SATURDAY SILVER SCREEN SCRUINTY...

Once again the time has come for SATURDAY SILVER SCREEN SCRUTINY...

Today we will be discussing the movie "HARD CANDY"....

On the right is the poster for the film... odd and intense all the same.

To say this is a story of a quick witted girl, Hayley (played by Ellen Page, Juno), gives no justice for this film.

In this film it starts out with what seems to be conversation of adult portion. There is Hayley (played by Ellen Page, Juno) and then there is Jeff (played by Patrick Wilson, Watchmen). In this conversation you find out they are going to meet, for some coffee and scones. One thing that we are unsure of is how old each character is. When they arrive to meet we find that Hayley is an "innocent" 14 year old girl and Jeff is a 32 year old "hip" photographer. We can see that Jeff has more of an infatuation with Hayley... then, what you know is coming, Jeff has her come over TO HIS HOUSE...WHAT?!?!? Ya you heard it, a 32 year old asking a 14 year old over... WRONG!!!

Anyway, more about the film... While they are at the house he speaks of photography and what he does. There is a scene in this movie where she is making "screw drivers" and both are getting "drunk". He gets his camera to take some stills of the 14 year old girl and while this goes on he becomes outraged with her and then passes out...

Then the tables turn, we find out that the 14 year old girl is not as "innocent" as she comes across. She has tied Jeff up on a computer chair. Through out the next hour of the film we find out that she has had this planned long before they ever spoke on-line. I do not want to ruin the movie for you but let us just say Jeff's "manhood" may be "cut short"...

Believe me when I say this is not a film for the faint of heart. Language is rough and most likely over the top... Topic of pedophile is rampant through out the movie... please think hard about watching this movie before you do... This is not a family film, date film or informational film... It is straight up intense thriller type flick...

I rate this 3 out of 5 stars...

until next time...

Exercise...

I have friend that is doing amazing with working out. he has lost something like 26 pounds. It is awesome. I Salute you 1010in2010... He is having a challenge that he is calling Blogger-Made Home Workout Challenge In this challenge he is asking us all to do his work out for a week. He will start on this challenge on Monday. I am really going to try on this. So bring it on... I hope I am able to make it...

Until next time...

Age and Circumstance doesnt matter...

First Read 1 Timothy 1:12 and then read Hebrews 11.

Have you ever had someone look at you and say you are to young to be apart? I have. There were those times where I was to short to ride the roller coaster at the local theme park. Or I was in the awkward stage of finding shoes... you know where you are unable to find the shoes size you need in the children's section but they also seem to lack when you go to the adults shoes as well. To many times growing up we find ourselves in this predicament. It honestly doe not matter what age you are people are looking at you as if you are too young.

My wife and I have many friends that are older than us. I know it bothers my wife more than it bothers me but when we expose our age it is almost like we failed in life. People end up speaking to us differently and do not think we can understand certain things because of How old we are. Do not get me wrong there are something we do not understand yet because we have not experienced it (i.e. having a baby). My wife and I think we know something about having a Child but we honestly do not.

I remember growing up and always wanting to go to Wal-Mart to check out the last toy (things havent changed now it is electronics). I would ask by brother to take me and you guessed it he said no...

Look at the first scripture I gave you. Paul is writing to Timothy (he is young and he is preaching). In this letter, Paul is trying to encourage Timothy to stay strong, teach good doctrine and just because you are young doenst mean you can not encourage and lead people toward Christ. I came across this video... click here to watch it.

Guess how old this girl is??????? She is 11. That is it 11. She has grace the presents of Katie Holmes, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhal, Hillary Swank, Minnie Driver and the list goes on. She has been on the show HOUSE M.D., Croy in the House, CSI New york and not only this she is going to be in 5 featured films in the next 2 years (information found @ www.imdb.com)

With all of this Hollywood "glory" surrounding her she still lives her faith out. She is not letting Her age affect how God can use her... When are we going to realize our age doesnt matter?

