The strangest thing just happened. I was playing Halo online (in the middle of a comeback, by the way) and my XBOX shut down and I got the Red Ring of Death. Not the fake one, but the real deal - 3 of the four panels were lit up.

I started to fall apart. Not just because I was finally finding my groove in the Halo 3 multiplayer (only took 7 months!) but because our DVD and HD-DVD players just died with it. But then I remembered what has happened with electronics in my past.

I had a TV that died. Just stopped producing picture or sound. It was 12 years old. It was probably off looking for its Social Security check. I wanted to throw it out, but I didn’t. I couldn’t part with it. So I stuck it in the garage. But, like most retirees these days, it couldn’t just sit around. One day I was poking around the garage and decided to plug it in. My TV was resurrected. I think it’s still working. My wife and I gave it away about 4 years later.

So I turned off the XBOX, and hit the power button…hoping…wishing…and Halo booted right up. I really don’t know…

I just found this great bit from C.H. Spurgeon, about progressive theology.

My favorite parts? “Pan-indifferentism” and “Anythigarianism”

The idea of a progressive gospel seems to have fascinated many. To us that notion is a sort of cross-breed between nonsense and blasphemy.

Do men really believe that there is a gospel for each century? Or a religion for each fifty years? Will there be in heaven saints saved according to a score sorts of gospel? Will these agree together to sing the same song? And what will the song be? Saved on different footings, and believing different doctrines, will they enjoy eternal concord, or will heaven itself be only a new arena for disputation between varieties of faiths?

Pan-indifferentism is rising like the tide; who can hinder it? We are all to be as one, even though we agree in next to nothing. It is a breach of brotherly love to denounce error. Hail, holy charity! Black is white; and white is black. The false is true; the true is false; the true and the false are one.

We cannot despair for the church or for the truth, while the Lord lives and reigns; but, assuredly, the conflict to which the faithful are now summoned is not less arduous than that in which the Reformers were engaged. So much of subtlety is mixed up with the whole business, that the sword seems to fall upon a sack of wool, or to miss its mark. However, plain truth will cut its way in the end, and policy will ring its own death-knell.

I’m in a pretty sour mood right now. At first it was because I’ve been hurting for that poor girl in Florida who got beat up for a YouTube video. Now I’m ticked off at her dad.

Her parents blamed the Internet for the incident.

“These Web sites are creating a space for criminal activity, beating, fights,” Patrick Lindsay said. [...]

“I’m very upset with these Internet sites,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, MySpace is the anti-Christ for children. I’m going to carry this as far as I can.”

Talk about tilting at windmills. How about blaming the girls that did this? How about blaming the people who watch the videos, thereby encouraging things like this? Even some indirect blame on the parents would have been acceptable…but blaming the internet and MySpace?

Granted, there’s plenty wrong with MySpace, which is why my profile still has a picture of my wife about 4 months pregnant. But when it comes to six people deciding to beat up an innocent person - Hell, even a guilty person - let’s place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the perpetrators.

Ok, now that I’m over that, here’s the real point of this post. There are some Christians who believe that the task of the Church is to restore the world, whether that be through service or control. The group who truly believes that we are to do it by control (Dominionism) is so small that it barely merits discussion. Sure, you’ll hear people, particularly those like Andrew Sullivan (though he prefers the term “christianist”), attribute these qualities to “many evangelicals”…that’s bollocks.

Those who believe that we are to do it through service and love have a larger following. They believe that as a result of the influence of Christians, and good people from other religions (or no religion), the world is getting better. Progress has been, is being, and will be made. They are Progressives. (continue reading…)

First off, ChurchMarketingSucks.com got the ball rolling on a network of local church marketing labs, one of which is located in Tulsa. The first meeting is Monday the 7th. If you’re interested in marketing, communications, graphics, or web design for your church, meet us at Panera Bread at 71st and Garnett at 6.

I’ve started reading Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. In the early chapters he makes some statements about faith and doubt, and it occurred to me that, at least in recent history, the church has done a terrible job communicating the limits of faith and the benefits of doubt. (continue reading…)

This may not last long, so I have to get it in quick.  For the moment, at least, if you Google the word “Christianity” and misspell it as “Chrisitianity”, you will see a link to Power of Suggestion on the front page!  This is huge for me.  The downside, of course, is that it seems no one is clicking.  Probably because it says in bold letters at the top: Did you mean: christianity.

Anyway, on to better things.  Today we got the first four Harry Potter movies in the mail for my new HD DVD player.  The total: $40, plus $10 shipping.  Add to that the $10.84 I paid for The Order of the Pheonix, and I got all 5 movies for less than $61.  Right now it costs about $50 to get the regular DVD’s.  Despite what my friends and co-workers keep saying, this doesn’t seem like a bad idea yet…