Author: Nick Peters

I was driving home listening to the John MacArthur program today that was actually talking about homosexuality. That has lately been a blog topic here and so I was listening with keen interest. MacArthur’s announcer spoke about churches that are coming to homosexuals and telling them that Jesus Christ accepts them as they are.

I thought about that statement and thought “That’s not worded the best.”

Why? Because that is the honest truth and we shouldn’t hide it! Jesus Christ does accept homosexuals just as they are! He doesn’t ask them to become heterosexuals before they come to him. He asks them to come as they are! The difference is that he does not want to leave them as they are. He will work to bring about change in the homosexual’s life.

Why? Homosexuality is a sin. It’s clearly shown to be such in both testaments and in both testaments, it’s shown to be a moral principle that all people should know innately. It violates the nature of sexuality. This has been shown in other blogs though and I have no desire to repeat it now. I will be glad to defend it if need be though.

Of course, we in the Christian community have to realize other truths. Gluttony is a sin. Sloth is a sin. Lust is a sin. Pride is a sin. Adultery is a sin. Lying is a sin. We have so many other sins. Now I do realize that we are told homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven. (I take this to mean also, active homosexuals. I think the Christian who struggles with this and remains celibate knowing that homosexual intercourse is a sin is not under the wrath of God.) However, we have a fair number of sins too.

The good news is that the same applies to us. Christ accepts us as we are. However, he also refuses to leave us as we are and we are under the hand of the Potter constantly being reshaped into what we are to be. Unfortunately, many of us are very stubborn to change and we resist it at every opportunity that we get. (I am far more like Monk in this regard than many realize.)

If only we could step back and see the end goal. In the end, we will be a product that will look like Christ. Read Romans 8:29-30 sometime. We will be conformed to his likeness. There’s no might. There’s no “Those who work hard.” There’s no “Hopefully.” We will be conformed. It is presented as if it was a certainty. This is one of those passages that I wish I could grasp the reality of it for some time and really think that “Yeah. One day, I’m going to be like Christ.”

If only we could see that.

Yet I dare say it church. It will not start until we see the beginning truth. If we see we are loved as we are now and that this process of transforming us is an act of love, maybe we’d be more willing. Being sanctified is not so we will be accepted. It’s because we already are.

Today, I walked into our local bookstore and saw in the mystery section finally in paperback, “Mr. Monk in Outer Space.” I love the Monk TV series and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the novels. I honestly didn’t care too much for the last one though of “Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants.” That’s part of what I’m writing about. So far though, this one has my attention and I think I am onto something in it as to who committed the crime.

Maybe you’re a mystery fan also. I’m going to be using Monk as my example, but you can easily fit in whoever you wish. If you’re watching a mystery program on TV, you watch and you’re trying to find out how everything fits together. You’re sure that X committed the crime and maybe you know why. Maybe you don’t know who committed it instead. Maybe you think you’ve got the case nailed. Either way, you love it when the summation happens.

That’s when the scene changes and everything goes into black and white. On Monk, that part begins with the legendary words “Here’s what happened.” Then, the crime is shown again and you see how everything fit together and all of those loose pieces you couldn’t figure out make sense and if you didn’t get it, you sit back and kick yourself and say “I should have known!”

At least, that’s how it should be.

That’s one reason I was disappointed by “Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants.” That one just didn’t piece together. I got to the end and said “That doesn’t make sense. There’s so much left unexplained.” If that happens to us in a mystery, we are disappointed. If there’s a solution to the mystery, it should have explanatory power.

I am amazed that we approach reality the same way. We look at the world and see so many things and think there needs to be an explanation. A naturalist will point to evolution and a Christian will point to the hand of God. We see the empty tomb of Christ and no one says “It’s empty. So what?” Instead, everyone tries to come up with an explanation. As a Christian, I side with “God raised Jesus from the dead.” Our skeptics have their own theories, but everyone tries to explain it.

This is particularly interesting when we get to the Problem of Evil as it’s called. We immediately see evil and think “There has to be an explanation.” Please note that. The only reason one objects is to find an answer. If there is no answer, then we simply end up with nihilism. Everything is meaningless in the end. We complain about evil because we want there to be an answer and deep down, most of us think there is. We don’t believe this is senseless madness.

Why do we approach it that way? Because we believe there is order here. We believe that somehow, everything in this universe is supposed to fit together. Even the evil that we don’t understand is supposed to fit in somehow. This event that seems so foreign to our world will make sense in some way. There must be an explanation.

