Luxury Equalled Idol Worship

Hosea 10:1-2 How prosperous Israel is—a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit.But the richer the people get,the more pagan altars they build.The more bountiful their harvests,the more beautiful their sacred pillars. The hearts of the people are fickle;they are guilty and must be punished.The Lord will break down their altarsand smash their sacred pillars. (NLT)

Hosea 10:2 Their heart is divided and deceitful; now shall they be found guilty and suffer punishment. The Lord will smite and break down the horns of their altars; He will destroy their idolatrous pillars.  (AMP)

Lord, this is what has happened to my country.  I am sorry that I let prosperity turn me into an idol worshipped.  The gifted Worshipping the gifts instead of the gifter.

My Top Twenty Albums of the Last 35ish Years

Okay.

So I was having some fun thinking bout some of my favourite music albums released in the last 30 years or so.  This is what I came up with.  Some of these artists you will have heard of and some you won't because I'm older.  These stick out in my consciousness like tall mountains whose peaks rise above the cloud line.

These are in no particular order so that is why they look like this.

                     White Heart-Freedom    John Williams-Superman the Movie Soundtrack
      Amy Grant-Lead Me On    Sweet Comfort Band-Perfect Timing    Steve Taylor-Meltdown
                Adele-21      Matt Maher-Alive Again      U2 The Joshua Tree
                                  Hans Zimmer-the Prince of Egypt Soundtrack
         Steve Camp-Justice    Whitney Houston-Whitney Houston    Jill Paquette-Jill Paquette
     Michael W Smith-Live the Life    Brian Doerksen-Hungry
           Passion-One Day Live      John Williams-Star Wars A New Hope Soundtrack
                    Petra-Beyond Belief      Chicago-17    Genesis-Invisible Touch  
                                         Michael W.Smith-Christmas

'Nuff Said.

MAN OF STEEL Movie Review

Superman is an ideal of hope.   An Ideal of Hope is the the name of the Man of Steel theme track by Hans Zimmer, (you can hear it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr78tn873UQ).   Hans Zimmer, who in the words of Man of Steel director Zack Snyder, "crushed it!" meaning he knocked the Man of Steel music score outta the park.  He smartly went in a completely different direction from the John Williams fanfare, and that was a good move because that is quite possibly the greatest movie theme ever composed.  The music was deep.

From the get go I was captivated by the sheer vastness of the CGI artists' imagination and the design of Krypton.  Brilliant.  The costume design and technology conceptions were fantastic.  The flying was something else.  Pretty Cool.  I do think that there should be some flying scenes that would more allow us to take in the majesty of being able to fly.  When Supes is flying over what looks to be a herd of Zebras in Africa I would have liked to take it in better.  Having said that, I get it he is flying very fast.

The Christ imagery (its fun Easter Egg hunting to spot it) was clear.  Supes is indeed the super metaphor for Christ the Savior.          

The Lessons in human arrogance and environmentalism were something we can all learn from the fabled Krypton.  The moral lessons from the Kents to their Kryptonian son were solid, as usual.   The story was very well thought out and I am glad that Chris Nolan and David Goyer were in on the story and writing.  I am certain that this movie has resurrected a Superman franchise.  We can thank the previous Dark Knight trilogy and Nolan's fresh take on superheroes for that.  Zack Snyder is clearly an artistic visionary and he was able to pull the pictures out of his head and get the CGI guys to put those pictures on the big screen.

The action was bone-crunching and, to my 45 year old sensibilities, a little too elongated.  Having said that, the action did make up for the all-too-mellow 2006 Superman Returns.  By the end of it you feel bad for Metropolis and Smallville.  They get fairly leveled.  There were poignant moments that gripped your heart as you see Superman make tough choices.      

The cast was terrific.  Henry Cavill deserves to wear the cape.  He is a great actor.  Amy Adam's Lois Lane was clever and full of life and discernment.  Russell Crowe's work as Jor-El made me wish we had a two hour prequel about Krypton to Man of Steel.  Jor-El was one kick butt and noble dad.  I can see where Supes gets it.  Kevin Costner was a great choice for Jonathan Kent and gave Clark a good man to look up to.  Diane Lane played a tough farm-girl Martha Kent, who wasn't gonna get pushed around.  I found myself wanting more of the Daily Planet Staff because Perry White, played by Laurence Fishburne, was great.  Jenny Olsen, Jimmy Olsen's female replacement had a next-to-nothin' role as an intern until she got to act in a crisis situation and did very well.  Michael Shannon was brilliant as General Zod--whadda bad guy!  Shannon can act.  

All in all I am looking forward to seeing it again.  Which means I liked it.  I give it a 9.2 outta 10.

