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...

Happy Thanksgiving. I was talking to Emma about what I am thankful for and realized how blessed I am. I am thankful for family. I am thankful for my YWAM family and friends. I am thankful for the roof over my head and the big ol turkey that will be in my tummy in about 3 hours. I am thankful that God has given me another day to live. Take some time today as you are eating, watching football, playing football, or whateve you do and think about what and who you are thankful for. If you are thankful for people, tell them, if you are thankful for God, tell Him. Enjoy your day.

I am realy enjoying reading

I've been having a great time reading lately. I highly recomend during the holidays picking up a good book and realy letting it speak to you. I am learning so much about myself and God from this. It makes me feel useful and better for it. I have put some books in the links bar that I am reading and recomend.

The Way It Should Be

On Friday I was hanging out with my good friend Lori Fox. Lori is works merchandise for the band Blindside. Lori and the band pulled into Seattle late Friday evening and I went downtown to meet up with them. After they checked into their hotel room we went over to The The Showbox where they were checking out another band and meeting up with some more friends.
After leaving the show there were a couple of us standing outside figuring out what we were going to do when I saw something that made me think "this is the way it should be." There was a guy outside who was completely smashed from drinking. He was one of the crew members of a band that was there and the guy's in Blindside knew him. There are a couple of things that Christians can do in this situation. One is to judge and put ourselves on a pedestal and the other is to show the uncompromising, unchanging, unbiased love of Jesus. Thankfully, Christian, Simon and Thomas chose to show the love of Jesus.

It was a cold night out, as is typical for Seattle in Nov. So they zipped up there friends sweatshirt and put on his hood, despite his fight to be as naked as possible. They also stood with him and held him up and from doing anything stupid. There was the opportunity to let him go and watch him do totally funny drunken things at his expense, but they chose to love, care for and protect their friend.

How many of us would care so much to put the interest of others ahead of ourselves? Thank you guys, you taught me a lot that night just by being yourselves.

What do you say to that?

I was talking to a friend today who is realy going through it. My friend is great, has a lot of potential and talent, but is realy struggling with the whole God is good thing. I am not sure what to do. I mean today I sat there while my friend poured out their heart about how they want to believe, but they have no reason or desire any more. It is just to hard.

My friend grew up in a hyper conservative, totally controling house hold who told my friend things about God that made Him out to be more of a monster than a friend and father. Now my friend is out of the house and is free for the first time. My friend is realizing that the view of God that my friends famliy forced on them was very wrong and distorted. The thing now is that my friend feels like rebelling against their parents and turning away from God totally even though their parents are not even around to see my friend getting back at them.

I sat there on the couch listening to my friend talk with tears about how they don't know what to do. I mean everyone says that God is good, and that God is the only way, but every time my friend sees God is is through the eyes that their parents gave them. I can't relate, I can't understand and I refuse to give pad answers like I will pray for you, or God is good, or God does love you and you will get over this. What do you say to that? I am not sure, but what I do know is that God is good, God does love and I will pray for my friend. What I also know is that my friend needs help, as do I, as do you. Help us God.

Man Kills Buck with Bare Hands In Bedroom

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - For 40 exhausting minutes, Wayne Goldsberry battled a buck with his bare hands in his daughter's bedroom.

Goldsberry finally subdued the five-point whitetail deer that crashed through a bedroom window at his daughter's home Friday. When it was over, blood splattered the walls and the deer lay dead on the bedroom floor, its neck broken.

Goldsberry was at his daughter's home when he heard glass breaking. He went back to check on the noise and found the deer.

"I was standing about like this peeking around the corner when the deer came out of the bedroom," said Goldsberry. The deer ran down the hall and into the master bedroom — "jumping back and forth across the bed."

Goldsberry, about 6-feet-1 and 200 pounds, entered the bedroom to confront the deer and, after a brief struggle, emerged to tell his wife to call police. After returning to the bedroom, the fight continued. Goldsberry finally was able to grip the animal and twist its neck, killing it.

Goldsberry, sore from the struggle, dragged the dead animal out of the house.

"He got kicked several times. He was walking bowlegged for a while," Deputy Doug Gay said.

At this time of year, a buck that sees its reflection in a window often charges, believing it is fighting off a rival, Gay said.

Goldsberry had the deer butchered.

"He's in the freezer," the man said before walking to the kitchen and showing off pounds of freshly wrapped venison.

Man Kills Buck Yahoo Article

Does Anyone Want A Lap Dance?

Today over 27000 singnatures were handed into the city of Seattle in an attempt to keep lap dances legal in our city. The law banning it would state that there needs to be brighter lights in strip clubs and a four foot distance between dancer and customer.
They are calling the act an act of free speech. I think that the main issue of opposing it is to protect people, male and female. Men don't need any more reason to go into a strip club and women don't need any more reasons to use their bodies for something that God didn't intend.
Anyway, pray for this that people would walk in purity and that this act would not go through.
Lap Dance Seattle Times Article

Being Real

I was just listening to a sermon by Erwin Mcmanus, the pastor of Mosaic Church in Los Angeles. It really spoke to me about being real.
Recently one of my friends had some trouble in his life because they didn't tell people what they were struggling with. They tried to do it alone and be invincable. What happened was that my friend fell.
This is a quote from Erwin in his message

" It is amazing how much strength love will give you and how much strength you will find when you care about other people even more than yourself. And I know this, no matter how sincere you are, your going to need some extraordinary strenth to overcome your rapids you are going to find yourself drowning in. And that is why we all need Jesus. Because when He enters our life, when we give our hearts to Him He becomes our source of strength. And when your exhausted and you have no energy left and you don't think that you can make it one more day, you will find that He is always strong. Especially when you are honest about your weakness."
I pray that we would be honest today about our weaknesses and that we would take them to God and take them to each other so that we would become the kind of people for God that we desire to be.