Reformed Theology, Art History, Batman Comics, Deep Sea Fishing, Snowboarding, Skiing, Rock Dodging, Realestate Investment, Jimmy Stewart & Katherine Hepburn & Audrey Hepburn & Cary Grant Movies, IFC movies, The Cure.
Music
Too much to list specifically but my all time favorite every mood under the sun (often in the same album) band is Robert Smith(y)'s The Cure. Even if the boys from SouthPark claim "Disintegration" is the greatest album in human history, my favorite is still "The Head on the Door"
Generally:
Indie Rock, 80's New Wave, Post Punk Alternative Rock, Classical, Irish Folk (don't know why I like it!), Blues, Jazz, Big Band, Cheesy Christian Rock, Opera, Almost anything on "Morning Becomes Ecclectic", and anything under the BADMAN recording Label.
Songs I Like Lately:
Jose Gonzalez - "Heartbeats"
Derek Webb - "New Law"
Pedro the Lion - "Big Trucks"
Kyle Andrews - "Moon Tea"
Thom Yorke - "the Eraser"
Zero7 - "Destiny"
Nada Surf - "Always Love"
Call Down Fire - "Light Breaks"
The Cure - "Labyrinth"
ME - "Predestination Song"
Movies
It's A Wonderful Life, Braveheart, Chariots of Fire, To End All Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Shadowlands, Rear Window, Vertigo, Bringing Up Baby, The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, A River Runs Through It, Made for Each Other, Roman Holiday, Napoleon Dynamite, Monty Python's and the Holy Grail, The Sound of Music, Dumb & Dumber, Anne of Green Gables, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Philadelphia Story, The Matrix, Dogville, Seven, The Untouchables, American President, Tombstone, Raising Arizona, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, You've Got Mail, Familyman, High Fidelity, Parent Trap (either/both), The Star Wars Triology (Episode 4-6), The Mission, Slingblade, and Repo-Man.
Television
CBS Sunday Morning, The Office, LOST, This American Life, The Daily Show, In A Fix, House Hunters, Flip That House, The New Adventures of Batman & Robin, Batman - The Animated Series,Dexter, Big Love, Entourage, Weeds, Gilmore Girls (it depicts Korean-American religious legalism), Battle of the Planets, Ultraman, Johny Sako & His Flying Robot,Tom & Jerry(Fred Quimby era, not Chuck Jones), Captain Kangeroo. (His show taught me how to draw at age 3).....I really need to shorten this list! Thankfully 1/2 of these no longer air.
Books
Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Biblical Theology - Vos, Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation - Vos, Kingdom Prologue - Kline, The Unfolding Mystery - Clowney, The Reformed Pastor - Baxter, Systematic Theology - Berkhof, Crime & Punishment - Dostoevsky, The Book of DunCow - Wangerin, Return of the Dark Knight - Miller, The Giving Tree - Sheldon.
Books I've Read (or currently reading)
Recently:
"God, Heaven, and Har Magedon: A Covenantal Tale of Cosmos & Telos" - Meredith G. Kline
"Dynamics of Spiritual Renewal: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal" - Dr. Richard F. Lovelace
"Gereformeerde Dogmatiek [1] (3 of 4 vols, the last edition in process of translation from the Dutch)" - Dr. Herman Bavinck
"Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands" & "How People Change" by Paul Tripp
"Radical Reformissionary" - Mark Driscoll
"The Devil in the White City" - Eric Larson
"Preaching the Gospel in a Post-Modern World"(RTS D.Min curriculum) - Dr. Timothy J. Keller
"Covenant & Eschatology" - Michael S. Horton
"New Perspective Committee Report" - Mississippi Valley Presbytery (PCA) Feb 1, 2005
"Redeemer Church Planter's Manual" - Dr. Timothy J. Keller
"Jonthan Edwards: A Life" - George M. Marsden
"Outgrowing the Ingrown Church" - C. John Miller
Anything by Leslie Newbigin
Books I wish to (re)read someday:
"Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West" by Lamin Sanneh (African Scholar at Yale)
"Confessions of a Reformissionary" - Mark Driscoll
"PENSÉES(Thoughts)" - Blaise Pascal
"The City of God" - St. Augustine
"Kingdom Prologue" (again for the umpteenth time) - Meredith G. Kline
"A Tale of Two Cities" - Charles Dickens
"Gereformeerde Dogmatiek [1] (4 vols, many editions in Dutch, now being translated into English as Reformed Dogmatics)" - Dr. Herman Bavinck
"Super System 2:A Course in Power Poker" - Doyle Brunson (no I don't gamble for real $ so shut up!)
Heroes
John Calvin, Martin Luther, Geerhardus Vos, Charles H. Spurgeon, Jean D'Albret, Merrideth G. Kline, Edmund Clowney, J. Gresham Machen, George Whitefield, Corneilus Van Til, John Knox, C.S.Lewis, Tim Keller, Eric Liddel, My Grandma, most of all
MY AWESOME LOVELY WIFE! (The Proverbs 31 woman I've always dreamed about, prayed for, but never deserved)
"Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."
- Proverbs 31:29
About me: My life is about two great loves, of Beauty and Meaning. I pursued my Bachelor of Fine Arts at the #1 Art School in the nation, and my Masters of Divinity from the most Academic Reformed Theological Seminary in the world. For me the two are really inseparable, each finds its fullest expression in the other. Art is the expression of a culture’s search for meaning, and Theology is a given culture’s expression of timeless truths. Sound theology has the power to transform a culture, the way the 16th c. Reformation was followed by a flourishing of the Arts, because it leads us to a redeeming Creator God who made us to reflect and create in His image by enjoying Him by doing all things to His glory. Bad theology (religious or secular) leads to a stifling of creativity, the way totalitarian Governments lean towards “culture cleansings” (Mao’s Cultural revolution, the Taliban mortaring of Sandstone Buddha’s, the Temple burnings in Korea during the Japanese Invasion) or the way Fundamentalism led to the production of Precious moments figurines, Thomas Kinkaid paintings, the Warner Sallman Jesus paintings of the 1940’s, or the movie The Passion of the Christ.