This is one thing I try to do in my apologetics. I don’t want shallow answers. I want answers that fit and explain things. Too often, we can give minute answers to questions. Now I realize there are times you have to give a basic answer due to time constraints or something of that sort, but there are times that you need to give more and you should give more. Souls are too important to give just simplistic answers to.

Thus, as I go through this mystery book, I think about that. How good is the book? That will depend on how well the explanation coheres together. No matter how many funny scenes there are with Monk in it, the overall grade will be based on the question “Does it make sense?” What about our explanation? Are we looking for an explanation of life that makes sense or not? This is the greatest adventure of all after all, and it has the greatest author of all. Do we not trust him that it will make sense in the end?

I prefer the term, Christian Life, better, but I figured some people would understand more if I said spiritual life. Let it be known that I am equating the two. I am thinking about this after talking to a friend of mine this morning who sent me an MP3 of a program Greg Koukl of STR did where he interviewed J.P. Moreland in the last hour on the book “The Lost Virtue of Happiness.” (Definitely one I want to buy now.) For those interested, the date of the podcast was March 26th, 2006. You can become a member at STR for free and listen to it. (And for the record, Greg Koukl is a really great guy and I highly recommend STR resources.)

I was quite comforted by what Koukl and Moreland both said. Moreland spoke of how someone was a great pianist and while this guy was practicing, Moreland was watching TV. Hey! I can relate to that! Koukl spoke of how when he read in Moreland’s book about a survey to measure your spiritual life, he didn’t want to take it because it wouldn’t come out good! I can relate to that!

Moreland also spoke much about his personal struggles and issues throughout his life including a time of deep depression where he was even on anti-depressants. For my readers who want my opinion on the topic, I am in favor of anti-depressants because I do believe there are bodily problems at times that can be affected by our moods and anti-depressants can help correct that. I’ll also say that I’ve been on anti-depressants before.

When you go into ministry, whether you like it or not, for good or for worse, people automatically make judgments about you. Skeptics will assume that you’re someone who’s brain-dead often and buying into this religious nonsense and you’re going because God told you to and you talk to him every day as he’s on your speed-dial.

That’s not too hard to deal with as problematic as it is.

Christian assumptions are worse.

Christians assume you are one who has it all together. You’re so intimate with God that you know the perfect thing to say every time. If you’re an apologist like I am, all your answers are perfect dug out of years of research. You’re always on the up and up. You don’t struggle against the flesh. Your prayer life is rich and vibrant. You open your Bible with joy every day and find hidden pearls every single day. Everything makes sense to you.

Now it might not be the case for all of those, but some of them I suspect get in there at times.

I wish to set the record straight for me.

My prayer life first. Can you really call it that? I’m lucky if I can focus for fifteen minutes. I’ll go in for prayer and in about 2 or 3 minutes think I’ve said all I can. This is why I was thankful for Koukl and Moreland suggesting minute prayers and praying throughout the day maybe when things get stressful, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner.”

That I can do! I was doing it today and it does seem to help me focus more. I was pleased to hear two apologists I respect in the faith talking about the difficulties they have with a prayer life. (In fact, Greg Koukl and I have spoken about this before on his program and I was pleased to hear him say he needed to improve his prayer life also.)

Bible study? Not something I can really focus on. It’s like I read the text and think “Where do I go from here?” My ideas from Scripture come mainly from reading the text and knowing it well and just bouncing around ideas in my head and then seeing what someone else says, hearing what a speaker says, reading in a book a comment, and then seeing that idea hit the Scripture in my mind and lo and behold, insight!

For my focus, I could use a lot more! Sometimes, doing the blog each night can be a chore. I have papers to write for school and I can put them off. I have books to read and I can put them off. I have so many things I need to do and I keep putting them off. I come home from work and I’d rather do something enjoyable. On my day off, it’s a day off from work so why spend it working?

I hear people speak about me as if I have a deep love for Jesus. I wish I did at times. I probably do, but oddly enough, I don’t feel like I do or that I’m the shining light for Christ that I should be. Already though, that that has me concerned should indicate that there is a love for Christ. I have to realize every day that love for Christ does not necessarily mean strong emotions.

As for struggles with the flesh, rest assured they are there! I have sins I struggle with and I have more fears than you can shake a stick at. I had a former counselor who I am still on good terms with but lives a few hours away now borrow the premiere episode of “Monk” from me and he came back and said “Oh yes! You’re right! That’s you!”

