SeanDareOnline.com

Have you ever watched a cat toying with a mouse? Have you looked on as the cat batted the mouse around with his paws, while the mouse tries to escape every chance he gets, only to be held down by the tail and then batted around again? I can empathize with the mouse. This past weekend I felt like I was being toyed with spiritually. It all started on…

Friday

Friday my father retired after 28 years with McDonnell Douglas/Boeing, and as is the custom, there was a small retirement party held in a Boeing conference room where cake and soda were served.

Aside from the large number of Dad’s coworkers, around 40 or so, there were Dad’s two brothers, my aunt and cousin, my brother and his wife, my nephew and my mom in attendance. We were all seated in a large conference room in Boeing’s St. Charles campus where Dad’s boss and a couple of co-workers said a few words. Then, my Father stood up and spoke to the group. I have always viewed my Dad’s public speaking abilities as…er…shall we say “sub par”? So I was especially interested to see this part of the festivities.

Guys, I will tell you I was never more proud of my Dad. Not only was his speech funny and entertaining, it was peppered with references to great projects and achievements that he accomplished during his career. You had to know my Dad to know he was bragging, to an untrained ear it would have just sounded like a list of projects, but seeing Dad’s face, and seeing him command the other engineers attention, along with the response he garnered from them, told me that he was in his element. Dad was, and is, an incredible thinker and teacher. He left a mark on Boeing that will be there for some time, as well as a mark on his coworkers that they will never forget.

I get a lot of “those” emails. You know the ones I mean. The “If you forward this on to 10 people in ten minutes…” type of emails. Normally they are deleted without being read. On the other hand, I typically sit up and take notice of any email with an attachment. As an IT guy I want to know if there are new potential threats, and as a user I like to see funny viral videos and Power Point presentations. But when you trick me by sending one of “those” emails disguised as a power point I end up clicking the delete button with an indignant intensity that endangers the longevity of my keyboard. (I hit it hard)

Only once, once mind you, has one of “those” emails made my finger pause over the delete button long enough to keep reading. The message? 10 things God won’t ask you when you go before him, e.g. judgement day. In reality the list is only nine items long. The tenth item is “God won’t ask you how many people you forwarded this to, he already knows.” which is really just another plea to forward the email. The remaining nine items gave me pause and made me think. I would like to share them with my faithful readers, minus the odd fantasy book cover design background images.

Jenn and I started attending a new church on April 6th 2008.  Since then I have been busy working on their website.  In the meantime there is a splash page with basic who, what, where and when info at redeemerchurchonline.com.  You can also find them by clicking the link in the side bar on the right side of this page.

- Sean

Our Tuesday night small group has just finished up Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. If you don’t know about FPU then I suggest you check out Dave Ramsey’s web site. He offers practical financial advice in a funny and informative way. I highly suggest everyone go through his course.

Now that we are done with Dave we are in need of a new lesson topic. Last night someone suggested we watch Louie Giglio’s Indescribable video. As you know from my previous post on this topic I am a big fan of this video. This morning I ordered Indescribable from Louie’s web site, and as soon as it gets here we will watch it in our small group.

Why am I a big fan of Indescribable? Because it shows how the heavens reflect God’s enormity. One of my favorite lines talks about how the universe is too big for only one civilization, e.g. humans, but it is just about the right size to show off God’s majesty. Louie takes you on a guided tour of the known universe demonstrating how various cosmic features glorify God. If you haven’t seen it, and you want to, check out the free streaming version of Indescribable on Louie’s web site.

- Sean

I have been struggling to have my quiet time the past two weeks and I feel empty because of it. This morning on my way to work I wondered what it is about missing quiet time that causes me to feel so empty. I think I know the answer, at least for me.

When I miss quiet time it is usually because I am too busy. I end up staying up late the night before, and when my alarm goes off the next morning, I hit the snooze instead of meeting with the Lord. I don’t have time to read my Bible or pray during the day because of work and other commitments so I end up skipping a day. One day leads to two, then three, then a week, and so on. Before you know it my daily intake of scripture has disappeared.

