King Kong

The other night Amy and I went to see King Kong in Prince Albert, SK. I left with two thoughts on the film.
The first was that I thought it was an amazing movie. I am still shocked at how people can create this fantasy world for us to be entertained by and that they can keep us in riveted in our seats for 3+ hours. Peter Jackson has done that a few times now. What a great talent and imagination he has.
The second thought that I had and the one that sticks with me, even now was the anger I had that once again the white man voyaged into another culture and tried to change that culture to be more like theirs or to use that culture for it's own gain. If you haven't seen the movie, it is about a strugling movie director who is taking his crew to an uncharted Island to film his new movie. The Island is occupied by indigenous people live in fear of King Kong. Once the movie crew gets to the Island the occupants take the main actress and offer her as a sacrifice to Kong. What happens next is the rest of the movie crew, and ship workers come on to the island and start killing off the inhabitants in search of the girl and Kong. Two hours later they find them and decide to take Kong from his habitat to New York City. There things go horribly wrong and they end up having to kill Kong.
The movie is way better than my discription of it.
So, the part that made me mad is that they went to an island that they had no business going to and thought that they could change the custom and culture for the better, The American Way. It was sad to me that this has happened often in the world, even among Christian Missionaries. I pray that we could start seeing culture for what it is, Culture. God has given it and He does not want us to take it away so that He can move in. He wants to move in to their culture and make it even more beautiful and unique so that one day they can be worshiping in their own way around the King in heaven.
Thanks for listening to me rant. If you would like to check out a different opinion on the movie by James P. Pinkerton follow the link. I do not necessarily agree, but it is an interesting view. Is King Kong Racist?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Yesterday as I was at my inlaws house in Saskatchewan I asked Amy "why do bad things happen to good people." You see the reason that I asked that question is because 6 hours earlier at 5am we woke up to the house on fire. It was in the roof, started by an outdoor security light. We woke up, still a little unsure if we were dreaming or not and started to get everyone, and all the important articles out of the house incase it burned all the way down.
To preface, no one was hurt, thanks be to Jesus and the house did not burn down, it just burned enough for Amy's parents to have to move out so they can rebuild.
It is amazing what you find important to you in a pressure situation where you barely have time to save things that are important to you. This may sound shallow, but the 1st thing that I grabbed, after my daughter was out of the house was Maggi. Maggi is my 12" i-book G4. I like her a lot. After that I grabbed the passports, my i-pod, my bible and books, my homework, and our wedding pictures.
Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't just thinking about me, well at least not all of the time. During all the grabbing we also grabbed things that were important to the family. Computers, even though they were PC's, photo albums, Christmas presents or holiday presents if you prefer and wallets. As I was scrambling to get stuff out, fully awake at 5:10am for the 1st time in, well ever, i was thinking about what is important. The thing that struck me is that it was all just stuff. I wish that the only thing I though of getting out of the house, besides family, was my bible, and maybe all my mac computer stuff (kidding). I want Jesus to be the only thing I think about and the only one worth my life.
So, back to my question of "why do bad things happen to good people." I mean it is Christmas, things like this are not supposed to happen to you, it is just supposed to be something you read about happening to others. Right? Plus, Amy's parents are good, good people. They believe in all their kids, support them, and have raised them fairly well.
As soon as my question was out of my mouth I was convicted at my own shallowness and lack of Christlikeness. The question should have been "why do bad things happen to anyone?" We are all sinners, no one deserves to have their house burn on Christmas. How dare I say that this person or that person deserves it more than me or my family or anyone who loves Jesus. Jesus did not favor, he loved and died for all mankind (obviously I am Arminianist). It truly made me sick and I repent. "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." "There is no one righteous, not even one."
I pray that all of us, coming into this Christmas season would see that we all need Jesus, we all need help and we all need each other.
-Amen-

Christmas in Canada

It is Dec. 16th and Amy, Emma and I are driving to Saskatchewan Canada to celebrate Christmas with family. Today we really saw the beautiful creation of our God. I have been to a lot of places, but never before have I seen such beauty as the Canadian Rockies. The trees were so white with frost and snow that it looked like the you were on the Narnia side of the wardrope in the winter time. If you ever get the chance to come up here I recomend it. I do not recomend going all the way to Saskatchewan though. Sorry if I offend any of you prairie boy's and girls up there.
Anyway, I am hoping to be able to post a few times while I am in Canada. Bless you all until next time.

Phil

Life is hard, real hard.

Today at church Mars Hill the pastor was talking about pain. It is an interesting topic pain. A topic that not to many people like to talk about let alone listen to someone talking about. There were so many things in the sermon today that ran true with me and I am sure with others as well.
As I sit here drinking my coffee and typing on my mac it is easy for me to just forget that there is pain in my life and to ignore that there is even pain in the world. If I take time to think about the pain in my life and in the world, which I should I would see that there is a lot. For example, last week in Seattle a girl went missing on the way to school Missing Girl and still is not found. This is a tragic story that breaks my heart every time I think about it. The problem is that I don't think about it very often.
There is also the pain of war, injustice, poverty, abuse, etc. The thing that I got to thinking about today is the pain in my own life. If I stop to think about the pain in my own life it gets very overwhelming. My family back in Winnipeg is hurting every day as they feel the rejection that came with my dad leaving, there are relationship issues here that are hard, I am sure I could go on. Life is hard.
The thing that the pastor was talking about today is "what do we do when life get's hard? Do we lean into Jesus, or do we self medicate?" The reason that I am blogging this here is because it is something that we all deal with every day, pain. I want to encourage us all to stop self medicating, stop running away or ignoring our own pain and the pain of others, but to bring them to Jesus. Jesus knows and feels our pain. It say's that he was Tempted in every way and that he knows and understands our sufferings and hurts, as he suffered and was hurting often. Turn to Him, the author and perfector of our faith, He wants to be our help.

Check out these Emergent Truths.

Warning, when you read these you will feel strangly embarrased and wierd as it is sadly true. Enjoy

You Know Your Emergent When...