Yes. Those struggles are there and if you asked me if I was a good Christian, I’d probably say I wasn’t. If you asked me if I was devoted, I’d probably say I wasn’t. This is where it gets odd. I’d probably point to several people and say “Look how they are! I wish I was like that!” I’ve found that those same people look to me and say the exact same thing.

So this is my being honest about it. Maybe if we were all more honest, we could build each other up more and if the world saw an honest church, they’d be more likely to listen to the message.

Maybe….

Seeing as here in America, today is the Fourth of July, I figured I’d write some thoughts on Independence Day.

Well, I thought the special effects were really awesome. The alien spaceships looked so realistic and the laser beam attack was just incredible. Of course, one wonders how everything was rebuilt at the end and we never did get the sequel we wanted. Still, I did enjoy this movie and I was glad that when it came out, that I did go and see it.

Oh wait.

I should probably write about the day and not the movie.

I really think our patriotism isn’t what it should be. I include myself in that. I haven’t really thought much about the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution today. For me, it’s been like another day off. That’s the kind of thing that saddens me. It’s me going through my day and thinking I should be doing more, but never doing more.

For many of us, it’s simply a day off and a chance to shoot fireworks. I can hear several going off outside my apartment, but unfortunately where I am, there are so many trees in the way that I can’t see these wonderous sights. Then part of me kicks in and says “Maybe you should appreciate the trees a bit more.” Maybe I should.

Still, do we really realize what happened? People died so that we could be free today. Blood was shed. Where I am sitting now, maybe within the past 250 years men were shooting at each other simply because they wanted to be free. How many people died in this area? How many revolts took place? What were the people on the street talking about? Was the thought of revolution beating in their hearts?

What stories were being told in the local newspapers? What sermons were being preached in the local churches? What influential people were around at the time that might have been household names then but who we might not know about at all today? How many men my age and maybe even younger signed up for the service because they saw there was a cause they were willing to die for?

Yeah. What about them? How many kissed their new brides good-bye as they went out to fight? How many of them forsook their education simply to stand up for freedom? How many of them never went hunting with friends again? How many mothers were up late at night praying for their sons? How many widows were made during that period?

And why aren’t we thinking about that?

This is something I’ve had to realize in coming to a new town. People were living here and doing things long before I arrived. I stepped into a story that was already in progress, much like being born in some ways. There was a story back there in time also though. That story is being continued today. How are the actions of those men and women affecting my life today? How are my actions going to affect the lives of people tomorrow?

Do I respect the price they pay? Are my future descendants and the future descendants of those around me going to look back on me as one worthy to emulate or one who brought shame? Am I going to leave the world a better place than I found it or am I just simply going to leave the world? We have independence today because some people took action. Am I going to take action?

And what is this freedom? Freedom does not mean I do whatever I want. Freedom is for a purpose. Freedom is so I can be free to be good. I do this by my own free-will. I am not material only and thus bound by laws of nature. I have a soul. Am I going to develop a good soul or a bad soul? That will depend on how I act. Naturally, that will mean trusting in Christ more for a good soul.

After all, Independence Day this year falls on a Friday. It makes me think back to Good Friday. Real independence was won there. The kingdom of the devil was broken into and the Kingdom of God has been taking over. We are here in the already/not yet period. It is growing like a mustard seed did and filling the world. The actions of one man back then, the God-man, gave freedom from the tyranny of sin to all people. We are not slaves of sin. We are slaves of Christ.

May I remember the sacrifice of Christ on Independence Day and not take that for granted as I rest tonight. May I also remember the sacrifice of numerous men and women. It is because of them that I have the place to sleep in tonight freely. It is because of them I worship where I want and I go to school where I want and I live where I want.

And though we don’t often deserve it, may God bless America.

I ask my female readers to please read this whole thing through before leaving comments about me being sexist or anything of that sort. I am not advocating the devaluing of women or the idea that women should be barefoot and pregnant. I am simply looking at our culture today with the homosexuality debate and our treatment of men and women and how we view marriage.

I think about this recently with a friend asking me about female athletes for instance. I remember watching several times when I was younger “A League Of Their Own.” I thoroughly enjoyed it. As I ponder now though, I wonder if it was really a good thing. What was trying to be established? What is really to be meant by women’s liberation?

