John MacArthur, Rick Warren etc.

Lately, it seems like every two or three years, some new author/preacher is the hot new guy to listen to. The last guy was Rick Warren who is the pastor of a megachurch in California somewhere. I am happy the Mr. Warren's work inspired people to get together in small groups and discuss the word of God, but at the same time I am always wary of teachings of man that seem to spread with such popularity. When I began looking at The Purpose Driven Life, five pages in Mr. Warren stated everything in life everyday is a test from God. This is simply not true and has no biblical basis so I was then done with believing the tenets of the book without scriptural references and explanation, which were many. I even heard a rumor that Saddleback doesn't allow music in a Minor key to be played in services. Naturally disbelieving I wrote an email and got confirmation that was indeed true.
Now, John MacArthur is the "new" guy everyone is enamored with. Reading a bit of his work, he reminds of the legalistic churches I grew up in. Obedience is his mantra and he is somewhat harsh about his message. He is also a Calvinist, which I am not a fan of. I believe Christ died so that all may come to the Father through Him and he was the propitiation for all sin. Certainly all won't come to Him, but the desire of God's heart is that we all be in Heaven. Mr. MacArthur also believes many spiritual gifts, namely speaking in tongues, are only of the Old Testament. I also disagree with this stance.
My point is that believers in Jesus Christ need not align themselves with the interpretations of man and should instead lean on Christ through His word. Men are fallible and God has not hesitated to show me that during the course of my life through some, at times very painful, lessons. Let me also state that Mr. Warren and Mr. MacArthur have some great teachings when they stick to the word and do great things for the Church, and their communities. This would be contrary to someone like William P. Young's "The Shack" , also becoming popular, which is wholly ridiculous in its interpretations. There is no denomination better than another, an no preacher that can be your saving grace, your church and pastor should be seeking to educate you directly from the word of God and should study carefully the theology of any Author's material they choose to utilize. Look carefully at the material you are using and make sure that some of the interpretations that get thrown in there actually have a scriptural reference and genuinely seek to understand those references. If there is no reference to God's Word then the author injected his opinion at some point, which can be misconstrued by the readers as biblical fact with some of the other material they are attempting to digest.

The Democratic National Convention

I have watched portions of this, and read over the keynote speeches/sales pitches so far and, once again, I grow weary of these politicians. Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton are patronizing me an d don't have anything to say other than I love my husband, duh, and don't vote for McCain. No one needs to hear this garbage. If you don't have anything of substance to share then please keep your mouth shut. This is Democrats cheering on other Democrats for no particular reason. Everyone in that room already plans to vote for that dude so the cheerleading seems so contrived and shallow. Please tell me about your foreign policy, or your energy plan, or ANYTHING at all please!

To be fair I expect the same shallow crap from the Republicans, let's hope I am wrong. However, if they do the same thing please write in Captain Dude for the Presidency. I will ignore you and do what I think is best for the country based on committee-based decision making with your elected representatives. I just wanted to be up front about that. I will also wear shorts and sandals almost all the time because I don't see the need to wear a tie. Lastly I promise to not shake hands with foreign leaders we have extreme disagreements with, I would punch that Iranian ass right in the face and dare him to get up. Same thing for that dude from China and Hugo chavez better watch his rear too, he's on my short list of idiots who shouldn't be in charge of anything but grabbing their ankles in a jail cell. I can also promise to reorganize the nation's budget, not necessarily erase the debt, to prevent anyone from buying $800 hammers and such. Congress will also work a regular schedule and have their posh Washington existence erased. No more pages and aides stopiing traffic, no free healthcare that no one else gets. They will listen to the demographic constituency that voted them in, based on statistical tracking, and represent them by name and not just party line pandering. I will also throw Nancy Pelosi in jail for not shwoing up for work and "stealing" from America. Same for anyone else who is skipping "school."

King James Only?

