Who's in the picture?
I'll post the answer next week.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Rebels by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Does anyone think Mr. Petty sounds a bit like Joni Mitchell in this song?
"...I was born a rebel..." I loved this song when I was a teenager. Turn it up!
Who Said That?
Who said....?
"I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else's. But behind all of them there is only one truth and that is that there's no truth. "
I'll post the answer next week. No cheating, (Googling, etc.)
Whatchutalkinboutchris...?
I found the following list over the Reformation 21 website. Mel Duncan reviews Tolkien's new book The Children of Hurin and of course, like a true Tolkien fan, he included an appendix. The picture is my creation. Twisted! Ain't it? Enjoy.
Appendix A: Abridged Guide to Evangelicalism as Middle Earth
No Tolkien work ever gets published without a fascinating appendix. So why shouldn’t a review about Tolkien. For those of you who have been struggling to “contextualize” this review into postmodern applications the following is for you. Tolkien detested allegory of all kinds, so please keep in mind this is just a hyper technical, completely accurate application of Tolkien’s world to the modern evangelical scene.
No Tolkien work ever gets published without a fascinating appendix. So why shouldn’t a review about Tolkien. For those of you who have been struggling to “contextualize” this review into postmodern applications the following is for you. Tolkien detested allegory of all kinds, so please keep in mind this is just a hyper technical, completely accurate application of Tolkien’s world to the modern evangelical scene.
PEOPLE & PLACES
High Elves (Puritans)
Numenor/High Peoples (Scotland/Presbyterians)
Middle Peoples (Baptists)
The Gray Havens (The Banner of Truth)
The Elves of Rivendell (Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals)
The Elves of Mirkwood (Sovereign Grace Ministries)
Lothlorien (Desiring God Ministries)
Rohan (Southern Baptist Convention)
Meduseld (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Beornings (Founders Movement)
Barrow Downs (Catacombs of Rome)
The Paths of the Dead (Paedobaptism)
The Green Dragon (challies.com)
Forest of Fangorn (reformation21)
Quickbeam (Justin Taylor)
Findegil (monergism.com)
Tom Bombadil (RC Sproul)
Farmer Maggot (Phil Johnson/Team Pyro)
Glorfindel (Derek Thomas)
Weathertop (Harvard)
Village of Bree (Redeemer Church Planting Network)
City of Dale (Grace Community Church)
Rhovanion (Nine Marks Ministries)
Arnor (New England Congregationalism)
Blue Mountains (Dutch Calvinism)
Gondor (Presbyterianism)
Osgiliath (Princeton)
Minas Tirith (Old School Presbyterianism)
Minas Morgul(New School Presbyterianism)
Ilithien (Northern Presbyterianism)
Henneth Annun (Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia)
Dol Amroth (Southern Presbyterianism)
Tirith Aear (First Presbyterian Church of Jackson)
The Dunedain (Twin Lakes Fellowship)
Lossarnach (Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville)
Anduin (Calvinism)
The Argonath (Westminster Standards)
Húrin (Machen)
Red Book of Westmarch (Textus Receptus)
Daeron (Erasmus)
UNHELPFUL
Radagast the Brown (NT Wright)
The Blue Wizards (National Associations of Evangelicals)
Ioreth of the House of Healing (Doug Wilson)
Mines of Moria (Carl McIntire)
Ted Sandyman (Rousas John Rushdooney)
EVENTS
Entmoot (Philadelphia Council on Reformed Theology)
Council of Elrond (Together for the Gospel)
Helm’s Deep (Battle for Inerrancy)
Pelennor Fields (Battle for Imputation)
Defense of Cair Andros (Battle for Complementarianism)
Battle of Bywater (Every committee that has ever dealt with issues of music in worship)
BAD
Saruman (Karl Barth)
Isengard (Higher Criticism in general)
Corsairs of Umbar (Emergent Church)
Southrons (Lakewood Church)
The Mumakil (Joel Osteen)
Haradrim (Eastern Orthodoxy)
REALLY BAD PEOPLE
The Nazgul (National Council of Churches)
The Mouth of Sauron (Pope Benedict)
Shelob (Joyce Meyer)
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (Beth Moore)
Bill Ferny (Ergun Caner)
OTHER
Gollum (John Lennon)
High Elves (Puritans)
Numenor/High Peoples (Scotland/Presbyterians)
Middle Peoples (Baptists)
The Gray Havens (The Banner of Truth)
