Minecraft!

Minecraft Lego set at Pax Prime 2012

Cyndi got me minecraft for my birthday.  Not the lego version (above) but the PC version.  I’m excited!

Postmodern Sign

Funny sign

This is a very post-modern sign.  No posting of signs….except this one to say no posting of signs, of course.

Thoughts on Machine Gun Preacher film

Machine Gun Preacher

Last night, Cyndi and I watched the Machine Gun Preacher movie based on the life of Sam Childers.  Before I go on, I want to say three things:

  1. To say this movie is violent is the understatement of the year.  It is way way violent.  The first 30-45 min of the movie deal with Childers’ life before he “found Jesus” (a quote from the movie).  After he’s release from jail, he finds out that his wife isn’t stripping and “found Jesus” (how her character puts it).  He then meets up with an old buddy and they go on a drug and alcohol fueled rampage.
  2. What I’ve got to say in this post is purely based on the film.  I know that real life doesn’t line up with films and that some people have issues with the real life Sam Childers.  I don’t know any of that; however, it doesn’t matter with what I’m going to say.
  3. I have no clue if Sam is a Christian or not.  Based on the film, something caused a dramatic life change.  For the sake of what I’m going to say, I’ll assume he was saved.

Ok, now that those things are out of the way, I think his story outlines a major problem with Christianity:  the social gospel.  Why?  When people start advocating a social gospel, they begin dealing more with immediate problems–homelessness, starvation, war, and the like–and quit focusing on the REAL problem in the world–sin and God’s judgement.  For those who haven’t seen the film, here is a quick overview:

Sam is in jail for something.  He gets out.
He goes on a rampage and even murders a guy (although it gets revealed later the guy lived)
In his rampage, he also does drugs, robs people, etc….
He gets saved, changes his life, and has a real job
he goes to Africia
He sees how the war in Sudan is affecting kids.  It hits him really hard.
Back in the states he figures out how to go back and build an orphanage (and a church)
He does that
While in Africa, he gets violent and begins executing “the bad guys”
He does seem to turn from that a bit at the end

Right.  So here’s what I mean by him going to the social gospel:   he comes to believe that the real problem is the “bad guys” doing “bad things” to these kids and their families.  He goes on to fight that problem with guns.  In reality, the real root cause of the problems is sin.  Man’s rebellion against God makes all of creation groan and be really really messed up.  Yes, he needs to protect himself and his property (I don’t care about his use of deadly force to do that) but to go out and execute judgement on people by outright killing them isn’t.  He doesn’t try to convert people.  He doesn’t struggle for the Gospel (and if he did, his actions aren’t that of Jesus and I doubt if people would believe him).

This is the problem that affects most of American Christianity.  People see a problem (homelessness, poverty, lack of clean water, etc…) and begin to work to fix that.  That work is good (it really is…there are real problems that need fixed).  However, people loose sight that the real problem is Sin and focus on whatever their crusade is.  The people they are helping may or may not get help, but they never hear the Gospel so they die in their sin.

What’s the solution?  Obviously, people need to work to help those in need (Christians are commanded to do that).  BUT, we cannot loose sight of the fact that EVERYONE in the world has a SIN problem and 100% of those people will die and suffer God’s wrath.  There is a balance that must be struck.

Oh, the image is a movie poster I found using google images.  I’ll credit the studio and movie people for it…..

Coffee

Fancy a cuppa?

I get teased some quite a lot unmercilessly about the amount of coffee I drink.  It is unwarranted.  Now, I don’t drink that much.  2 cups in the morning (normal mug sized) and 1 or 2 travel mug sized cups once I get to work.  That is it, except for the odd time Cyndi and I go out for coffee.  That isn’t that much, IMHO.  Especially because it is filter coffee.

In Serbia, it was another story.  I would drink 1 liter of Serb coffee in the morning.  Then go out for 2-4 more coffees during the day (or have some at home).  

Image from h is for home via flickr

Google Chrome “Other Devices” feature

I’ve been using Google Chrome ever since I got my Nexus S last year.  A week or so, I noticed a feature I’d never noticed before:  the other devices option.  Here’s a screen shot:

20120920_ChromeScreenShot

I’d never used it before; however, today I had a reason to.  I had been doing some research using my Mac; however, I wanted to look at the site this morning on my Windows 7 box.  Instead of having to logon to my Mac, I just opened up chrome, selected other devices, picked my mac, and the website.  Very nice.

Water on Leaves

I took this picture a few days ago.  I was leaving work in the afternoon when I noticed the water droplets on this plant.

Water drops

Water on Leaves

I took this picture a few days ago.  I was leaving work in the afternoon when I noticed the water droplets on this plant.

Water drops

Today….

Scale-A-Week:  25 November 2010

….I have now lost all the weight I gained while Cyndi and I were in the US last summer.  I know, it took a year, but 1/2 of it came in the last 3 weeks (since I returned from Switzerland).

My goal over the next year is to loose a grand total of 50 lbs.  I’m already down 5 kg from when I started that goal.

Image from pukibeach via flickr

Cops and Guns

Cop.Hand.Crow.BashIII.WDC.24may97

Yesterday in the UK 2 police officers were shot dead while trying to arrest some dirtbag.  This has caused a furor over whether police should or shouldn’t be armed.  I don’t get it.

Society asks police officers to go into dangerous situations and deal with the scum of society, at times.  Sure, most of the time people are nice and cooperate; however, they still are criminals.  Criminals break the law.  If I were a cop, I would want to be able to protect myself from these dirtbags.  As a member of society, I think we should allow police to protect themselves.

Image from elvert james via flickr

What Language To Learn?

Lost In Translation

I’ll put it simply:  I think that learning a foreign language if you are going to stay in the US is worthless.  What’s the point?  You can travel thousands of miles in any direction and run into only native English speakers.  What benefit does learning a language provide?  Except for people who have a reason (translators, etc…) I would say there is none.

Now, things change if you move or travel to another country.  When we moved to Serbia, all business with the government had to be conducted in Serbian (perhaps our government could take note).  Most people around us spoke no English so to just live, we had to learn Serbian.

But say you want to learn a language.  As a native English speaker, which language do you pick?  I’ve been thinking about learning another language living in Europe to help ease my pains as I travel.  Which to pick though–I thought I had written about this before, but I can’t find anything on my site…guess not…arg, I can’t even find the article I remember reading.

Anyway, which to pick?  This morning, the Telegraph had the top 10 (for the UK).  Here is the article (a slideshow really) and here is the list:

10. Portugese
9. Japanese
8. Russian
7. Cantonese
6. Arabic
5. Polish
4. Mandarin
3. Spanish
2. French
1. German 

For me, Spanish in high school took the desire for it away.  I’d only learn French if I were to live there.  I had seriously considered Russian (somewhat good in Eastern Europe…although Serbian has allowed me to get by as much as I think Russian would) and German.  Glad to see German was at the top.

Image from tochis via flickr