'Nuff Said.

Movie Review-Star Trek Into Darkness

I was surprised this latest Star Trek movie didn't make more than the 84 million it did on it opening weekend.  I loved the film!  From the start the Enterprise is engulfed in J.J. Abram's frenetic, camera-shaking style of film-making and holds you in a relentless grip.  Abrams has a way of getting the viewer emotionally invested and even caring for a villain...at least one of them.  This is a spoiler free review so I will not divulge any more about that.  The film is stunning in its CGI grandeur and scope.  The special effects that are the best I 've ever seen and I loved the fact we got to see a lot more of the Enterprise and its very cool new warp effect in this second installment.

The cast is fantastic at their job of portraying the crew of the Enterprise and Benedict Cumberbatch and RoboCop, Peter Weller, make great bad guys.

I like the fact that it got a little preachy about themes such as hunting down and executing a criminal without a trial and the futility of revenge.  It would seem that the writers have a problem with America's use of drones in summary execution of American citizens who are terrorists.  The drones in this movie happen to be souped-up photon torpedos.  The lessons Kirk learned in humility and when it came to his seeking revenge resonated with me as well :  "There will always be those who mean to do us harm.  To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil within ourselves.  Our first instinct is to seek revenge when those we love are taken from us.  But that's not who we are..."

Michael Giacchino's musical score was impressive and, being a big fan of soundtracks, I even heard some John Williamseque musical notes in there.  Giacchino's music has the power to evoke the emotion in a scene in a powerful way and his musical landscapes are ever the brilliant.

The tributes to and the mentions of the Star Trek universe were great.  The movie has a lot of humorous moments that made me laugh and I love the twists on the timeless stories from Trek lore.

I give this film a 9 out of 10.

'Nuff Said.

IRON MAN THREE - My Review

So, Tony Stark....you are a character.  One of the most colorful.  Robert Downey Jr's performance in the Iron Man trilogy certainly deepened the humanity of the Superhero movie genre.  I enjoyed the mixing it up of different elements characters and plot twists in Iron Man Three.  I'm sure that Gwenyth Paltrow enjoyed the fact that Pepper Potts had more to do than sit in an office in this movie.  Guy Pierce did a good job as he always does as a villain (he was a great bad guy in The Count of Monte Cristo).

Iron man Three was well-directed and managed to make the audience hold their breath a couple of times.  The movie's sense of humor was there too to keep watchers laughing.  As Tony bares his soul (you'll have to stay til after the credits to see who he is talking to) he acknowledges that he (like us) is responsible for a lot of the mayhem in our lives.  I think that that is a good lesson for us all.  Tony tries to find a solution for the turmoil in his heart by ceaselessly tinkering with his tech - like a lot of guys I know with their stuff.  But nothing helps.  He can't sleep and no amount of tech can rewire the human heart.  I enjoyed Iron Man Three much more than two, which was entertaining, but not as beefy in plot and deep in character development.

Director Shane Black brought his A Game and I'm glad that Jon Favreau was in the movie as a character but turned the direction over to Black.  This is something Lucas should have done in Star Wars episodes II and III the way he did with Empire and Jedi.  Fresh Directing perspective is a good idea with multiple sequels.  Brian Tyler's score was great and infectious and the new Iron Man theme stuck in my head afterward--a good sign the composer did his job well.

I'd say 8 out of 10.  Nuff Said.  

"You Don't Want to Mess with an Angel"

"You Don't Want to Mess with an Angel".  That is a quote from my youngest daughter as she saw the Asian "ninja" angel take down the evil men from Sodom who were trying to keep Lot and his family from leaving Sodom.

I will tell you the things that I liked about the Bible.

There was non-cheesy and fairly solid acting. 

I appreciated the well done CGI (computer generated imagery).  The movie cleverly began with the Ark of Noah being tossed about in the violence of the Great Flood and, in the Ark, Noah trying to help his family pass the time told them and us the story of Creation and the how sin, the sad fact of humanity, had brought this disaster upon mankind.    

I was glad there were non-watered down Biblical epic battles.  This is important if we are to capture the attention of young men who need to know that there are sword fights in the Bible and that it is a book of epic-ness and that angels are tough and don't look like Roma Downey.  

I liked that we got to see Abraham kick butt when he freed Lot and that father Abraham wasn't some wimp in a robe who just sat under trees talking to God.  I liked the way that we knew that that was the pre-Incarnate Jesus Christ visiting Abe - but they kept his face out of focus to maintain the absolute coolness and mystery of a theophany.