The Elves of Rivendell (Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals)
The Elves of Mirkwood (Sovereign Grace Ministries)
Lothlorien (Desiring God Ministries)
Rohan (Southern Baptist Convention)
Meduseld (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Beornings (Founders Movement)
Barrow Downs (Catacombs of Rome)
The Paths of the Dead (Paedobaptism)
The Green Dragon (challies.com)
Forest of Fangorn (reformation21)
Quickbeam (Justin Taylor)
Findegil (monergism.com)
Tom Bombadil (RC Sproul)
Farmer Maggot (Phil Johnson/Team Pyro)
Glorfindel (Derek Thomas)
Weathertop (Harvard)
Village of Bree (Redeemer Church Planting Network)
City of Dale (Grace Community Church)
Rhovanion (Nine Marks Ministries)
Arnor (New England Congregationalism)
Blue Mountains (Dutch Calvinism)
Gondor (Presbyterianism)
Osgiliath (Princeton)
Minas Tirith (Old School Presbyterianism)
Minas Morgul(New School Presbyterianism)
Ilithien (Northern Presbyterianism)
Henneth Annun (Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia)
Dol Amroth (Southern Presbyterianism)
Tirith Aear (First Presbyterian Church of Jackson)
The Dunedain (Twin Lakes Fellowship)
Lossarnach (Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville)
Anduin (Calvinism)
The Argonath (Westminster Standards)
Húrin (Machen)
Red Book of Westmarch (Textus Receptus)
Daeron (Erasmus)
UNHELPFUL
Radagast the Brown (NT Wright)
The Blue Wizards (National Associations of Evangelicals)
Ioreth of the House of Healing (Doug Wilson)
Mines of Moria (Carl McIntire)
Ted Sandyman (Rousas John Rushdooney)
EVENTS
Entmoot (Philadelphia Council on Reformed Theology)
Council of Elrond (Together for the Gospel)
Helm’s Deep (Battle for Inerrancy)
Pelennor Fields (Battle for Imputation)
Defense of Cair Andros (Battle for Complementarianism)
Battle of Bywater (Every committee that has ever dealt with issues of music in worship)
BAD
Saruman (Karl Barth)
Isengard (Higher Criticism in general)
Corsairs of Umbar (Emergent Church)
Southrons (Lakewood Church)
The Mumakil (Joel Osteen)
Haradrim (Eastern Orthodoxy)
REALLY BAD PEOPLE
The Nazgul (National Council of Churches)
The Mouth of Sauron (Pope Benedict)
Shelob (Joyce Meyer)
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (Beth Moore)
Bill Ferny (Ergun Caner)
OTHER
Gollum (John Lennon)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Who Was It?
Who was the man in the picture with the strange eyes?It was Charles G. Finney
Charles Grandison Finney (August 29, 1792 – August 16, 1875), often called "America's foremost revivalist," was a major leader of the Second Great Awakening in America, which had a great impact on the social history of the United States. (from Wikipedia)
Paradise Lost
"Began to build a vessel of huge bulk." -From Paradise Lost by Milton
engraving by Gustav Dore
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Red Mask in the Mailbox
Back in 1997 I wrote a short story called Red Mask in the Mailbox. I thought I would publish it here on the Blog at Bree along with some fun pictures on it's 10 year anniversary. I'll try to publish a chapter a week. Feel free to comment, if you want to.
Red Mask in the Mailbox
by Chris Griffith
Chapter 1: Slick Driveway
He asked a lot of questions: “What if this...? What if that...?” His mother called him the “What If Kid.” And he tilted his head when answered as if knew what you would say before you said it. And that stare of his, along with the mark on his face, was intense and made people nervous. “My..., isn’t he curious?” old ladies commented with a hint of uneasiness.
When the family ate out at a restaurant he examined the bathroom. At the grocery store he checked for change in drink machines, gum dispensers, and pay phones. He smelled his glass of milk before he took a sip, and before he bedded down at night, he made sure the closet door was shut, the night-light was on, and that Daddy checked for monsters under the bed.
He lived in Roanoke on Huntington Boulevard for six years of his young life, but six years seems like a long time if you have only been alive for seven.
On the day he turned eight, on November 8, 1978, in hopes of a unique birthday, Thomas asked his mother if it would be all right to stay home from school. She told him no. “School," Marjorie said, “is important. There are very few things in life more important than school.”
