Disney’s Christmas Carol

This is a must see movie.  The voice acting was excellent, Jim Carey did an amazing job.  The animation is top notch, the rendering of the film was unbelievable.  You take all of that with a great story, and you end up with an amazing movie.  Robert Zemeckis is one of my favorite directors, and he really out did himself with this film.  I am not a big fan of 3D movies, as they go out of their way to stick things in your face for no apparent reason other than they can. But I must say that Robert Zemeckis did a great job in how implemented 3D into this movie.  This is a great example of how 3D can be properly used to enhance a movie, and just used as some gimmick.

The movie is not at all a slapstick type of comedic movie you might see Jim Carey in, rather it is a very well acted movie and does justice to the book.  I would say a few scenes might even be a bit scary for little kids.  Makes we wish I was still working for Disney.  So go out and see it this weekend and let me know what you think.

Google Android phones

Anyone else interested in the new Google Android phones?  I have been a long time Verizon subscriber and have been waiting for a smart phone ever since the iPhone first came out.  I refused to leave Verizon since I have been a very satisfied customer.  I almost jumped ship with the announcement of the Palm Pre, but at last I was not convinced it was the phone for me.

Now that Verizon has struck a partnership with Google, they have released two new Google Android phones.  Not sure if you all have been following the news (I am a tech geek at heart, what can I say), but today was the official release for the the HTC Droid Eris $99.00, and the Motorola Droid $199.00.  Since I have been a long time customer of Verizon I automatically get a $100.00 credit to renew my contract off any phone, so essentially I can get the new Eris for free, except that I would have to pay the taxes.  Although the Droid is an overall better phone, and bigger I do personally like the smaller Eris.

Hopefully over the weekend I’ll decide which phone to get.  I am mostly undecided because I do like the actual specs on the Droid, but I really do love the UI Sense on the Eris and it’s compact size.  I demo both yesterday and to my surprise the Eris felt really good in my hand.  Oh well I see what happens.

Busy, busy, busy but still here

I have not been blogging as much as I would like to due to my new demands of class.  I did complete Howard Marshall’s book “Biblical Inspiration”, and a few other chapters from my required reading.  I am going to blog on some of the topics that I have been studying as it will help me formulate my thoughts and hopefully create some nice discussion points.  The first topic I will blog on is the various positions on biblical inerrancy since this seems to be a controversial and misunderstood subject.

Everyone have a good weekend, and if time permits I’ll post a “Friday with Fee”, before the end of the day.

Almost done reading “Biblical Inspirtaion” and school update

I have one chapter left to read in this book, and hope to finish it tonight before I go to bed.  After I finish watching Heroes.  The book “Biblical Inspiration by I. Howard Marshall’ has been a great read.  If you are interested in having a better understanding of this position verses Biblical Inerrancy this is a must read.  I’ll try and write a short book review before the week ends, as I need to write a full book review for my course.

School Update: So far I am really loving the class.  The lectures have been top notch, and the reading assignments have been really great.  I had abandoned my position on inerrancy sometime back on my own, mostly because it just didn’t really make much sense to me, but I never really prused any further study on this matter and just left it alone.  This course has forced me to study the subject, and has helped me to better understand both postions.  Also it has helped me understand Biblical Inpiration much better than I had before and the assurance that abandoing Biblical Inerrancy is not as bad as I thought it was.  I sort of felt gulity or thought that maybe I was comprimising somehow.

Paranormal Activity – biggest dud

I just finishing watching this stupid movie, and wanted to warn all my friends not to waste their hard earn money.  It was slow, boring and not at all scary.  I thought I was going to fall asleep from being so bored.  Near then end (and mean the last 10 minutes) it finally got somewhat interesting, but by this time I was so bored I could not even take the movie serious at all.

This was Oren Peli first movie and I hope it’s his last one.  He says in an interview “I like atmosphere and slow plot build.”  Apparently so slow that he will bore you to death.