Let’s get some things clear. Women are equal to men in that both bear the image of God. (I do believe we both bear different aspects of that image though.) I do believe biblically that a lady is functionally subordinate to the male, but that that is not meant to be tyranny nor does it say anything about the value of the lady. (After all, the Son is functionally subordinate to the Father.)

If Women’s Lib means that women are to cease being seen as sub-human, I’m for it. If it means they’re no longer inferior, I’m for it. If it means seeing that we’re all equally human, I’m for it. However, if it means that women don’t need men, or that women can do anything that men can do and equally well, or that women are superior to men, then I’m not for it.

If a woman is liberated, she should be liberated to be a woman and live out what the feminine lifestyle really means.

I have this strong belief that men and women are different. When a Harvard President made statements to show this, everyone was in an uproar. How dare he say men can do some things better than women! There is just one question no one seemed to be asking. “Is it true?” I will say there are some things men can do better than women. I will also say there are some things women can do better than men. Instead though, the response to Summers was “We don’t like it, so it’s not true!”

When I see society today though, I think we are increasingly trying to eliminate any distinction between the two. This is seen in the homosexual debate on whether we should allow homosexual marriage or not. I wonder how long it will be before we are pushing the idea of unisex. We are more and more wanting to show men and women are exactly alike. Thankfully, this isn’t the case.

For instance, some of you might think I’m discriminatory, but I only date women. Is it because I hate men? Not at all! I live with one as a roommate and he’s my closest friend in this world. I know though that if the right woman comes along, he’ll be my second closest friend. He knows this also and I would hope the same would be true in reverse.

Sorry, but I just think women are a whole lot more attractive and my head turns definitely when I see a pretty lady pass by at work. I can look up and notice a beautiful lady at the opposite end of where I work and just be stunned for a moment. Again, the reason is that men and women are different and I desire those differences that are in the woman.

Looking back though over what has happened, it seems we’ve lost what it means to be a woman and a large part of this is in the abortion movement. If there is anything in this world that is truly feminine, it’s the bringing forth of new life in the world. Every woman should be honored at the thought of pregnancy in that she gets to be the one to bring into the world a new life.

Today, a new life is a hindrance to a sex life.

Isn’t that odd? Women get sick of being treated like just bodies and so seek to control their bodies through abortion and for what purpose? So that more sex can be had. Isn’t that having themselves treated as just bodies? Maybe it’s not by men, but it’s certainly by themselves. In fact, that’s even worse. If someone misuses you, that’s their problem. If you misuse you, that’s your problem.

It is a shame there is not delight in pregnancy. This is something only women can do and truly feminine. The best job any lady can have in this world is to be a mother. Instead, it is often seen as a punishment. A woman wants to work many times and in many cases, that can be a necessity, but if it isn’t, the best thing a lady can do is raise up the next generation.

My fear is that in the idea for women to be liberated, they have ceased to be women. In that case, it is not liberation. It is just imprisonment of another can. I fear today’s women have gone from being imprisoned by men, which I will say we haven’t always been saints to the women in the past, to simply taking over the jail cell and keeping themselves imprisoned.

Do we men play a part? Yes! We honor the women in our lives and we honor our femininity. Men that have treated women as sex toys have not helped. If a man treats his lady as anything less than a lady, he has devalued her. This can even happen in marriage. Because you both have rings on your fingers, you must never lose sight of who this is with you. This is a treasure of God.

Why do I question what happened in the past though? Because I believe that the envelope was pushed too far. We can take things that are good and push them too far. I am pleased with how far women have advanced in our culture and I cheer them on, but I do not wish for them to advance at the loss of their femininity. That is their gift from God and it should be honored by men and women both.

It doesn’t take long after people know me, read what I say, and read my blogs, to realize that I am one of the leading Smallville fans out there. In all honesty, I would say my knowledge of the series at least borders on Encyclopedic. It was a series my Dad and I watched together when I was living with my folks and when I moved to an apartment near them, I’d record them and he’d join me. Well now, we’ve had to end that tradition since I live hours away, but I still love the series.

If there’s one character I really enjoyed though when he was on, it was Jonathan Kent. In so many TV shows today, the father is often seen as some sex-crazed beer-guzzling, sports addict who sits around all day and does nothing and is a complete idiot and the woman has to come and be the voice of reason every time. It wasn’t that way in the Kent household.

