Take 6 Video
Watch your whole life Flash before your eyes
A Flash animation showing life is but a vapor.
New Take 6 album Feels Good to be released March 21
The awesome Take 6 is set to release its new album Feels Good on March 21, 2006.
Have a quick listen to the celebratory first single, Come On, and see if it doesn’t in fact make you feel good. You can hear about 45 seconds of each of the first three songs on the album courtesy of Infinity Music Distribution.
While you’re at it, there’s a fun video of the group answering questions and performing Come On at the Apple iTunes store in Tokyo on November 11, 2005. To see it, click here and then scroll down, ignoring the kana and kanji until you find “Take6″ in English. Immediately below that, there’s a link that says “iTunes Music Store” followed by some Japanese. Click on that and you’ll be magically transported into a room in which six black Christians from Nashville (via Huntsville, Alabama) sing to Japanese shoppers in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo about their victory in Christ. Heaven, I tell you.
I’ve been a huge fan of these guys since So Much 2 Say
You can pre-order Feels Good
How to Pronounce Biblical Terms
Ever wonder how to pronounce all those crazy words in your Bible? Well, wonder no more. Not the prettiest site, but very helpful.
Bloggers on the Chronicles of Narnia
Clive Davis has rounded up and commented on several different posts in anticipation of tomorrow’s release of The Chronicles of Narnia. As you’d expect, opinions run the gamut.
My previous posts on the movie:
- Chuck Colson on the Harry Potter Question
- Will People See Jesus in Aslan?
- Hollywood Gets a Clue
- On Lions, Witches, Wardrobes, and Demoninational Differences
Freaktoe and I will see it Saturday and report back.
Charles Colson on the Harry Potter Question
From Charles Colson:
Fifty years ago, Christians charged that Lewis was teaching kids witchcraft. Yet today, most Christians—myself included—consider the Chronicles of Narnia classics and the Narnia books and movies are in most church libraries.
So how are they different, if at all, from Harry Potter? Colson distinguishes the series’ on three grounds:
- Narnia is clearly an other-wordly realm.
- While Narnia is clearly an allegory about Jesus, Potter has no reference, allegorical or otherwise, to God.
- The Narnia tales are stories about the great truths of the Christian faith, and Potter is nothing more than a moral tale.
Colson’s conclusion?
It’s a simple risk/reward calculation. Both authors include fantastic and preternatural material. Both series should be handled with care—especially if your children have an unhealthy interest in the occult. Parents need to be wise and attentive to the bent of their children.
The reward with the Harry Potter books and movie is a moral tale. The reward with the Narnia books, on the other hand, is nothing less than Christian truth embedded in stories that have delighted and stirred the hearts of Christian kids for generations.
My advice? Use all the hoopla today over Harry Potter to introduce your kids to the real thing: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles.
Although Colson says that he has “major reservations” about Potter, note the absence of any harsh criticism of the series that does not also apply to the Narnia series.
Will People See Jesus in Aslan?
C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens in theaters December 9, 2005. Randy Alcorn, in the most recent Eternal Perspectives, asks Will People See Jesus in Aslan (roughly 2 meg pdf):
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Aslan tells the children that though they must return to earth, they can find Aslan here. Aslan says, “There I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
This demonstrates Lewis’s central purpose in the Narnia stories—that readers (and in the case of the movie, hopefully, viewers), may have their eyes opened, so they will look for—and hopefully find— Aslan here on earth.
An eleven-year-old American girl wrote Lewis to find out Aslan’s real name on earth. Lewis responded with a series of questions:
As to Aslan’s other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1) arrived at the same time
as Father Christmas; (2) said he was the son of the great Emperor; (3) gave himself up for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people; (4) came to life again; (5) is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb…. Don’t you really know His name in this world? Think it over and let
me know your answer!Please pray that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie will be true to the book, and thereby true to the nature of Jesus, which Lewis so beautifully portrays in Aslan the Lion. Pray that it will start a discussion about who Aslan is. And that in falling in love with Aslan, they will be drawn toward the Jesus who Aslan truly is.
Courtesy of Eternal Perspective Ministries, 2229 E. Burnside #23, Gresham, OR 97030, www.epm.org.
See also, On Lions, Witches, Wardrobes, and Demoninational Differences.
Hollywood Gets a Clue
The powers that be in Hollywood are apparently beginning to recognize the value of producing family- and church-friendly films. Check out the story. It’s encouraging.
