LIfe and Video Surreally Collide

TechTool Pro keeps popping up an alert telling me I am running out of disk space (which I have been fighting ever since I got Logos 4 - yep, it's big!).  So I am spending a couple moments this morning trying to clear out some things on my hard drive I don't need.  Knowing that videos take up a lot of space, I started going through my "Movies" folder seeing what I could pitch.  One movie I found was a video announcement we did about Fall Fest in 2008:

But that video is not the surreal part of this blog post.  The surreal moment occurred when I realized I am wearing exactly the same clothes today (even down to the shoes) that I was wearing the day we filmed the announcement.

Not sure if I should run home and change clothes, or be happy that my clothes have lasted...

(By the way, my own family could not participate in Fall Fest in Motion in 2008, but we did it ourselves in 2009 and it was a neighborhood hit!  I'd enourage you to consider hosting your own Garage Fall Fest party this year!)

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Sno-Cone Family Night!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Logos 4 Mac review

In May, I was able to purchase Logos 4 with some leftover budget money here at New Covenant.  It has been well worth the investment!  The program was only in Alpha when I purchased it, but each release (now up to Beta 8 as of yesterday) keeps revealing the power this program has.  In fact, it has too much power!  Thankfully some of the staff here at New Covenant have been to some training seminars to learn how to use this amazing software, and then they have come back and shared some of their discoveries with me and the rest of us who couldn't make the training.  I haven't given deep research to other Bible software programs for the Mac platform, but I can't imagine any of them measuring up to this one.  There are still a few bugs in the Beta software (I discovered one in the Passage Analysis area - their "Word Tree" isn't working right yet), but it's still been a treat to work with this software.  And I've only just begun to learn the power this program possesses!

This week Logos announce some good news for the Mac community.  They are launching the "final" version of Logos 4 for Mac on October 1.  And to celebrate Logos Bible Software is giving away thousands of dollars of prizes to celebrate! Prizes include an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, and more than 100 other prizes!

They’re also having a special limited-time sale on their Mac and PC base packages and upgrades. I encourage you to check it out.  In today's software world their prices might seem high, but if you are serious about Bible Study, Logos 4 is an incredible tool.  I'm grateful my church had the budget money to allow me and several other staff to invest in their biblical knowledge in this way.

Rating: 4.5 Bibles out of 5

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BASIC film review

Along with several books and CDs in the latest resource box from Neue was the first film of a new video teaching series called "BASIC."  The series features popular pastor Francis Chan and is produced by Flannel, the makers of the Nooma series featuring Rob Bell.

I've only watched the 14-minute film Fear God once, and probably should give it a second showing before reviewing it.  But I'm short on time and have an itch to quickly blog about it.  So here goes...

The film feels VERY Nooma-ish.  It's as if they merely replaced Rob with Francis.  Frankly, as a creative-type person, I found this disappointing.  Don't get me wrong - the quality of the film is top notch (the "behind the scenes" section confirms that). If I had never seen a Nooma, I think I would be blown away with the creativity, the art, the vision, and the whole package.  But having seen every Nooma produced, I felt like this should just be called "NOOMA Fear | 025 Francis Chan," not labelled a new series.

Also, I was surprised during the Behind the Scenes section that the executive producer said that the purpose of the series was to help people understand what the church is and how to BE the church.  I like hearing that, but I don't see after one viewing how that was accomplished through this first film.  This just seemed like another Nooma devotional designed to get me to think about God and fearing Him, not something to spur me on to be the church on mission for this feared God.

I like that the producers and visionaries to this project want to get "back to basics" (thus the series name).  And starting with God is a logical place to begin.  But I felt Francis' teaching didn't help me capture the awesomeness of God and explain why I should fear Him.  In our Americanized church culture, we hear so much about the love and mercy of God that we don't truly fear him (Francis makes this point).  But all I got from Francis was that he doesn't get that idea from reading the Scripture.

To explain what he means, Franics says he doesn't think fear should just mean "honor or respect" (I would agree), but rather fear means fear.  However, rather than give me a great understanding of who this incredible God is and why I should fear him, he gives examples of people in the Scriptures who fear God.  The film assumes you already know God and are familiar with him.  But if we truly knew God, we would naturally fear him in a healthy way.

I think a reading of the C.S. Lewis' classic book "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" would give you a far better understanding of what fearing God looks like.  Aslan, the Christ-figure of the books, is a powerful lion.  You can sense the fear the four Pevensie children have of him.  And yet they are drawn to him.  Despite the fear, despite the knowledge that Aslan is powerful, despite the things they witness and sense about Aslan, they can't help but to be drawn to this lion, to look into his all-seeing eyes, to touch his mane, to hear his voice, and to be in his presence.