Now granted there were some difficulties. Jonathan Kent, played by John Schneider, was not perfect nor was he meant to be. He was particularly stubborn about Lex Luthor for instance and he and Martha did have their disagreements as well as he and Clark. Most noted between him and Martha comes in Season 2, Episode 6, Redux and between him and Clark it’s Season 1, Episode 17, Reaper.

Still, he was the father and he had the say about what went on at the household. At the same time though, he wasn’t domineering. He was a man who was loved by his wife and adored by his adopted son, Clark Kent. It’s something quite important to keep in mind that Clark Kent is no ordinary kid. He is practically invincible and can do things that no one else can do.

When it comes time to tell Clark Kent the truth about where he comes from, Jonathan Kent is the one who does it. When Clark gets scared in “Metamorphosis” when he wakes up floating above his bed, he talks to his Dad about it. When he plays for the football team in “Jinx” and defends his actions to Jonathan, Jonathan tells him he’s starting to sound more and more like his father to which he says “I hope so Dad.”

In “Leech”, when Clark gets his powers taken away temporarily by a kid named Eric, he tells Jonathan later after he recovers them that Eric didn’t get his two strongest gifts. When Jonathan looks confused Clark answers “You and Mom.” While this family has several ups and down, the beautiful thing about them is that they are a family unit.

In fact, Jonathan shows himself to have very traditional values when in “Hidden” Clark and Lana took their relationship to a whole new level and ended up falling asleep at Clark’s place in his bedroom. (I hope I don’t have to explain that for anyone.) When they come downstairs trying to avoid the parents, they find they’re already in the kitchen.

Jonathan takes a strong stance and one I admired saying that it didn’t matter if it was safe or not. There were just some things that shouldn’t be done under their roof. Jonathan was always a strong disciplinarian and a viewer of the show can tell that Clark didn’t really like to disappoint Jonathan or his mother and if there was anything Clark feared or fears more than kryptonite, it could be the displeasing of his parents.

I don’t mean it lightly when I say that the day Jonathan Kent died was the saddest moment I think I’ve ever seen on TV. I was still with my folks at the time and my mother came upstairs afterwards and said “Are you going to be alright?” It was one of those times when I was less than honest and said “Yeah” when I really felt like my world had shattered. I went to bed that night wondering how to make sense of it all.

Naturally, I did and still enjoy the series today, yet I saw Clark go through it in the next episode asking “How can I make it without Dad here?”

In an age where the father is often made to be less than a man, Jonathan Kent truly was a man and a father. Here’s to you Jonathan Kent. Thanks for bringing back the role of the father.

I had meant to write on something else tonight, but I decided that this was more important and as it were, it was something I wanted to get off my chest. There are other nights to write on other things. (And besides that, it’s my blog. I write about what I want to write about and if anyone has a problem with it, they can complain to the manager of this blog, which happens to be me of course.)

I’m one of those people that when I go to bed at night, my mind doesn’t really prepare to enter sleep mode. Instead, my mind just instinctively goes to theological matters and when I wake up in the morning, I usually start pondering them all over again. Unfortunately, I also notice that much time is spent in another kind of pondering, and that is self-pondering.

My personality type is quite introspective and quite wrong usually about what it introspects. I am guessing many of you will be familiar with this kind of thinking. I have this suspicion that a lot of us that are of the intellectual bent are also incredibly introspective. The problem is, we never seem to sit down and notice that this introspection doesn’t seem to do us much good.

Usually, you’ll get some new attitude or feeling in response to something or maybe just seemingly out of the blue and then think “Whoa! Where did that come from?!” Then, it involves tracing it out. “What situations in your past did that? What situations in your present? What does this say about you? What kind of person are you really?”

If you’re like me further, you’ll also notice you rarely get good conclusions. If my introspections were always true, I would be one of the most wretched creatures on Earth I think. It’s the tendency of being incredibly hard on oneself and seeing things that aren’t there based on evidence that is flimsy but at the time, is treated as the most important of all.

I’m going to coin a new word I suspect, but what we need is extrospection.

I think back to a time I was in love for instance as it were. All of those problems and situations I was having just seemed to fade away. The world was in harmony. What I had been worrying about a moment before I fell for the lady was absolute nonsense once I had. It was a short time for me, but a thoroughly happy time and I notice my argumentation style was far better then and I had far more confidence because I wasn’t really thinking about me so much.

I also think about when I really do get caught in a deep philosophical and theological mindset. When that happens, I do lose track of the world and I am caught in a game as it were trying to find the prize. Many of us know what this is like whenever the time comes that we sit down with a good book for instance or watch a good movie and we find that time passes and we aren’t even aware. At times with reading even, the rest of the sound outside us can be drowned out.