Upcoming movies that major studios are actively promoting directly to church groups include
- The Greatest Game Ever Played
- The Thing About My Folks
- The Exorcism of Emily Rose
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the subject of this post
Bravo to Disney, Sony Pictures, PictureHouse, and Twentieth Century Fox, which is reportedly optioning some Christian best sellers by Bishop T.D. Jakes and Frank Peretti.
The article suggests that this move by some major studios is directly attributable to the blockbuster success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
I’ve posted on this subject before, and I think this is really good news. It also shows the power and effectiveness of turning out for a movie that’s good.
Challenge to Send Gross Tithe to Samaritan’s Purse
Glenn Reynolds today compiled an extensive list of Katrina-aid charities from the suggestions of various bloggers and Instapundit readers.
I encourage Christians everywhere to dedicate a month’s worth (or more) of Gross Tithes to Samaritan’s Purse.
I’m defining the term “Gross Tithe” not as a tenth of your gross income, but as the difference between a tenth of your net income and a tenth of your gross income.
You would think that a Katrina donation should just be a gift, something over and above what you give to your church. Probably so. But let’s be honest, studies like this and these show that less than 10% of Christians even bother to tithe. Those that do, whether they tithe on gross or net, are making regular charitable donations to an organization that then (hopefully) infuses funds into worthy causes in the community and abroad. For many of these consistent supporters, there’s simply not a lot of discretionary charitable donations left to give.
So what to do when disaster strikes? If you simply re-direct your regular tithe when a tsumani or hurricane hits, you are simply taking from one worthy cause and giving to another.
Enter the Gross Tithe. Give your Net Tithe — 10% of your take-home pay — to your church. Treat your Gross Tithe — the difference between 10% of your net income and 10% of your gross income — as a discretionary tithe, and send it where the Spirit leads. That way, you’re able to respond to disaster with compassion and without unintended adverse impact on your church’s regular activities.
My challenge to Christians is to dedicate a month’s worth (or more) of Gross Tithes to Samaritan’s Purse for aid to victims of Katrina. I’m sure that the major charities get a ton of money right after a disaster, but that the donations trickle off much earlier than does the need. So set aside a discretionary, flexible tithe that can be sent to where it is needed for a certain period of time and that can then be re-directed when a greater need arises.
By the way, there are arguments on both sides of the question of whether Christians are to tithe on net or gross income. I’ve always heard that you can’t out-give God, but let’s be honest, how many of us have had the faith to try? Not me, but I do know that a fair amount of giving has resulted in a greater amount of blessing.
For such a time as this?
The Anchoress Listens — and Hears
The Anchoress, experiencing a Job-like descent into darkness, beautifully articulates the mature Christian’s response to debilitating burdens.
Anchoress, I do not know who you are, but I pray for you and I thank God for your example. May your sons continue to imbue music into the ear of your heart.
On Lions, Witches, Wardrobes, and Demoninational Differences
Rain.
Rain.
Horrid headache.
Because of the rain.
Five inches of rain, remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy. Don’t know where she came from, just know she’s some unwelcome windbag visiting from somewhere south of here, making my head pound.
Go away.
And so it’s probably just a lazy evening of reading until it’s late enough that I can fall asleep secure in the knowledge that I won’t wake up until it’s time.
C.S. Lewis tonight. Amazing guy. Proof that the tenets common to all Christians are sufficiently multi-layered to hold our interest for eternity without succumbing to the perverse temptation of making things interesting by focusing on the minutiae of our denominational differences.
Mere Christianity, indeed.
Odd. When I first typed “denominational,” it came out “demoninational.” Hmmm. Nothing to it, I’m sure. Probably a result of too much time listening to Rindercella in anticipation of Hillbilly Holiday, 2005. But still, hmmm.
Anyway, I learned the other day that Disney’s releasing Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia this Christmas season. Check out the trailer for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe here. Can’t tell if it’s the only one planned, or if they’re going to do some or all of the others. I predict they’ll get 90% of the Harry Potter crowd and almost all of the Christian families crowd who generally don’t see many movies.
Notwithstanding people like this, I think it’ll be huge.
December 9, 2005. Plan to be there.
In the meantime, do like Freaktoe and I are doing, and read the books. She just finished The Horse and His Boy, and I, just having finished The Magician’s Nephew, am starting The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Or, if you just want to watch something, rent Shadowlands.
And thank our God for Clive Staples.
