communion using portable cups that come with both a wafer and grape juice.

I also recommend looking for the Christian Gamers Guild when you go to a con. They do services at many cons including Gen Con, Origins and some others. I think the Geekpreacher normally does a prayer time or service of some sort at Garycon each year. Fans for Christ does a service at Dragon Con and I know that last year Geeky Guys for God did one at SDCC. If you just want some good ideas for doing a regular game night for a church you can get some great ideas from Innroads Ministries or you can also ask me for further thoughts.

Please check out the Nerd Chapel FB page and search for us on You Tube.