What if instead we focused on the outer world around us? What if we say things as they are? If we saw them as exciting and worthy subjects of consideration? We get so caught up at times in our own internal struggles that we forget the world around us. That world is okay, but we have to solve these problems now, never realizing that we’re simply running in circles as we try to argue and that it never does us any good.

This is also important when we come to prayer. We can have so much going on that we pray only about those situations we’re dealing with. Perchance if we did pray more for others things would be better? I do remember a time I prayed specifically for the joy of my roommate and ended up finding out that I had my own joy restored as well. The great wonder I’ve had in life has not come mainly from internal things but from external things.

What’s my goal then? To see the world as it is, something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and find out that God is a whole lot more wonderful than I’ve thought about and that my inner struggles pale in comparison to him. In fact, the solution to solving them could simply be to learn more about him and as I do so, his truth will enter my life and make me the person I ought to be.

Time for some brevity. I went to see this movie Friday night kind of suddenly with a friend. He just asked me what my plans were and I said I had none so he invited me to join him for the movies. He wanted to see the Incredible Hulk and I was curious about it as well. Let me state my opinion about the first one released in 2003 and I’ll try to be as mild as possible.

Watching a test pattern would be more entertaining than watching the first Hulk movie.

My friend had told me that he hadn’t seen the first one to which I said that was a good thing. When asked why I said “Consider this: The first fight in that movie the Hulk had was against mutant poodles.” I then went on to explain that when the final battle scene was reached, it was a let-down. You saw his Dad turn into this huge figure and thought this would be an epic battle, but you couldn’t tell what was going on. I had to read it online before I knew.

This one was much better!

Now I’m not a professional film critic so don’t expect me to write about the acting and things of that matter unless I really think something needs to be pointed out. I’m also not one of those people that really goes to a movie to look for a lot of “realistic” stuff in that “Well we never had that explained” or “That doesn’t seem to make perfect sense.” I realize in creating a fantasy situation that sometimes there are things hard to explain and I don’t try to get nit-picky at the movies.

First off, this is a good movie. It’s not at the level of Iron Man definitely, but it is a good one, and if you go see it, be sure to stay til the end, although there is nothing after the credits. The movie didn’t exactly have me on the edge of my seat, but it was able to keep my interest. This was also by and large a very clean film the family could easily see. I can only think of one questionable scene.

Second, from what I checked, it was faithful to the comics with the same characters as well though their stories might be different a slight bit. It’s always interesting for me after I see a superhero movie to come back home and look and see how things really were. My Dad was a fan of many of these superheroes and it’s always interesting to see the stories as they are now and as they were then.

Now for the more serious content.

One scene that stands out in my mind has the Hulk rescuing his girl from a dangerous situation and he takes her to these crevices set along a mountain cliff. As he puts her in a nook away from the rain, he seems to get hit by lightning and in response picks up a rock and hurls it into the sky. My immediate thought was, and I could be wrong on this of course, was anger towards God. The Hulk in the film is very angry about the way that he is as it isolates him from the girl that he loves and from his life as a successful scientist. Why not lash out at God?

I was also moved by the one time in the movie where he tries to get romantic with his lady. Now you all know I am staunchly against pre-marital sex, but yet I did find some sorrow as he realized that he couldn’t risk anything with her in case he got too excited and the Hulk came out. It really made me think about what it must be like to have the lady you love and not be able to do anything with her. Especially if the reason is because of the way you are.

The Hulk also has often been seen as a picture of anger going out of control. Indeed, in the movie, it seems that the Hulk is a different person in some respects from Bruce Banner in that Bruce just fades into the background when the Hulk is out and Bruce can only remember bits and pieces when he is the Hulk. However, like real anger, it is controllable. Christians today need to learn anger is not a sin. It’s how we use it that’s a sin. (Although there are some things that we should not be angry over and some things we should be angry over.)

(On a side-note also, villains in movies need to learn that attacking the hero’s girlfriend is never a good idea, especially if that hero is the Hulk.)

Bruce overcomes his final enemy by willingly becoming the Hulk and figthing his opponent, though this seems to be the one time that he really learns to aim his anger and control it. In doing so, he does prevent a greater evil. In contrast to the other Hulk movie, this final battle is quite enjoyable and you can tell what is going on.

