Son Of Hulk

Before the summer becomes busy with summer camps and other projects, I decided to spend the day before Father's day with my son Dax. He is going into middle school next year and still thinks it is cool to spend time with me, so I figured we'd make a day of it.

one of the items on our agenda was to see the Incredible Hulk. The Hulk is one of my all time favorite comic book characters. Of all the comics I have, I have more Hulk than anything else.

Why? I guess I identify with him in many ways.

1. It is hard to tell whether he is a hero or not, he clearly has special powers, but he doesn always do the right things. I feel the same way about myself. I know God has given me special abilities, but I don't always use them in the best way.(1 Cor 9:27)

2. When the Bruce Banner is in control, things are good, he uses his head. But when he goes into savage Hulk mode, he often behaves on instinct rather than wisdom. I'm like that too. I'm best when my heart, mind, and strength are all working together (Mark 12:30). It is when I allow one part to go on auto pilot that I get myself in trouble and life is hard to manage.

3. The best Hulk stories (including the new movie) follow the Hulk on a journey to master the beast within. I too feel like my life is a journey, I'm trying to keep my sin nature from taking over. Inside me lies a beast that Christ died for, and God has given me the Holy Spirit so I might live victoriously by walking in His ways. (Rom 8:10)

Romans 8:5
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Matthew 16:25
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Those are some random thoughts about The Hulk. The movie was pretty good, like Aquaman, Hulk stories are hard to write. I think they did this one well.

Here's to taming the Hulk in all of us!

Mark

PS. Happy Father's day to all you dad's who may be reading. The Hulk is a dad as of this week too. his son Skaar just got his own title. If you wonder where his son came from ... well... that is a story for another day.

Trying New Things

Flying home from California last week I was served a salad that contained some green olives (did I mention I was flying First Class? Okay .. now I have). I've never liked olives, black or green. For years I've picked them off pizzas, salads, and sandwiches. Don't know why, but ever since I was a kid, I had no desire for them.

So why was I about to eat the olives in my salad now?

To discover the reason why we have to journey back to a dinner party several months ago at the home of friends Roy and Rita Peterson. Rita had prepared a wonderful authentic Italian meal and served some toast with a wonderful tapenade (if you don't know that word, it means "topping"). I ate these little morsels of goodness one after another. As a cook myself I had to know what this creamy concoction was made of. You guessed it "Olives". I couldn't believe it! How had I been denying myself of this goodness for so long?

So I started trying things I hadn't liked before, like broccoli, asparagus, milk only to find that there were many things I wrongly formed an opinion about (however, I still don't like milk).

Two things I learned from this.

1. There are many things in life we never try for wrong reasons. Maybe we had a bad experience in the past, but as time goes on we change (or forget why we didn't like something initially).

2. Relationships can cause us to try new things. Most of the time when I try something I never have before it is because someone introduced me to the idea or encouraged, challenged, even dared me to do it.

This is a good reason to have close friends, they influence us more than we can imagine. Not always for the good. Proverbs 13:20 reminds us, He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."

So, using wisdom, why not try some new things. Need some help? Ask a good friend to help you identify some things you never do.

Mark

Time For TV?

I have always been a TV junkie, and by always I mean since I was a wee tot. So gather around kiddies and I'll tell you about the time we bought our first color television, changed channels using needle nose pliers when the knob was broken, and couldn't afford to by movies on video tape because the cheap ones cost eighty bucks!

No, I won't bore you by telling tales of the olden days (the 70's), but I would like you to think about something I realized last Dec while watching the 300th episode of the medical drama ER, (which airs Thursdays on NBC).

My wife and I were almost two years married when ER first aired in September of 1994. Since then we have watched every episode that followed. That means if you don't count re-runs and commercials, we have watched at least 300 hours of ER.

This number almost made my heart stop beating... Call the ER!

300 hours divided by the 24 hours in a day means that if I could watch ER without sleeping, I would have watched it for 12 days straight!

Since watching TV for 12 days without sleeping is impossible (I think ... maybe something I should try!), let's break that up into eight hour work days. If my job were to watch ER, I would have watched for more than 37 days! Over a month of my life spent watching ER.

That might not be so bad, but ER is not the only show I watch!

I started noticing that really successful people I know rarely are aware of what is on TV. Maybe because they don't watch it. They don't know who Jim and Pam are and when I talk about The Hills, they look out a window. These are the people who refer to American Idol as that Talent Search show. They may sound ignorant of what is on TV, but these are people I really admire for their accomplishments in life. I started asking questions and found most spend the majority of time doing productive activities with their family and using their talents.

So I ask ...
Am I wasting too much of my life in front of the tube? Are you?

These passages come to mind:
Proverbs 12:24
Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.

Ecclesiastes 10:18
If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks.

