December 2009
48 posts
Quotes of the Day
“There shouldn’t be a white or black Christmas, only a merry Christmas for everyone, of every skin color, ethnic background and nationality.”
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“Christmas is coming. We live our lives between the first Christmas and the second. We look back to that first Christmas and the life of Jesus on the earth for some 33 years—but we look forward to the Christmas in which the...
Rolling Stone's Best Albums →
50 Things That Changed Our Lives in the 'Aughts' →
Idols Cannot Be Removed, Only Replaced
Tim Keller, in Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters:
The idol of success cannot be just expelled, it must be replaced. The human heart’s desire for a particular valuable object may be conquered, but its need to have some such object is unconquerable. How can we beat our heart’s fixation on doing ‘some great thing’...
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Quotes of the Day
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.”
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“I’ve made no secret over the last few years in preaching to you that most men are wooed and seduced into lives that don’t matter, concentrating on things that are temporary and frivolous, and so one of the reasons something like...
WatchDelayed.
Quotes of the Day
“[A] study, released today, is touted as one of the most comprehensive ever done on orphans. Orphaned and abandoned children ages 6-12 were evaluated over a three-year period in 83 institutions and 311 families in Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Kenya and Tanzania. Those in institutions had significantly better health scores, lower prevalence of recent sickness and fewer emotional...
WatchInjustice.
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters...
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Not Less, More
Tim Keller, in Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, p. 62:
There have been times when people have come to me as their pastor, and asked about “tithing,” giving away a tenth of their annual income. They notice that in the Old Testament there are many clear commands that believers should give away 10 percent. But in the New...
Best Comedies of the 2000's
Top Twenty:
Old School
Anchor Man
Superbad
Borat
Best in Show
The Hangover
School of Rock
Step Brothers
Orange County
Napoleon Dynamite
Knocked Up
Meet the Parents
High Fidelity
About a Boy
Elf
Sideways
Spanglish
Wedding Crashers
Zoolander
Role Models
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WatchCommentary:
If crappy dancing is satantic, then yes, Mick Fleetwood is a satanist.
Did you know that theft was a national epidemic? I didn’t!
Ok, why didn’t anyone tell me that Satan used to be in charge of music? Seriously, we could say that Satan was in charge of anything. How about water slides! Water slides are evil! Or chipmunks! Evil!
Satan does use the guitar to...
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May Praise be My Only Aim
“May thy approbation be my only aim, thy Word my one rule. Make me to abhor that which grieves thy Holy Spirit, to suspect consolations of a worldly nature, to shun a careless life, to reprove evil, to instruct with meekness those who oppose me, to be gentle and patient toward all men, to be not only a professor but an example of the gospel, displaying in every relation, office, and...
Best Horror Movies of the 2000's
Top Twelve:
The Descent
28 Days Later
The Ring
Drag Me to Hell
1408
Slither
Jeepers Creepers (the first 20 minutes)
Eight Legged Freaks
The Others
Shaun of the Dead
Cloverfield
The Grudge
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TV Commercials, or Whale Anatomy
“The television commercial is about products only in the sense that the story of Jonah is about the anatomy of whales. Which is to say further, it is about how one ought to live one’s life.”
-Neil Postman, in Amusing Ourselves to Death, p. 131
The Hardest Part of Taking Criticism
Keller today on the first step to taking criticism well:
First, you should look to see if there is a kernel of truth in even the most exaggerated and unfair broadsides. There is usually such a kernel when the criticism comes from friends, and there is often such truth when the disapproval comes from people who actually know you. So even if the censure is partly or even largely mistaken, look for...
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Quotes of the Day
“Path report is 2ndary at best…good report doesn’t mean much, bad report doesn’t mean anything…my days r numbered and nt by ths report.”
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“Scientists now posit through string theory the presence of multiple realms, multiple dimensions. One of the implications of the big bang is that space and time had a beginning, and that space and time are...
WatchBooks are hard.
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Luther, on the Ten Commandments as Prayer
Martin Luther, in A Simple Way to Pray:
I divide each commandment into four parts, thereby fashioning a garland of four strands.
That is, I think of each commandment as,
First, instruction, which is really what it is intended to be, and consider what the Lord God demands of me so earnestly.
Second, I turn it into a thanksgiving
Third, a confession;
and Fourth, a prayer.