I recently heard, not for the first time mind you, that the King James is the only "authorized" version of the Bible. This is ludicrous! The English language is quite different from 1611 and many of the words used are now defined quite differently. Elitism within the walls of a church is ridiculous and one of the things I cannot stand. If the KJV was the only "correct" translation then any non-English printing would be irrelevant which makes witnessing in a foreign language pretty hard. I personally like to use the New American Standard Zondervan study Bible as my primary text with a New King James study bible for reference. Mrs. Dude uses the NIV Quest study bible so we have a pretty broad range with which to cross-examine and verify. The only two translations I ever saw that were lame were "The Book" and "The Message", both of which make little sense to me and seem to cater to the author's emotions. I would also suggest knowing the difference between a transliteration and a translation. As far as Salvation and anyone's elitist or universalist junk:
Romans 10:9
John 14:6

Movie Review (Into the Wild)

Wow, Sean Penn did something pretty amazing here. Let me admit that I never read the John Krakauer book, so I have no comparison. I do know that this movie was a gut-wrenching ride and didn't attempt to patronize the main character or his family. I was worried that Penn would attempt to idealize or glorify this dude's poor decision making and crippled psyche. The poor kid was damaged early in life and never seemed to learn to cope. He thought he could escape society with his limited outdoors ability and it cost him his life. Chris McCandless was sharp kid that was hurt emotionally beyond repair. That with some very poor decision making was really hard to watch. This movie is worth seeing, but it left me troubled and irritated that someone would waste themselves like this young man did. There are times when you just want to grab the kid and tell him to wake up, he could have done so much good for so much longer.

As a side note, when I lived in Virginia Beach Chris's sister Carine owned the shop where we had our cars serviced. She was one of the nicest people I have ever met and I hate that she had to watch her brother kill himself.

Current FAILures!

For the Olympics: (these could be removed from competition)
BMX - they don't even pedal. FAIL
Badminton - not an athlete
Table Tennis - not an athlete. although they call timeout and drink gatorade during the matches.
Syncro diving - ZZzzzZZZ!
Women's Wrestling - nobody wants to see women doing that. See WNBA attendance stats.
Women's Basketball - Good for college, lame beyond that. See above comment.
Equestrian - not an athlete. See the ages of some "competitors", 65 is ridiculous.
Sailing - too boring.
79 Kayak and rowing events - a few would be ok, but really there are 700 rowing events.

For Television: (shows that blew or will blow it)
Knight Rider - Gets some kudos for wanting to bring it back, FAIL for being a mustang
The Mentalist - stupid title
90210 - one decade was enough
Kath & Kim - just write a "How to be superficial and trashy" manual.
Another Big Brother - Dummmies on display.
Another Survivor - the first two seasons were good
Grey's Anatomy - for firing Isaiah Washington and going ghey for drama.


I'm sure there are more but that's what I have been assaulted with lately. Please put something good back on TV so I don't have to watch the Gomer Pyle USMC reruns all the time.

Usain (Insane) Bolt

Holy Cow! I saw this replay last night, I bet this kid can run one or two seconds faster right now! With a little more training we might see a sub-nine time soon. That was phenomenal:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0816_HD_ATM_HL_L0686

Michael Phelps

Wow! This kid is amazing. I have struggled to stay awake until 2230 or 2330 every night just to see this guy swim. He appears as if he can do anything in the pool. When I watch, he can easily be picked out from his competitors, if you call them that, with his effortless movement through the water. For example, please watch the link below and listen carefully to the commentary. The 200 meter freestyle is a challenge for Phelps. He placed third in Athens and "had to work on it" in order to compete at this level. Notice the other Olympians, world-class athletes for sure, as the splash and churn while Phelps seems to pull effortlessly through the water.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0812_HD_SWB_ME_L0271R1

Now, I also want people to watch Jason Lezak's final leg in the Men's 4x100 meter freestyle relay. The French were heavily favored and certainly deserved their ranking. Lezak probably swam the most inspirational leg of any race coming from almost a full body length behind the current world-record holder.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0811_HD_SWB_HL_L0194

President Bush at the Olympics

I have been watching the President during the past few days and have to say I am impressed. Let's not go overboard and say the guy is not at fault for a few things, but the last few days have been great. The President took the time to go support our athletes while at the same time pulling aside different world leaders to discuss things in a great atmosphere of competition. Whoever thought of this is a genius. How many times can you grab the leader of China and say "Wow, you're team is doing really well; by the way, you still need to get to work on some of those human rights initiatives." The interview last night with Bob Costas showed how much work the President was doing with other world leaders while still taking the time to complete the Olympic mountain biking course and cheer our athletes to victory. Great PR run!