There was moving music by legendary cinematic composer Hans Zimmer that helped establish the mood of each scene.  They managed to truncate the many Bible stories so that the story tellers could move us through hundreds of years of Biblical history in two hours without losing the substance.

There wasn't much that I didn't like about these first two episodes of The Bible.  I do wish there had been the story of Issac and Jacob and Joseph, but when you have to take people on a flash tour through the Old Testament not everybody gets their time in the spotlight.  If this had been a series instead of a mini-series I'm sure we would have been treated to those accounts as well.

To me, a guy who has seen a lot of cheesy Christian stuff in his lifetime, I was glad that Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's money was not wasted.

I look forward to next week's episode.

'Nuff said.     

The Peace of Seeing God's Salvation

We live in a world of turmoil.  We live in a time where the world is more nuts than ever.  We are surrounded by people who would sacrifice their children to the flames of selfishness and power.  We live in a time where the love of many has grown cold.  We live in a time where people would rather fight and create disturbances than to be peacemakers.  The peacemakers are few and far between.  Isaiah the prophet foretold the birth of Christ in Isaiah 9.  The times in which Isaiah lived were times of chaos and mayhem and destruction.   

But Isaiah said but in this darkness a light will shine—and the light is the coming Messiah!  One of the Names that Isaiah gave to this coming Hero was The Prince of Peace. 

We are just like the people who lived 2600 years ago when Isaiah walked the earth—and we are just like the people who lived 2000 years ago when Christ was born—we live in a world that has no peace.

No Peace in the World…if you watch the news than you know that there is never peace on this planet.  Countries that are ruled by regimes who would rather kill thousands of their own people with chemical weapons than lose their power.  You don`t get peace by watching the news…

No Peace in the Workplace…                                                                                                    There is no peace in the workplace.  Even if you have a good job there is always some kind of tension in the workplace.  You may be a peacemaker but there is someone there who is a disturber.  They can’t leave you or anyone else alone…they have to create tension. They are so full of unrest that they are going to make darn well sure that you are feeling it too…There are Gossipers, Backstabbers and cheaters.  

No Peace at School…we adults think we have it hard at work in the world.  School can be brutal.  Kids are in turmoil at home as we have a second generation of unparented parents and kids.  They are searching desperately for meaning in life and their lostness comes out in all kinds of totally sick behaviour and violence and drug use and bullying.  

No Peace at Home…and even at home which is supposed to be a place where we can go to find peace and consolation at the end of a long day—a lot of homes are worse than work and school for unrest and a constant war.  Many people would rather be at work or school than at home.  The tension doesn’t go away and the lack of peace cannot be adequately medicated with what we have…  

Enter Simeon…Luke 2:21ff

Here is a guy who has great faith that God will send a Prince of Peace.  Here is a man who lives in a time when Roman soldiers rule all around you.  They come in and at a whim steal all your money for taxes and all the food they want and even your children if they see fit.  It is a time when Simeon lives in an occupied land.  There is no peace in that situation.  He sees it all around him…turmoil with no consolation…no comfort, no solace, no relief…

Simeon was a real man who lived in a real place.  He was a man who sought after God and truth.  He loved God, he loved country.  He wanted His people to be free from sin and oppression.  If this was happening in Canada you would want it badly.
Simeon had received from God the revelation that He would see the Hero with his own eyes before he died…

So when Mary and Joseph walked into that Temple that day…it was the day when the hopes and dreams of God`s people and specifically Simeon…were met in Jesus—there before His own eyes!!!

²² When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
It is very important to dedicate children to God.  The act of dedication recognizes that God gave us our children and now we give them back to God.  It honors God.  The reason that we don’t make a sacrifice in our time the way that Joseph and Mary did, is that Jesus, when He grew up, died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins and he covers us and our children…therefore in, Jesus’ Name, we dedicate our children.  Getting our children into church right away, setting the example for them and others that we as a family belong to God, serving in the church and serving the world, all set the tone for a child’s life.  Jesus had parents who cared about what God thought.  And in his case—taking him to the temple to consecrate him to the Lord was powerfully symbolic of the fact that here was the Son of God—being given back to His Father—for Joseph and Mary knew that He was no ordinary child.
²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
    you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹     which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and the glory of your people Israel.”

³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.

1.     Those who Seek Peace will find it…

2.     Peace is only found in Christ…

3.     He will reveal the hearts of all men…

1. Those who seek peace will find it.  Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. Those who are peacemakers will be the children of God.  Those who mourn will find comfort.  I run into people who have not yet believed that Jesus is the one who is the answer to their turmoil.  But I believe they are honestly seeking.  And I know that if they keep seeking and are open to the truth that is revealed to them…even if it is a little bit at a time…I am sure…and I pray for them… that they will find it.  You have friends right now that are just waiting to hear that there is some peace and comfort in this world of chaos.  They need to meet this Prince of Peace.  They need some consolation.  They need some comfort and relief….

