Honoring Nero

Here is a verse from 1 Peter that most Christians would have a hard time obeying:

17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

Honor the emperor? Which one was Emperor when Peter wrote this? Nero? Likely. If not Nero then another Roman leader who was corrupt. And here, Peter, under the influence of the Holy Spirit was telling the Christians who were alive then to honour the man who would crucify him.

But here is the thing. God put Nero there. God’s placement or allowance of evil men to be in power is still part of his plan. Nero who was a beast was still a pawn in a greater plan to make the church the most powerful and unstoppable force on the planet. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. And God was saying, through Peter, that when you honor the emperor you honor Me.

This is difficult.

What does Honour mean? Daniel honoured Nebuchadnezzar. And Darius. Total Pagan kings who worshipped themselves. But they didn’t compromise their values as the simultaneously honoured the powers installed by the Power. It means they had faith in God’s sovereignty. Jesus didn’t disrespect Pilate when He stood before this small governor that He himself put there. Pilate was part of the plan. When I hear Christians mock the leaders that God has put in place rather than pray for them as Paul tells us to do in Romans 13:1

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.…

Then Paul said the same thing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:2

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,…

Therefore, I see that I have not been obedient to God and prayed for the powers that He has put in place. They are people too and the way that some Christians have disrespected these leaders shows that we have forgotten that they are normal people in places of power. If they were our neighbour would we disrespect them the way we do? No. We most certainly would not. I hope we would not. We need to pray for these people so they would know salvation and draw their decisions from the wisdom of God and His Word.

Lord, I pray for the current leadership of our country. I ask that Stephen Harper would come to You in humility and ask for wisdom from Your hand, Lord. I ask that Christy Clark would not govern on popular opinion but that she too would know Your salvation and joy and that she would see people the way that You do, Jesus. I pray for Barack Obama and ask that he would kneel before You in prayer and seek Your face and lead his country in a direction towards You. And when I think of Nero type leaders in the world like Assad in Syria I pray for him that he would be humbled underneath your mighty hand and see that he has nothing in his life that is not under the might of Jesus Christ and that he would repent of the evils that he has done as leader of that country. I pray for the leaders of broken nations like Liberia who are so devastated by Ebola right now and ask for their wisdom in dealing with this brutal disease and its ramifications for their countries. Please, Lord, stop the wars and the disease that rack these countries with pain. There are so many countries and leaders, Lord. Please help our broken planet. I thank You for still being sovereign and in control of this vast array of chaos.

Amen

Heaven is For Real

Heaven is one of my favorite topics.  Its hope and future glory keep me going.  Having said that I am sorry to say I missed Heaven is For Real in the Theatres. Having watched it tonight at home I will say that I will buy it.  Heaven is For Real is a compassionate, well-made, inspiring film.  It has a great cast and makes you think about the reality of the place that is and will be when Jesus makes everything new.  Kudos to the team that made it and adapted a book that could've been turned into cheddar and cranked out a solid film.  

"Nuff Said.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Okay already.  Uncle.  I get it.  I wrote the movie off when I saw the trailer. I thought it was going to suck.  I went to Guardians of the Galaxy to relax in air conditioning and see a science fiction with a friend.  I did not read Rotten Tomatoes or nothing.  But was it ever good!  The movie was funny, well-written, laced with great music that 80's Walkman junkies would love and music which I am going to track down very soon for my personal music player of this century.  The score was great including Groot's theme.  "I am Groot," is now my response when I don't have one.  The Raccoon is very cool and I admire his ingenuity.  Chris Pratt makes a good, light-hearted action hero and Zoe is still kick-butt cool and pretty even in green skin.  And, ohhhh, that's why Thanos appeared at the end of Avengers.  

There was a great amount of thought and creativity that went into the creation of the tech and the set design of all the various worlds was very good.  The movie even hints of altruism and sacrifice and a reversal of selfishness like when Han Solo decided to smarten up and join the Death Star battle.  It does this without being cheesy and taking itself too seriously.  

All in all I really enjoyed Marvel's first foray into Sci Fi.  I'll give it a hearty 9 outta 10.

'Nuff Said.  

Physicans of No Value

I have a friend whose beautiful wife recently went to be with Jesus due to cancer.  After the funeral some people who were well-meaning said some stupid things to him.  I will let you read those statements of no worth in his upcoming book 'Stupid Things People Say When You're Grieving.'

This situation of grief in their lives and in our church and in my heart prompted me to read Job this summer. This morning I read the first part of Job 13.  

In Job 13:4-5, Job says this to his friends who have been spouting off reasons why God must not be happy with Job because they wrongly extrapolate that God prospers people who are in his good books and causes the wicked ones to suffer.  They were trying to get Job to just confess what his personal sin was which caused this problem in his life so he could get God's blessing again and move on from this tragedy.  

Job says, "3 Surely, I wish to speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue and reason my case with God [that He may explain the conflict between what I believe of Him and what I see of Him]."  