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Take Me to the Cross, Leave Me There
“Convince me that I cannot be my own God, or make myself happy, nor my own Christ to restore my joy, nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me. Help me see that grace does this by providential affliction, for when my credit is good thou dost cast me lower, when riches are my idol thou dost wing them away, when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness. Take away my roving eye,...
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Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 2000's
Top Fifteen:
War of the Worlds
Wall-E
Primer
Donnie Darko
Minority Report
Children of Men
Serenity
Chronicles of Narnia
The Core
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
The Mist
Star Trek
Idiocracy
Matrix Reloaded (Fine, you can have your spot)
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One Sentence Movie Reviews
Drag Me to Hell: All the fun of Evil Dead but with a much more serious premise (though I doubt the producers know it): All of us have Satan on our heels, and without Jesus as our true sacrifice (not a kitten or a goat), we will go away from the presence of God forever.
Bottle Shock: They try to make it about the people, but this absorbing and gratifying movie is all about the wine.
Carriers: A...
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Quotes of the Day
“There is another phenomenon on webpages that seems closely akin to these direct puffs of one’s own greatness; and that is greatness by proxy. Sufferers of this syndrome develop the uncontrollable habit of continually using the language of intimate friendship about everybody who is perceived to be anybody, thereby making themselves seem to be close to the movers and shakers of the theological...
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Best Action Movies of the 2000's
Top Fifteen:
Bourne Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum
Casino Royale
Spider Man 2
Batman Begins
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gladiator
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
Pitch Black
Spider Man
Iron Man
Kill Bill 1
Hell Boy
Underworld
X2
Sorry Matrix Reloaded. The longer you sit with me, the more I dislike you.
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Quotes of the Day
“Giant pouched rats are not what spring to mind immediately when conversation turns to the global issue of unexploded landmines. However, Bart Weegens, from Belgium has found a low-technology answer to the continuing issue of unexploded mines. A childhood interest in the animals came to mind when he was musing over possible solutions and this led to an extraordinary development.
...
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Best TV Shows of the 2000's
Top Fifteen:
The Shield (FX)
The Office (BBC)
Freaks and Geeks (NBC)
Friday Night Lights (NBC)
Arrested Development (FOX)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (WB, UPN)
Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi)
The Office (NBC)
Gilmore Girls (WB)
Alias (ABC)
Breaking Bad (A&E)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
The Amazing Race (CBS)
Deadwood (HBO)
Lost (ABC)
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Fall Against Jesus
“When you take a breath and exhale in sobs, fall against the chest of Jesus. He will hold you up till you can breathe again.”
-John Piper
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Chris Brauns Interviewed on Unpacking Forgiveness
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The Swell Season: Low Rising
Brilliant.
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Bait-and-Switch Evangelism?
Greg Gilbert:
But really, that’s a terrible way to think about evangelism, and we should examine our hearts to make sure that’s not how we think about it—-or do it. Evangelism is the act of telling other people about the plight they are in and how they can be saved from it. Therefore it is an act of deep love and compassion for another person. If that’s true, then the argument...
Quotes of the Day
“Instead, she gave her own interview to the AP not long after her husband’s confession. She was a model of control, revealing just enough detail about the affair to communicate her blamelessness in the events, without ever letting her situation tip into pitiable. And, in a perky printed blouse, she stayed relentlessly on message: she was holding up her end of the deal — if her husband...
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From Hardship Comes Enlightenment
From the movie, Bottle Shock:
Jim Barrett: “Well, Sam, this is where wine is made: The Vineyard. A vineyard’s best fertilizer is the owner’s footsteps. (Picks up dirt from ground.) Alluvial, sedimentary, organic soil.”
Sam: “Dry.”
Jim: “Right. You want to limit the irrigation because it makes the vines struggle, intensifies the flavor. A comfortable...
Coming Clean
Glad you made it.
I have been on the hunt for a new blogging application for some time. I didn’t want to spend any money, but I also wanted something that would be worth the switch. Tumblr was just what I was looking for.
Why the switch?
Google’s Blogger application is lame. It is buggy, hard to manage, inelegant, and doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Tumblr, on the...
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Fishing Bloopers
“Dad Gummit!”
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Manchester Orchestra
My new blog needed some MO.
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Quotes of the Day
“I said to Antoine Winfield on the sideline, ‘I think he just broke his leg,’ Erin Henderson said. ‘That’s my blood out there. My brother.’ It took me a second, but I got it together and my brotherly instinct kicked in. “When I got out there, I just kept saying, ‘I’m right here with you, I’m here with you.’ Don’t know why I...