the tindog coffeehouse

This weekend we watched the Liam Neeson movie Taken. In the movie, Neeson’s estranged daughter (played by Maggie Grace) is kidnapped while vacationing in Paris. Neeson then spends the remainder of the movie tracking her down before she’s lost forever.

Although the movie isn’t necessarily meant to have a Christian message, I couldn’t help but to think about how it is a perfect analogy for our relationship with God. We often talk about the need to seek forgiveness for our sins and come back to God, and that’s true. But we forget that God isn’t just sitting idly by while we wander off. He’s actively pursuing us, just as Neeson’s character pursued his daughter.

Continue reading…

How’s that for a broad title?

First, a little background. In March, I wrote a blog post in response to a review of the upcoming movie adaptation of Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. In the post I voiced concern over how homosexuality may be portrayed in the movie, worried that (according to the review) the movie was consciously pursuing a pro-homosexual agenda, which I believed was the wrong message to send to both the Christian community and to non-Christians. I made it clear that since I had not seen the movie, I was only responding to the review.

The post generated a few comments, including a response from the movie’s producer, Steve Taylor. And although it wasn’t originally intended to be a political discussion, it more or less evolved into that.

Now the Weekly Standard has published an article attacking Miller for his support of Barack Obama and his apparent disdain for conservatives:

Continue reading…

It seems like everywhere you turn lately, there’s some new sordid story about the marital breakdown of Jon and Kate Gosselin, the stars of TLC’s reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8.

Like others who watched the show, I always respected them for their faith and their commitment to their family. How much of that has changed over the years I don’t really know since that’s really only a question that they themselves can answer.

But if there’s any good that can come out of the couple’s situation, it’s that the train wreck being played out on television and in the tabloids can provide us as Christians with some extremely important lessons.

First, Christianity Today reminds us that we’re as vulnerable as anyone to falling victim to the seductions of the world:

Continue reading…