Rick Warren Article

I thought this article was interesting. Sorry it's a little long. Say what you want about the whole purpose driven thing, Warren is helping establish the Kingdom.

Regarding the Previous Post

After talking with Corrie, husband of Dawn and Jaz husband of Leslie, about the excerpt from McLaren's book that I quoted in my previous post, the comment was made "That's great for describing the mysterious things of the Kingdom but has terrible implications for ethics."

Thoughts?

My Latest Read

Here's what I've been reading lately. It's probably the most cerebral book I've read in a long time. Now I'm not sure I buy McLaren's view on everything, but right now it's helping me decide I need to have an opinion on things. Here's an excerpt that sent chills up my spine.

Is it possible that Jesus was intentionally keeping his message of the kingdom a secret so that it wasn't obvious, wasn't easy to grasp, wasn't like a simple mathematical formula that can quickly learned and repeated? It is possible that the message of Jesus was less like an advertising slogan - obvious and loud - and more like a poem whose meaning only comes subtly and quietly to those who read slowly, think long and deeply, and refuse to give up?


Thoughts?

Dang

My FINAL Oiler Poem Of The Season

It makes me very sad
I'm not so very happy
The 'Canes have won the Cup
But I won't get sappy

My Oiler poetry
Will now be put to bed
Untill next winter when
It will come to my head

If It Works

Close

This will be my second last Oiler poem:

I can't believe we're in it
I feel like I'm 11
I'm so excited for Monday Night
Stanley Cup Game 7

From Vancouver where I live
To St John's (I've lived there too)
The red flag flies over Canada
But on Monday's it's Oiler blue

I Think I Need To Go To The Chiropractor

I feel a little woosy
I think I need to sit
I've jumped back on the bandwagon
And it hurts a little bit

I never left my team alone
I've always been a fan
But if I had watched the game last night
You'd have to call me "Ulcer-man"

I really really think now
The series will go seven
And if it goes all the way
Hockey fans will be in heaven

From Raleigh North Carolina
To Edmonton A-B
On Saturday night true hockey fans
Will be in front of the TV

I'm Not Watching Tonight

I'm not watching tonight
Cuz I won't be alright
It won't be really fine-ah
If we lose in Carolina

I'm not watching tonight
But I think I might
Go out for Indian food
Cuz I'm not in the mood

To lose to Carolina, tonight.



PS - It was a great run

Tonight We Tie It Up

Continuing my series of Stanley Cup final poetry. This one is definely a dramatic reading. With sound effects in the background and maybe a good car chase scene towards the end.










Tonight we tie the series
Tonight we tie it up
Tonight's the night we're halfway home
Halfway to the Cup

We've got to get some goals
From Hemsky, Horcoff and Stoll
We've got to get you going
Get you on a roll

Keep the puck in their end.
Away from Jussi Jussi
Because if they get too many shots
It may just cook our goose-y

Tonight we tie the series
Tonight we tie it up
Tonight's the night we're halfway home
Halfway to the Cup

The Juss Is On The Loose

My Third Oiler Poem. This one could actually be sung as well. Sing it in Db - the saddest of all sad keys.








Jussi, Jussi, Jussi
You played in the big game
You played too "loosy-goosy"
You're driving me insane

You flop around like Flipper
We're in a 2-0 pinch
We need to win one for the Gipper
No 5 hole - don't give an inch.

You need a shut out Saturday
At home in Rexall Place
You need to shut the lights out
To help us in this race

We need to win 4 out of 5
And you're just the man to do it
Unless of course you aren't
And then you'll be the man who blew it

Jussi Jussi Jussi
Play big - big as a Moose
May it be said the Oilers won
And that "The Juss is on the loose"!!!

For All You Switchfoot Fans Out There

Here's an article that leaves me thinking "WHAT THE HECK?"

Oh No!!

The second installment in my Oilers poetry:








Oh no Rollie
My superstar goalie
Oh no Rollie oh no

Holy Holy Moly
No more Rollie
Up in the pressbox you have to go

A great deadline acquisition
Who plays a very important position
And you have been on a roll I must explain

You're no longer called a child
Glad we rescued you from the Wild
The Mighty Oilers goalie named Dwayne

Oh no Rollie
You've a few games you've stole-y
But now it's up to a guy
Named Ty......NOT GOOD.

My Team Is In

At times like this I feel very poetic. I feel like expressing my inner most feelings through rhyme. And so I bring to you the first in what will be a series of poems focussing on the most poetic of all things..... THE MIGHTY EDMONTON OILERS!!!!!!


My team is in the finals
The first time in 16 years
My team is in the finals
It's enough to bring me to tears


I grew up in Gretzky's era
With Kurri and Messier too
With many a cup parade happening
Going down Whyte Avenue


It all seemed so improbable
Just a few months ago
When "the Oil" was sitting in 9th place
With only 10 games to go


So I guess the people to thank for this
Isn't the Wings the Sharks or the Ducks
But the team who choked so we could get in the playoffs
Thank you VANCOUVER CANUCKS!!!!

From One Newfie To Another

Leave it to a Newfie to bring a little bit of wisdom to our current hot button topics. Enjoy!!!!



