The Sage is Real

Greetings Warriors and Scholars!

How are you doing today? Here, it is rainy. I have done some cleaning, watched an episode of the X-Files, an episode of the Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon, and last night's "The Flash".

Today, I want to discuss last weeks episode of "Arrow." This is a little odd as the story-line I want to consider is very much unresolved. Thea and Laurel went to Nanda Parbat to find out why she is having trouble after being in the Lazarus Pit. She is overly vicious in combat and has come way to close to killing people.

When she meets her father, Thea is told some grim advice: give in to it. Kill someone and you'll feel better for a while. After she argues with Malcolm about it for a minute he makes up a story about a sage on the mountain who can help her. Later that night, she is awoken by attackers: Malcolm's own men. She manages to defeat them, but only by killing them. He had arranged the whole thing and she realizes his story is fake. He honestly thought and told her to just kill every now and then. Just do it to fill the urge of sin and it will leave you alone for a while. She did not find the help she was looking for.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with, but for now let us look at real life and dealing with sin.

But here is the deal: in real life, Malcolm's idea of a sage with mystical help and special wisdom is not wrong. We have this awesome guy named Jesus. He is fully man and fully God and He does want to help you. He states:

"Come to me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28

We often thing God wants us to be perfect before coming to Him, but that is not so. In Romans 7 Paul admits his own issues with sin. He admits to doing things he doesn't want to do. Immediately after that, in Romans 8, he recognizes Jesus as the source of victory over sin.

I read an article today about dealing with sin entitled "The Dead End of Sexual Sin." I fully recommend reading this. It was written by a woman who read a book written in three parts (now combined) by John Owen in the 17th century. It doesn't matter what your issue of sin is, I think this article will be good no matter the issue.

If you are in West Michigan, there is a Nerd Chapel game night coming up in Spring Lake on November 14 at All Shores Wesleyan Church at 6:30pm. Please join us.

GR Comic Con 2015

Greetings Warriors and Scholars.

This last weekend I spent the full weekend at Grand Rapids Comic Con. Nerd Chapel did not have any events or a table there as they are not comfortable having a religious group on site but I still went as me to hang out and cosplay and go to panels.


It was a good time. I got to hang out with some friends from different places and even met up with an FFCer I had not met before. (If you are not familiar with Fans for Christ, look them up on Facebook). I had been to GRCC before but only for one day. This was my first time seeing it for the full effect of it.

I was not impressed with the gaming room. I did enjoy the one game they had demoing in it, but I was not impressed with their options for games to check out and play. There were some good games but for a weekend long event they had very few games there. I know, that isn't the strong suit of this con, but if you are going to do something, make it worth doing!

My favorite moment was meeting Tony Amendola. You might recognize him as Master Bra'tak from Stargate SG-1 or as Gipetto in Once Upon a Time. It was exciting to talk with him and attend his panel. I first went to see him Friday and his helper noticed my Christian Gamers Guild shirt. I shared with them a little of what I do and also told them about my book. They were very supportive; to the point where I gave him a copy of it the next day.

Cosplay was very prevalent at this con and there was some amazing stuff.  Here is a taste of it:

A Lesson from Ultron

Greetings Scholars and Warriors.

Saturday was a fun game night. We were 3 people and one of us could only stay for a short time, but it was a good time. Games played include Viceroy, Smash Up, and Splendor. The next game night is Nov. 14.

Found at www.comicbookmovie,com

Well, on to our thought for the week. As many others did, I purchased the blu-ray version of "Avengers:Age of Ultron" the day it came out. Mostly because I knew Best Buy would raise the price soon after that.

As I watched it again, something Ultron says to Vision at the end of the movie stuck with me. "Tony Stark wanted a savior, but settled for a slave." I found this to be a profound poke at humanity.

I think we do this a lot. We ask God to save us from famine and disease and war, but either we won't give up the things that lead to these (i.e. selfishness and greed) or we treat God as a slave to do our bidding rather than a hero to help us. I wonder if that is one of many reasons why we don't see as many miracles in our world a midst the terror and horrible things that go on.

