Precisely because divine revelation is for man’s benefit we dare not obscure its informational content nor mistake God’s disclosure as automatically saving. Supplying sinful mankind with a lucid divine assessment of its woeful predicament, God’s revelation informs us as well of God’s gracious provision and indispensable condition for reversing that condition.

Simply hearing God’s revealed good news, his dramatic offer of redemption, does not redeem us automatically. In William Temple’s words, “No greater gift can be offered to men; yet many refuse it” (Readings in John’s Gospel, p. 50). We are not redeemed by “good tidings” alone.

-Carl F.H. Henry

The rider in the video is a guy named Danny MacAskill.  He has mad skills and travels around the world taping himself doing stunts.

The video is awesome yet if you think about it, Danny MacAskill is stupid!  Who risks their life for a free Youtube video that people will post nasty comments under?  It doesn’t make sense

Of course, sometimes God doesn’t make sense either.

When I was a runaway wanna be filmmaker in the late ’80′s and early ’90′s, I studied Hollywood renegades like John Milius, Martin Scorsese and William Friedken.  I was especially intrigued with Milius who helped write Dirty Harry and Jeremiah Johnson and direct flicks like Conan The Barbarian and Red Dawn.

Milius never fit in with the secular left of southern California.  He volunteered for the military but, like me, was turned down for physical reasons.  He turned to film and quickly won over the accolades of his fellow upstarts that happened to include George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola.  Milius earned their respect with his talent even while they were slack-jawed by his routine of carrying a .45 1911 pistol while riding a Harley and turn up his nose at fine restaurants preferring to eat at burger joints.  Everything about Milius seemed crazy to the secular left but they still admired him for his talent.  After all, he penned dialogues like the “U.S.S. Indianapolis” speech in Jaws (one of the greatest scenes in film history!).

I grew up when MTV actually played music videos.  MTV was so culturally pervasive that it was darn near impossible to hear a song without thinking of the video that went along with it.  Heck. I still can’t hear Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” without picturing Tawny Kitaen and a couple of Jaguars…give me a moment.

The thing about music before and after MTV is that it relies not on visuals but on piercing the heart via the mind.  Even though I was a teenage metal head, I still loved The Eagles’ “Hotel California” especially after living in Hollywood because it so perfectly encapsulated the experience.  I was walking down the Sunset Strip one day at age 18 when I looked up to cardboard cutouts of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and John Belushi when the line “you can check out but you can never leave” suddenly made perfect sense.

Which one of these is an actual Proverb?

a) “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

b) “If you find honey, eat just enough– too much of it, and you will vomit.”

c) “God never gives you more than you can handle.”

If you guessed “b”, you would be right and possibly know your Bible better than some of the Duck Dynasty folks who seem to think “a” is in the Bible (it isn’t…neither really is “c”).