Farewell ToD!

Great article on ToD's retirement over at SK.

Life with Grubby

An excellent documentary has recently been released by ESL. Chronicalling the life of famed eSports player Grubby, everything is covered: from his motivation to his love life, a must-see for all fans of Warcraft 3!

Download link here.

Ought Implies Can?!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that at 1:32, Mark Driscoll spouts a load of Palagian nonsense!

Knowing

Just got back from watching Nic Cage's latest, Knowing. Despite changing genre every 15 minutes (spot the progression from thriller to horror to bizzarre sci-fi come disaster movie), it's got some interesting ideas going on.

Replete with Biblical themes - from the final judgement by fire (from which only the called will be saved; Calvinist theologians rejoice!) - through to the Edenic tree-of-life ending, there's plenty of material for discussion.

However, it must be said that any Christian ethos is portrayed in a completely immasculated form: humanoid aliens take God's place; the climactic theophany is revealed as advanced technology rather than the personal God.

Essentially, you're getting a demythologized apocalypse (aliens are apparently more palatable than God), and while it's admirable that the writer's didn't go down the Green route of death-by-pollution (the ozone layer was only mentioned once!), Knowing is ultimately an unsatisfying way to spend 90 minutes of your life.

Grudem on Faith and Knowledge

Faith should increase as our knowledge increases. Contrary to the current secular understanding of "faith," true New Testament faith is not something that is made stronger by ignorance or by believing against the evidence. Rather, saving faith is consistent with knowledge and true understanding of the facts. Paul says, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17 NASB).

When people have true information about Christ, they are better able to put their trust in him. Moreover, the more we know about him, and about the character of God that is completely revealed in him, the more fully we are able to put our trust in him. Thus faith is not weakened by knowledge but should increase with more true knowledge. [Grudem, Wayne Systematic Theology p712

How often do we, as Christians, allow ourselves to be deceived by society's idea that our faith is merely wishful thinking! A fabricated faith is no faith at all, and is certain to bring the God to whom it purpotedly centres no glory.

Naturally Affirmative

"It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative." - John Burroughs

I couldn't disagree with John more. Surely this is the Golden Age of skepticism: at no other time in history have people been so aware that the burden of proof lies with the believer.

Transporter 3 Sucks

Seriously, the entire plot revolved around seeing how buff Jason Statham is. The action sucked, the dialogue was somehow worse, and nothing interesting happened until the end credits. Those hoping for the (ridiculous) fun of Crank will be largely dissapointed.

Jason, when will you return to your former glory?!

Year of the Orc

50% of the top 10 are Orcs at the moment :\

Still, good to see TH000 up there!

Faith and Repentance

The interaction between the two is something that I need clarification on; one friend suggested that they cannot be separated: each proves the authenticity of the other:

"Faith without repentance is no faith, repentance without faith is no repentance, we need "penitent faith" and "believing repentance."

Sounds pretty Roman Catholic to me

To know Him is to love Him

Philippians 1:9 -

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight..."

How many times do we pray, "God, make me love You/my boss/myself more"? But this is not how the process works for Paul. Love is the byproduct of knowledge; truly, to know Jesus better is to love Him more. In this life, we make the effort to get to know those we love, and the same is true for God: if we want to love Him more, we need to know Him better!

Recently, I've found Spurgeon's Morning and Evening reflections helpful in knowing God better; you can read an entire year's worth of content free here. Just remember that nothing beats the word for getting to know the Word!

Zeitgeist

Facebook ad reveals the spirit of our age:

















Make Yourself Amazing :[

The Amen

From Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, April 19th:

The word AMEN solemnly confirms that which went before; and Jesus is the great Confirmer; immutable, for ever is "the Amen" in all his promises. Sinner, I would comfort thee with this reflection. Jesus Christ said, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If you come to him, he will say "Amen" in your soul; his promise shall be true to you. He said in the days of his flesh, "The bruised reed I will not break." O thou poor, broken, bruised heart, if thou comest to him, he will say "Amen" to thee, and that shall be true in thy soul as in hundreds of cases in bygone years. Christian, is not this very comforting to thee also, that there is not a word which has gone out of the Saviour's lips which he has ever retracted? The words of Jesus shall stand when heaven and earth shall pass away. If thou gettest a hold of but half a promise, thou shalt find it true. Beware of him who is called "Clip-promise," who will destroy much of the comfort of God's word.