Jesus said, `Come to me all you are who tired out and burdened and I will give you rest.` This is why He came.  Many people will come to the Christmas Eve service this year.  Some will come and have a chance to meet this Prince of Peace ONLY if you the peacemakers, the children of God, the ones who want your friends to have make peace with God—will ask them to come with you.  Be bold…be a peace seeker like Simeon and a peacemaker between your friends and God and invite them.  They need Him.  They long for Him and they don`t even know it.  They just want sleep at night and freedom from anger and striving.  They need Jesus. 

To those who seek peace—Jesus says—You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.``  Jeremiah 29:13

2.     Peace is only found in Christ. 

You and all those you love need to realize this.  Peace is found in no one else.  In all the self help stuff that is out there it is up to you.  How can we receive strength from ourselves when in ourselves we are worried and restless?

How can we find peace in other religions that end up giving us an endless list of performance hoops to jump through and a set of regulations that rob us of simple pleasures like birthdays and Christmas and even Coffee?

Jesus said—come!  Come to me!  That was it.  Come as you are and I will give you rest.  With Him there is no exacting code!

ONLY JESUS WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO BRING PEACE

Simeon also knew that Jesus was the only One who would have the character and strength and power to defeat evil and bring peace.  A prince is one who conquers…and then there is peace. 

This Jesus would make a public spectacle of evil and bring peace.  Simeon knew that Jesus would be strong enough—the hero would win the war and bring peace.  Only Jesus Christ is strong enough to be the One who could secure peace.

There is no other option to find Peace than Him.

Johnny Cash tried absolutely everything to find peace.  He couldn`t outrun his past or deal with his future or even his own self-shattering success.  He made a mess of his life.  But in Christ He found peace. No matter what you do…Peace is only found in Him.  Even as a Christian it is possible for you to be missing peace as you live your life like a Christian atheist and you do not go to Jesus during the week to find the peace tha your soul needs.  I need it.  You need it—the tapping in to Him on a daily basis is the only way you will find peace.

Stop striving—take the pedal off the medal and remember the verse that says—in quietness you will find Peace when you still and remember that HE is God.

Jesus is God—God with skin on—He isn’t just a man like all other religious leaders.  HE is your peace.  He won’t bring you to some nebulous sentiment—when you are with Him you will find peace—HE is your peace.

David wrote these famous words—My soul finds rest in God alone.   

Many false Messiahs had come and gone—and Simeon had seen some of them…but He knew when he saw them that they were false power grabbers and hero wannabes. 

When Simeon saw Jesus with his own eyes—he had peace. 

Israel`s strength and consolation—

hope of the whole world thou art—

deep desire of every nation—

hope of every longing heart. 

He is it!  I challenge you to compare Jesus to all other options.  You will come up short as other option you explore will come up short.  You will find that He alone is the answer and the peace that this world needs.

Simeon said these words--²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
    you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹     which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

The whole world will see Christ as King—the whole world will know he is the Hope of the Earth and He is the Peace we seek.

Simeon said—I can die in peace!

Can you say that?  

There are a lot of people we know who cannot say that.  That is peace that no one can take from you—not even death.  I can die—I`m good.  There are people who literally think that Dec.21 2012 will be the end—and all they have is despair!  They could have peace like Simeon!   

3.      He will reveal the hearts of all men…

  

Simeon also spoke these MIGHTY WORDS OF TRUTH:

“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. 

Jesus is the one who always reveals what is in the hearts of men!

Jesus is presented to men—there is no avoiding Him—and when men and women are presented with Christ there is a reaction that occurs—what is in the heart of the person is revealed as they react to Him.  If they react in pride that says ^^I do not need Him^^ or if they react in Religious Pride that says ^^Yeah I got this—I got all this nailed down—I am good.^^  Or if they see Him and fall on their knees and give into the ultimate truth and they grasp Him in need and receive the Prince of Peace and in joy they find Him to be the thing they have been looking for their whole life.

People either love Him or they hate Him.  They either embrace Him or they avoid Him!  They cannot escape Him either way….He is there…he is in this worlds face…he is historical fact—History is HIS STORY!  He is the only way to peace and forgiveness and eternal life!  He is the WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE—salvation is found in no one else except—Simeon was smart and when He saw his salvation in front of Him it brought Him peace…I pray that you will be see the salvation of God and find peace today.  Today your reaction to Him will reveal your heart!

NUFF SAID.