missions

During my studies at CBU covering the academic wonders of the Intercultural Studies I was immersed in a missions minded world. My major gave me the opportunity to not only study under amazing professors who love our Lord passionately, but to also experience foreign cultures and work side-by-side with the local missionaries. Ever since i was in high school the Lord has opened up the doors for me to travel to foreign countries spreading the gospel through various means whether it be dramas, medical or straight street evangelism. But with all m y limited experience and academic studies I have come to know and understand that no matter where you go to spread the living word of God you want to have a legitimate reason for being there. In my studies we called this a marketable skill. So what marketable skill will be needed in China, India or the Sudan?

In this same way I have decided to pursue the possibility of taking my marketable skill, media, into the one place that is saturated with media… Hollywood, CA. Anyone who is familiar with my recent life happenings knows that I have had more happen in one year of life than any 25 year old (okay 26) needs to have. To top off all my life happenings I have been rejected or ignored from every single job application I have turned in except P.F. Chang’s. Thank you Lisa for the hire. The only thing in my life that has worked out despite my complete lack of effort has been media. Despite any formal education or training God has thrown multiple projects into our laps totalling over $15,000. God alone has rejected my applications and God alone has given us these media projects.

So here I am in the face of God’s mighty work moving very definitively across my life pushing strongly towards media, but with every project I learn more about what I do not know. I have, for some time, been looking at a school, The Los Angeles Film School. This school was founded by industry professionals and is taught by industry professionals and is geared to immersed the student into every aspect of producing a film from lighting to camera to networking. It is a one year course and pushes the student to produce more short films in one year than any film studies program will at a four year university. Without saying more than I need to, this is by all estimations the best credentialed program out there for learning what I need to learn.
I want very much to move to Hollywood not only be a student learning from the best about the skill the Lord has given me but also to have a mission to a people completely lost in self intoxication. What better marketable skill to have in Hollywood than an aspiring man of media and even more a student in the area. This is my prayer of late and my desire. I fell very strongly about this and ask all of my friends and family to be praying as well.

Barack Obama on Choice

Obama as president means allot of things for our country, most of which are great minus a few policies here and there but hey what is that in the weight of change. Our country has been slowly falling into economic hardship long before the fall of the Twin Towers and with the stubbornness and arrogance of some rich politicians the rise of a young man promising drastic changes looks very appealing.

But in the midst of all Obama’s change their is a single issue that drives me to near hate for his campaign and now cabinet. The Freedom of Choice Act, FOCA, is a bill in the United States Congress which, if enacted, would abolish all restrictions and limitations on women in the United States to have an abortion prior to fetal viability, whether at the State or Federal level. Check out his Voting Record for Pro Choice.

An individual’s pursuit of comfort, happiness, joy, prosperity never supersedes a person’s right to live. We’ve seen this in the past decade with…the Sudanese people at the hands of Muslim extremists who have been allowed, by the government, to rape and murder the people which has displaced thousands of Sudanese refugees…with the Tutsi Cockroaches who experienced a racial genocide at the hands of the Hutu tribe in Rwanda (both at the turn of the century.) We’ve seen this with the 30’s massacre of the Jewish minority in Nazi Germany and the 50’s black/white segregation of Americans.

We’ve seen…
One person’s desire of a better life over-ride another’s right to live.

Because a child takes 9 months of a woman’s life its rights are considered controversial…debatable; the right to live vs. a life of comfort. This does not seem like a fair trade. To say that an abortion is justified due to an illness or a disease (i.e. down syndrome) rings the same warning bell that Germany rang when they decided to rid the world of homosexuals. “Imagine a world purified” Hitler declared as a nation to the systematic annihilation of humans with ‘impurities.’

This does not seem just.

Disease, illnesses, deformities, racial differences, down syndrome, big noses, dark skin…and here we are living in a nation debating whether or not the systematic annhilation of infants is humane or not.

Something is very wrong.

Abortion is Murder!

Top Five Movies About Life

The Visitor
Hotel Rwanda
In America
Crash
Scent of a Woman

Why I have to be Like Adrian Martinez

It is simple. Adrian has started a way of blogging that I have to do. Here’s to Adrian, keep on keepin’ on.

My Great Life!

us everyday of the week

Paint a Scene

The Rebel in me made me a Devil indeed

If you wanna settle this beef

you gonna have to give me a settlement fee

When it come to the street I could give a F@#^ about a -G-

and this is what I mean…

You do you playa and Im’a do me

Im’a stick to these beets where I know I can be

What this Nation can’t provide

Im’a be free

Im’a alive, If you wan’t Blind you could see

I will survive, you may think that I’m the devil seed

Im stuck on the darker side

let me paint you a scene.

Movies to Keep an Eye On

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button-

Director David Fincher casts Brad Pitt as the title character in this curious fantasy drama about a man who is born in his eighties at the end of World War I, and ages backwards into the twenty-first century. Cate Blanchett co-stars as one of the true loves he meets on his journey acrosss time, life and death.

The Day the Earth Stood Still-

20th Century Fox updates the 1951 classic,

with Keanu Reeves now claiming the iconic role of Klaatu, an alien visitor and self-described “friend to man.

 While governments and officials scramble to figure out what it all means, Jennifer Connelly and her young stepson become key figures in understanding the full reasons for Klaatu’s appearance.

Twilight-

Fans of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire book series get ready. On Nov. 21, the love story between high schooler Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Harry Potter’s Robert Pattinson) hits the big screen. As their relationship deepens, a trio of Cullen’s mortal vampire enemies arrive in the small town of Forks, Washington, looking for her.