It had been the first year Thomas's mother allowed him to walk to school alone. The first day of class, Margie had watched her little boy descend the concrete steps at the bottom of the hill and step onto the sidewalk, her breath had made fog on the storm window. She had cried for two hours.
But Thomas did not walk alone.
Mary Snodgrass was a fat girl with freckles and a big mouth. She reminded him of a fish. Mary was in the fifth grade. She carried a Holly Hobby purse on one shoulder and a Charlie’s Angels lunch box on the other. It was white and made of plastic with a long strap so a girl could carry it like a pocket book, (Thomas thought Mary was a long way from becoming one of Charlie’s Angels). Even so, the pocket book and lunch box slapped around her fat body like slingshots. They kept time with Mary’s sluggish pace.
Later that day, Thomas said goodbye to his friends and waited for Mary to exit the school.
He watched her walk out the back door. He picked up his books and his Cracker Jack lunch box, then started for home. Behind him, he heard the click of her wooden heals and the slapping sound of her pocket book and lunch box as it bounced off her rolls of fat. He tried to keep his pace faster than the slapping sound.
Thomas walked through the baseball field behind the school. His feet kicked dry dirt. He heard the turbulent, ugly voice of Mary “Snotnose” Snodgrass. “Wait up little boy. Your mother said you had to walk with me!” He walked silently, but twice as fast as Mary.
His father, Joe Trimpton, turned into the driveway on Huntington Avenue in a baby blue ‘76 Mercury Bobcat.
Joe pulled into the driveway so quickly, he did not see the grease, but smelled the putrescence. It reminded him of growing up on the chicken farm as a kid.
“Good gravy...,” Joe mumbled, licked lips, and tried to get a nasal grip on the smell from below.
Joe loved to say those words. “Good gravy…,” he had said, looking in the rearview mirror, as he ran down a groundhog on Old Mountain Road. “Good gravy....What are you doing back there?” he had asked, when a bad aroma floated from back seat to front seat on a trip to Myrtle Beach.
“Good...gravy....!” Joe accentuated each word, placed the car into park, and stomped on the brake as he slid down the driveway.
Thomas thought the car looked like a sled sliding down a hill of packed snow.
When Thomas saw his dad slide down the driveway, Mary was half a block behind him. Thomas saw the uneasy look on his dad's face, watched his mouth move, and moved his own mouth in sync with his father’s. “Good gravy...”
The car crashed into the mailbox at the bottom of the hill, which sent the pole across the street where it burst into the living room window of the Mrs. Lucado’s house, and sent the mailbox tumbling into the cool, crisp November air. (to be continued)
Red Mask in the Mailbox
by Chris Griffith
Chapter 1: Slick Driveway
He asked a lot of questions: “What if this...? What if that...?” His mother called him the “What If Kid.” And he tilted his head when answered as if knew what you would say before you said it. And that stare of his, along with the mark on his face, was intense and made people nervous. “My..., isn’t he curious?” old ladies commented with a hint of uneasiness.
When the family ate out at a restaurant he examined the bathroom. At the grocery store he checked for change in drink machines, gum dispensers, and pay phones. He smelled his glass of milk before he took a sip, and before he bedded down at night, he made sure the closet door was shut, the night-light was on, and that Daddy checked for monsters under the bed.
He lived in Roanoke on Huntington Boulevard for six years of his young life, but six years seems like a long time if you have only been alive for seven.
On the day he turned eight, on November 8, 1978, in hopes of a unique birthday, Thomas asked his mother if it would be all right to stay home from school. She told him no. “School," Marjorie said, “is important. There are very few things in life more important than school.”
It had been the first year Thomas's mother allowed him to walk to school alone. The first day of class, Margie had watched her little boy descend the concrete steps at the bottom of the hill and step onto the sidewalk, her breath had made fog on the storm window. She had cried for two hours.
But Thomas did not walk alone.
Mary Snodgrass was a fat girl with freckles and a big mouth. She reminded him of a fish. Mary was in the fifth grade. She carried a Holly Hobby purse on one shoulder and a Charlie’s Angels lunch box on the other. It was white and made of plastic with a long strap so a girl could carry it like a pocket book, (Thomas thought Mary was a long way from becoming one of Charlie’s Angels). Even so, the pocket book and lunch box slapped around her fat body like slingshots. They kept time with Mary’s sluggish pace.
