Arrow, The Flash, and Helping Enemies

Greetings Warriors and Scholars.

This week I enjoyed the season finales of both The Flash and Arrow. One of the interesting subjects raised in both of these episodes was that of turning a foe into a friend.

http://www.playbuzz.com/brookem24/team-flash-or-team-arrow

Spoilers ahead.

In The Flash, Barry Allen tried to help Savitar. We learned before this that Savitar is actually a future version of Barry, or more accurately a time remnant Barry created to help fight Savitar; who eventually became Savitar. Yeah. Anyway, while Captain Cold had helped him steal a power source for the Speed Cannon, he was told something important: your goodness is the best par to who you are. In other words, you can't always fight fire with fire. Barry decided not to try and destroy Savitar, but instead to offer to help him somehow. Spoiler: Savitar failed to kill Iris. Since this is a big part of what made him Savitar, that meant time would catch up with him and erase him. The Flash offered to help find a way for Savitar to continue living. In this case, it did not work. Savitar just tried to kill them all.

In Arrow, we find Oliver has been brought back to Lian Yu, the island he had been stranded on. He found Digger Harkness and Slade Wilson/Deathstroke. He asked them to help him. Digger Harkness pretended to join him and then revealed he had received a "better offer". Ok, this sounds bad. Why keep trying to turn enemies into friends? I mean, this seems like it isn't turning out well.

The principal is not an issue of how effective this was. It is an issue of right vs. wrong. For Barry, this was an issue of choosing his best self. Admittedly, Oliver was at the end of his ropes. But I think there was also a sense in Oliver of wanting to give Slade and Harkness one last chance to change.

Think about the man named Barnabas in the New Testament. He rooted and argued for Paul to be giving a second chance by the Church after he had persecuted many Christians. Even after that he still believed in second chances. When Paul did not want to trust one young man, Barnabas did. He loved giving second chances to people. Even if it didn't work. In Paul's case, where would we be without his letters or his work as a missionary?

Jesus himself told us to pray for those who persecute us and love our enemies. This is not just commanded by Him. By appearing to Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus was exhibiting this for us. He also exhibited this for us by responding gracefully to a thief while they were both being crucified.

We did see some good results in these episodes as well. After Savitar started his plan with the speed cannon, they had a fight and Killer Frost, aka Caitlin Snow, started helping the heroes. She left his side to join back with her friends. Slade also accepted the offer. He worked with Oliver to rescue the his son and friends from Adrian Chase. The man who had killed Oliver's Mom and had done massive damage to the city with the Mira Kuru drug (sp?) chose to help his enemy.  Now, I don't know what the story tellers have planned for him in the future but this is significant.

How can you give someone a second chance? 

Fight for Your City

Greetings Warriors and Scholars.

Found at: http://mumba398.deviantart.com/art/Arrow-Season-4-550565678

Today I watched the new episode of "Arrow". This show is all about saving a whole city. A city filled with corruption, pain, even terror. A city that is terrified because of extreme crime and poverty (although there does seem to be plenty of rich people there and plenty of expensive restaurants). It is something that many cities in our real world are dealing with right now.

One of the sub-plots going on right now is about Mr. Oliver Queen running for mayor. Within the scope of this episode, a few things happened with that. First, we learn that Queen wants to revitalize the bay area of the city but his campaign consultant doesn't like the idea. He thinks the focus should be on crime. Later on, we find Damian Darkh at a recruitment meeting. He is about to have around 16 to 20 men take a pill to make them more obedient to his commands. Of course, they all already believe that without Hive(the organization Darkh is working for/with), the city can not be saved. Interestingly, Darkh used to work with Ras al Guhl hundreds of years before this and before Darkh came into town, Ras was gonna have the city destroyed. We are still not sure of Darkh's ultimate plan, whether it is destruction or control. At some point, Darkh approached Queen at an event about his campaign and wanted to align with him (not sure if he knows Queen is the Green Arrow or not). We come to the end of the episode and Queen is at the bay announcing his plan for it. Darkh is there in the audience and they stare each other down as Queen says "This city will not be saved in the darkness, but in the light. For all to see."

Right now a lot of cities are unsure what to do. The problems include poverty, crime, fear, hatred, terror threats, and many others. Paris, Beirut, Kano (Nigeria) all experienced horrible events in the last week. Detroit is an example of cities that simply have no jobs, hundreds of empty buildings, and a slumber of sorts. So what do we do?

During the time of Jeremiah, a prophet who served when Jerusalem was sacked and many sent into captivity. He wrote a letter to those in captivity. You can read it in the Old Testament in Jeremiah 29. This letter is often quoted for the piece that speaks of God's great plan for them, but we will consider verse 7:

"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:7

God told them to seek the best of the city around them. If he told an exiled people, who were only going to be there for 70 years to do that in a city they may well have hated...what would God have you do in a city you love?  Beyond this, what did Jesus tell us?

In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us:

"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

In this seasons first episode of Arrow, Oliver went on a broadcast to say "I declare my intention to fight for this city." Jesus just told you what He expects of you. "Let your light shine...that they may see your good deeds..." Saving a city isn't done by sitting around. It is done by serving. By contributing to the needs around you. Our light shines by our deeds. So if a city is to be saved "in the light" as Oliver said, it will happen with deeds.

How do we get started? Well, where are the needs? Does your city need more volunteers for a food pantry at a local church? Do that. Does your city need a clothing drive? You can do it. Do you intend to fight for your city? There are plenty of ways to do it. If you are already doing something, how can you grow in that? Is that enough? Is it time for you to make a bigger commitment? Find the needs, ask God for opportunities and take them as they come; just do something.

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.

Arrow Family

So last night I got to watch Arrow live instead of waiting and catching it online (which often happens for me). I don't watch a lot of CW shows but I do like the DC shows. One of the themes that really stood out in this episode was family. Specifically, sticking with family even when you don't see eye to eye.

Felicity's mom comes to visit and we quickly learn that they are very different people. Her mom comes from Las Vegas and she looks the part. Their hobbies and interests are different (Mom comments on how she was never as interested in all the tech stuff that Felicity loves).

That same episode we find Oliver and his sister disagreeing over a funds source she is using until she gets the club back running again. In the middle of all this I think it was Thea who tells Oliver that they have to stick together because they only have each other. She pleads with him to meet her half way.

One thing stands out: you stick by family because family is what you have. Hebrews 10:25 tells us we (as fellow followers of Jesus) should not give up meeting together. The writer encourages us to encourage each other instead of giving up on each other.

That person you have in your family (or in your Bible study group) that drives you crazy. You don't get to give up on them. We are all family in the Kingdom of God and if we give up on each other, what happens to the Kingdom?

For those in the West Michigan area, don't forget to meet up with us on the 15 at Cornerstone Univ.