What I would Change

Sometimes we watch a movie and we love it and would change nothing.  Other times we watch a movie and we like nothing.  Often we find a few things we like and wish we could just change a few things. 

I have a few things I would change: I would have Qui-Gon and Maul survive Episode 1 at least to be in Episode 2.  In Episode 2 we would meet Dooku, but he would be a double agent operating in the ranks of the Jedi. I would have the death of Qui-Gon in episode 2 along with the death of Anakins Mom.  As Anakin would struggle with this the Jedi would be learning of Dooku's treachery.  We would still see Yoda fight Dooku.  We would still see Obi-Wan take down Maul.  That is what I would do. 

In the case of movies, we like or dislike directors and writers.  But we don't really care about their authority. In fact, sometimes we feel someone should not have the authority to do something, such as the choice of bad writing or a choice to make a character from a source material something completely different. Often, the directors and writers really don't care if we like or dislike something,  not in the sense of meeting our needs.

Now the Bible is one story I would not change.  It is a little bit confusing.  I don't understand why God allowed stoning in the Old Testament or why he allows suffering, but I recognize His authority. More than that, I can say He has walked with me through a lot of pain and heartache. 

Job lost an extreme amount. He lost family members to death. He lost his health.  He lost his wealth to raiders and disasters.  Yet he still refused to curse God and still trusted Him.  When He did question God, God said this:

"Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.  Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?"  Job 38:4, 5 God also talks about controlling the stars and the constellations and large beasts.  He is the creator of all and it is not our place to argue with Him.


Would I do things the way God has done them in my life or in the lives of my family? No. I would not. I would not have allowed 2 fires to hit our family homes or certain other things...but God has also used some of these difficulties for good. Because of our recent fire we are getting a new house (which means a Nerd Cave for me!). Sometimes God uses bad for good.  Trust Him.

If you don't understand something, ask God about it.  He is stern, but He is also loving. He has the right to make choices about us and all creation as our creator, but He wants to help you with your questions.

Fun God and Eternity

Stargate is my favorite television franchise by far, although Doctor Who gives it a run for its money.  I am not sure how I feel about the reboot of Stargate coming in a few years because I think that they could have done so much more with the SG-1/Atlantis/Universe situation.  With devices that could take them to thousands of planets in multiple galaxies and ships together they could have gone almost anywhere.  But yes, I am excited that SG will continue in some form.


Sunday night I was watching an episode of SG-1 called "Crystal Skull" they visit a planet with a huge cavern in a giant pyramid.  Inside this pyramid is a crystal skull similar to one Daniel's grandfather had found decades ago in Belize.  As they episode progresses they eventually meet a race of giant aliens that are in the form of a mist.  At one point they show the creature in the back ground circling around like a kid or a young girl twirling.  It seemed he was just having fun.

http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Crystal_Skull

This made me think.  It made me wonder if God ever takes a gaseous form like this and whip around for fun.  Seriously.  Why can't God do silly things for fun?  He made the peacocks and sea horses and all sort of silly animals.  How often do you see a cloud in a silly shape?

One day we all face eternity.  I am looking forward to the discoveries of eternity with God will hold.  Who knows what facets of Him we will see and explore!  Maybe the reason the angels and creatures in Heaven call out "Holy!  Holy Holy! Lord God Almighty!" so often is because they are always seeing something new in Him.  Maybe somethings in His being never lose their newness. More than likely it is both.  There is always something new to find in Christ and His qualities never lose their newness.  We can even start now.  "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) 

And then, for a few drops of yummy in the amazing cake and frosting God is...what else in the universe will we see that we don't know about?  As I have said before, God is filled with endless wonder!  I hope you have accepted Christ and will be joining us in this exciting adventure of eternity.

Clark Kent and Christians

Found at cinefantastique.com. 

 
"It's another way of saying it's not from this world, and neither are you.  You are the answer to are we alone in the universe. ... You were sent here for a reason. ....When that day comes you're gonna have to make a choice.  A choice whether to stand proud in front of the human race or not."

"Can't I just pretend I'm your son?"

"You are my son.  But somewhere out there you have another father who gave you another name. And he sent you here for a reason Clark.  And even if it takes you the rest of your life you owe it to yourself to find out what that reason is."

A conversation between a young Clark Kent and Jonathon Kent in "Man of Steel."

As Christians we have a many similarities to Clark in this conversation.

1. We are not from this world. "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await our savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."  Phil. 3:20  We are simply passing through, hopefully bringing others into the Kingdom as we do so.

2. We often to want to pretend that we are someone other than we are.  Think about it.  Read Paul's words in Romans 7:14-17.  We have this pull toward sin that we must fight regularly.  Yet sin is not our real identity.  "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  BY NO MEANS! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"  Romans 6:1 (emphases added).

3. We have a father who gave us another name.  Revelation 2:17 talks about a stone with a new name that will be given to those who follow Christ fully.  God actually has a special name just for you...and it will be just for you and Him to know!  That is how much He loves each of us.

4. We are sent here for a reason. Now, we don't owe it to ourselves to find that reason, but we owe it to our redeemer.  Romans 12 says we should be living sacrifices. 2 Timothy 3:17 states that we have the Bible to be prepared for every good work.  2 Corinthians 5:20 says we are "Christ's ambassadors as though God was making his appeal through us."

Grand Con!

I have an exciting announcement!  Nerd Chapel is providing a Sunday Morning Worship Experience at Grand Con this year!  We are excited and pleased to join with the Grand Con team in meeting this need and I am very excited to see what God does that day!  I'll be praying about it over the next several months and preparing for it.

The service will be at 9:00am Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014.  Grand Con will be held at the Crown Plaza in Grand Rapids, MI that weekend.