Although Art school led me to become a great artist (Upon graduation I was awarded the school’s highest honor for my department), studying “divinity” in seminary didn’t make me a religious or good person, quite the opposite. Before seminary I didn’t smoke (except a pipe), never drank, and never swore. Now I cuss occasionally and don’t judge other Christians who do, I learned to drink from my Professors and dead theologians, and still smoke my pipe. The point of art school is to teach you to appreciate beauty and to become a more skilled artist. Yet the point of any good theological academy is not to get you to become more religious, to become a nicer person or even try to be, that after all is a dead end. Contrary to the pervasive American Myth, in the heart of every man there does not exists a soft creamy Twinkie center of goodness and humanity, there is nothing but black rot and festering decay in every soul. Sarah McLachlin must not have any children, otherwise she’d know that no one is born innocent, certainly not me. No one becomes an angel, although many of us (even the most righteous among us) come awful close to becoming demons (“get thee behind me Satan” Jesus said to St. Peter). I don’t believe the bible was written to make our marriages better, to help us balance our finances, to make God into a genie in the sky (Prayer of Jabez), to give us an escape plan (Left Behind series), to give us a purpose driven life, or to teach us to have a good self image…quit the opposite. The law wasn’t given for us to follow like good little Sunday school kids; it’s given to kill us from all the legalism and self righteous delusions we hold on to so dearly (this includes all you “Truly Reformed” modern day Pharisees). It was given to show us we have no merit, we deserve no chance, and that we are our father’s (Adam) sons and our mother’s (Eve) daughters. When a Right-wing Conservative Fundamentalist religious man came up to Jesus and asked Him “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good
except God alone.” God gave us the law so that we might give up trying to be our own saviors, and flee with all our might to the open arms of Jesus. He lived the life I should have but never could live, He also died the death that I deserved, so that by faith I might receive an eternal inheritance I could never have deserved. So I don’t try to follow God’s rules to become a good person, Jesus came down and did it for me, the life I live now is how I show Him my gratitude. So every month I try to paint, and to preach to both PhD’s and homeless men (occasionally to PhD’s who are homeless!). Everyday I laugh with my wife, WWF wrestle with my son, and dance with my daughter (Dad likes to move it! Move it! too). And as often as I can I drink dark beer, smoke smooth Pipe tobacco, and go deep sea fishing, all to God’s glory. God is good!
“"Sound Doctrine, makes a sound judgment, a sound heart, a sound life, and a sound conscience - and if it was otherwise then either the doctrine was not sound or it was not soundly understood." - Richard Baxter (Puritan author of The Reformed Pastor)
Does this church look familiar to you? There's one in every town
Who I'd like to meet: John Calvin, Geerhardus Vos, Martin Luther, Robert Smith, John Murry, Corneilius Van Til, Merideth G. Kline (did), C.S.Lewis, Paul Cezanne, Jimmy Stewart (did), Audrey Hepburn, Carol Lombard, Leonard Anderson (did), Odd Nerdrum, John Currin, Edmund Clowney(did), Tim Keller, RC Sproul(did).
An SNL sketch with something that would make a Calvinist laugh towards the end. My kids are addicted to Dora, this makes me laugh.
I think I'm in love with this IRONMAN trailer!
This story is heating up by the hour! MSNBC ran a segment on the story today and now information is beginning to leak from a private meeting of very influential Republicans confirming the rumors of a Condoleezza Rice Vice Presidency! Sources reveal that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made here desire to be considered on the next Republican ticket known in influential circles. Click the above picture or visit our blog section to read an article by C. Jerome Ruth!
Many believe the democrats have an aesthetic advantage this election cycle because of the diversity of their candidates, the Iraq war, and the economy. However, you may be surprised by the argument outlined in this article that suggest contrary to popular belief, the Republicans have the advantage! Visit our blog to read and comment on this article.
I saw Horton when the URC in DC was trying to promote their church through White Horse Inn. It was a pretty good discussion, but that was the only way they had close to 100 people show up, now their worship has about 35. I think most the people who showed up were there for Ken Jones.
It's funny when John and I suggested having small groups scattered around the DC area and the URC say they don't like that because it takes away from "Word and Sacrament” Well, doesn't radio shows like the White Horse Inn do the same? I think this Sunday was our last at the URC. Usually John and I can approach our Pastors and have LONG talks, but this guy is so hard to get a conversation out of. He follows anything Mike Horton says and basically copies and pastes everything and loves to use the thesaurus so nobody understand him...I guess that makes him smart since he has a PhD lol
As you may already know, I've been offline for quite a while now, and I'm just now getting back on. I wanted to stop past and wish you and yours a very happy new year. Look forward to hearing from you when you're able.
thanks kindly for thinking of me with your holiday quip and cartoon, made me laugh a good while...may our paths cross if not before the rapture and thereafter...be blessed brother
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Jordan and Sandra. Yep, church voted to move on Sunday. I will not be going to Temecula, but I have not yet decided where I will go next. Still thinking and praying about it. How are you? When's the next poker night?
I have seen this before, but OH MY GOODNESS I laughed good and hard when I saw it again! I don't know why farting is such a funny thing, but let's face it...IT IS!!!! Thanks for posting this! I'll revisit and play it a few more times when I need a laugh!