Take a look again at Hebrews 11. I want you to think of the hall of fame of some sport or product or show... what ever that hall of fame is that is kind of what is represented here in Hebrews 11. This is the "HALL OF FAME OF FAITH"... These are the big guns of the Old Testament. Let us talk about a few of the people that are mentioned:
--> Abraham -- promised generations would be linked to him. He is the father of many nations... He lied about his wife being his wife, twice, said she was his sister.
--> Moses (you know the one that help set the Hebrew nation free from the Egyptian rule)... He was a murder and was afraid to speak in front of people.
--> Rahab (back in this time women were looked at more as property than people)... She was a woman, a Gentile (someone that was not a jew) and then she was a Prostitute.
--> David (the one who slayed Goliath)... he was a murderer, adulterer, and children plotted daily to kill him. (information found from "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan)

All of these mentioned were found in Hebrews for their faith. That is wild... These people did some very messed up things. I am not telling you to go and kill someone or lie about your wife or become a prostitute. I am telling you that your circumstance does not have to define who you are... Yes these people did some awful things but they lived out their faith. They did not let they did control the outcome of their faith. A great example of someone who did not let their circumstance effect them is Jason McElwain. To watch the video click here or his name. He did not let his "circumstance" effect his performance.

I Challenge you all to not let your age or your circumstance effect how you are going to live for Christ.

until next time...

Burning the Fat Monday's...

I have decided to start working out, I have done many workouts before. What makes this time so much more interesting is the fact I am going to be documenting how this weight-loss/workout will be going. I was really inspired by my friends blog http://www.1010intwentyten.blogspot.com/. He has done amazing with weight loss and getting into great shape. This is for the purpose of having a better way of life. None of this: "I cant walk, because I am to tired." or "I cant have my wife because I am to out of shape." or "I dont feel like doing something because I have no energy." I do not want my family genes(my family gains weight pretty easily) to wear the pants in this war on weight... get it pants - genes... Never mind, bad joke.

Here is what I weigh, ate and exercised:

Weight --> 195

Breakfast -- 2 eggs (scrambled without milk) and one slice of toast 1/3 serving of margarine

Lunch -- 1 serving of Taco bake, small amount of mac/cheese and salad

snack -- one granola bar

Supper -- One boneless chicken breast grilled with bbq sauce, one serving of green beans and one serving of scallop potatoes.

Workout --
Treadmill --> 6 mph, 24 mins, 2.2 miles, 296 calories burned
Weights --> 3 sets of 8
--> Bicep Curls
--> Hammer Curls
--> Concentration Curls
--> Bench Press
--> Incline Dumbbell Press
--> Push Up
--> Tricep Pushdown
--> Tricep Kickbacks
--> calories burned weightlifting -- 260 Calories burned
--> Total calories burned --> 556

Not to bad I dont think... I am unsure at how many calories I ate... that is something I will need to become more aware of.

Until next time...

Saturday Sliver Screen Scrunity...

From now on, on Saturdays, I will be giving reviews on different movies that I have seen... who knows it may give you all some insight on what to see... With out further a due... SATURDAY SLIVER SCREEN SCRUTINY!!!

Today My wife and I went saw the much anticipated movie by Tim Burton (you guessed it) "Alice and Wonderful"

A little review of the movie (I advise you there will probably be spoilers).

We see Alice all grown up (19 to be true). She is no longer the little girl that fell into the hole from Disney's perspective. She has been guaranteed to be wed to a yuppie. While speaking with the her soon to be mom-n-law Alice notice's a "rabbit". Not just any rabbit... The rabbit that had the old pocket watch. As we know she follows along and falls. But this is a very different "underland" than we were use to as a children.

Alice meets all the nostalgic characters that flew through the movie long ago. Johnny Depp does an excellent job of being the Mad Hatter... the thing I couldn't get past was the Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissors combination to make up this lovely character. The Queen of Hearts, played by Helena Bonham Carter, was done to a "T". She pulled off this retched character like none other. Ann Hathaway played the white queen and did a superb job as well (kind of reminded me of Giselle in the movie Enchanted, just not as perky). Then there is Mia Wasikowska, who played Alice. She did a fine job of portraying the Character of Alice. We see her go from this unsure about herself girl to standing against greatest odds.

Alice in wonderland is all about not Letting the imagination die and to not let anyone hold you back. If you have a dream go for it. It had a feel good theme with a classic Tim Burton quirkiness threaded through it. All in all I rate the movie a 3.7 out of 5.

That is the SATURDAY SLIVER SCREE SCRUTINY for today... until next time...

