Came across The Brick Testament today. The Bible in Lego...

As for Matrix Reloaded...there were a few disappointing parts: you could see the animated frames; Trinity mounts a brand new motorbike (on the back of a lorry) and it has a full tank of petrol. I don't know if this is likely.

Good points...where Morpheus states: "what I believe doesn't require for others to believe for it to be true..." (ok it's not an accurate quote, but it'll do). Much was made of Neo's humanity. Also the statement that each has the same reason but a different purpose - I think the key maker says it.

Hopefully I haven't given much away to those who haven't seen it yet.

I had my Criminal Law exam yesterday. It was another toughie - like EC law. I was able to answer two of the questions fairly well, but I chose the wrong question to do last and I really paid for it. Oh well. I'm just praying I pass that exam. It would suck to cut my summer European travels short just because of a poor choice of question.

Last night I went to hear Todah last night. They were great and managed incredibly well, especially considering they had no monitors. Maybe we should all chip in and get Lewis a monitor for Christmas!

After they finished this youth event took place in which a load of insane Americans broke concrete bricks with their arms and heads. I chuckled.

As the anticipation of finally seeing the next installment of the Matrix builds up I've found myself shying away from the hype. It sucks that you have MTV and everyone else going on and on about this film to such an extent that you feel set up for dissappointment. Surely it can't be all that good? So I've begun boycotting blogs and channels that talk about it.

We're all off to see it on Sunday. While this is late for most people I generally don't go and see films as soon as they're out, so this is early for me.

In the meantime Criminal law.

Posts here will become less frequent for the next few weeks. Revising for my end of year exams...

Reading through the beginning of Genesis this morning, the end of chapter 4 stood out to me...

"When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. It was during his lifetime that people first began to worship the Lord." (Gen 4:26)

Now I've found myself saying a number of times: 'we were designed to worship/live lives of worship' etc. But this morning, reading the creation account and finding this little verse made me wonder if this was the case. I wonder what is meant by 'worship' in this context. My initial response was that when in God's presence, the kind of activities that go on are beyond worship. Perhaps worship is our expression of love for God within our disconnectedness from God.

In Easton's Bible Dictionary it says this:
"He lived nine hundred and five years. In his time "men began to call upon the name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:26), meaning either (1) then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord (marg.) i.e., to distinguish themselves thereby from idolaters; or (2) then men in some public and earnest way began to call upon the Lord, indicating a time of spiritual revival."

Looks like I'm wrong.

Anyhow I was also struck once again by the curses which are assigned males and females because of the fall
Women: Pain in child birth and finding your identity in your man, rather than in God (3:16)
Men: Being condemned to make a living form the ground, to have to work for a living, rather than just to work out of design we were now forced to work for what we eat (3:19)

We've so often fallen into the trap of living in these curses - condemning women to being identified by who they are married to and man to his work (just look at your conversation starters with Men ("so what do you do for a living") and Women ("so who are you with?"/"are you married"/"are you single?")

Shouldn't we be living out of God's original intention for mankind?

It also made me think about how simple following God was before 'religion.'

Yesterday a promo of the new Everyone album arrived on our mat. Jeff Searles and Darren Clarke's band. I'm going to listen to it some more and maybe string a review together.

Zoe is now flying to New Zealand. Please pray for her as she leaves that intensely nurturing environment of her little DMC team.

I just checked my stats and someone has recently visited my site having searched on yahoo for "Ali G" + "Postmodernism" how weird is that. Big up.

Anyhow it's nice to have the ole house buzzing once again. I was missing living in community. It's weird how you miss having people around and someone to talk to. I definately used the phone more. I'm no longer the only member of my family in the UK.

Don't tell anyone this, but I'm really starting to love this little country. I've had some time with Lewis, Maria and Michelle over Easter and they've reminded me how beautiful Wales is. I'm fascinated to learn of where God will lead me in the future.

Thoughts on finishing Lord of the Rings
A number of things stood out to me that I failed to make note of, but here are a few that I have...