As Jesus performed miracles there were a few responses to it. Some followed Him. Some thought he was mad although I am not sure how you can think someone is mad when they do something miraculous right in front of you. Others accused His followers and Him of drunkenness.

If God did raise someone from the dead right in front of you, would you actually follow Him? Do you actually want a right relationship with God, even when that means submitting to Him, or are you looking for a slave to make life comfortable?

Learning from Characters

What characters do you respect? If you were to do a character study for any character in fiction, who would you choose? I'm not talking about learning about the character, but someone you honestly think has something worth while to teach to whoever will listen. Someone who might be a mentor but sets an example.


We do this all the time, you know. What do you think Cosplay is? You pick a character you respect, right? Or at least someone you think you can enjoy. Here are a few characters I respect:

Found at dailymail.co.uk

Obi-Wan Kenobi:
Let's get the obvious one out first. Many of you have seen me cosplay as him. He is responsible, looks after the needs of others, and normally is not afraid to ask for help when he needs it.

Found at en.memory-alpha.wikia.com

 Commander Riker:
Riker is referred to as 'number 1" for many reasons. He is smart, resourceful and most of all loyal. He cares so much for both the Enterprise and Captain Picard as well as Counselor Troi. He stays with the ship long after he could have a command of his own and he doesn't give up on his friends. Ever.

Found at stargate-sg1-solutions.com

Daniel Jackson:
Daniel starts out pretty green. Sneezing around other planets and not very useful in a fight. But he strives for peace. He always seeks the best of the people he meets. Yes, sometimes he gets in trouble for it, but his hatred for slavery and his desire to see people cooperate together has a great effect on SG-1 and he does eventually learn how to fight for others instead of just arguing for them.

Found at uthmag.com

Hiro Nakamura:
Hiro is amazing. My favorite character by far from "Heroes." He has so much fun with his nerdiness as he teleports around space and time. He wants so badly to be a hero and nothing will stop him from stepping out to protect others.

You know who else I respect...Paul the Apostle. Yes, this guy did some bad things. He supported the death and imprisonment of many Christians. Then God decided to change Him. In all his wrongdoing, he wanted nothing more than to be a servant of the Most High God. Jesus, knowing this, brought Him into the fold of his flock to protect, to teach, and to take the message of the cross beyond any place the others would take it. In 1 Corinthians 11 we are challenged to follow Paul AS HE FOLLOWS CHRIST. This sounds rather arrogant, right? "Hey, do what I do!" But, you know what that means, right? That where Paul fell short, where he failed Christ, we should not follow him there. He didn't say to follow him in everything. Just in the places where he sought to follow Jesus example.

There are some people around you that you can learn from. They are not perfect and that is okay. You don't have to learn everything from them. But, in the parts of life where they set an example of Christ, follow that. Listen to the lessons of those pieces of their lifestyles.

GrandCon 2015

GrandCon 2015 was excellent.

Lots of people in the vendor hall Saturday.

Through the weekend I really enjoyed meeting people at the table in the vendor hall and had a lot of positive reactions. I met some guys who go to a church with a monthly gaming group in Lansing and also met a couple guys who are trying to figure out how to start a cell group or other nerd related thing at their church.

I think the best interactions happened over Sunday. First of all, the chapel service went really well. We had about 15 people which is much larger than last year. Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower did a good job preaching and the overall service went well. It was also nice to see a couple people join us who had not been able to the previous year despite attending the con.

After the service a teenager came up to me. He had been at our chapel service last year (had actually dragged his mom to it) and was extremely helpful. I had been really impressed, but I had not realized what God was doing that morning. Yesterday he told me:

"Thanks for doing this. Last year's chapel service is what spurred me to make my profession to faith."

Now, that is not something you hear every day!

A few hours later I was manning my table as I had been all weekend. A man came up to me and said this:

"I've seen you here each day and I have to admit I completely disagree with most of it; well all of it. But it takes guts to do what you are doing. I respect that. Keep doing what you are doing."