Jesus is Yea and Amen in all his offices. He was a Priest to pardon and cleanse once, he is Amen as Priest still. He was a King to rule and reign for his people, and to defend them with his mighty arm, he is an Amen King, the same still. He was a Prophet of old, to foretell good things to come, his lips are most sweet, and drop with honey still-he is an Amen Prophet. He is Amen as to the merit of his blood; he is Amen as to his righteousness. That sacred robe shall remain most fair and glorious when nature shall decay. He is Amen in every single title which he bears; your Husband, never seeking a divorce; your Friend, sticking closer than a brother; your Shepherd, with you in death's dark vale; your Help and your Deliverer; your Castle and your High Tower; the Horn of your strength, your confidence, your joy, your all in all, and your Yea and Amen in all.

Easter

David Field quotes Luther in his Easter post:

• "The one who wants to bring his own merits and works to bear in this situation and employ them against sin, blasphemes Christ's vicarious death and intercession ..."

How much we need to be reminded of this! Praise God that our righteousness is in Christ; may we never believe that our morality earns His favour!

What a Friend we have in Jesus

Singing this hymn today got me all choked up:

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.

Amen!!!

David Field on Esther

Just booked in on David Field's weekend teaching Esther at Oakhall this June. Should be great!

Reilly, Ace of Spies

I've enjoyed rewatching the series starring Sam Neill recently. Viewing it, you'll see why Neill was strongly considered for the role of Bond after Roger Moore got too leathery. While that mantle ultimately got passed on to Timothy Dalton (imo no bad thing), Neill would have in many respects delivered a suave, sophisticated and ultimately believable representation of 007. I can't help but wonder if Pierce Brosnan took note from Neill's portrayal of Reilly.

Excellent acting all round, beautiful theme music (Shostakovitch's Romance portion of the Gadfly suite), and a believably adapted story.

Highly recommended, you can purchase it here.

Sincere Disbelief

Amy Orr-Ewing, in her article on Sex and Marriage, offers a select quote from Aldous Huxley:

"I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently I assumed that it had none and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption.... For myself as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation ... liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.... There was one admirably simple method in our political and erotic revolt: We could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever."

We often hear that Christianity is merely wishful thinking; but, as it was for Huxley, is this more likely the underlying fabric of atheism? If you don't believe in the Personal God to whom you are accountable, search yourself to see if your skepticism is sincere!

God's Glory

Many thanks to a friend of mine for reminding me of these great truths spoken by John Piper in his book Don't Waste Your Life:

On God's love:

"For most people, love is to be made much of... we are taught that love is increasing someones self esteem. Love is making someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees. This is not what the bible means of love. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not what is best for us. It is, in fact a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savour God, and in savouring him, to be supremely satisfied and thus spread in all of the world the worth of his presence. Not to show someone the all satisfying God is not loving them."

On God's glory:

"No thing can satisfy the soul. The soul was made to stand in awe of a person- the only person worthy of awe. All heroes are shadows of Christ; we love to admire their excellence. How much more will we be satisfied by the one person who conceived all excellence and embodied all skill, all talent, all strength and all brilliance. God loves us by liberating us from the knowledge of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever. The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not moments of self satisfaction but moments of self forgetfulness. The universe is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself." (emphasis mine)

Secular humanists can put that world view in their pipes and smoke it!

You can download a free copy of the book here.

Free?

Royal Holloway Christian Union has taken part in the nationwide Free Gospel Project. The idea is to give a biography of Jesus' life to every student on campus.

Check out the training video we cooked up.

Purpose

"All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why." - James Thurber

Does Religion Cause War?

Great article from BeThinking.

Those naively concluding that a world without religion would be less violent need only look back to the 20th Century ("the bloodiest century of all") - whose conflicts revolved not around theistic, but secular doctrines. Communism/Marxism; Fascism/Nationalism killed far more than any religious conflict ever has.

The article concludes with respect to Christianity:

"The crucial point here is: What is the central message of the ideology in question? Some of our atheists who respond... seem to miss the fact that ultimately we do not follow Christians, we follow Christ. It is what he said and did that matters, as it is on Him that our faith rests. And his message was one of unqualified love, the eschewment of violence, and the centrality of forgiveness. It is Christ who defines Christianity, not those who have committed atrocities in its name.

So, does religion cause war? Sadly, it does. But does Jesus Christ, and do those who submit themselves wholeheartedly to Him and His teaching? No. He was the Prince of Peace and he remains the only hope for real peace – even, perhaps especially, in the Middle East."

Road to WCG 2009

There's no avoiding facts: the recession has hit Warcraft 3 hard. Downsizing, if not complete closure, is the order of the day.

