i am paradox

Crash

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

The movie Crash is amazing. We saw it in theaters and recently watched it again now that's it on video. Simply amazing.

WOW !

With support for up to 150 hours of video, the new iPod boasts up to 20 hours of battery life, five hours more than before. Plus, you get a bigger display and one more iPod color — sleek black. But here’s the kicker: At under half an inch thin, the new 30GB iPod takes up about 45 percent less room than the original iPod. Even the new 60GB model is 10 percent thinner than the fourth-generation 20GB iPod. More features in less space? Sounds like iPod.

Plus with the new Itunes 6, you can download tv shows for 1.99 !

For Real: Apple unveils video Ipod !

That's right, you heard it here first. On Wednesday, Apple unveiled in San Jose what many people have been waiting for: the video ipod!  Here are the stats from Engadget:

"The new iPod, as speculated, features video capabilities and the wider display, but it’s still a music-first device.

The device will feature a 2.5-inch display, QVGA resolution (320 x 240), and will MPEG-4 h.264 (natch), and presumably Quicktime.

The new iPod will be 30% thinner than the current 20GB iPod (making it 0.44-inches thick—say wha?), and will feature a 60GB version and editions of both in black. The 20GB should go for $299, and the 60GB for $399. They’ll be shipping next week."

Apple has not yet updated their website, but should by this afternoon.

Special Guest Speaker on Demonology

My good friend and mentor Chris can just post like a sentence and get a dozen responses. But on Sunday, he posted quite a worthy blog entry which is getting a lot of attention. Here is a sample:

"But when was the last time that you or I drove out a demon?

In our modern, enlightenment-influenced age, I fear we are quick to diagnose "troubled" people as having a host of psychological and/or neurological disorders, but slow (if at all) at attributing anything to demonic influences.  Why is that?  Is it because we are much more a man or woman of science than we care to admit? Is it because of unfortunate abuses we have witnessed in years past?  Is it because we're embarassed to believe in demonic activity anymore?  Or is it because we've become far too sophisticated for such primative notions as demons and the like?"

You can read the rest here!

Anyway, all of that to say this: paradox will be hosting a very special guest and noted expert on this topic Sunday, October 30th, 6:30 p.m. Yes, that is the night before Halloween. Yes, we did that on purpose!  Everyone is invited out to hear famed author and professor Dr. Charles Kraft speak, and then take your questions live.

Are demons real today? What are they and where did they come from? How do we discern between an evil spirt and psychological and/or neurological disorders?  And what about demon possession--how does it happen and why? Please help us get the word out about this night--it should be an amazing experience!

London gets Sexual Theme Park

"Move over, Eros. Developers announced plans Friday to open a multimillion dollar sexual "theme park" near London's Piccadilly Circus, home to the much-photographed statue of the Greek god of love.

Backers say the London Academy of Sex and Relationships, due to open next spring, will not be a sleazy sex museum, but an educational multimedia attraction that will teach visitors to become better lovers and provide valuable information about disease and sexual problems.

Located within the Trocadero entertainment center — just around the corner from Soho, London's red-light district — the $8.3 million project will feature unspecified "high tech and interactive exhibits."

Alex Rayner, a spokesman for the project, said it was "committed to avoiding the sleazy image that the sex industry usually conjures."

"Titillation is not the goal," he said. "It's meant to be educational. It's meant to be informative."

Sounds, um, interesting?

God tells Bush go to War in Iraq

" President Bush allegedly said God told him to invade a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to details.

Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.

The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.

Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: "I'm driven with a mission from God.

'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.'

"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.

"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath."

Wow. I'm speechless.

Article Link

God of Wrath ?

I have been thinking through and processing the nature of God lately. How do we deal with the angry wrath of God's judgement in the Old Testament with the love that Jesus preached about in the New Testament?  And to be even more specific, it's one thing when God sends judgement upon people (i.e. the flood), but what about the genocide that Israel commited in the name of God, numerous times? 

I will post some more about this over the weekend, but I recenly came across this post from my friend Mike DeVries :

" Here's an exerpt from the late night essay on Judges 11. Thoughts anyone?

Perhaps one of the most disturbing stories in all the Scriptures is found in Judges 11, which chronicles the actions of Jephthah and the deliverance of Israel from the Ammonites. Jephthah we are told in the text is the product of the union between a prostitute and Gilead. He is subsequently cast off by Gilead’s wife to fend for himself, taking to a life of raiding, surrounded by outlaws as companions. When the Ammonites wage war on Israel, Israel calls on Jephthah to deliver them. Jephthah agrees and sends word to the Ammonites trying to avoid a bloody confrontation. When it appears that the Ammonites have not heeded his words, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon, assuring him of victory.

It is at this point that the story takes an ominous turn. Jephthah makes a vow unto the Lord that “whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the LORD’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” [Judges 11.31] Jephthah goes off to war against the Ammonites and finds God’s promise faithful – the Ammonites are given over to his hand. Upon returning to his house, his daughter, his only child, comes out of the house to greet him, as was the custom of the day. Jephthah, faced with a choice, decides the unthinkable – to go ahead with the sacrificing of his daughter unto the LORD, and this even at her own encouragement!

The question that haunts the reader is why. Why does Jephthah make this kind of vow? Does God actually condone the vow? Why does Jephthah decided to go through with the sacrifice, since the Scriptures strictly forbids human sacrifice? Why does his daughter placidly agree to the sacrifice, even encouraging her father to go through with it? All the while the reader must ask the question, “Where is God when all this is happening? He stopped the hand of Abraham, will he not stop the hand of Jephthah?” God is strangely silent in Judges 11, again why?

And what is the legacy of Jephthah in light of Judges 11-12? R.K. Harrison notes, Although Jephthah never claimed the title of "judge," he was one of the most illustrious leaders of that period of Hebrew history. A man of energy and conviction who was used by the Spirit of God, he fought valiantly against the pagan Ammonites. He was faithful in his vow to God, even though it cost him dearly, and in the NT was included in the category of great people of faith [Hebrews 11.32]. [Harrison, p. 984]. According to Harrison, Jephthah appears to be a model of faithfulness to God, with the human sacrifice of his daughter justified as a reasonable, even courageous act of obedience. Can this really be?"

Judges 11