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Avatar – Individual Acting Performances -Col Guarlich

Avatar – Individual Acting Performances -Col Guarlich

The most impressive performance of Avatar is the Colonel, played by Stephen Lang. He’s a one-man recruiting performance for the Marines. He reminded me more of a no-nonsense Chief Master Sergeant, but the rank of Colonel works fine for the movie. From his first in-brief for the newbies on Pandora to the moment he’s shot with arrows “dipped in a neurotoxin that can stop your heart in one minute,” he is the most committed, forceful personality in the movie. He is mission-focused, forceful, tough, and clearly earth-o-centric, until the moment he tells Grace, “I can do that,” in response to her question, “Ranger Rick, what are you going to do? Shoot me?” At that point, glib becomes lack of care, which we do not expect from a committed Marine. He also takes over from the corporate CEO, but the original movie does not show that. You learn that from a deleted scene where the CEO is trying to stop the use of daisy-cutters on the Pandorans’ religious site. After that, the Colonel is ruthless, cavalier, and cruel. Continue reading “Avatar – Individual Acting Performances -Col Guarlich”

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The Book of Esther Played Out in Acts

The Book of Esther Played Out in Acts

In Acts 4, Peter continues the accusation that Jesus began. He accused the Sanhedrin and the High Priest of killing the “Blessed One.” The Apostles’ message of comfort for all who would listen changed once they appeared before the Sanhedrin & that leadership began their attempt to stop the message. Peter turned to accusation because he had made his choice – Christ, the King. It was either Christ or the establishment. The apostles and other of Christ’s followers, like Stephen, clearly thought Christ would be victorious over the establishment of that day. The establishment thought they would survive somehow within the Roman system or escape it in the future somehow. Christ and His apostles focused on God and his judgment of who should succeed and prosper into future generations; the establishment relied upon political power, negotiation, gamesmanship, waiting the Romans out, as they had waited out the other empires that had taken Israel captive. In that waiting, however, the establishment ignored Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the other visions Daniel saw. See the post, “Daniel – The Key Timing Prophecy.” Continue reading “The Book of Esther Played Out in Acts”

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Oaths 2 – Early American Oaths

Early American Oaths

Oaths, lack of respect for them, and failure to understand their importance point toward our country’s problems and perhaps their solution. But first, who is the sovereign of this United States? I don’t mean in the absolute biblical sense; that’s clearly God. I mean in the publicly acknowledged by the people sense and as evidenced by our founding documents.

First question: Does God care? If He rules the world and if He cares about the world that He created, then yes is the obvious answer. He cares about the type of government you erect over your society. He showed that when He lead the Israelites out of Egypt and went about assisting Moses in setting up . . . what? Continue reading “Oaths 2 – Early American Oaths”

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Avatar – Individual Acting Performance – Jake Sully

Aatar – Individual Acting Performance – Jake Sully

Sam Worthington, who has come to be typecast as half human/half whatever, plays Jake. In the latest Terminator, he’s half robot, half human. In Clash of the Titans, he’s half human, half god. And in Avatar, he’s half human, half Pandoran, or at least half the time.

Worthington plays the regular guy, but not just any regular guy, the regular guy with the desire for more. In the Collector’s edition of the movie, not the original theatrical release, he is shown on earth, living the wheel-chair life. He says he can’t stand being told what he cannot do. In a bar scene, after seeing a guy slap his own girlfriend, Jake wheels up to him, pulls one of his bar stools sending the guy to the floor, and he jumps out of his wheelchair and begins pummeling the guy. He says he guesses he never found anything worth fighting for. As he’s about to beat up this guy, he says, “The strong prey on the weak, nobody does a d___ thing about it.” Obviously, this desire to protect the weak comes out later when dealing with the humans and their attitude toward the “blue monkeys” on Pandora.

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Coming in the Clouds of Heaven

Coming in the Clouds of Heaven

“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Matthew 24:30. See also Mark 13:26 (“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.”) and Luke 21:27 (“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”). What are the clouds of heaven? Literal clouds? Clouds of angels? Clouds of other believers already in heaven? Why clouds? Why not groups, if he’s writing about groups of people? Why not armies? Why is the word cloud important?

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Oaths 1 – A Discounted Power

Oaths 1 – A Discounted Power

Jesus said, “Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Matthew 5:33-7.

But this warning on how to speak the truth in your personal life, if taken to the extreme and applied to all contexts, even courtrooms and the covenantal contexts, of course, would deny oaths altogether. Jesus was speaking to the misuse of oaths, like “I swear on a stack of bibles that I’m telling you the truth!” Continue reading “Oaths 1 – A Discounted Power”

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Avatar – Individual Acting Performances – Tsu Tey

Avatar – Individual Acting Performances – Tsu Tey

Tsu-Tey, played by Laz Alonzo, is the quintessential macho, native, destined to be chief of the tribe. His attitude makes you believe he’s a native Pandoran, alternately jealous, contemptuous, distrustful, respectful depending upon how Jake impresses or does not impress him. It’s hard to like the man, but you respect him. His most impressive scenes involve one battle scene and two endearing scenes near the end.

The battle scene shows Tsu-Tey leaping off his dino-bird in slow motion into the rear of a shuttle with several soldiers with machine guns. As he leaps, he fires his arrow, then beats soldiers with his bow and throwing them off the shuttle. One soldier finally has the clearance to fire his machine gun, and Tsu-Tey falls into the forest, fatally wounded.

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Matthew 26:64 – The Right Hand of Power

Matthew 26:64 – The Right Hand of Power

There is much to be said about the right hand of God, some of which I’ve mentioned in another post about the throne of David. In Matthew 26:64, and after being silent before the High Priest and others at His trial, Jesus responds to the High Priest’s legal challenge: “I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” Matthew 26:63. His response is singular in the words He uses in the New Testament. “Thou hast said; nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64. See also Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69 also.

There are many ways to look at and study this statement, but I want to focus on one aspect of it. Here’s a question: With respect to speaking about who He Continue reading “Matthew 26:64 – The Right Hand of Power”