I don’t stop watching TV, or surfing the web, or listening to the radio when I stop reading the Bible so my secular mental intake stays the same. When this happens my spiritual life gets out of balance. Too much of the world starts to invade my mind and there is no scripture to combat it. What ends up happening is my mind becomes focused on the things the world tells me are important. I begin to worry about getting a new car, or having the perfect sex life, or getting more money, or getting a better job, etc. None of this should be my focus. Christ should be my focus. Jesus even speaks to this in one of my favorite passages. Matthew 6:35-34 which reads:

Meeting Steve and talking to him about his recumbent trike, the Trice, reignited my desire to purchase a recumbent trike. The flames were stoked with multiple internet sessions where I looked at Terra Trikes, Catrikes, Trices, Green Speed Trikes, Hase Trikes, etc, etc, etc. The fire consumed me to the point where I was looking at trikes online before getting in the shower in the morning, before going to Church on Sunday, before going to bed at night, and during my lunch break at work. It was becoming an obsession.

I even went as far as to check eBay, as I am now a smarter consumer, and found “the perfect trike” for sale in Nashville TN for only $1750! That is a good price considering the same model retails for $4250 brand new. Man, I was excited. I started rationalizing the purchase, even though we didn’t have the money. I told myself that I needed it to lose weight, or that I needed it to save on gas. I was lying to myself. I even got to the point where I started to convince myself that buying it on credit wouldn’t be that bad of a decision. Since I am saving so much money on the purchase price I could easily afford the interest if I purchased it with a credit card.

I could sense that I was in trouble. To use Dave Ramsey’s analogy, I could feel the Cheetah, but I couldn’t see him. Dave came up with the Cheetah analogy after reading Proverbs 6:1-5 where the Bible tells us to get out of debt with the intensity of a Gazelle fleeing from the hand of the hunter. He then watched a show about Cheetahs on The Discovery Channel. It turns out the Cheetah only catches a Gazelle one time out of every 19 tries because the Gazelle runs away with such intensity. The point of the story is to keep yourself out of financial traps, e.g. Cheetahs, and to get yourself out of debt with intensity, like a Gazelle. Left to my own devices I would have ended up buying that Trike off eBay, and going into debt to do it. The Cheetah was stalking me and I needed help. I decided to call Jenn to discuss the purchase.

I am testing my new YouTube video plugin for Wordpress in the best way I know how. The song Hero by Nickelback was originally written for the movie Spiderman. Someone on YouTube decided Hero better suited the movie The Passion of The Christ than Spiderman so they cut together a sequence from The Passion of The Christ using Hero as the soundtrack. It is quite moving. (See Below)

- Sean

The Message

The most important thing to remember when reading The Sacrifice is that Jesus took on this suffering for you. He didn’t have to do it, and, as his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane suggests, he was extremely anxious about it, but he did go through it. Why? To atone for our sins with the only payment God would accept, blood. Jesus’ death on the cross was the payment for all of the sins in the world. So the next time you sin, and you know when you sin, remember that your sin, along with mine, is what held Jesus on the cross.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday. The following Sunday Jesus rose from the dead and, over the next weeks, appeared to many, including his disciples. This is what proves to us that he is the Son of God and that he is alive and at the right hand of his Father in Heaven. This whole story is irrelevant if we forget that he is alive and well with his father in heaven.

The Names

I did a little bit of research on Roman names for this piece. Unlike American society today, a typical Roman citizen could have many, many names. And depending on how close you were to the person, and what the circumstances were, the name or names you called each other varied. Sometimes you would use the full title, but mostly you would use a two name combo, like Antonius Novellus, or something like that. Only when you knew the person well, like if you served with him in the military, would you use the first name only. The first name in Roman culture was actually said last. So if we lived in Roman times you would call me Darius Seanius, instead of Sean Dare. The last name, our first name, was called the cognomina. Your cognomina was chosen by others in your community or was handed down from generation to generation. Each cognomina means something different. Cato for example means “shrewd” or “cunning”. Bucco means “fool” or “dolt”. Dentatus means “toothy” or “with a lot of teeth”. Bestia means “like an animal” and Aculeo means “prickly” or “unfriendly”. I chose these names to reflect their characters, much like the Roman’s would have done. If you would like to learn more about Roman names check out NovaRoma.

The Point of View

I wanted to tell the story of how much Jesus suffered for us, but needed an interesting point of view to convey the whole thing. The only character I could come up with that could see the entire process was a Roman soldier. I didn’t research the Roman military in depth, so I am sure I got a lot of the details wrong, but I think the story has enough truth to remain compelling. I also wasn’t sure about the time line of the events. After reading all four of the Disciples accounts I decided on the current course. If I am wrong on the time line then I am wrong, but please don’t let it distract you from the message, that Jesus endured great suffering to pay for our sins.

