Posts from — June 2005

The 2005 Auburn Avenue Pastor’s Conference – with NT Wright and Richard Gaffin – cassette tape recordings are on sale. $25, which includes any shipping costs.

If it weren’t for the car needing some work, I would have ordered them. Maybe somebody I know will order them, and I can borrow them.

So, it has come to the time of year where I my car needs it’s annual state inspection. It’s a 1991 Dodge Dynasty with 215000 miles on it. I am always afraid that it will be something seriously wrong with it. But, this year it needed some brake work, and I needed a new passengerside front quarterlight.

Those of you that have been around since September remembery why. I didn’t realize I needed a cover on it, so long as the light works. But, you do. So, I called several junkyards yesterday so see if I could get one. I could. I did.
The car was in the shop yesterday, and I couldn’t get over there before they closed to put the little light on, so I told them to leave it outside, I’d put it on, and they could put the inspection sticker on this morning.

Well, I went over last night to put it on… and it didn’t fit! At all! I was sold the wrong part.

I went back to the junkyard this morning, and told them about it. They went round and round looking through books and part numbers, and all that. The part is the same from 88-93, so they were confused. Until we realized that the young guy that went and got the part yesterday, took it off the wrong car! Doh! So they got me the right one, swapped it out, and now I’m happy. I just need to make sure I get to the car place before they close this evening.

This is very cool. I wish they had higher resolution images of Lynchburg and Roanoke, but it’s still pretty cool.

I found the house I lived in when I lived in Japan. And the high school I went to there. Crazy!

My birthday was last Friday. I stayed home from work that day, and spent some time with the girls. We had a party Saturday afternoon, so Megan spent much of the day Friday preparing for that. She baked three cakes… a strawberry cake with creamcheese frosting, a two layer pineapple upsidedown cake, and a three layer citrus cake. The citrus cake had a layer of orange, lime and lemon cake, with a lemon custard inbetween them, and an orange flavored frosting. They were all, of course, delicious. We also grilled some burgers and dogs, and had other picnicy type foods. We had 51 guests at our party. It was hoppin’.

Megan got me some nice running shoes, to help me with my regimen. They were actually too small, so we went back and got some others. For the first time in my life I got size 14 shoes. I have stepped into the land of Big & Tall. I noticed later that they’re actually the same design as Megan’s shoes, only different colors. “No wonder I liked them so much”, she said. Pretty funny.

She also got me Glen Phillips new cd, which I am enjoying, and Primer, which I have enjoyed, continue to enjoy, and can now push off on unsuspecting friends to enjoy.

With my Citibank Diamond Preferred Rewards card, I earned enough points to get a $100 giftcard. I just ordered one for Land’s End, so that Megan can get some clothes for herself. And maybe the girls, if they have any good deals.
I actually have enough points for another $100 giftcard some place… but haven’t decided where to use it. We’ll see if my ladies get enough clothes from this deal.
Anyhow… pretty cool. I buy lots of gas. I get free gift cards.

We watched Saved! last week… I don’t remember when it was. Thursday or Friday… I don’t remember.

Anyhow… I knew it was an anti-christian film and a preachy one at that, but I was curious about it. And, since the library had it, and I didn’t have to pay to watch it, I figured I’d check it out.

It’s about students at a Christian high school. Much of it is mockery of typical evangelicalism in the U.S. It was, of course, an exageration, but it made that point well…. that much of evangelical culture is pietistic, insincere, and… well, stupid. I laughed at several of these moments.

However, the film was all about pushing tolerance. The gay guy, and the unbelievers… they should all be accepted for who they are, because, hey, ‘it’s all too much to live up to.’

In the end, I felt like the whole movie was fake. It was very artificial… just a setup to push the agenda. It never felt real. Other movies are written just to carry a message, but they don’t feel like it. Those story can feel real. The story carries the message. But with Saved!, it was all canned.

Just curious, but when someone says “may God have mercy on your soul”, does it imply anything?

If someone says it to you, is it safe to assume that they think you’re on your way to hell?

I just purchased and downloaded the latest White Horse Inn… about Harry Potter… and discovered that it’s actually an interivew with John Granger, author of Finding God in Harry Potter and The Hidden Key to Harry Potter.

Cool.

This anecdote from Gaines is funny…

1. My sister was telling me about her co-worker who loves the Dave Matthews Band. Additionally, the co-worker has recently become a mom, so she decided to get a vanity plate that combines the two: DMB MOM

Unfortunately, many people misinterpret it as “Dumb Mom.” D’oh!

We watched The Empire Strikes Back dvd this past weekend. There were two changes that I recall… one rather major, another rather minor, but inciting major chagrin.

The first is the discussion between Vader and the Emperor. First, they replaced the image of the Emperor with Ian McDiarmid. That’s a change I can live with. No damage done, and the old one did look pretty stupid.
They also changed the dialogue. They made it explicit that Luke was the ‘seed fo Skywalker’. Of course, that seems pretty obvious, but, whatever. They also made Vader seem like he was surprised by this, though. I guess it doesn’t contradict anything… but I would have thought Vader could tell on his own. Especially since he had his whole plot to have Luke join him and take the Emperor out. So that was a bit weird.

The other change was the redubbing of Boba Fett’s voice. ANNOYING. They (I keep saying “they”, but really I should probably be saying “he”, referring to Lucas) had Temuera Morrison speak Boba Fett’s lines. That’d be okay, but the delivery was completely changed. If Boba Fett had spoken the way he does in the dvd edition, I am convinced that he would never have taken off as the cult figure he is. It’s way too pansy.

Did I miss any other changes?

Andrew Peterson is releasing his new cd, The Far Country, on Auguest 30th. Be sure to get a copy!

Andrew is my favorite musician presently. He’s a singer/songwriter type of guy, with beautiful melodies and lyrics that are out of this world. Truly, he is a great lyricist. He’s an independent musician. His art is good and beautiful and true, and is the kind of art that Christians need to be making…. and supporting.

I listened to the White Horse Inn this morning on my drive. It was worth listening to, but not as good as the St. Anne’s Pub dialogue between Horton and Wilson. This one was much more like an interview than a discussion, with Wilson doing most of the talking.

I was encouraged that Horton said he didn’t considter the FV guys heretics, just severely misguided and confused. Horton, and the others, seemed to be charitable in their dealings. They were blunt and to the point, but never invective or rude.

I was disappointed that one of their conclusions was you need to go to a reformed seminary to be a good pastor. They also said you have to join an established reformed denomination. I wonder, though, what they think of Machen?

I was especially bothered by their insinuation that Doug Wilson created the CREC, wrote his own personal statement of faith (rather than affirming Westminster or the three forms of unity), and other things. The suggestion was that he was avoiding having to be held accountable to anyone. I thought that was rather unfair of them.

As for the theological issues, they focused primarily on justification, and specifically imputation in regard to justification. Wilson affirmed it, and defended other FV folk that do not use the language, but affirm the contents of the doctrine. During the 10 minute commentary after the interview, the WHI crew basically said that imputation is Scriptural language, and to deny it is only to cause loads of confusion. Perhaps they’re right.

I don’t think it was nearly enough time devoted to discussion… they couldn’t really explain anything they said, so it was mostly first impressions and assertions. It would have been nice to have another show devoted to discussing the issues. Or, even better, to have another show where Wilson and Horton dialogue further. But, I can see the problems with doing that type of thing in public, as well.