In Lorien, one of the Elven homes, there is the best of everything except sea. This stood out to me after reading NT Wright's book Following Jesus, in particular the chapter on Revelation. In it he lists the things that will not be present when the Kingdom of God is complete. Within this list he says: "There will be no sea; in Revelation, the sea is where evil comes from." Now I was surprised to read this. I love the sea, having space to chill and breathe in sea air. I am happy to leave that to God though. I was just struck with the fact that the sea is not present in the Elven world and is also a constant pull on the Elves.

Also, in the final chapter Frodo says to Sam: "You were meant to be solid and whole, and you will be." This inspired me - it has the kind of excitement to it that we can have sharing Jesus with those we meet.

Finally I just couldn't get over the similarities between Aragorn "the King who heals" and Jesus "the King who heals."

I went through a phase of buying GAP boxershorts before I knew anything about the company. This is something I'm often reminded of for example when getting changed at the swimming pool etc. Do other people think me bad for wearing them, given their terrible reputation for non-ethical production?

Then I wonder: would it not be worse to get rid of these garments because they were made in sweatshops than to keep them? To get rid would surely be making a mockery of the whole thing - i.e. people died to make them and yet I don't even respect them enough to continue to wear them now that I know where they came from. I don't know really what I think of this, but I would love to see more fair trade clothing.

This is very weird. I occasionally watch MTV Cribs - the show where 'celebrities' show us around their homes. I like to laugh at the Rappers who don't know how to cook and yet describe the kitchen as the centre of the house.

Anyhow I was watching it the other day and Pamela Anderson was on, showing off her beach-side house where she lives with her little boys. As I was watching I sensed God say that she either was, or would, end up following him. I thought nothing more of it as the show ended and I had my tea. Then today I'm reading Steve Sjogren's blog only to discover that she has been "attending Vineyard in Malibu."

I was at Lewis and Maria's tonight. Lewis made an awesome, veggie, indian meal for us. They're good friends and I feel like I've known them far longer than I have.

Afterwards we watched Fight Club. It was my fourth time watching it I think. It's strange because I think that every time I watch it I like it less. I think it's very cleverly thought out and the production is great, but there's just something about it that seems to grab me less every time.

Perhaps it's the lack of emotion in it. It's a very cold film, it's like the characters deal with stuff only in a dysfunctional way and while they are claiming some form of salvation experience are actually spiraling downwards. This is obviously intentional.

Before I end this blog I want to point out that Fight Club has long been one of my favourites. Maybe I'm just changing.

Or perhaps I was just really in need of a good conversation and that's why I didn't fully love crashing in front of the dreaded screen.

I'm going to go put Oscar (our little dog) to bed.

I'm the only one in my family left in the UK and it's a bit weird. I'm very much part of a family and to suddenly be 'stranded' is a bit weird.

I gave my first 'talk' tonight. Although I've been dabbling a little since leading our little community this was the first in front of the 'whole' of Cardiff Vineyard. I was real nervous and felt very uncomfortable all the way through despite genuinely believing that what I had to share was what God gave me.

I spoke on the Kingdom of God using The Matrix as an analogy. The Matrix being what we see around us as opposed to the spiritual realm and the Kingdom which is where the action is (obviously).

My Dad gave me some good pointers afterwards. He was going to save them so as not to bring me down but I was just pleased to be breathing and they weren't negative as such. Pointers: give more eye contact; don't play with a pen - is distracting; use your notes less; watch people who are used to communicating (e.g. comedians) - learn from them about using your voice.

Feedback on the talk was good. I'm really going to have to learn to trust those around me. I am very reluctant to take seriously the comments of those around me - in fact the more they know me the less I trust them thinking "they must be just being nice." And then when they do compliment I try to drag it out to see if I can really believe them. Enough on that.

A new adventure and a whole load of new issues to deal with! Goodnight.

Last night while we were eating I was telling our North Cardiff Community about this guy claiming to be from the future. Click here to read the article which I discovered thanks to Mark Norridge.