I chose the first person point of view because the story just kept going back to that. I would try to write in the third person and before the paragraph was finished I would be back in the first person again. Cato, by the way, is patterned after my Brother, and Bestia is patterned after a guy I knew in college. I didn’t have anyone specific in mind for any of the other characters, except Jesus of course.

Please tell me what you think of The Sacrifice in either the comments or via email.

- Sean

Part 1

I pour the water on the floor and set the bucket down to the side. Bending over I pick up the long handled brush and start scrubbing the dried blood from between the large flat stones. Bucco notices me and calls to me saying, “Hey Cato! Why are you doing woman’s work?” He turns to the group of soldiers standing behind him, smiling at their laughter. I stop and lean against the long handle. “Bucco, if you didn’t soil yourself every time a man comes in here I wouldn’t have to!” This brings an even greater reaction from the crowd. Bucco’s eyes grow dark as he tries to think of an adequate reply. I turn my back on the group and begin scrubbing again. I don’t care that much that the floor is clean. It’s just that the smell of dung, urine and blood seems to attack my stomach. It makes me nauseous. I like to get rid of the smell after the last victim of the day so I can eat my lunch without vomiting.

I hear the hinges of the large wooden door as it opens. I stop scrubbing and look up to see a Centurion guard detail enter the room with another prisoner. Glancing quickly around I notice everyone is looking. Some of the guys are even standing on tiptoe to get a better look over the heads of their companions. Out of the corner of my eye I notice Captain Aculeo stand up from his desk. I follow him with my eyes as He walks over to the Centurion at the head of the procession. You can see they are discussing the prisoner, The Centurion is pointing at a written order in his hand while Captain Aculeo nods. After a few minutes Captain Aculeo takes the paper and walks over to his desk. Without sitting down he hunches over the desk to sign the paper with a quill. He then makes a note in the prisoner log. When he finishes he motions for me to follow him, and walks back to the Centurion.

Special thanks goes to the Daring Fireball for turning me on to this movie. It turns out that John Gruber is a Darwinist who likes to laugh at Creationists. On his blog the Daring Fireball he points to this post by PZ Myers about being expelled from a preview of the movie Expelled. I had never heard of this movie and when he mentioned that he was expelled, but that noted Darwinist and Atheist Richard Dawkins was allowed in to see the movie, I decided to read up on Expelled to see what all the excitement is about.

Ben Stein, of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off fame, is a noted writer, political figure, game show host, and all around interesting guy. If you want to read more about Ben you should check out his website. Ben also believes in Intelligent Design. Upon discovering that many high ranking scientists are being forced to quit their jobs, refused tenure, having their websites shut down, etc. for merely suggesting that humans might have been created by an intelligent being, say God, he decided to research the matter in classic Ben Stein style. After interviewing some of our countries brightest minds he discovered that anyone who dares to oppose Darwinism in today’s academic culture is being harassed, censured and ridiculed. Ben decided that this issue was too big to just write about so he made a film about it.

The full title of the film is Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. This is a play on how Intelligent Design is wholly unacceptable to the current academic culture. It also plays on how bright scientist, who have honest questions about Darwin’s theory, are being pushed out of academic circles for questioning Darwinism. I highly suggest viewing the super trailer at the Expelled Movie’s website. In the super trailer Ben makes a great point. Typically only those who have a flawed theory resort to blindly defending the theory. Those academics that truly believe in their theories are typically open to criticism and questions. What are Darwinists trying to hide? Ben states in the trailer that there are holes and gaps in the evolution argument. I don’t know what gaps he refers to in the film, but I can tell you one that I have noticed when thinking about Darwin’s theories. Evolution allows that humans came from a primordial soup, a mud puddle in Ben’s terms, that was struck by lightning. Okay, where did the primordial soup come from? How did the Earth get here? Big Bang? Okay, where did the matter come from that came out of the Big Bang? You see, Evolution can’t answer these questions. Knowing how smart Ben Stein is I am sure his questions deal with this in better detail than mine have.

The Expelled movie is about our basic right to free speech. Expelled shows that there is a compelling case for Intelligent Design which is being not only ignored by academics, it is being actively persecuted by academics. Our school system is forcing one point of view on this issue without even giving others a chance to test the theory being presented! That is called fascism! Our Constitution allows for free speech, no matter what the topic. Especially in the cases where a theory with holes in it is being questioned by other academic minds.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed will be in wide release April 18th 2008. Will you go see it? What do you thing about the Intelligent Design vs. Evolution debate?