A Pop Tart Spits Straight In Our Eye
REX MURPHY

Madonna is on tour again.

Nothing new. More of the vulgar same, that tired mix of rough raunch and glitz, laced as always with some overt and unfailing crude manipulation of Christian symbols. Madonna is as predictable as Tim Hortons, but Timmy's is at least always fresh.

This time, it's a scene of Madonna wearing a crown of thorns and being "crucified" on some massive stage cross. The jeer at Christianity by one of the world's most successful and hollow talents is blatant -- as is everything this star does -- deliberate and crude.

It comes, whether by design or by luck, on the tail of the whirlwind publicity of The Da Vinci Code film.

There is, of course, no sense or point in challenging Madonna's "artistic" efforts, and even less than none at all in trying to mount some protest over it. The over-the-hill hipsters who still find some buzz in whatever Madonna does, those who have bought the ridiculous and endlessly repeated estimate of her skill at "reinventing" herself, will only find the factitious thrill of her "transgressiveness" validated by the response of the rubes and the righteous.

I am sorry to see that the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has issued a condemnation. Not because it was wrong to do so, and not because Kabbalah's most celebrated convert doesn't deserve a condemnation, but simply because on the current understanding of religion in this predominantly secular culture it is so useless for the Catholic League, or any other church organization, to be doing so.

Every official mutter from any Christian group will merely sell another cluster of $350 tickets and give oxygen to the success of the Madonna tour machine. Take a jab at the Cross, the central icon of Christianity, accessorize with a crown of thorns, the bitter emblem of the Christian Saviour's suffering, and the cash registers will keep on ringing.

But I do hope that the serious Christians who are watching this latest instalment of free hits against their faith are measuring it against the far greater caution, deference and respect that is being shown to a religion far less common in the West, that of Islam.

Since the horrors of 9/11, we have seen from governments in the West, the media, civil agencies, school boards and political parties a conscious, elaborate and -- let me stress this -- wholly commendable effort to afford Islam and its adherents all manner of respect and sensitivity.

The turmoil over some caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed provides the most recent illustration of delicacy in the matter of a people's religion. The Danish cartoon episode was remarkable, to a degree that has still not been sufficiently acknowledged, by how many of the Western media declined, in the name of sensitivity to the religious faith of Muslims, to publish those cartoons.

But it has not escaped the attention of those who hold the Christian faith that this same sweep of deference and respect is not extended when the tenets or icons of their faith are treated as fodder and, worse, for the cultural grinder. A fading pop tart crucifying herself hardly qualifies as a genuflection.

Are Christians less sensitive than Muslims? Does Christ not occupy a centrality in Christianity more or less equivalent to the Prophet Mohammed in Islam? Is an insult to one faith any less an outrage than an insult to another?

So Madonna's Vegas-style crucifixion will serve as yet another reminder to serious Christians that a double standard of immense differential is operating on the terrain of religion. Her tour might just be the cue for those accommodating and docile religionists to start asking for at least a portion of the respect that their fellows in another faith receive as it seems by right.

I don't think one has to be religious to see the elementary justice of this. We are a society that calibrates rights to the millimetre and recoils, as from the darkest sin, at the thought of one group being "privileged" over another. And nowhere will you find a more hypersensitive social conscience than in the great altitudes of pop entertainment. Some of these deep hearts actually wear rubber bands to signal their devotion to good causes. Such sacrifice.

Madonna is a high emblem of that set. This Confessions tour of hers might just trigger a call on the massive hypocrisy of it all. If only that were so, her vulgar crown of thorns and her vulgar crucifixion, and the more vulgar crass impulse behind them both, might actually do some good.

Rex Murphy is a commentator with CBC-TV's The National and host of CBC Radio One's Cross-Country Checkup.

Historymaker '06 In The Books

Thanks Darcy & Leanne for another great year. It was "wicked awesome" serving with you. NEVER STOP MODELLING!!!

Our Holiday Video

Here's a link to a video I made of our vacation in Puerto Vallarta. Check it out. We're at Google video!!!

Hank Looks For A New Church

Check this video out. It's quite humorous. As a comment thread, let me know what you most enjoy about your current church. What are they doing well. Hope to post some more photos or footage from Puerto Vallarta real soon.

Hola, Mi Amigos!!!

Hello everyone. We're back in Vancouver and rested up good!!! We had a great trip and I will show you a couple of pictures later. I'm planning to make a short picture video this week so I'll post that as soon as I finish it.
I read 1 2 3 books and Wanda read 1 2 . We also read a book together.
Here's a picture of our usual spot at the beach:














Here's a picture of the dessert the restaurant gave us when they found out it was our anniversary:














Here's a picture of our last sunset in Puerto Vallarta:















Well I'm off to Winnipeg for General Conference. I'll try to post from there but if not, I'll catch you next week.

This Is My 100th Post!!!

I think I'll celebrate by GOING TO MEXICO.

No posts for a while. Check back 2nd week of May.

Lord Of The Rings Europop

Those crazy Euros. Theey'll make a pop song out of anything.