So, yes this was a great weekend. I ran a few games as well. 2 rounds of Pandemic where we lost right before getting the final cure and a round of Kings of Israel which was full so I didn't play but just "taught" which was easy since they had all played Pandemic before. They were quickly outdone by the game.

Over the weekend I also sold many copies of 42:Discovering Faith Through Fandom. People were very open to it. So, that was my weekend at GrandCon. A great time to be had for all. I still do not know the numbers for attendance but it seemed to me that they did at least as well as last year. Here are a few pics.

Artemis Bridge Simulator. I was the weapons officer.

The open gaming hall.

Steampunk siblings.

Events are a foot!

Greetings Warriors and Scholars.

Well, a lot is going on with Nerd Chapel. Next weekend we'll be hanging out at Grand Con in the vendor hall. We will once again have a chapel service but this time Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower will be preaching. Tom is a youth pastor who has also served overseas.

As you can see, we have a new logo. I hope that Nerd Chapel can be a safe "inn" for you in the middle of life's' quests. Yes, I have played Red Dragon Inn so I know the dangers that can happen at an in, but at least you will have friends to back you up.

Over the next two months along with Grand Con we have 2 game nights. I am trying to keep them to the 2nd Saturday of the month. So October 10 and Nov. 14 are our next two game nights. Feel free to come and hang out. I'll let you know if we are tying these in with any mercy/justice organizations as we have before with the Pandemic Party. Click on the dates above for the FB pages for these events.

Wednesday night I got to play Smash Up with a friend of mine. I had demoed it at Gen Con a couple years ago but this was my first time playing a full game. I loved it. I had Dinosaurs and Ninjas for my army and then for game two I used Bear Cavalry and Pirates. It was an interesting evening. The game is pretty simple when it comes to rules and well worth the money.

I hope you can join us for one or all of these events!

A Lesson from X-Men 22

Greetings Warriors and Scholars!

Found at the X-Men Wiki

Recently, I have been looking into the Marvel Masterworks series. This series pulled together some great older comics from the 1960s and 70s. Each issue has around 10 monthly adventures in proper order. I have 3 of the issues in black covers. The Amazing Spiderman #8(out of 16), The Fantastic Four #6(out of 15), and most recently The X-Men #3(out of 8). I have a long way to go!

One of the interesting plots was in X-Men #22 from July 1966. We start by watching our favorite mutants in the Danger Room fighting a robot created by Professor Xavier to help them learn to overcome artificial enemies. They defeat it within the given 5 minutes using teamwork. Then Professor X sends them out for a vacation. Of course, things go wrong as a series of villians lure them to Central Park in NYC and deal with them one at a time...and winning. These villains were some b and c stock villains from old Marvel issues that were not very good on their own. Yet together they formed a far more powerful team. This was an interesting look at how Mutants need each other and how even with powers they couldn't handle all things alone.

Eventually, in the next issue, the X-Men win. But only after they have gotten back to teamwork and dealt with the foe behind the villainous team.

In America we tend to like individuality. We focus on it to a point where culture and individuals suffer because we don't really cooperate together. This is not how God tells us to operate. He gave Moses the help of Aaron and then Joshua to help him. He gave David his "mighty men", a group of 30 men who went on special missions for him and may have had a certain following of their own right. Jesus chose 12 disciples to follow Him closely and build up the Church. He also sent them and others out 2 by 2 instead of sending them out alone.

While discussing perseverance, Hebrews 11:24-25 tells us:

"and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another..."

Then, in Hebrews 11 we are reminded of a "cloud of witnesses" in the form of dozens of heroes from the Old Testament who have gone before us. In fact, the writer admits that he doesn't have time to tell us all the stories he wants to share with us.

Do you have a Christian community you are a part of? I am not merely talking about sitting in a seat hearing a sermon once a week, but a group you share life with that encourages you in faith. A group you can serve with, to, and be served by in your faith.

In other words, who do you have that is a fellow X-Man/X-Woman with you?