Believers in Christ - The Incredibles

The following just came to me in a matter of seconds at work.

I was reading my Cisco Flash Cards book, and I noticed that you can tear out the pages. It made me think of the scene in The Incredibles where Robert Parr (Mr. Incredible) tears his employee manual in half in one tear after he's fired from his job. "It'd be interesting to see someone do that with these flash cards," I thought.

Then, another thought came to mind. What if someone found that manual torn in half in the trash? Where would it come from? How in the world could someone do that? That's beyond natural human strength. The supers (superheros) had been forced into hiding. The government forbid them to use their superpowers and keep their super identities secret. The world didn't want them. They didn't want the extraordinary or anything beyond what's natural.

And then it hit me...

Believers in Jesus Christ are the supers. The world doesn't want us. They don't want Christ. They don't want the supernatural (beyond what's natural). Even though it could save them, they don't want their boats to be rocked by Jesus Christ. They don't understand that by letting their boat capsize, God Himself will give them a new, glorious boat.

I recommend the next time you watch The Incredibles, watch it with this in mind. Consider the parallels between the feelings of Robert Parr and his family and the feelings we sometimes have as believers...feelings of being silenced, being held back, feeling forced to fit in, and sometimes even wanting to fit in with the world.

"Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were made to stand out?"
-- Leo Giovinetti (quoted as best I can remember)

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
-- John 15:18-19 (ESV)

"Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you."
-- 1 John 3:13 (ESV)

Where Evolutionary Thinking Leads...

(This was previously posted on my myspace on July 11, 2005)

I was reading I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist and I found the following quote. I just wanted to give a quick example of where evolutionary thinking leads...

"If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such cases all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher state of being, may thus be rendered futile. But such a preservation goes hand-in-hand with the inexorable law that it is the strongest and the best who must triumph and that they have the right to endure. He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world, where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist."
--Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

What do YOU think we should follow -- creationism or evolution?

The "gods" of the American Judicial System

(This was previously posted on my myspace on July 8, 2005)

Due to the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Ten Commandments, the Supreme Court "justices" have now elevated themselves as gods. This is in their own mind, of course.

"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." -- Romans 8:6-8 (emphasis added)

However, by removing the Ten Commandments from the inside of the building, where it would be visible to them, they have placed their laws and their judgments over the laws and judgments of God.

This is how I see it happening: Every day, the "justices" see God's Law written inside and outside the building. It burns into their conscience every time they see it. After a while, they can't stand to see, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," "YOU SHALL NOT COVET," "YOU SHALL NOT STEAL." By the time a decision comes to remove them, they jump on the opportunity to ease their conscience, and vote "Yes" to remove the Ten Commandments.

Whether or not this was their motivation, they are actually attesting to the real power of God's Law. Why remove it if it doesn't matter anyway? If it's not true, why bother caring about it in the first place?

I pray that we all ask God to break the hearts of the "justices," and show them, through their own conscience, that His Law is true. Remember, they are still on the ouside of the building, as a reminder to the outside world. The justices STILL KNOW they're out there, too. This could leave room to let God move their hearts towards Him. PRAY FOR THEM.

The Reality of the Presence of Christ

(This was previously posted on my myspace on June 10, 2005)
As I was reading Francis Schaeffer's True Spirituality the other night, I was gripped by a certain part in Chapter 5: The Supernatural Universe. He has been speaking about how reality has two parts: the natural and the supernatural. We may refer to them as physical and spiritual, etc. His point has been to bring the two together, and to show that the Christian should be living out his/her life in both, while the unbeliever is only living in the natural. (This is theologically known as the "natural man," or the "carnal man." Note: Despite what we may believe "carnality" means, it actually just means temporal or physical. This is how the dictionary defines it. Carnality, definition-wise, does not mean sin. However, as long as we try to battle our sinful nature without relying on the Holy Spirit, Who is in the spiritual realm, we will fail.)The part that gripped me was the reality of the spiritual presence of Christ. Of course, I know the Holy Spirit is in me, and I know that God is omnipresent, but after reading a passage of Scripture in a different light, that reality has become more abundantly clear. That passage is Luke 24:31, when Jesus was speaking to the two disciples along the Emmaus road. It reads, "Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight." To quote Francis Schaeffer.

It would in fact be better to translate: "He ceased to be seen of them." Luke does not say that Christ was no longer there. In this particular place they simply did not see him any longer.

This hit me like a ton of bricks. Do you see? He was still there! He simply vanished. And then I realized, He's here with me in this very room. It's as if He is physically here, just invisible, therefore He's spiritually here. This is the reality of the spiritual realm. Knowing, and I mean knowing, that Christ is right here is equally comforting and convicting. I can't really describe how intensely this hit me. I mean, like I said, I've always known this in my head, but never like I do now in my heart. Just imagine if we lived, as Christians, with the reality of Christ's presence all the time. Think of all the difference it would make -- in our own lives and in the lives of others.