I can't get that month of watching ER back, but moving forward I'm determined to watch less TV. ( this will be hard since I have 3 DVR's which have not saved time but simply made it possible for me to watch MORE TV!). I won't give up TV completely (my wife and I have enjoyed our 13 year date with ER every Thursday), but I'll be more mindful of my time.

Mark

PS. I really didn't plan this, but my two new books came out and are somewhat related to this post. Wisdom On...Time and Money, and Wisdom on... Music,Moves & Television, get them today!

Growing Up In the Pond

Last night I was talking to a student in my LifeGroup about some faith issues she was struggling with on her path to maturity. she had grown up in a Christian home and had put her trust in Christ at a young age. I brought up this tadpole idea I thought I'd share here.

Like many who began following Christ at a very young age, we often struggle with our faith as we get older, particularly as we go through puberty. why is this?

I think there are two reasons, but one I want to explore is the idea of "new surrender".

When we were younger we weren't fully developed. Our physical, intellectual, emotional, and social selves weren't fully formed. We were like tadpoles, just a head and a tale. Environmentally we were stuck in the water, not fully able to do everything maturity allows us too.

When we come to Christ at this tadpole stage we give it all to God, our head, tale and the water world of our lives. But as we mature we begin to develop new freedoms and new aspects of ourselves.



Continuing with the tadpole analogy, we get get legs, and the ability to live in our true amphibious freedom both in and out of the water. When we were young we surrendered all we were to God, but now we face new aspects of ourselves, new freedoms that have not yet been surrendered.

Now I must realize that if I want to continue following Christ, I must surrender these new abilities and freedoms as well if I am to continue this walk.

1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

What new freedoms do you have that you have not surrendered to Christ?

• Freedoms with time
• Future Career
• Media
• Friendships
• Privacy
• Drivers License
  

What new abilities do you have that should be surrendered?

• My thought life
• Anger
• Emotions
• Feelings of Revenge
• Bitterness and Envy
• Ability to serve
• Ability to use words to build up or tear down
  

Surrender is a tough word. As Americans we do not like the idea of surrender, as a nation or individuals. But the secret of finding the kingdom life is by giving up what we think we know is the way, so that we can truly find it!

Jesus said: Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 17:33)

What are you struggling with to surrender? Does this make sense in your own walk toward maturity?

If you have grown up in "the pond" of church you may struggle to find this place of "new surrender". The Jews Jesus ministered too grew up in the "pond" and struggled to understand him too. the breakthroughs happened for those who came to understand what surrender truly means.

Centered,

Mark

One Napkin Revolution Update

Many of you know I recently resolved to waste less by using only one napkin when I go out to eat, I call this the One Napkin Revolution. (see past blog posts for details)

I've done fairly well except for a few instances where the napkins were ... uh .. paper thin. So I had to use a couple extra.

The revolution has caught on .. and some of you have even talked to me about it at PlanetWisdom. Here's a note from Ali (pictured with me above) who brought One Napkin Revolution signs to PlanetWisdom in Southern California.

While I'm glad she is joining me in wasting less, I'm really excited about what God is doing in her life. I'll share some of her letter.

Hi Mark. My name is Ali and my church and I came to Planet Wisdom this past weekend.
I LOVED IT. The message was amazingly motivational. My friend and I had a very deep conversation about when God's plan for us is going to come and practically everything you talked about with molding us into the Christians we want to be. But I'm also the girl who was sitting in the front row holding the bright pink posters saying "Save a Tree Use OneNapkin." and you told me to send the pic we took to you so I am doing that. =]

Your blogs are where i go to when i want to read something funny yet serious. And this weekend i felt as if i could relate to you about being the odd one out and not dating and having your friends talk about their boyfriends and girlfriends and you kinda showed me how to deal with that. And most of all... You have me wanting to become a christian motivational [or what ever you call what you doo =) ]] speaker. and i want to THANK YOU for this.

I WILL BECOME MORE..

wait..

I AMMM BECOMING MORE.

Ali
p.s.--- i was holding the poster upside down. =/

Great stuff Ali! I am excited God is at work in your life helping you become more!

Got a story to share or a question you would like me to answer on my blog? Send it to me!

Mark

How Many Do You Have?

I was cleaning up my office today and realized that I have a ton of Bibles (pictured are some of my Bibles, there are two shelves full of Bibles not pictured!).

How many Bibles do you have in your home?

While in Mexico filming a video about Bible translation (see below) we met a women who came to church and didn't bring a Bible. She didn't leave it at home, and it wasn't that she didn't care. She didn't have her Bible because there wasn't one in her language.

It is alarming to realize that with so many Bibles on our shelves there are people in the world today without any scripture in their language. When I ask students in America how often they read the Bible they shamefully admit they don't read it much. In fact, the students who come to my house on Wednesday night for Bible study rarely bring one of their many Bibles with them.

Take a look at your church's lost and found. What will the number one item there be found? Probably Bibles!