In other words, I don't get this.  But neither do you.  

He continues, "4 But you are forgers of lies - you defame my character most untruthfully - you are physicians of no value and have no remedy to offer, 5 oh that you would altogether hold your peace!  Then you would evidence wisdom and you might pass for wise men."  

Lord, do not let us slip into the stupidity of being  like Job's friends, defaming the character of those suffering as a way of trying to explain a reason for their tragedy - thus becoming people who think themselves physicians and all we end up doing is becoming quack psychologists / theologians who are physicians of no value who have no remedy to offer.

'Nuff Said.

Complicated Man of Two Natures

This morning I realize I am a scheming, transparent, conniving, open, deceiving, honest, angry, forgiving, merciful, impatient, patient, broken, healed, procrastinating, hard-working, fearful, brave, self-sacrificing, self-protecting, greedy, generous, loving, selfish, mediocre, creative, merciful, mean, ignorant, caring, judging, gracious, greedy, generous, kind and harsh person.  

Thank God for His Grace.  

‘Nuff Said.     

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Ah, today’s CGI’s effects.  To see Spidey soaring through the New York skyline with his time-honed web-slinging skills is indeed a spectacle to behold.  I missed some of the practical effects from the first Amazing Spider-Man, but the CGI animation in this film is so good that only once in a while do you remember that his swinging is just a really well done cartoon.  They haven’t mastered the running figure yet—one scene where he was running on a ledge didn’t look quite right. 

Hans Zimmer composed a new and catchy fanfare for Spider-Man that sticks in your head after you’ve heard it a hundred times by trumpet, strings and piano in different tempos and various scenes.  Having said that I kinda wish Zimmer would tone down some of the percussiveness in his recent scores which, after a while, grate on the brain and can overcome some of the movie.  I think Hans needs to go back a little bit in time to some of his more subdued, blend-into-the-scene audio artwork--like on the Lion King.  I feel like his music is yelling at me lately.

Marc Webb is a good director and knows emotion well and directs Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in their great roles as Peter and Gwen.  Sally Field is a great Aunt May.  The script is good, Spidey’s quips and classic humor are well written.  Gwen Stacey’s speech is inspiring.  The story is a good one as well, although I think they could have just stuck to a Goblin story-line with Harry and not jam packed it as much as they did.  Having said that, Electro is cool and his story is a good lesson on how it is dangerous to ignore invisible people and how it can result in deep anger that, when is has simmered long enough, will explode.  They are quite obviously setting up the third installment and introduced Gobby as the head of the sinister six.  There is a great David and Goliath scene that sticks in your heart.  I felt the tension in my gut as the suspense of the climactic battle scene unfolded, echoing the tragic comic, The Amazing Spider-Man #121.  It was all very well done.  Stan Lee was brilliant when he invented such a fallible, non-perfect, not-able-to-fix-it-all human hero.  

All in all I really enjoyed Spidey 2.  I’d give it 7.5 outta 10.

'Nuff Said.

NOAH

Well, what shall I say?  I liked it.  The Word Maze to our left quoting Kathleen Parker's review, pointing out that this movie is a fantasy with a message, gets rid of the need to argue for or against this movie as it is pointless to try to defend it or promote it as a Biblical account.  This movie is not that.

I would say that Darren Aronofsky is a very creative dude.  He seems to have a VERY big imagination and uses the book of Genesis from the Old Testament as a spring board into his Lord-of-the-Rings-meets-Noah world.  I myself have been fascinated with the conjecture about the world before the flood.  It is a world that we know very little about.  It was a very different world except for the fact that men were just as evil as they are now but, with no cops and Ten Commandment based Laws, evil went absolutely nuts.

The writers get the depravity of man and even point out that at his core, Noah was a man like any of us, who was fallen and could become as consumed by his inherent evil like the culture around him.  Noah did have a righteous life by comparison to the culture around him due to the fact that he came from a line of men like Enoch and Methuselah who were men of the line of Seth and men who walked with God, but if he chose to cave in to the culture around him and the sin within him, Noah could be as evil as Tubal-Cain, the show's
bad guy (he is mentioned in Genesis 4:22).

Christians, who have a huge respect for Bible, are going to have a real hard time with this movie.  We should be careful when completely condemning the director's efforts though when we remember that in movies like The Ten Commandments creative license has been taken.  For instance, when Cecil B.Demille put Moses in a love triangle with Egyptian Princess Nephretiri and Rameses, his brother, even though they weren't brothers.  Dreamworks did this again in 1998's Prince of Egypt.  Mel Gibson had demon children and a woman Satan in Passion of the Christ.  Although these creative licenses are much 'tamer' than Aronofsky's, if you take this to its logical conclusion we shouldn't watch any Bible-type movies that are not verse by verse like The Gospel of John  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug2cn71CDeE.  