Overall, I do recommend the Hulk and I recommend watching for some tie-ins to Iron Man.

I’m a strong dualist. If you’re not one, I still suspect you’ll agree with what I say here largely because I’m not talking about the soul. I believe that is a fundamental aspect of who we are and a part that survives our deaths, but I also believe the Bible teaches that the body is pretty important as well. We are not complete unless we are in bodies. I believe this is the nakedness Paul has in mind in 2 Cor. 5.

I bring this up and I find it fits with what we’ve been saying lately about sexuality. Oddly enough, it came when pondering the meaning of the incarnation and having a cogent theory of it which I could write on soon. We often forget that we really believe that our Lord took on a body. This should tell us that the body is ontologically good.

For a lot of us, this is hard to accept. I realize, for instance, as a guy, that I will never be a muscle-man. I will never bench press 100 pounds. I am a very skinny guy and with a steel rod on my spine that can only hold so much weight, that is just not going to change. Some of you might relate to some extent to what I am saying. It’s the idea that when you look in a mirror, you don’t get too much of a sense of pride.

Yet I must realize the truth. This body that has been created for me is good. This is something every man needs to realize and every woman. Our women today often deal with anorexia and bulimia in a society that makes them think they have to be thin, thin, thin. I am often amazed at how many women I hear say they are not attractive. Ladies! Most of the time, we guys are going crazy when you say that wondering if you even have a mirror at your house.

Believe it or not, while we do look for attractive ladies, we’re not expecting you to have a magnificent figure or to be as thin as a toothpick. We are expecting you to be you. I remember watching Price is Right years ago and thinking that the really beautiful ladies were not Barker’s beauties on stage, though they were beautiful, but the random contestants called out of the audience.

This is part of the problem when the church takes a hands-off approach to sexuality. I’m not sure how many had this experience growing up, but for me in my house, sexuality was just not really talked about. My Dad told me the facts of life once, but other than that, I can’t say we really talked about it. Perchance this is something that drove me to study this topic so much later on to learn more about what wasn’t openly discussed.

If we treat sexuality as something dirty, is it any shock that we treat our bodies the same way? Our bodies are beautiful things though and the sexual system is a beautiful thing as well. All of this is the design of God. What we look forward to on our honeymoons is what God had designed for us to look forward to. He designed it so we could enjoy it and would enjoy it and he designed our bodies so that they would give us great pleasure in the act.

This is also part of the problem in our culture with pre-marital sex. We have this idea that a man is a man if he can sleep with a woman. Anyone can do that. It just requires basic anatomy. A man though should accept himself as a man and then go to the woman. You are not going to sleep with a lady and then be a man. You are to be the man first and one of the ways to be the man with the lady is to marry her. You don’t get the treasure until you make that commitment.

Let me say this side-note at that point. A recent magazine talks about Reese Witherspoon committing to the guy she is dating by having him move in. I look at that and think “That is not a commitment. That is a test.” What’s commitment? It’s looking into their eyes before God and your family and friends and saying “I do for better or worse till death do us part.”

In the same way as the men, ladies need to learn they are women before they engage in sexual intercourse. You are not going to become a woman by having a guy get you pregnant. That won’t validate your identity any more than a guy sleeping with you will validate his. It is just usually two people trying to find who they are in the wrong place.

A proper view of ourselves biblically in the area of sexuality will be self-acceptance as well. I have to say that even if I’m not the best-looking guy, there is a lady out there that will consider me a catch and will make a commitment to me. The good news for us guys is we only have to please one! If 999 girls don’t like us and 1 marries us, we win! The reverse is true for the ladies.

This means for me being less shy as well be it socially or physically. (Socially is probably one of the hardest for me at this point.) Now suppose someone out there does think there’s something they can change about themselves. Someone might want to lose weight and get in better shape. By all means if you can and want to, do so. Just remember that your body is still good regardless. Don’t do it so your body will be good but because it is good.

For us men, we need to see ourselves as men and realize that that also is a good thing. When I see a truly beautiful lady, I often do want to thank God that I am indeed a guy. God made them to be beautiful to me and who am I to complain about the work of the master? I have to remember though that I also am the work of the master and if I complain about his handiwork on me, I am denigrating not only myself but him as well.

What do I do then? I accept my lot in life and look for the good I can do with it. I may not be Fabio, but who really gives a darn? I’m not out to impress everyone in the world physically just like I shouldn’t be out to do so intellectually. (A huge challenge for someone like myself with an intellectual bent.) I only have to please one lady physically and if I do that, then who cares about the rest of them?