Later that day, Thomas said goodbye to his friends and waited for Mary to exit the school.
He watched her walk out the back door. He picked up his books and his Cracker Jack lunch box, then started for home. Behind him, he heard the click of her wooden heals and the slapping sound of her pocket book and lunch box as it bounced off her rolls of fat. He tried to keep his pace faster than the slapping sound.
Thomas walked through the baseball field behind the school. His feet kicked dry dirt. He heard the turbulent, ugly voice of Mary “Snotnose” Snodgrass. “Wait up little boy. Your mother said you had to walk with me!” He walked silently, but twice as fast as Mary.
His father, Joe Trimpton, turned into the driveway on Huntington Avenue in a baby blue ‘76 Mercury Bobcat.Joe pulled into the driveway so quickly, he did not see the grease, but smelled the putrescence. It reminded him of growing up on the chicken farm as a kid.
“Good gravy...,” Joe mumbled, licked lips, and tried to get a nasal grip on the smell from below.
Joe loved to say those words. “Good gravy…,” he had said, looking in the rearview mirror, as he ran down a groundhog on Old Mountain Road. “Good gravy....What are you doing back there?” he had asked, when a bad aroma floated from back seat to front seat on a trip to Myrtle Beach.
“Good...gravy....!” Joe accentuated each word, placed the car into park, and stomped on the brake as he slid down the driveway.
Thomas thought the car looked like a sled sliding down a hill of packed snow.
When Thomas saw his dad slide down the driveway, Mary was half a block behind him. Thomas saw the uneasy look on his dad's face, watched his mouth move, and moved his own mouth in sync with his father’s. “Good gravy...”
The car crashed into the mailbox at the bottom of the hill, which sent the pole across the street where it burst into the living room window of the Mrs. Lucado’s house, and sent the mailbox tumbling into the cool, crisp November air. (to be continued)
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Samba Pa Ti by Santana
My all time favorite song by Carlos! An excellent example of knowing when to play...and when not to play. Masterful timing!
Spirit in the Night by Springsteen
The time, Summer of 1978.
The performer, Bruce Springsteen.
The place, Passaic, NJ.
This is a historic concert amongst Springsteen fans. Bruce had really just hit the big time and this, in a sense, was a real homecoming for him. It was broadcast live up and down the east coast. My previous post with the song Darkness on the Edge of Town is from the same concert.
Notice a little over halfway through the song, Bruce steps out into the audience to finish the rest of the song. He was the first to ever do that kind of thing and really one of the few performers ever who had such a close connection to his audience that he could do that with legitimacy.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
My Grandparent's Home
Here I am. Just a young lad.Take notice of the white house just to the right of the picture. You can only see the side. This was my grandparent's home.
Watch the video below and you'll know something of the emotion I felt Monday morning when the police called me and told me my grandparent's home had burned to the dirty ground. Lots of memories.
Darkness on the Edge of Town by Bruce Springsteen
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Who Said That?
Who said....?"Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal."
It was the Greek philospher Plato.
Plato (Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "wide, broad-browed"[1]) (428/427 BC[a] – 348/347 BC), whose original name was Aristocles, was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks –succeeding Socrates and preceding Aristotle– who between them laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture.[2] Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato is widely believed to have been a student of Socrates and to have been deeply influenced by his teacher's unjust death.
Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious.[3] Plato is thought to have lectured at the Academy, although the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty[citation needed]. They have historically been used to teach philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote. (from Wikipedia)
Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious.[3] Plato is thought to have lectured at the Academy, although the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty[citation needed]. They have historically been used to teach philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote. (from Wikipedia)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Bible History
How long did it take Johann Gutenberg to complete his famous edition of the Bible?
A. 8 months
B. 16 months
C. 3 years
Monday, August 20, 2007
Whatchutalkinboutchris...?
I remember a conversation with my neighbor several years back, a Ms. B_____. She was quite angry that I had repeatedly dismissed her requests to keep our family cat contained within our house. "Can't you just tell that cat to come inside," she said. The cat, on several occasions had "did her bidness" on Ms. B____'s new concrete driveway. I apologized and volunteered to clean up any, uhmm... inconvenience. I tried to explain to Ms. B_____ how hard it was to talk a cat into re-entering the house once he/she has escaped. You just cannot talk good sense to felines. "We are at the cat's mercy." I told her. The cat would come in when either it, A.) got hungry, or B.) got too cold. She asked me if I had ever considered putting a leash on the cat. Of course at the time, I thought the idea was completely ridiculous. But now I know better. Click here to find out more on cat leashing.
