One time as I was randomly using gmail- yay gmail!- A link to "Expelled- No Intelligence Allowed" popped up in one of the text based adds on the right that is context sensitive to what words you are typing. It's the coolest advertising thing I have seen thus far (coordinating adds with key words being typed), but that's all besides the point. On with the trailer!
Super Trailer
So...I'm really excited, as a Christian, a follower of Christ and a possible future scientist to see this movie. I hope that it won't be an overly limited release.
I also think it is funny that there is a "Ben Stein for president 2008" thing on the bottom, but to me that has nothing to do with the movie.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sweat The Small Stuff
So here I am again, bent out of shape over the most stupid things. It really is quite ridiculous, how I give the enemy a foothold in the most infinitesimal, dumb things. Forgetting tax letters at home. The Patriots winning. Botched chords. Not hitting a note. Having to spontaneously do weird strum patterns on stage that were not at all done during practice. Spilled drinks. Stupid people. The way people drive. My binder of worship music magically disappearing into thin air. The devil seems to get a rise out of me every time. The Pointless Rage Parade is back in town, and I'm the first chump in line waving a baton (or maybe smashing it on the ground in frustration because I can't twirl it the way I would like :D).
I can't imagine what it must be like to be God having to deal with me all of the time. I might have the appearance of a mature or thoughtful person on the outside, and to a degree it is true. The problem is a lot of times the thoughts that breed in my head like so many wicked rabbits are ones of irritation and anger, not thoughts that are beneficial. I am so easily duped into getting angry at the most stupid of things. It really is quite pathetic, and I am having a lower and lower tolerance for this mental behavior in myself. I am sick and tired about being angry over dumb stuff, and angry over things that are not in my control. The Bible says do not worry- I don't worry. I just get mad. The only thing that I hate just as much or more than somebody being worried all of the time (get a grip!) is somebody being angry all the time (get a sense of perspective!). Both are a common experience with my family, and it really rubs off on me sometimes. Some would call what I'm doing self-deprecation. Well, there's some things about me that should be "deprecated." Starting with my ridiculously irritable mind. This anger is satanic, and when I deprecate it I'm deprecating satan and his foothold in my heart in the name of Jesus Christ. I indulge his urgings and respond to his prodding far too often.
I need to find a way to crush this under my heel once and for all, because as a follower of Christ this petty anger is beneath me. Some things I have had a permanent victory over in the name of Christ Jesus. Unrighteous anger is the next thing to go, I am really sick of it wasting my time and energy both acting it out and being impotently angry at it.
The problem is that some things that I am angry about are legitimate. Sometimes, anger is a legitimate feeling. God gets angry all of the time. The problem is that I don't know what to do with that anger. I get angry at injustice, and 10 times out of 10 the injustice is completely out of my hands. I get angry at lies, at disrespect, at many truly wrong things, but they are out of my hands. What am I supposed to do with this righteous anger? Ultimately, all it turns into is frustration because unlike God I do not have the capacity for infinite patience or grace, nor do I have the power to call down the thunder on people (metaphorically speaking, though sometimes I wish for that power, too). This frustration quickly degrades into impotent rage. Again, this is all "upstairs"- it is not a public anger that is ever acted upon.
However, there is power in the mind, and the mind matters greatly to the Lord. If that were not so, then lust in the heart would not be the same as adultery, and we could engage in all of the disgusting fantasies we wished without consequence to our souls. If bloody thoughts and hateful catechisms were not tantamount to murder, then no desire born out of seething rage would be too extreme. But these things are equal in God's sight, and are no different than the physical acts, except perhaps in the consequences.
What good is controlling my physical self in this world when I still defeat myself and allow the enemy to control me within? Change must occur from the inside out. James writes that the tongue, like the rudder of a ship steers the body; but the mind steers the tongue. The eyes are the window to the soul, and behind these panes a fire rages unchecked spreading from room to room, its tongues of flame licking greedily at everything God has built up in me. Unchecked, it will leave me a burnt out husk, a hollow man. Satan loves hollow people; there's plenty of room for him to move in when God's presence isn't there. The world is full of hollow people who have allowed themselves to be burned out from the inside, and have let all kinds of things haunt the ruins of their souls. I know a few of them.
It must be stopped, and God is the only one who can stop it. He is the only one with the living waters to quench the fire.
"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death!? Thanks be to God- through Christ Jesus our Lord!" Romans 7:24-25
I can't imagine what it must be like to be God having to deal with me all of the time. I might have the appearance of a mature or thoughtful person on the outside, and to a degree it is true. The problem is a lot of times the thoughts that breed in my head like so many wicked rabbits are ones of irritation and anger, not thoughts that are beneficial. I am so easily duped into getting angry at the most stupid of things. It really is quite pathetic, and I am having a lower and lower tolerance for this mental behavior in myself. I am sick and tired about being angry over dumb stuff, and angry over things that are not in my control. The Bible says do not worry- I don't worry. I just get mad. The only thing that I hate just as much or more than somebody being worried all of the time (get a grip!) is somebody being angry all the time (get a sense of perspective!). Both are a common experience with my family, and it really rubs off on me sometimes. Some would call what I'm doing self-deprecation. Well, there's some things about me that should be "deprecated." Starting with my ridiculously irritable mind. This anger is satanic, and when I deprecate it I'm deprecating satan and his foothold in my heart in the name of Jesus Christ. I indulge his urgings and respond to his prodding far too often.
I need to find a way to crush this under my heel once and for all, because as a follower of Christ this petty anger is beneath me. Some things I have had a permanent victory over in the name of Christ Jesus. Unrighteous anger is the next thing to go, I am really sick of it wasting my time and energy both acting it out and being impotently angry at it.
The problem is that some things that I am angry about are legitimate. Sometimes, anger is a legitimate feeling. God gets angry all of the time. The problem is that I don't know what to do with that anger. I get angry at injustice, and 10 times out of 10 the injustice is completely out of my hands. I get angry at lies, at disrespect, at many truly wrong things, but they are out of my hands. What am I supposed to do with this righteous anger? Ultimately, all it turns into is frustration because unlike God I do not have the capacity for infinite patience or grace, nor do I have the power to call down the thunder on people (metaphorically speaking, though sometimes I wish for that power, too). This frustration quickly degrades into impotent rage. Again, this is all "upstairs"- it is not a public anger that is ever acted upon.
However, there is power in the mind, and the mind matters greatly to the Lord. If that were not so, then lust in the heart would not be the same as adultery, and we could engage in all of the disgusting fantasies we wished without consequence to our souls. If bloody thoughts and hateful catechisms were not tantamount to murder, then no desire born out of seething rage would be too extreme. But these things are equal in God's sight, and are no different than the physical acts, except perhaps in the consequences.
What good is controlling my physical self in this world when I still defeat myself and allow the enemy to control me within? Change must occur from the inside out. James writes that the tongue, like the rudder of a ship steers the body; but the mind steers the tongue. The eyes are the window to the soul, and behind these panes a fire rages unchecked spreading from room to room, its tongues of flame licking greedily at everything God has built up in me. Unchecked, it will leave me a burnt out husk, a hollow man. Satan loves hollow people; there's plenty of room for him to move in when God's presence isn't there. The world is full of hollow people who have allowed themselves to be burned out from the inside, and have let all kinds of things haunt the ruins of their souls. I know a few of them.
It must be stopped, and God is the only one who can stop it. He is the only one with the living waters to quench the fire.
"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death!? Thanks be to God- through Christ Jesus our Lord!" Romans 7:24-25
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