The director does take mighty big leaps of Lord-of-the-Rings-esque creativity with fallen angels when he turns them into Rock Giants who help Noah build the ark and protect him from evil men.  I am guessing he is taking vague and sketchy clues which are given in Genesis like the Nephilim from Genesis 6:1-2 and turning them into these titans.  As someone who has written his own Biblical History/time travel novel, I know the fun that it is to write a story speculating about Biblical history.            

Christian Author, Ellen Gunderson Traylor, who has written a number of Biblically based fictional biographies, wrote an excellent novel called Noah where she incorporated the legends of Atlantis being a city that "fell into the sea" and wrote Poseidon and other "titans"  into the story as half-angelic beings who ruled the world of evil that Noah found himself in.  Interestingly, she too referred to these creatures as Watchers.  As I watched Noah I wondered if Aronofsky had read her work.  The big difference between the two of them is that Traylor is a Christian who knows that Jesus is the Ark of Salvation and I don't know if Aronofsky gets that.

The director does get depravity and the fact that we broke the world and that there must be justice.  He shows us that the story of Noah isn't a children's story but that the horror of sin and its consequences destroys us and this is heard in the haunting screams of people clinging to dear life on mountains that are quickly being submerged in the deluge. He also shows that God is also merciful.  Hermione Granger (oops, I mean Emma Watson) has a great speech on this mercy and love near the end of the movie.

Russell Crowe portrays a very human and loving Noah who kinda snaps under pressure and even turns to alcohol to deal with it all.  This is in the Bible after the flood.  The director does a good job trying to delve into the tension between Ham and Noah.  I love the design of the Ark and the special effects are great as is the music. Jennifer Connelly makes a great wife for Noah and Anthony Hopkins is cool as Methuselah the old-wizard-Jedi-Master who lives in a cave and heals with his faith-power.

All in all I give Noah a 9 out of 10 for movie making and a 1.3 out of 10 for Biblical accuracy.

If you want a couple of good and very creative novels about Noah consider reading Noah by Ellen Gunderson Traylor and The Preservationist by David Maine-I enjoyed them both immensely.

'Nuff said.

NOAH - http://www.amazon.ca/Noah-Ellen-Gunderson-Traylor-ebook/dp/B007C8NFQ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396241877&sr=8-1&keywords=noah+ellen+gunderson+traylor

THE PRESERVATIONIST - http://www.amazon.ca/Preservationist-David-Maine-ebook/dp/B003J48BOQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396241808&sr=8-1&keywords=the+preservationist

RoboCop

The first one had over the top everything.  Gratuitous amounts of swearing, some nudity, and cutting edge and some disgusting special effects like a guy coming apart as a car runs over him.  But there was no denying RoboCop, on his shoestring budget, was a new kind of cool.  Searing social commentary also made the first Robo movie a new kind of shoot 'em up pic; along with a host of timeless new lines like "Dead or alive, you're coming with me." 

This new RoboCop is another new kind of cool. There's toned down swearing and violence but just as much searing social commentary on how we in the West really do think we are all that and we can use automated tech to control not only our world but the world around us.  The tech in Tehran at the beginning of this new film even features flying drones like the ones that blow up our enemies from the comfort of your own remote cockpit, blowing men, women and children with the flip of a switch.  It was good to see how they make Alex Murphy a good man on and off the beat as a solid husband and father.  I thoroughly enjoyed the fight Robo has with the updated ED 209s and his very cool Robo-Cycle.

Joel Kinnaman makes for a good Alex Murphy and RoboCop and he can act.  Michael Keaton makes a bad bad guy and his acting is as full of life as ever.  I was pleasantly surprised to see Gary Oldman in the flick and enjoyed his heartfelt portrayal of a sincere doc who seems to be in the repairing-damaged-people-game for the right reasons.  Samuel L Jackson is the voice of conservative 'Merica in this film and is just as annoying as some of them TV folk who think 'Merica is the "hope of the Earth" as Mitt put it..   The show clearly sets itself up as a new franchise should it garner enough bucks at the box office.  I liked this one enough that I'd go see RoboCop 2.

I'd give it a solid 8 out of 10.

'Nuff Said.

A Thought About Valentines Day

I was watching an Episode of Bones with my family (yeah I know - great family show, Evans) and I guess it was the proverbial "Valentines" episode that most series have in their canon.  And on the episode Bones, in her standard, factual manner stated that Valentines day is not a romantic holiday at its core.   Made us laugh it did.  Read the words of Father O'Gara of Dublin, Ireland: 

"St.Valentine was imprisoned and tortured for performing Christian marriage ceremonies against the command of Emperor Claudius.   What Valentine means to me is that there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that -- even to the point of death. 

If Valentine were here today, he would say to married couples that there comes a time where you're going to have to suffer. It's not going to be easy to maintain your commitment and your vows in marriage. Don't be surprised if the 'gushing' love that you have for someone changes to something less "gushing" but maybe much more mature. 

So on Valentines day take into context, that Love -- human love and sexuality is wonderful, and blessed by God -- but also the shadow of the cross. That's what Valentine means to me."

'Nuff Said.