True or False
If a doughnut shaped house has two doors to the outside and three doors to the inner courtyard, then it's possible to end up back at your starting place by walking through all five doors of the house without ever walking through the same door twice. True or False?
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
My City of Ruins by the Boss
Springsteen released this song just after 9/11. He wrote it about Asbury Park, NJ, but he could be talking about NYC. He could be talking about New Orleans. What do you think?
"...come on rise up..."
Process Enacted
(video courtesy of The Chase Factory)
This short film was made by Jordan C Greenhalgh. He used 987 Polaroids. It was not manipulated by a computer.
And Jimma Said Dubya Was the Worst
Found this over at Doug Wilson's blog..."In the event, President Carter secretly authorized $500 million (closer to a billion in today’s money) to help create an international network that would spread Islamism in Central Asia and ‘destabilize’ the Soviet Union. The CIA called this ‘Operation Cyclone,’ and in the following years poured over $4 billion into setting up Islamic training schools in Pakistan (hence the ‘Taliban’ movement, which means ‘student’). Young fanatics were sent to training camps paid for by the U.S. taxpayer, where future members of Al-Qaeda were taught ‘sabotage skills’ (i.e. terrorism). In Pakistan they were directed by British M16 officers and trained by the SAS" (Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet, p. 211).
Friday, August 17, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Whatchutalkinboutchris...?
In a festive mood? Feeling artistic? Let's make a diaper wreath. Click here to find out more.
Warning: You must...absolutely must, use clean diapers in order to retain the visual as well as the olfactory beauty of this little gem!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Who Said That?
Who said...?
"Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal."
I'll post the answer next week. No cheating (Googling, etc.)
"Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal."
I'll post the answer next week. No cheating (Googling, etc.)
Who Was That?
Who was the dashing young lad?It was a young J.R.R.(Ronald) Tolkein.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English philologist, writer and university professor, best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language (Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon) from 1925 to 1945, and Merton Professor of English language and literature from 1945 to 1959. He was a devout Roman Catholic. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis; they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. (From Wikipedia)
But I betcha' knew all that anyway!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Who Said That?
Who said...?
"When someone is baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are ushered into an objective, visible, covenant membership. Regardless of the state of their heart, regardless of any hypocrisy, regardless of whether or not they mean it, such a person is now a visible saint, a Christian. God has made a statement concerning this person, and the one baptized has an obligation to say amen to God’s statement through how he lives his life."
It was Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, ID, advocate of classical education, writer of numerous books on families and Christian living, and quasi-leader of the Federal Vision/Auburn Ave. theology movement. The quote came from a Tabletalk magazine article published by Ligonier Ministries.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Everyday I Write the Book
I have a confession to make. I am a huge Elvis fan! (...Costello, of course!...hee hee)
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Fanny, Be Tender With My Love
Okay. Laugh at me if you want to, but the Bee Gees were a great pop group! Yeah, they wore funny lookin' clothes and had weird hair cuts, but they were masters at crafting catchy tunes. I particularly like this song because it was somewhat transitional for them. It was before Saturday Night Fever and their intense disco era. They were moving from folk music into a much more soulful sound. The high falsetto vocals at the end are reminiscent of 70's soul groups like the Chi-lites. Can you dig it?
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Whatchutalkinboutchris...?
Are you glum? Blues gotcha' down? Psalm 45:5 says,
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation
Click here to learn more. Just watch our for that pesky broccoli on the teeth!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Who Was That?
Who was that dark handsome feller with the fancy hat? Why, it was Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Drakulya...that as Count Dracula.Sophie got it right!
Vlad III the Impaler (Vlad Ţepeş IPA: ['tsepeʃ] in common Romanian reference; also known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad Drăculea and Kazıklı Bey in Turkish; November or December, 1431 – December 1476) was Prince (voivode) of Wallachia, a former polity which is now part of Romania. His three reigns were in 1448, 1456–62, and 1476. In the English-speaking world, Vlad is best known for the legends of the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign, and serving as the primary inspiration for the vampire main character in Bram Stoker's popular Dracula novel. (from Wikipedia)
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