4Kings, MYM, fnatic... these stalwarts of yesteryear are all gone; and the new formats for WC3L and NGL likely mark the end of an era for team-focused competitive WC3.

With many pessimists suggesting that the golden years of Warcraft are long gone, I'm hoping that this year's WCG bludgeons some much-needed optimism into the scene. I'm particularly looking forward to a chance for Sky to claim a third title; consider the winners so far:

2003: Insomnia
2004: Grubby
2005: Sky
2006: Sky
2007: Creo (2-1 Sky in the finals; damn metamorphosis!)
2008: Grubby (Sky didn't pass the Chinese qualifiers!)
2009: Sky??

UK qualifiers, when announced, will appear here.

Practical Programming

Following on from Starting Strength, Rippetoe's second book will nicely develop your weightlifting knowledge. While some initial space is devoted to revision of the major lifts (their proper form, pre-eminent importance etc.), the material quickly progresses onto the quirks of programming.

Anyone who's spent any time in gym knows that seemingly everyone is on a different program; often with no real idea as to why they're following their particular choice. The result is aimless training: the program is modified - and even changed altogether - every other week.

This book effectively slices through this inefficient indecision. Several chapters are devoted to the theory, methodology and finally execution of training programs for athletes of all levels.

A must for anyone ready (read: has trained regularly for 3-9 months already) to advance from the basics presented in Starting Strength.

Order yours here.

Theology of Everything

If, as Christians believe, all things "...are from him, by him, and for him," then the remainder of Romans 11:36 follows: "Glory belongs to him forever!"

In that vein, I love the heading to Theology Network's Theology of Everything:

"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

Amen!

Jim Caviezel on The Passion

At the suggestion that the film would increase anti-Semitic sentiment:

"We're all culpable for in the death of Christ. My sins put him up there. Yours did. That is what this story is about."

On playing Jesus:

"I love him more than I never knew possible. I love him more than my wife, my family. I don't want people to see me. All I want them to see is Jesus Christ."

This is my prayer for myself and you this Easter: that we would see Jesus for who he is: the crucified, risen Son of God!

Find out more.

C7!

Had a strong desire to fire up Counter Strike 1.6 for the first time in literally years today. Map of choice? cs_siege! Of all the imbalanced options (T's have a major advantage)...

Old, potent memories of day-long stints in Croydon internet cafes come flooding back: I can clearly remember my first time playing Half Life and CS on LAN back in 2001: eight years ago! The situation's pretty similar with Warcraft 3: barring brief sabbaticals during my episodic O.C.-like adolescence, it's been an ever-present distraction for the last 6 years or so.

All the kids nowadays are playing borefests like Halo and Call of Duty. I feel like an old man.

Lose 30 Pounds in 10 Seconds!

Scrap the last post; if you want to get buff, look no further than Nintendo's latest super-trendy; micro-useful accessory.

I'm sure you'll have 6-pack abs in 3 weeks.

Starting Strength

Rippetoe's codex comes highly recommended for anyone new to weight training. Don't waste your time doing a billion variations of bicep cirls in *shudder* the squat rack: keep to the 5 big basics.

This book contins everything you need to know about all the major lifts: Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Shoulder Press, and Barbell Rows. There's even a section on Power Cleans for Olympic and power athletes. Just make sure that you read him as a strength coach; not a (rather laughable) humanistic philosopher.

It can be purchased from Amazon here.

Layer Cake; The Boat That Rocked

Enjoyed watching Layer Cake again tonight; had it downloading during the day (7 hours' total!). It's hard not to envy Craig's lifestyle - the aesthetics, from his lean body, to stylized clothing and home decor - not to mention his glamorous and exciting job, are all pretty cool!

Still, it's hardly fulfilling from a Christian perspective. Why is it that these material and aesthetic elements have such high appeal? Why is it so hard to see the beauty and attractiveness of Christ?

I remember reading an interview with Daniel Craig regarding the fate of his character at the end of the film. A sequel was being discussed, and he stated that there was some ambiguity as to whether XXXX had been fatally wounded. There is no such confusion when watching, and retrospectively resurrecting characters for a sequel tends to cheapen the original (cf. Advent Children, Crank 2).

The best part of The Boat that Rocked was the music: I need to get a hold of some of that original, 60's rock and roll! Aside from the musical highlights which formed the soundtrack, the film was afflicted with pacing issues: the entire second half of vomited onwards, with weak character development (we get it; the protagonist's mother is a slut!), not to mention the feel that many of the actors are only superficially bolted on - see silent smoking guy and Rhys Darby's character

Oh, and Kenneth Branagh overacted as usual.