Currently Watching The Dark Knight [Theatrical Release] By Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman see related

This marks the first time I have ever gotten out of seeing a movie at the theater and immediately wanting to stay in my seat and watch it all over again right then and there.  It was phenomenal. 

slices

At an ape research center in Iowa, primates are being taught to understand English through the use of symbols and button-pressing. Scientists are marveling at the breakthrough, but we've seen how this ends, and it's not pretty ...5/31/07 | 8:27 AM

Currently Reading Half-Life Die Already: How I Died and Lived to Tell about It By Mark Steele see related

Moshi moshi!

so it's been a long break, but it's blog time.

except as i type this sentence, i am completely forgetting everything it was that i was going to write about. 

hmmm...wait, oh yeah....no, nevermind..

umm...how bout them cubbies? 

ok, i'll come back when i remember what i was going to talk about. 

worst...blog....ever.

a short essay from Matt Schantz

If we're talking about drinking water, we want it absolutely pure. We'll spend a couple of bucks for a small bottle. (Who knew you could bottle water and people would actually buy it?)

But what about moral purity? For many Christians today, that idea is outdated and unimportant. But why do we treat our eternal souls with less care than our very temporary bodies? Please don't turn the page just yet.

We have come out of an era of intense legalism in Bible-believing churches in America. A half-century ago there was regular preaching against smoking, drinking, dancing, cussing, and other dastardly deeds.

Back in those days, church leaders narrowly defined morality for all, and demanded conformity. There was a clear checklist of what it meant to be a "good Christian." Thankfully that era is gone, at least for now. Legalism leads to spiritual death. It reduces discipleship to a list of do's and don'ts that are easily achievable and ignores the weightier matters like justice and mercy. The external standards can be achieved without a change of heart or real faith for that matter. It makes slaves of its adherents, inevitably produces self-righteousness, and ultimately turns others away from God. Paul called it "another gospel," and severely condemned it.

But when legalism is thrown off, another equally destructive demon can come to fill its place. Scripture calls it lawlessness or "license."

What it means is this: each person sets the rules for himself--and there aren't (m)any. The main theme is, "Nobody is going to tell me what to do." It's about personal freedom to indulge desires without interference from anyone--even God.

This is not a new problem. Jude put it like this in the first century: "For certain men...have secretly slipped among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord" (Jude 1:4, NIV).

Today it plays out like this. when some topic of morality or social practice comes up among Christians, the first reaction is, "We don't want to be legalistic." End of discussion.

So we're definitely not legalistic, but we're often not very holy either. The result has been documented by George Barna's research--there is no discernable difference in the lifestyles of Christians and non-Christians today. None, zilch, nada. Even our divorce rate measures up.

The Deceiver has a slick plan. He convinces us that holiness is sterile and out of touch. In reality, holiness is wholeness. It is emotional health. The Devil wants us to believe ideas of personal righteousness are outdated--that we've moved past that. If that's true, are we moving the right direction?

And so we become very casual about alcohol and language and entertainment. Is it really good that profanity and sex in movies doesn't even faze us? Jesus never isolated Himself from those with immoral lifestyles, but He was pure, and totally good.

The Devil also distorts God's most wonderful gift of grace. He convinces us that we're under grace so we don't need to be concerned with sin. That must grieve God. Grace is what we need when we violate the Law of God. That's why grace is so important, why it cost God so much, and why we want to take it seriously, not lightly. (Romans 6:1-4).

The Christian walk of purity has two ditches running along either side. Legalism on the one side and License on the other. Wander too close to either shoulder and you will likely end up in deep weeds. Legalism will steal your joy, License will eventually rob your faith. As a church, let's avoid either extreme and follow the narrow way, that leads to life.

I'll conclude with the words of the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:8,9 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure...think about such things."

Credit where credit is due: Many thanks to a good friend of mine named Dick Alexander. In this note, I drew heavily from his ideas written in his March 21, 2006 edition of the Connection.

Off we go together,

Matt Schantz

Campus Minister

Currently Watching Magnum, P.I. [Region 2] see related

My grandparents stopped in this weekend on their way back to Tennessee from Minnesota. 

My grandma brought me an accordion. 

I'm really excited to mess around with it and learn some songs....I'll probably stay away from the polka though, and instead try to incorporate it into some rock songs to play along to.  Could sound pretty cool.   

Oh, and to further my ongoing discussion with basically myself and the uncanny resemblance of the Red Baron to Tom Selleck, I suggest to Schwan's Consumer Brands, maker of the delectable Red Baron pizza, the following marketing strategy:

Make limited edition Magnum P.I. pizzas. 

There couldn't be a more perfect merger:  bringing together one of the country's leading frozen pizza brands with one of the country's greatest tv shows of the 1980's.  The frozen pizza could be dressed in a collectible Hawaiian shirt and have a thick line of mustache hair right across it.  The mustache hair would be fake of course, but would have to do justice to Tom Selleck/Red Baron's incredible trademark and look fairly authentic.  And I guess it could even have ham and pineapple toppings to go with the theme.  Mmmm mmmm.  Never before has action-packed 80's sitcoms tasted so good.

Bring home the Magnum P.I.