I give this movie a total thumbs down, no stars, it’s a waste of time.  And I am not at all happy and a bit upset that I even bothered watching this thing called a movie.  I really want to rant some more…

Friday’s with Fee

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. ²⁰ Do not treat prophecies with contempt ²¹ but test them all; hold on to what is good, ²² reject whatever is harmful. TNIV

In any case, in this our earliest encounter with the ministry of the Spirit in an early Christian community, instead of urging the Thessalonians to “fan into flame” or “earnestly desire” the Spirit and his manifestations among them, as in some later letters, Paul urges them not to quench the Spirit in this regard.  But by “not quenching” or “not despising” neither is he suggesting that anything goes in the name of the Spirit.  They are to “test all things,” holding fast the good and avoiding every evil form, but testing is not to lead to quenching the Spirit or the Spirit’s gifts.

Gordon Fee, NICNT The First & Second Letters to the Thessalonians p219

New Books

I was not expecting these books until Monday, so I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived in the mail today.  These are required reading for my class on Introduction to the Bible.

Introduction to the Bible by I. Howard Marshall

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Regent College Publishing (March 1, 2004)
• This is the main book, and all it’s content is required reading.

Understanding and Applying the Bible by Robertson McQuilkin

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Moody Publishers; Rev Sub edition (January 9, 1992)
• Various chapters are required reading

Christian Theology by Millard Erickson

• Hardcover: 1312 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic & Brazos Press; 2 edition (August 1, 1998)
• Various chapters are required reading

Biblical Interpretation: Past & Present
by Gerald Bray

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press (June 2000)
• Various chapters are required reading

New Commentary on Philippians

GoogleBooks has what appears to be the complete new release of The Pillar Philippians Commentary by G. Walter Hansen published 2009.  Go and check it out.  Thanks to Nijay Gupta for pointing it out.

Rethinking the Openness of God

Calvin Smith did a recent post on the Openness of God.  Before I get into his posting I wanted to say that Calvin Smith is the Principal and teacher at my new school “King’s Evangelical Divinity School“, and is a active blogger.  If you haven’t added him to your Reader you should he is very thought provoking.

He just posted on the subject of the Openness of God, in which he has given further thoughts on his reading of “The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God by Clark Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker and David Basinger”.  His interaction was very irenic, and as any good book should do, it caused him to rethink his position.  In summary he says:

…the Openness of God is a useful book that emphasises God’s great love and forces us to re-examine our theology, particularly what it means to have a genuine relationship with God. Some very probing questions concerning free-will successfully challenge all theologically-minded readers, not just Calvinists…

Go and check it out even if this subject is not of interest to you.  You will find that he is an engaging writer, and hopefully you will find value in what he has to offer.

I enrolled in KEDS

I was accepted into the BTh program at King’s Evangelical Divinity School (KEDS).  I also enrolled in my first class, and have already order some text books, and purchased my first one at the local Christian book store.

The class that I am enrolled in is “Introduction to the Bible”.  The book I purchased at the local book store was Biblical Interpretation “Past & Present” by Gerald Bray.  The others I ordered from Amazon.com.  I am very impressed so far, the on line lectures that they provide so far have been really good.  I have heard two lectures so far, and plan to listen to them again.  I am devoting about 2-3  hours per day on my studies, and hope to keep up with it. There is a lot of reading to do so that is great since I do love to read.  The only draw back right now is that I have been really sick with the flu and it has been difficult to read for any length of time.

I will have a choice between writing a 2000 word essay or a book review.  Since this is an introductory course they do give you an option.  If you have not been in school a long time they do encourage you to write a book review as it will get you in the practice of writing again, and should be a bit easier and less demanding.  Not sure what I plan to do at the moment, I am challenged about doing the essay, but maybe I should do the practice run and submit the book review?  The book review will be based on Biblical Inspiration by I. Howard Marshall, which is also required reading (core text).

I plan to document my progress as this will also serve others that might be considering a biblical education at KEDS.  This will also provide me a base to think out loud and interact with some of my friends.  They do provide an internal forum that I also plan to use and interact with other students.  I do hope to make some new friends along the way.