Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Every Thought Captive to the Obedience of Christ

Before I started my own Talkwisdom message board,
I often visited a few sites where skeptics posted their arguments
against the God of Biblical Christianity. They often used derogatory words and remarks while discussing the God of the Bible. They are obviously doing the exact opposite of what Paul states here:

KJV - 2Cr 10:5 - Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

What are we, as Christians, supposed to do when confronted with the false religions, moral relativism, atheists, agnostics, cults, apostasy, naturalistic science that attempts to eliminate the need for the Creator, or any other type of man-centered dogma that exalts itself against the knowledge of God?

People who like to challenge me, the Bible and the Christian faith on other boards often do not like to bring their arguments over to my message board or this blog. This happened with a guy whose screen name is OA on the "No answers in Genesis" board and a guy named Badsidhe
(at least he was honest about his reasons...he once told me he didn't
want to make a fool of himself!) from the Skeptics Annotated Bible discussion board. I tried to convince him that it is definitely NOT my purpose to attempt to make people appear foolish. Sharing the gospel
is serious business to me and my goal is to present it as best I can to the people who are searching for answers and willing to listen and learn.
The discussion board where I met Badsidhe has a large website that claims to counter what Bible scholars have most often agreed upon according to exegesis of the Scriptures. The "Skeptics Annotated Bible" attempts to present commentary against such exegesis of Scripture.
They fail miserably, however, because there is another website that completely refutes every point made and posted by the so-called 'Skeptics Annotated Bible' people! Those skeptics who frequent that board do attempt to make intellectual arguments against the validity
of the real Bible and they are often challenging to answer. However, I have noticed that the real skepticism inherent in many of them often stems from anger, pain or hate directed at the God of the Bible.
Reading through the posts reveals a consistent pattern which most
often stems from trauma(s) that has (have) come into their lives. They doubt God's goodness and focus on tragedy and their own pride rather than realizing they are sinners desperately in need of the saving grace offered through Jesus Christ. There was one guy named Jeff who came over to my board and posted briefly. He was either a homosexual or a supporter of homosexual rights. We had some good convos (they may
be in the former board archives), however, it appeared that as the conversation turned towards the need for repentance, forgiveness, salvation, and grace regarding the sin of homosexual practice he
quickly exited the scene. He said something about the "ick" factor of
my posts. I found his verbiage profoundly similar to the following Bible verse:

Quote: Jhn3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil.

If you are visiting this blog, I invite you to comment. What do you perceive as necessary today in order to "bring into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ"? What are the "rebellious ideas" today that are being held up against the knowledge of God? Finally,
how does this verse "speak" to you, personally?

One of my favorite Bible verses:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition
and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:8

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

My daughter - commercial actress!

Sunday afternoon was the day that my daughter was filmed in her first commercial shoot. As we drove to L.A., we were filled with anticipation about this new and exciting experience. She has been taking acting lessons for 3 years now and had signed with two agents. Signing with an L.A. agency earlier this year led to many more chances at auditions. If you are at all familiar with the commercial acting industry, you know that it can be very difficult to break into it. There are often dozens of people auditioning for the same part for every commercial out there! Getting that first commercial is often the biggest hurdle. I have heard from other moms who have taken their children on auditions that sometimes you could go on 100 auditions and still not get a part!! I had a countdown going for her. I figured that if she didn't get a commercial after 100 auditions, then perhaps she should look towards another career ambition! Another obstacle for teen actresses (who weren't previously established as child actresses) is the fact that many companies look for talent who have already graduated high school and are already 18 years old. These actresses who have the look and capability to play younger roles are often preferred. I kept trying to encourage her by saying that when she turns 18, she will have more audition offers. Although it was meant to be encouraging, she didn't really like my "countdown of auditions" idea. Starting out at 100 and counting down to 1 just doesn't sound fun...does it? Well, as it turned out she was very fortunate. The 7th audition turned out to be the charm!

We arrived at the cast and crew parking lot where a shuttle bus picked us up and took us to the location of the shoot. It was a quiet, suburban street with lovely homes and flowers all along the block. The commercial was for Mercury Insurance and was being produced by Ambush productions. My daughter signed her papers and then entered the wardrobe area, then had her makeup and hair done. Everything is done so efficiently, however, there was a lot of waiting around until it was her turn to play the part of the teenage "Alex" on the set. We got the chance to meet a lot of great, friendly people, including the other girl actresses who were playing the role of "Alex" at younger ages.

She loved driving the firey red Toyota Solara convertible on the set! After filming in the first location, we drove to Malibu for the freeway shots. I was a really fun day and we can't wait to see the commercial air on T.V.!