James Bond: Quantum of Solace - 

Now that Daniel Craig has been successfully introduced as the latest Bond, it’s down to gritty business in this latest outing, helmed by Monster’s Ball maker Marc Forster. We catch up with 007 directly after the events of Casino Royale, with Bond determined to find out who blackmailed Vesper, the woman he loved (and who also betrayed him).

The Express-

 Born in poverty, Ernie Davis (Rob Brown) overcomes many obstacles to get into Syracuse University’s football program. Under the guidance of Coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), Davis becomes one of Syracuse’s best players, surpassing even Jim Brown’s achievements. In 1961, Davis becomes the first black player to win the prestigious Heisman Trophy, but there is one more obstacle in his life that Davis must overcome.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley-

In this tale of spell binding suspense, something evil lurks just beneath the lush surfaces of teenaged girl’s private school world – and it holds the rights to her very soul. Now, on the eve of her 18th birthday, Molly Hartley is about to discover the truth of just who, or rather what, it is she is destined to become. Molly discovers that her mother and others who share her mother’s concerns want her killed in order to save her from a preordained life as a servant of the Devil.

 Watchmen-

300’s Zack Snyder adapts Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ acclaimed comic book Watchmen for the big screen. Set in an alternate universe circa 1985, the film’s world is an unstable one where a nuclear war is imminent between America and Russia. Superheroes have been forced to go into retirement due to the government’s Keene Act, but the death of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), an ex-hero commando, perks the interest of one of the country’s last remaining superheroes, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). Watchmen remains the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award, and is also the only graphic novel to appear on Time‘s 2005 list of “the 100 best English-language novels”, an annual feature of the magazine since it was founded in 1923

Commercials?

They are obviously not marketing to Muslim extremists.

Question on Happiness

I asked permission to post this question from a good friend about faith in Christ.

“What if I want to want to glorify God? Does that count as wanting to glorify God? What if I want to be a Christian, not because I really want to glorify God, but because I want to be happy, like Christians are? Is that a wrong motivation for wanting to be a Christian?”

Forgive me if I seem to skirt your questions. I have learned that conversations between people are best served with a helping of context. This will provide clarity into my response. I first am going to talk about “happy”. What is happiness? To one person it may be swimming but to the other, that may be his most passionate fear. Happiness is not always what it seems to be. For a genuine follower of Christ happiness takes on a very different role. My whole life, it seems, I have loved to make music, even before I was redeemed. Music was a passion, a reason, a motivation, it was everything to me, it was the reason I did not drop out of high school and it was the reason I stayed up so late at night. I played music because it made me feel good about myself; it was the one place where my artistry could not be denied. When my life was redeemed music became something different. I still loved it but I loved it less when it was for myself, and I loved it more when it was done for the lord.
For the Christian happiness is this, Hedonism. Hedonism “is a doctrine from ancient Greece stating that the pursuit of pleasure is life’s greatest aim”. What ever makes you most happy is what is most important. But for a follower of Jesus “Christian Hedonism teaches that the desire to be happy is God-given and should not be denied or resisted but directed to God for satisfaction. Christian Hedonism does not say that whatever you enjoy is good. It says that God has shown you what is good and doing it ought to bring you joy (Micah 6:8). And since doing the will of God ought to bring you joy, the pursuit of joy is an essential part of all moral effort. If you abandon the pursuit of joy… you cannot fulfill the will of God.” (Piper)

If my desire to love my wife Laura was based solely on the need to feel better about my self, to be happy, then I have left our relationship, if you can call it a relationship, lacking, void of any real love for the other person. If your happiness is directed at anything else other than satisfaction, love, happiness in Christ then you have lost the point of being happy as a Christian.

In short a “want to want” is not really a want at all. The happiness of a Christian is completely intertwined in their satisfaction in Christ. You cannot be a follower of Christ, a Christian, and not be satisfied in him. If you can not find satisfaction in Christ then you can not be happy “like a Christian”.

Scripture to dwell on:
“Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). And he demonstrates the kernel of Christian Hedonism when he cries out, “As a deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1–2). Moses was a Christian Hedonist (according to Hebrews 11:24–27) because he rejected the “fleeting pleasures” of sin, but “considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward.” The saints in Hebrews 10:34 were Christian Hedonists because they chose to risk their lives to visit Christian prisoners and joyfully accepted the plundering of their own property since they knew that they themselves had a better possession and an abiding one. The apostle Paul commended Christian Hedonism when he said in Romans 12:8, “Let him who does acts of mercy do them with cheerfulness.” And Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, set the greatest standard of Christian Hedonism because “his delight was in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:3), and for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).” (Piper)

Top 3 Songs with Music Videos

Arcade Fire- Neon Bible
“This great band haling from Canada has taken their song Neon Bible and preformed it in an elevator. It takes about a minute to get into the songs so just skip ahead. This particular video was produced by Vincent Moon a French astist who follows musicians and catures unique performances “Take Away Shows” for his very popular Blog La Blogothèque. On the whole, this band is a must have in your collection”

The Dissociatives – Horror With Eyeball

“They are an Australian band consisting of Daniel Johns of Silverchair and Australian dance producer Paul Mac. This particular combonation of individuals has made for one bizarre sound. The whole lbum is worth a listen. I Love It”

Underworld – To Heal

“Underworld is the principal name under which British electronic music duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together since 1980 which is two years before I was born. It was not until the introduction of Essex DJ Darren Emerson in 1991 that serious attention was given to the dance scene. There music is alright, nothing to mention except for one track titled “To Heal”. This alone is worth mentioning. I first heard this song on the movie Sunshine, a movie by Danny Boyle. This is not the official music video but it does have the song.”