This is something that I believe must be recovered today. We need to recover the idea of masculinity and femininity. I believe our bodies represent the souls that we have that are either masculine or feminine, but we need to learn our masculinity or femininity does not depend on the accidents of our body. They depend more on our character and virtue.

A real man is a real man body and soul and a real lady is a real lady body and soul.

Due to my working late and having church early in the morning, today’s blog is going up early.

Our society is closer to Brave New World than it is to 1984. In Brave New World, everything was made to bring about the happiness of the people in the society. Now naturally, I am not against happiness, but I am in support of true happiness and not false happiness. Mortimer Adler has referred to our confusion of what happiness is as one of the great philosophical mistakes. As he states, we have confused happiness with “Having a good time.”

I’ll grant this is one that I am prone to and probably many of us are. While waiting for those precious few minutes for my computer to boot up and to restore my sessions of what I was doing before, I am one who will seek to do something else enjoyable. I suppose I am not alone in that in this day and age. We always want to be doing something and think our happiness lies in that.

Compare that to the ancient mindset and even the medieval mindset. Thomas Aquinas looked at contemplation as one of the greatest activities a man can engage in. Today, we don’t really care for silence at all and we don’t care for inactivity. We lock men up in prison where they have silence and solitude as punishment.

There is also the case where we have confused happiness with a feeling. We want the good feeling of happiness. Now I will of course admit that happiness can bring about the feelings. Happiness is not the feeling though. If you were to ask me if I usually feel happy, I would have to say no. I am a constant worrywart obsessing over every tiny little problem and having a great tendency to turn a molehill into a mountain.

Yet if I am honest, at times, I will find happiness overtakes me and it is the simplest things. I have written before about the realization of where I live and that I live with a good friend as bringing about happiness. Yesterday, another friend of mine and I went to the Y after a visit from the Mormons to check out the outdoor pool. While in the pool on the edge where I always stay, I got captivated watching a man kick a ball around and juggle it with his feet. With my interest in philosophy, I start wondering things like “Isn’t it amazing how we all seem to know the material world is there?” “How is it that we can do the simplest movements even such as telling ourselves how to walk?” “Is this man really doing something that he is enjoying?”

I think noticing our lovely lifeguards taking a dive diverted my attention at that point, but that is another kind of happiness as well.

We do not have to be engaged in activity of the kind we think though to be happy. We should be having happiness simply in the reality of the world we live in. There is enough every day to bring about happiness. Part of our problem in our experience-oriented world as Christians comes in here also. We expect God to give us stupendous experiences to show his love for us. (Many a skeptic expects God to do something incredible to show he is there.)

Now I do believe God has done such things in history, but they are not the norm. Why should God give us something stupendous when we are not willing to accept the simple things he has given us? To see if he exists, just see the world as it is. If you say that X is beautiful, you immediately have to see if it’s beautiful in itself or if you’re just pushing that on it. The same for if X action is good. In the end, it would be interesting to know if there is anything objective at all.

Another mistake we’ve made is that for the ancients, happiness could not be separated from virtue. If you wanted to be happy, you had to live right. In contrast today, we often think of morality as an obstacle to our happiness. This is what has happened with our fascination with sexuality in our society. If we accept the biblical standard, we won’t be happy in our sex lives. This is interesting since those who do accept these standards have been found to be quite happy in their sex lives. It seems more likely that the person going from person to person looking for a fix is the one that is not happy.

Thus, we come to the problem. If sex is viewed as simply a means to make us happy, then it will fail. Only God can provide the kind of happiness we seek. We cannot turn sex into a god. It will instead become a drug. Any god you seek after will eventually have you serving it instead of it serving you. The person will become a slave to sex rather than being a master to it. (And perchance, of it?) In our world, we call that addiction.

Looking back then on the question that started this out about homosexual marriage, the question is not “Does it make them happy?” The question is “Is it moral?” If it isn’t moral, then it really won’t make them happy. It might give them good feelings, but those feelings are not happiness itself. Many things we do that are wrong give us good feelings at the time and we know they do even as we do them knowing they are wrong, but they are not what is going to truly lead to us being happy as we realize later on when we regret them whenever we think of them.

If our society is going to survive, I honestly believe we’re going to have to reclaim what happiness is and draw that back to virtue, a word not often heard in our society and a good not usually sought.