Perhaps that part of Francis' teaching ended up on the cutting room floor.  Or maybe I was momentarily distracted and missed it.  But to me, our response to God should be like Job at the end of his self-titled book - fearful of the power, wisdom, and majesty God possesses, and yet drawn to worship Him for who He is.

Again, the quality of Fear God is as good as a person could ever hope for.  And I really like Francis, especially his books, as you can see on other parts of my blog.  I truly believe Francis lives with a healthy fear of this all-powerful God we both worship, adore, and serve.  I just feel that this film doesn't achieve what the video snippets in the "Behind the Scenes" section claim as a goal - to inspire people to be the church.  Perhaps the next film, Follow Jesus, will get closer to that goal.

In summary: if you like the Nooma series, you'll like the BASIC series.  This first film won't blow you away.  It will work well to get discussion started among a small group.  But if you want something fresh and new, this isn't it.  BASIC Fear God pretty much sticks to the Nooma/Flannel formula, so don't expect the same unexpected twists, turns and thought-provoking quotes or images to rattle your thinking and faith.

Rating: 2.5 waterbeds out of 5

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Even our driveway wishes my wife a wonderful birthday, along w/ my kids

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Whittling down the To-Do list

Try G-G the book.

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New Covenant Bible Church Activity Center soft launch

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The best search engine EVER!

Credit goes to Abraham Piper for pointing me to this king of all search engines.  Let the awesomeness of Calvin & Hobbes reign! 

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Erin Bird
erin.bird@newcovenantbible.org
Young Adult Pastor
www.newcovenantbible.org
erinbird.posterous.com

Twitter: erinbbird
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How to eat cheesecake with chopsticks

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I'm really enjoying the session w/ Dr. Xiao, but I'm missing the blue channel on the screen. Too much green! #wcagls

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The Joy of Turning Four

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Exchanging the Divine for the Dumb

In my daily Bible reading program, I am currently in the Psalms.  Today's reading included Psalm 106, which recalls many of the spiritual mistakes of God's chosen people as recounted in the book of Exodus.  Verse 20 captures the essence of the entire chapter, recalling the time in Exodus 32 when Moses was up on the mountain with God, and the impatient Israelites asked Aaron to fashion a new god for them, which ended up being a golden calf.  The NET Bible translates verse 20 like this:

"They traded their majestic God for the image of an ox that eats grass."

It's easy to notice the mistakes of others, to point out the sins others are committing.  But the psalmist doesn't just say "here's what my ancestors did wrong."  He includes himself and his people in with the sins of his predecessors.  Just see verse 6 as proof:

"We have sinned like our ancestors; we have done wrong, we have done evil."

This got me thinking: how have I been like my spiritual ancestors?  No, I'm not Jewish - but I do follow the Most High God.  And unfortunately, I act like the journeying Jews of Exodus more than I care to admit.  Like verse 20 says, I will trade my majestic God for things that have far less value.  I swap the Perfect One of heaven for the imperfect things of earth.  In other words, I exchange the Divine for the dumb.

For me, it used to be TV.  I used to bow down before the glowing screen, giving my attention and affection to something that merely sucked my time, rarely giving anything of value to me.  But while the TV no longer holds sway over me, I have merely replaced it.  I replaced it for a season with Facebook.  More recently it was Twitter which received my attention.  Currently, it is That Word, an iPhone game (I currently hold the global high score - proof enough where my attention has been given in my spare moments).

But it's not just entertainment and social networking that occupies my thoughts.  Sometimes I give my primary affection to my wife or kids (but more honestly, my primary affection usually goes to myself).  Even deeper, I have allowed lust to linger in my heart at times, or for periods allowed my anger to get my attention.  In any of these moments, I am not cherishing Christ, not keeping my eyes on things above, not holding on to that which truly has value.  Instead, I am exchanging the Divine for the dumb.

So what do you do when you realize you have been worshipping an "ox"?  The Bible makes it very clear - you repent.  You confess your sin to God honestly.  You then confess your sin to a fellow follower of Christ.  And then pray for God to change you.  Preach the gospel to yourself (we never mature past the cross, only into it.)

If you are a Jesus-follower, then you have the Holy Spirit residing in you.  Pray for God to give you the desire and the will to live for Christ and live like Christ.  This process of delighting in God more than anything else should include Scripture, prayer, and the input of other Christ-followers.  It isn't always easy to consistently keep Christ upon the throne of our heart because of our default nature.  But it's worth it.  Because the Divine is worth SOOO much more than the dumb things we give our hearts too.

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