We swing and miss to many times...

I remember growing up playing baseball. I was the kid that would swing at the tee ball and end up hitting the tee. Later on I was the kid that could field but when it came to hitting the ball, I struck out.

As Christians we swing and miss all the time. Today I started to read the book "The Gutter" by Graig Gross. He is the co-founder of XXXChurch.com. In this book He starts out talking about a time, as a youth minister, that he felt like he was going and doing the work that Christ wants of Christians. The only thing was he swung and missed. In this story he tells, he speaks of how him and his youth group decided to make sack lunches for the local homeless group. In the process of handing out the brown bag special he and his youth found out they were not meeting any kind of need. A block or two from where they were was a homeless shelter that gave food everyday. What did giving the bag of food do for the homeless? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! As you read on you find out something interesting... "Their refusal of our lunch stunned me, leaving me discouraged by rejection. It was pretty worthless offer, after all. My students and I hung our heads and began to retreat, and our defenseless posture must have irked the leader, because he suddenly lashed out, 'How can you think your sandwich would help us? Look at her feet. Do you think your lunch can warm her feet? Can it?'"

They were shown the need... shoes. How many times do we miss our mark? I know I have countless times. It seems it was one of those situations that he felt was a great idea but did not research the real need of the people.

Christ went into the culture knowing what people needed. He would not only offer salvation he would offer healing (physical, spiritual and mental). Recently here at church we had a couple come to us saying they need help. Churches are a huge target for free money. So we had to be careful. But as the couple told us what was going on, our guard has slowly gone down.

Their story consist of this... They came from Michigan. Where they lived in Michigan was becoming pretty rough. Drugs, violence and the works. They want to start a family and establish them in a place that is not falling apart. Well they ended up in a small town here in south-east Missouri. The only thing with this small town is they treat African-Americans like dirt. Not only this She is white and he is African-American. This spells trouble for them in this small town. I couldn't believe it (that such racism still is around).

Well they decided to move to Poplar Bluff Mo. They only had a few bucks and no where to live. They went to a church and ask for help as he looked for work. The church offered to pay for 2 nights stay in a hotel, supper and some gas. Well this lasted only for a bit. They have only been here for 5 days. They stopped by our church and ask if there was any work that needed to be done. Well just so have it we are painting the inside of the youth building. So, we gave them 40 bucks and they painted for 2 and half hours. They even offered to come back today. They have done such amazing work. We paid them again and if the money doesn't hold over for a couple of days, my wife and I are going to have them stay at our house (we have an extra room).

It is wild when you hope to do Gods work. He will have you do it at the most unexpected times. Pray and see what God wants you to do.

until next time...

I must speak a word...

I hope, the words that will be coming out of my mouth will give glory to HIM. I know to many times we hear of preachers and pastors getting into scandals and they shock people. Why do they shock people? I think it is because people secretly hold them higher than themselves. We see them behind the cool looking stand (that always seems to resemble a cross), nice suite and tie, and good stories and think man I would not mind being him. The thing is when we are confronted with the notion to do the same we seem to have "excuses".

Why is it we back down when it comes to speaking? We all do it enough anyways. I think it is because we know, deep down inside, that it is more than just speaking. We are proclaiming truth. Truth does not just work on the ones that are hearing but the one projecting the words as well.

Just think if what we said would effect us for the rest of our lives. When it comes to teaching or preaching we seem to always think it is for the ones that "need" to hear it. Christ does not seem to always work this way. If you look at the Pharisees (teachers of the day) they would stand on the street corners proclaim how much better they were then the next Joe. We are like this, I have notice that in my own life recently the "mistakes" of others but have not truly evaluated my own. How wrong am I? Dead wrong.

We need to realize what ever we teach or preach, that it is not about what we have to say. We like to blow smoke up our butts (you know it is true). We always tell about the one that "got away". It was massive, i mean it was practically the size of the boat. When you really mean, I was lazy and lost a 6 ounce blue gill...

Stop trying to impress the world and realize that what we might be teaching or preaching is really meant for ourselves. God uses all things to teach us. Why wouldn't he use what we have prepared to teach ourselves?

Remember may the words that are spoken in truth not only set the listener free but yourself as well...

until next time...