A terrible tragedy occurred in the Chapman family today. This website speaks for itself (click here).

—-

Hello readers.  Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  I’ve been busy on various projects.  I’ve actually got a new video podcast I’ve been doing that I want you to check out.  It’s at my children’s ministry website www.parkviewkids.org, or you can just click here to go straight to the podcast.  Let me know what you think.

A good friend in the ministry lost his wife this weekend. Instead of going to great detail about his loss, I’ve decided to include a couple of links. One is to his pastors blog which gives specific details of how everything happened, including TJ witnessing to the doctor just after his wife passed away. The other is to TJ’s own website that includes several notes from TJ. This is a man with an amazing testimony! Please take the time to read AND to pray for the Sipes family.

http://busterwilson.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/the-brevity-of-life

http://www.awana4u2.org/sipes

Well, I’ve finally done it.  I’ve faced my greatest fear.  No, I’m not terribly afraid of spiders.  My roomate in college had a 7′ ball python, so snakes are no problem for me anymore either.  Heights aren’t especially terrifying, and I love to fly.  It’s really nothing like that.  

Psst…come really close and I’ll whisper it in your ear.  They can smell fear, you know. ………………. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, I’ve finally seen the Compass. Out of five stars, I give it 2-1/2. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. The special effects and cinematography are outstanding and just what we’ve all come to expect in a blockbuster movie. Nicole Kidman was born for the role of Ms. Coulter, but alas, her role in the book did not translate well to screen. Actually, most of the book didn’t translate well to screen. As with many movies, certain elements of the book were changed, combined, or left out altogether.

The director made a statement or two near the beginning of the movie about the Magisterium that would lead this author to believe he has a base view of religion, at least the organized kind, however. The religious content of the rest of the movie was fairly bland, as well as all the rest of the content.

This movie seemed to be disjointed and did not tell the story very well. It could have been an epic adventure, but frankly turned into one or two good fight scenes.

I hope Pullman is disappointed with this first attempt. I think that if his idea really was to make a movie to sell books to turn all of our children into atheists, his plan has failed. I wouldn’t want to go out and buy the book after seeing the movie. I’m glad I read the book first.

Somethings off with the formatting here, but read on anyway:

Some friends of mine just posted a comment to my opinion about The Golden Compass. It sparked a train of thought in me that I thought I could write in just a sentence or to response to their comment. However, it got a little longer, so I decided to give it its own entry as it may spark further discussion.I want to make a follow up remark to Justin and Erika Kirkham’s well written comment which you can read by clicking here.Bravo! That is a great perspective and one that is certainly reasonable and graciously put. I want to make an effort here to be totally transparent and honest and respond to the line of thinking you raise when you say “It is our opinion that if we as Christians did in fact pull all of the books and movies that are contrary to God’s Word from our shelves (and we’ve got plenty of dvds that would fit into this category myself which leads us to a big decision as to what we plan to do about that…), we may actually find ourselves spending more time reading our Bibles and Bible-related materials (and prayerfully applying what we’ve read) instead of inundating our free time and our minds with not only ungodly, but in this case, anti-God materials and activities.” Read the rest of this entry »

A friend of mine lost his mother on Thanksgiving day.  He is my age, so his mother was pretty young.  He and his wife have three young children about the same age as mine.  Please remember to pray for them. His loss got me thinking about how children deal with the loss of their loved ones, especially their grandparents.   Read the rest of this entry »

Okay parents, I know some of you have voracious readers for whom you would like to buy some books this Christmas. Since The Golden Compass will be a big push AND since many of you probably don’t want your kids to read those books, I’ve decided to list my favorite alternatives. These are all series that share some things in common with The Golden Compass and His Dark Materials. They are all written for either children or a young adult audience. They are all from Christian authors. They all bridge the gap between our world and an alternate universe. And they are all basically an allegory for Christ’s redemptive work on the cross and God’s free gift of grace. Read the rest of this entry »

With Christmas rolling around and kids growing up, I’m sure some of you will be getting new computers for Christmas. If not, many of you already have them in your homes, and your kids probably love to play on them. So, how do you keep them safe online?

Obviously, you must use a combination of approaches. Most importantly, you must monitor your children’s online viewing. Set limits for the amount of time they spend online. Periodically check your computer’s history and cookies. You might consider previewing some or all of their incoming e-mail. Keep the computer in a central location in your house so that it’s easy to see what’s going on. Whether or not your child has a computer in his or her room, consider using an internet filtering service. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, it’s the Christmas shopping season again. So far the stores seem to having good sales and online sales are higher than expected. In light of the fact that it seems our economy is doing well and people appear to have a little more expendable income than expected, I’ve decided to post my Christmas Wish List with convenient links. Read the rest of this entry »