I want you to friend me. NO! I demand it!

We finally got around to seeing The Social Network. It’s the 40 percent true story of the beginnings of facebook.com and a fascinating study of human nature; in particular our overdeveloped sense of entitlement.

**Spoiler Alert**

The movie reveals the plot by flicking between past events and the inevitable court case. Basically the Winklevoss brothers sue Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their social networking website idea. It appears Mark Z started his own social networking website whilst employed to create one for the Winklevosses. Mark Z claims his “The Facebook” bears little resemblance to the idea the Winklevosses had pitched to him, but they try to sue him anyway. 

All of us have a sense of entitlement; that is, what we think the world owes us. It’s easy to deny it until someone uses your idea first then makes a shed-load of money out of it. Thanks to the legal system, you can try to get what you think you deserve even though you did no work to earn it. As the US Circuit Court of Appeals said when the Winklevosses’ appeal failed this year "The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace” 

Human entitlement rears its ugly head with regards to God also. When we get sick, lose a job, lose a family member, become victims of a natural disaster etc, our first reaction is to cry out “Why me God? I don’t deserve this! Why do bad things happen to good people? How could you allow this to happen to me God?” We believe we are good and so God owes us only good things. In reality we are not good and God owes us nothing (just ask Job). Shocking I know! 

We live at God’s mercy. Every breath we take is because He allows it. Every good thing God has given us is because He is gracious, merciful, kind and patient. His goodness towards ungrateful human beings is shown to us in His Son Jesus Christ. Imagine if Mark Z gave Facebook to the Winklvosses (valued in 2010 at $41 billion). He would be broke, and they would be richer than you or I can ever imagine. So much more than this, Jesus Christ gave up everything He was entitled to (His place in heaven where He owned the whole world), to come and be born beside an animal feeding trough, to suffer and be killed at the hands of His own creation, so that He could give us something we don’t deserve – forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him.

Rugby is all right

From an article written by my Hub at the cross-eyed blog:

 "The press will say “New Zealand Won!” but the country didn’t actually do anything. It was those 15 men who represented the rest of us. They were the ones who broke through the strong defense. They were the ones who held back the strong offence. They were the ones who scored the try and the penalty kick needed to win the game. All we could do was watch and cheer them on, and yet we somehow receive the glory. New Zealand wins! The All Blacks represented us, and we all receive the spoils!

In Christianity this is known as ‘Imputed Righteousness’. A big fancy term that just means – Jesus won the game for us! God’s standards are high. He expects us to be perfect; to never sin; in short - to love God above everything else, and to love others more than we love ourselves. If we are honest then we know we are unfit for the kingdom of God. We don’t have a chance. The sin team is wiping the floor with us."

...now click on the link above and read the good news at the end of the article!

Why is scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz a zombie?

Answer: Because he’s looking for a braaaiiiinnn.

Zombies are so hot right now. Apparently the zombie apocalypse is upon us… I haven’t seen any zombie flicks myself because I’m a big chicken. I’ve been told Shaun of the Dead is hilarious and I kind of want to see that one, but its probably not going to happen. For now I’ll just stick to the zombies that Paul talks about in the Bible. What? You didn’t know? Check this out:

Paul tells us in Romans 7 that a Christian’s old nature is dead, but the weird thing is even though our old nature is dead; it keeps bothering us. Paul says “I have discovered this principle — that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this body of death?” Sounds like a zombie right? - A creature that’s dead but keeps coming back to life to bother us (and eat our brains).

In your typical zombie movie the hero generally carries a shotgun and often resorts to a baseball bat, axe, or other type of blunt instrument to defeat the hordes of the undead. (Well at least that’s what it looks like in the trailers).  Does Paul offer us a weapon to defeat our old, dead, zombie part which keeps springing back to life? He sure does! Though it taunts us; “go on, take the cookie… just park on the yellow line, everyone does it… oooo you are so bad for parking on the yellow line, aren’t you supposed to be a Christian?... God doesn’t love you anymore, see how bad you are…” and causes us to cry out like Paul “Who will free me from this body of death?” We can answer Jesus Christ our Lord!

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Your zombie problem has already been taken care of. Did Jesus die on the cross for sinners? Yes. Are you a sinner? Yes. Then He died for you and you are perfect in God’s eyes. He does not condemn you. He is always pleased with you, you belong to Him. You have been made alive in Jesus Christ.

From the Lutheran Files...

From C. F. W. Walther's epic lectures "Law and Gospel; How to Read and Apply the Bible"

"...the essence, of a Christian - that which makes a person a Christian - is that he knows how to seek his salvation in Christ and thus to escape the Law."

Paul says God's law has the power to condemn us because we don't keep it but when Christ died for us He freed us from the law's power.  He did this by taking the punishment we deserve for breaking the law upon Himself "Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin... if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

Don't eat the French Fry

 

An excerpt from The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement found on Mockingbird:

"You can tell people not to eat the French fry. You can give pamphlets about the risks of obesity. You can deliver sermons urging them to exercise self-control and not eat the fry. And in their nonhungry state, most people will vow not to eat it. But when their hungry self arises, their well-intentioned self fades, and they eat the French fry. Most diets fail because the conscious forces of reason and will are simply not powerful enough to consistently subdue unconscious urges."

The law is powerless to save you from yourself.  You need to be changed by someone outside of yourself.  "The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.  He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit." - Paul in his letter to the Romans.

 

Don't worry, be happy (or else)

From the November 2010 issue of Australian Vogue:

In the article “Happiness is overrated” writer Elizabeth Heathcote comments on positive thinking “My beef is less with the details of positive psychology and more with the way it functions. By lending academic credence to the idea that we can be better, shinier and happier if we just try, it has turned happiness into not only something we should expect, but yet another must-have commodity that you are failing if you don’t achieve”.

Happiness is a gift, a result of something good that has happened to us. We cannot manufacture it. It is pure gospel – something that is a result of something happening to us. When we try to turn it into law – something we must do, “don’t worry, be happy”, then we miss out on it.

Can I hear an Ephesians 2:8-10 out there people?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The Rodfather rulz

"A friend of mine was walking down a street in Minneapolis one day and was confronted by an evangelical brother who asked, “Brother, are you saved?” Hal rolled his eyes back and said, “Yes.” That didn’t satisfy this brother, so he said, “Well, when were you saved?” Hal said, “About two thousand years ago, about a twenty minutes’ walk from downtown Jerusalem.” This is the gospel message. It’s just as important for Christians to believe for their sanctification as it is for pagans to believe for their justification; for it is the same message, the same salvation, the same work of God. It’s just as important for the evangelical church today as it was for the reformers in the sixteenth century. Without this simple, but mind-boggling message, there is no hope, not for the sinner nor for the saint."

Dr Rod Rosenbladt (The Rodfather) on Gospel Coalition blog