puritan picks

I've been a subscriber to Netflix for a couple of months now. My most recent movie: Robin Hood...it was awesome. Classic comedy with such lines as "Spiders, snakes and a lizard head. If I tattle-tale I'll die till I'm dead."

Back to the news at hand.

A few weeks ago I saw a little bit of newsfeed on facebook called Puritan Picks. I read the description and quickly became a fan.

Well, as of yesterday, Puritan Picks is up and running and I'm pretty excited. I think I might just cancel Netflix and get a little more meat in my diet of movies.

Give it a look:



-joe

corny christmas tv

My family has started the only tradition that has made it through the years...watching sappy Christmas movies. Every. Single. Night.

These movies suck the life right out of me. It is like breathing in toxic air and being told that it is the freshest mountain air in the world. Most Christmas movies are centered on the idea that people are good at heart and just need some person in their lives to love them and then POOF...they are once again a great person.

These movies do nothing to exalt the name of Christ and how He is the only one who can move a person from their default bad state of being the awesome righteousness given to us by virtue of His blood.

They also start on the premise that all of the characters were once "good kids" who just went awry sometime later in life. Sorry, that doesn't hold up. We are all horrible kids. A few of us are better at obeying and keeping the rules, but we're still bad. We still suck at life. No kid is good. No kid deserves to get those Christmas gifts.

The reason we give gifts is not because a kid or person has been good enough to deserve them, but because God has granted to us a gift we don't deserve. So, we give gifts that are undeserved so that in them, the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be shown. We give graciously and joyously to those who have done nothing to receive because Christ has done the same for us.

So, this year, as you begin your Christmas shopping, think of Christ. Dwell on His gift and then, in that spirit, give to the people in your lives...because they don't deserve it and God graciously gave you what you also didn't deserve.

-joe

reformation day

So, because October 31 falls on a Wednesday and my church has many meetings on Wednesdays, we thought it prudent to watch the movie Luther instead of our regular meetings. I could get into all the details of reasons, but that would probably bore you. Instead, I offer this...

Ligonier Ministries is offering the Reformation Study Bible for $15.17 (get it? the year of the 95 theses) on October 31 (the day they were nailed up). But only for that day, and it is a significant sale.

I happen to own a copy...and despite the Presbyterian overtones, it is quite good and Sproul does a nice job in his notes. So, go buy it...but only on the 31st.

-joe
[HT]:Shepherds Scrapbook