Two Words, One Answer.
dvd expect
 Expect No Mercy $4.99 Forget Tae Boe. Billy should have kept doing karate movies. This movie was filled with action. The fight scene at the end between Billy and his real life brother was great as was the grand finale between Blanks and Wold Larson's character. Neither Blanks nor this movie would have ever been nominated for an Oscar, but for sheer entertainment and great karate action, Blanks, Charles Daniels and Michael Worth are second to none. Most of the time they will have a good story wrapped around these great fight scenes. So what separates Blanks from the other thousand karate movies out there? Personality. He can also act. This was a good movie. About what I expected since what I expected was not a dull moment. Wold Larson is also very good as the villain. He is a great in roles where he has such fight scenes as I have seen him in a karate movie before. This movie was only missing in the romance department. Other than that it shot no blanks. Great for us American star karate movie fans.  Laugh and Learn About Childbirth $39.95 Sherri's video gives you all the information you need to know about having a baby in a straightforward and easy to understand manner. Plus, she is just plain funny. The video is divided into six "classes" that each cover an easily digestible amount of information. My husband and I watched them 2 classes a sitting. I highly recommend the set!  When Life Doesn't Turn Out the Way You Expect, DVD + Book: Lessons for Faith Communities (Insight Media Series) $24.99 There is much good and to commend here but I have some problems with the theology and doctrinal approach. First, it seems that books of this nature, call them Christian "self-help" books, seem to have adopted a predictable formula. The author chooses a theme, chooses examples from his ministry, and then draws parallels from Biblical narratives tying the two into a neat package that supports the point in question. This is becoming a tiresome formula and it fails at several levels. First, the examples chosen from the ministry, the so-called real life examples, often are adapted or telescoped to fit alongside a Biblical narrative. Our lives are not those of the Biblical characters although we may face many of the same spiritual trials. Secondly, the main emphasis of the ministerial example centers around worldly things and makes the focus of the problem the selfish "I" rather than "God." Third, the outcome is usually justified by the author in terms of worldly success rather than spiritual success. The latter is noted as important but rarely or never seems to be separated from the former. The book seems to be permeated with this subliminal notion that God is the answer to your worldly as well as spiritual problems and things will work out good for you in this world if you accept God and His ways. Although this is true, the definition of "work out good for you in this world" is in terms of the "I" or "me" and not in terms if "God" to whom we are called to submit. Where there are examples of unsolved disappointment, the author associates it with a failure to follow the program. God's justice is not quid pro quo and accepting God, truly accepting God means accepting the burden of the cross and not the expectation of rewards in this life. The last error is the most dangerous. J. C. Ryle once wrote that before one accepts Christ he or she should count the cost. The cost was God's vicarious sacrifice of making The Son sin and crucifying Him on the Cross. To be a true follower of Jesus we are warned in scripture that we must crucify the old man, be prepared to give up all worldly things WITHOUT and assurance other than our daily bread and the joy of God's care, fellowship and love. The true fact is that for most Christians in the world, accepting Christ means danger, sacrifice, hatred, discrimination, isolation, poverty, suffering and sometimes a violent death. Books such as this discuss suffering in terms of exchanging one career for another, discovering God given gifts and overcoming illness and disability or hurts. But these worldly successes, though given of the Lord, are possible because we live in a wealthy country where people have choices and opportunities and can overcome life's obstacles praise the Lord. Any theology of Theodicy, the basic theological subject of such works, must be universal and apply to everyone, everywhere and at all times. What would the vignettes in a book such as this mean to the people who life in the garbage dumps of Mexico City and survive off the rotten trash of others? It does not hold! Yet, they worship the same immutable God whose ways are constant and perfect. The theology of books such as these are tailored to the "me" generation of Americans and not to the greater brotherhood of God's people. The person who lives in the garbage dumps of Mexico City has no realistic hope of escaping the daily grueling suffering that is their worldly lot. Yet, when such a one accepts Jesus, his worldly lot may not change but his spiritual lot has radically changed. What great saints are those that suffer in poverty and can truly claim that their only portion is the Lord! This is the joy and transformation that scripture talks about. The cross is not something to be dressed up and made pretty. It is an instrument of relentless pain, torture and death. We are all asked to pick up our own cross and follow the Lord. That means we are asked to voluntarily crucify our old selves, and the things we hold dear, unmercifully, totally and to the death. It is a painful thing to do. Theology such as that offered here devalues and invalidates individual pain suffering and failure in the world. It ignores the countless millions who never succeed in this life yet are rewarded in the hereafter. It ignores the fact that there are many among us that are chosen to suffer till death for no other reason that we may present an opportunity for people to do good works and be divided into sheep and goats. God's people suffer, hurt and may not see any relief in this world. But in His mercy, God sends His Spirit, ministering angels and the Church. The suffering of Theodicy is something that must be embraced. The sufferer's pain must be acknowledged and validated. It must be understood that most of the Christians on the world experience this suffering and misery. It is the cost of discipleship. Books such as these offer rewards without counting the cost. The theology they expound ultimately fails. When this failure is realized, true harm is done. Finally, almost every such book uses the Jacob-Esau story as an example of Jacob's spiritual formation by surrendering his will to God. While there is much good here, most err in failing to realize that the blessing of Isaac the Blind was a worldly blessing. The Promise, God's blessing, was not Isaac's to give. Jacob fooled the wrong father. And as Jacob's spiritual eyes are opened at Peniel, he begins to be called Israel. Yet Jacob never truly fully matures to Israel and crucifies his old self. Some of Jacob remains in the final chapter of Genesis and in his decedents and in us. Commentators and such writers focus on the worldly comforts surrounding Jacob in his old age as evidence of his total transformation. If this was the case than the Bible would be one chapter and the Cross unnecessary. It is my prayer that the authors will accept my thoughts in the CHristian Spirit of love with which they were offered |
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