So here is a question for you to ponder: What do you do to include God in your vacations?  Do you look to attend a local church where you are?  Do you pray together at some point in your vacation?  There are often other exciting possibilities.  I spent to summers leading Church services on Sunday mornings in the national parks. 

We would have people from a variety of backgrounds come to join us.  I think one Sunday we had a mix of Baptists and Catholics.  I can also remember a couple occasions when people brought their dogs, who then tried to sing with us during worship.  If you are going to a national park soon I encourage you to join with A Christian Ministry in the National Parks for one of their services.

Here are a few organizations that contribute such opportunities at Cons:

Fans for Christ

Christian Gamers Guild

Geek Preacher

Many of these also have regular postings or groups.  They all have a presence on Facebook.  In fact, I do more with Fans for Christ on Facebook than I do with their normal site.

I would also encourage you to check out Theology Gaming.

Change the Fear

Greetings in Christ.

So, I have noticed a reluctance on a couple of fan groups on Facebook about discussing religion.  One of them is a Godzilla group and the other one is a Star Wars group.

The Godzilla group has a post pinned by the administrator saying that religion and politics are both off limits.  All they want to talk about is big monsters destroying each other.  I wonder if they would consider a discussion about the viewpoints of religion shown in the movies?  They seem to forget that faith and religion do play a part in many Godzilla films, whether it be the Islanders from the original film who saw Godzilla as a deity or the culture on Infant Island that worships Mothra. 

The Star Wars group actually did have a discussion going based on a meme that takes a picture of a church sign with Matthew 12:13 which starts "Whoever is not for me is against me".  This is the only part of the verse on the sign.  The creator of the meme than put a pic of Obi-Wan Kenobi below that with the quote "Only Siths deal in absolutes."  (Both sign and the meme forgot the rest of that verse "for whoever does not gather with me scatters.") This started a discussion about Jesus, judgement, etc.  I went to put my two cents in and lo and behold the post had been revoked.  I am guessing they were upset about the argument going on.

Religion can be polarizing.  Part of that is do to judgmental attitudes from people of varying view points. Have you ever felt judged by another?  Maybe you were investigating Christ and you felt like Christians were mean and critical.  Or, maybe you were trying to explain the truth of Christ and someone refused to listen to you unfairly.  This criticism and judgement can come from holders of all world views; there is no such thing as a world view where no one who teaches it is critical or rude.

However, there is another thing: the assumption that one is being judged.  We tend to see people as judges rather than as fellow students telling us what they think will be on the test.  This is especially popular right now.  People don't like to be told how to live their lives.  

As we go out to share Christ, we need to remember what Peter told us in 1 Peter 3:15 "Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."  We should not be judgmental.  It is God's place to judge, not ours, but we must not be afraid to say something.  We should remember we are students of Christ and that He is the test-grader.  We are the test-takers.  It is our responsibility to let other know what is on the test, but not to grade their tests for them.


I don't think these groups should be so scared of discussing religion, but we can only pray and speak in gentleness and respect to change it.

Endless Wonder

Last night I watched the final episode of Warehouse 13.  Don't worry, no spoilers here today.  I want us to think about the idea from the series of "endless wonder".  The Warehouse stored artifacts from throughout history that have been imbued with differing powers because of various events or from emotions of individuals that really changed history.

Some artifacts were good, others were not so good.  They always had trade off (such as a rope that would heal a person but bring darkness to their soul).  But it was always fascinating to see what they find and the Warehouse never stopped having new items for them. 

This is the interesting thing.  That something new was always around the corner and you could never stop finding something cool or amazing.  The show could have gone on for a couple more seasons without getting old.

Such is life with Christ.  We know from Revelation that there are angels and creatures in Heaven that are always shouting "Holy! Holy! Holy! Is the Lord God Almighty!"  It has been theorized that every time they shout it, they are seeing something new and different in God.  He is eternal and infinite!  There is no end to Him!  The idea of sitting around for eternity and telling God how awesome His might seem boring to some, but yet there is always something new to find.  A new grace to some one or a new miracle or color or creation.  Eternity will be filled with endless wonder and I am looking forward to it.  I hope you trust in Christ and join us for this ENDLESS WONDER!

Continutiy

So what do you think of the difference between Marvel's approach to cinema/tv and DC's approach?  I enjoy having all the connectivity that we have between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the One-Shots, the movies, and the approaching Netflix series. DC is decidedly different. Arrow seems to be a different universe than Man of Steel, although I have wondered if one of these was "Earth 1" and the other (probably Arrow) was "Earth 2" or another universe in a "multiverse".

In life we tend to separate groups and teams the way DC is.  I can think of two examples of this.  The first is denominational-ism.  Now, there are some good things about denominations.  They can share resources, cooperate to better send out missionaries, and grow together.  But there is the downside that comes with it.  We tend to see our group as fully separate entity from others. Yet we are one.  Ephesians 4:5 says there is "one faith, one lord, one baptism."  We are all on the same team.

The other area is that of the Angels vs. the Believers.  We humans don't exactly see ourselves as the same as the angels.  They have powers, admission to the Throne Room, and view points of history we do not have. In Revelation 22 when John was toward the end of his vision of heaven, he saw an angel and started to bow to it.  The angel said "Do not do it!  I am just a fellow servant with you and your fellow prophets."  Did you know that you and the angels are on one team together?

We are all in one universe. God loves us all equally and offers grace and hope equally.  So what can we do to cooperate together?  We can pray for each other. We can help each other. Sometimes we do this without even knowing it!  The Holy Spirit will coordinate all our efforts. We just have to be obedient and open to what He wants.