I'm not trying to lay a guilt trip on you (ok ... maybe a little one), but there are 2,251 languages in the world today that need a translation because none exist. Those languages represent hundreds of millions of people! Clearly, we have been blessed to have God's word, but what use is it if we don't put it to use?

Think about the amazing gift of scripture. Reminds me of Psalm 199:97-100

Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.

Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.

I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.

I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.

Last week Wes Peterson and I were in Orlando for a conference and drove by the Crown Plaza hotel where we had once discussed Bible translation. We realized that it had been three years ago that God birthed a vision to connect students to Bible translation through a program we helped launch called One Verse. Go check out their website, you can help sponsor verses of scripture so they can be translated into the languages of people who don't have them. A pretty cool way to change the world! (see the video below of some students in the UK doing just that!) Wycliffe's The Seed Company facilitates the sophisticated partnerships it takes to accomplish a Bible's translation.

So where is your Bible? Have you read it today? For half hundreds of millions of people, they don't even have one to read. Think about that.

Mark

PS. Here are some videos we made in Mexico and England about OneVerse when it launched in 2006. Students at PlanetWisdom have helped partner with Bible translators from Mexico and others to complete much of the New Testament for a language group in Mexico. Good work everyone!

Expelled!

Today I went to see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed with some friends. For those of you who aren't familiar with this movie it is a documentary exploring why academia is prohibiting the theory of Intelligent Design from being discussed as a legitimate theory of life's origin.

Expelled, was much better than I thought it would be. Ben Stein raises more questions than he could possibly answer in the given time, but for this intro dialog I think that is okay.

Expelled is really about preserving "Freedom of Thought" more than defending Intelligent Design. Die hard evolutionists won't be swayed, and Christians looking to understand ID won't get much info, but for the majority of Americans who have simply assumed Evolution as a theory of origin because of their public education, it may cause them think twice about whether they were taught the full story.

A common attack from atheism and evolutionists is that religion is the root of evil in our world. Atheists point to the Inquisitions and holy wars as evidence. Ben Stein points out that succumbing to Darwinian theory has also led to societal atrocities (i.e. Nazi Germany). While I was at first not sure this was the right way for the film makers to go, when I realized the movie was really about freedom of thought rather than ID alone, I decided it was an important point to make.

Our ability to put out any idea, no matter how ridiculous and think it through is central to American and Christian thought. Here is an excerpt from Smart Faith a book I wrote with philosopher JP Moreland, that shows the unique nature of reason in God's dealings with mankind.

God is a God of reason. We know this because of the character and actions of God described in the Bible. The Bible teaches, for example, that God’s unique attributes include omniscience: He is perfect in knowledge and knows everything (see 1 Samuel 23:11-13; Job 37:16; 1 John 3:20). The Bible also describes Him as the only ‘wise God’ (Romans 16:27), the God of truth who cannot lie (see Titus 1:2), and completely reliable (see Romans 3:4; Hebrews 6:18). God’s very word is true (see John 17:17), and His church — not the university — is the pillar and support of the truth (see 1 Timothy 3:15). Most amazing of all, the God of the Bible invites His creatures to come and reason with Him (see Isaiah 1:18) by bringing a legally reasoned case against His actions to which He will respond (see Ecclesiastes 6:10; Jeremiah 12:1; 20:12).

Compare this portrait of God with what we know of other gods. With Islam, we have a god who is so transcendent that he is beyond understanding. The Greek gods and the gods of other polytheistic (having many gods) religions such as Hinduism are fickle, are swayed by their emotions, and act inconsistently. The God of the Bible never changes (see James 1:17), requires teachers who diligently study His Word and handle it accurately (see 1 Timothy 4:15-16; 2 Timothy 2:15), and requires His evangelists to be able to give a rational justification for what they believe to all who ask (see 1 Peter 3:15).

With monistic (reality consisting of a single element) religions of the East, we are offered meditations — like the sound of one hand clapping — to escape logical thought. … The Buddhist is to leave her mind behind, but God asks that the Christian to be transformed by the renewing of her mind (see Romans 12:1-2).

No wonder Christians started the first universities and have planted schools and colleges wherever missionaries have gone. No wonder science began in Christian Europe — after all, the same rational God who made the rational human mind also created the rational world so the mind would be suited to figure out the world’s structure.

God created you to be a follower of Christ with your mind turned on and tuned in to the life He made for you. This does not mean God loves academics and scholars more than He loves other people. … But if virtues mirror our God of perfection, then ignorance is not a Christian virtue.

Expelled made many claims and assumptions that my limited knowledge of science and certain events could not verify (and the movie didn't really do much to verify them either). So you may need to do some homework before using some of their arguments in the real world.

Final Remark: Expelled is an excellent discussion starter about some important issues, but it is a beginning not an end.

Mark

For the planetwisdom.com thorough review click here

Have you seen the movie? Will you? What do you think about this issue?